Mat and Jess met at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the fall of 2012. Jess walked into her first Aviation Weather class to see Mat sitting in the back row reading a comic on his computer. As fate would have it, Jess sat next to Mat and lightly teased him about reading a comic and mentioned that she liked comics too. A friendship began, complete with some last minute homework copying before classes. However, the real story doesn't begin until much later!

After Mat was sick during the second half of the semester, Jess and Mat fell out of touch. It wasn't until spring 2015 that Mat reached out to Jess with a request! Some of his girl friends from New Hampshire were going to be visiting and he wanted help showing them around Daytona. Clever. Jess eagerly agreed and the group had a fun week filled with beach trips, restaurants, and games back at Mat's apartment. And so the friendship began again!

During the summer of 2015, Jess worked as an intern for a company in Massachusetts, conveniently located only about 1 hour from Mat's family home in New Hampshire. Knowing Jess was lonely in Massachusetts, Mat invited her to spend the Fourth of July with his family. Unbeknownst to us, it was clear to everyone else that we had a spark! "We are just friends!", we said.

...uh huh, sure guys.

It wasn't until August 2016 that we finally agreed that perhaps we weren't "just friends"! Jess practically begged Mat to finally make it official and start dating until he finally agreed.

After graduating in Fall 2017, Jess officially moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to start a new chapter as a software engineer. Mat, expecting to finish school in Spring 2019, remained in Florida. For about 1.5 years, Mat and Jess were officially a long-distance couple! It is always difficult to be apart, but we did our best. Mat would surprise Jess with flowers delivered to her door. Jess would often fly down to Florida to visit with her (generous) vacation from her new job. We also found ways to spend time together, from playing video games, watching movies online, and even a Skype Easter egg dyeing date. After many discussions and a long job search, Mat was finally able to join Jess in Cedar Rapids in June of 2019.

After living in apartments together for the better part of 3 years, we finally took the next steps and bought a house in fall of 2020! Not long after, Alf joined our family and brought a new light into our lives. Our new house and expanded family offers many new challenges, but we continue to work and grow together.

We look forward to all the new adventures we will have together!