We met on Valentine's Day at a party at a mutual friend's house in 2020. Cupid must have struck us with one of his arrows because we instantly hit it off and started dating a week later! We dated for about a month before COVID happened, UNI closed its campus, and Alexa had to move home. This began our first stint of long-distance. Eventually, Alexa convinced her parents to let her go back to UNI under the guise of studying, but really she just wanted to go see Kyle. We got to spend the rest of the school year and all summer together.

Fall of 2020 started another bout of “long-distance” for us. Kyle was living and teaching high school business in a town 45 minutes away from UNI while Alexa finished up her senior year.

In the spring of 2021, Alexa graduated from UNI. To celebrate Alexa’s graduation, we and Alexa’s family went to Mexico! We spent a wonderful week in Los Cabos enjoying the sun, pool, and all-inclusive bar. We had such a great time that we even joked about eventually getting married there! (Wink wink) The day after we returned from Mexico, we became parents to a rescue puppy named Franklin.

We spent the next several months living together in Hudson, Iowa. Around December 2021, Alexa accepted a new job in Naperville, IL, and moved back home. Kyle had to stay in Iowa to finish the school year, so we were long-distance again for six months. Once Kyle came to Illinois, we had the joy of living with Alexa’s parents for a few months before we moved to West Dundee, IL so Kyle could be closer to his new teaching job!

In the Summer of 2023, we went on another vacation with Alexa's family to Disney World. Alexa had been hinting to Kyle that the trip would be a great time for him to propose, and he must have agreed because he popped the question at dinner the first night!

Jump to today, and we are still living in West Dundee with our dog Franklin, and new puppy, Stuart! We are excited to be planning our wedding together and can’t wait to see you all when the big day comes!