Payton and I met back in 2021, I would see him out at college parties and I had always thought "Wow, that guy is so cute!", but I never had the courage to have an actual conversation with him. It wasn't until a mutual friend of ours gave me a push in the right direction.

We both never dated around much, and I had never been in a relationship, so I didn't know how the whole dating thing worked.

After months of talking on and off, we finally went on our first date. He took me to LSA Burger in Denton, and it was a great night. I could hardly eat because I was so nervous, but he had no problem putting down an onion burger. Lol. After dinner we went back to my apartment to watch a few movies. We landed on "In the Tall Grass", which for those of you who don't know, is a horror movie. I was definitely freaked out, but he was comforting me and making small talk throughout to lighten the mood.

Side bar- There was a scene with a big giant boulder in the middle of this scary field, peak of the movie, and Payton cracks the joke- "I didn't know Dwayne Johnson was in this movie" (get it, like, The Rock) which was timed perfectly and made me laugh very hard. I knew around that time that he would be sticking around for a while.

Fast forward to about a month later, and he asked me to be his girlfriend. He met my family the next day at a Super Bowl Sunday party, and hit it off with my brothers immediately. Another month later was the first big Texas Freeze, and he got stuck in my house with my family for an entire week. Safe to say we spent a lot of family time together. That week really pushed us out of our comfort zone, and we learned so much more about each other's lives. It brought us so much closer.

Fast forward 4 years now, it's so great to think about all the memories we have made together. From family vacations to Mexico and Punta Cana, to movie nights and intense Oklahoma games with our families, it feels like we have lived so much life together, but really it's just getting started.

2024 was a huge year! Payton graduated college in may, and started his job that same week. I started a new job as well. We got engaged on July 5th, and moved in together soon after.

We cannot wait for what 2025 holds for us, we think it's going to be the best year yet.

July 5th can't come soon enough.