Grant and I met in late January 2020. At the time, I was the Executive Co-Director for Dance Marathon at Iowa State and Grant was working the event as a lighting tech. We both noticed each other from a distance during the day but given that we were both working there wasn’t much interaction until after event concluded. Grant loves to remember me following him around trying to flirt with him as we worked to load out all the equipment from the MU. He especially loves to note that this all took place at about 4am after a 20 hour day for both of us - but what can I say, I had to get his attention while I could! A few days later I got a very eloquent message on social media and a couple days after that we went on our first date to Cafe Diem where we bonded over indie music and our experiences at Iowa State.

Over the next few weeks we spent time together often, this picture being from one of the first times Grant had been out to the bars in Ames - months later he took this photo and had a friend commission a painting of it as a Christmas present for me so it remains one of my favorite memories from early in our relationship.

COVID threw a wrench in life - as it did for everyone. But for us, it meant that just over a month after we met, I was forced to move back to Council Bluffs. I wasn't quite sure if we would keep seeing each other but thanks to a combination of forgetting a favorite pillow at Grant's apartment and all of my college roommates ending up with COVID on a weekend I planned to visit, life worked itself out and over that summer we decided we liked each other enough to try the long distance thing & we made it official on July 4th, 2020!

My first time visiting the Bendas (Grant's grandparents) in Mt.Pleasant & riding the ATVs through the timber

One of many many facetime/discord calls in our two years of long distance

Our first vacation together - Minneapolis for a long weekend for Grant's birthday. We spent a lot of the weekend playing games in our AirBnB and finding street art after a spike in COVID nummbers caused most things to shut down prior to our arrival, but we made memories nonetheless.

Celebrating 6 months "officially" dating and a year of knowing each other by going back to our first date spot.

Added Maisy to the family :)

Our first time in Denver together & the first time taking Grant on some big hikes, which has become one of our favorite vacation activities

Nursing school graduation - I graduated and moved to Ankeny all within 48 hours. We were so ready to be done with long distance after two years

Grant's graduation!

Another hiking vacation - this time I introduced Grant to camping and even though he was so mad at me in this picture because I forgot our park pass and we had to turn around making us miss the sunrise that we woke up early for, we both found that we love camping and hiking in our off time.

Starting our first big kid jobs together!

Brought home Tucker to give Maisy a built in bestie

Moved into our second home together & I had no idea what was coming next!

ENGAGED!! Just hours after landing in Denver for vacation we went on a hike in Boulder and Grant popped the question at the top of the mountain!

We spent the rest of the week hiking to some of the most beautiful views we've experienced and camping in the Rocky Mountains, it was such a wonderful way to be able to celebrate our engagement just the two of us.

Soon to be... The Beckers :)