The Beginning

We met in late 2018 at a BYX event. For context, BYX was the Christian fraternity Nick was a member of at University of Georgia. Our conversation was brief that fall night talking about books we were reading or enjoyed. Fast forward a few months to early February 2019, Sam and her roommate MaKenna went to Starland in downtown Athens for pizza on a Friday night. After dinner, they ran into Nick and his friend Max in downtown Athens looking for something to do. MaKenna had known Nick from BYX and working at Camp All American. With nothing else on the agenda for the night, Sam and MaKenna decided to tag along with Nick and Max as they were stalking their friend Sean on a date. After that night, Nick decided to make his move. He vetted Sam through some of their mutual friends before asking her out on a date to The Place in downtown Athens on February 13, 2019. The first date was a success! The next few weeks were filled with lots of study dates and episodes of Atypical . We decided to give it a real try on March 19, 2019 after a Skate Date night (see the picture above).

Year 2 looked a little bit different with lots of drives between Atlanta and Athens then drives between Atlanta and Augusta. Nick started his grown-up job in Atlanta! Sam graduated from University of Georgia in the midst of Covid-19. Covid-19 was devastating for so many but a silver lining of the lockdown was lots of time together for tennis and puzzles. In year two, we went on our first family vacations together - Marco Island with the Hodgkins and Santa Rosa with the Summers.

Year 3 was full of weddings for some of our sweetest friends! We continued the long distance grind making the most of our weekends together! We picked up pickle ball and hiked some of the AT together for the first time!

Year 4 we got engaged in Whitefish, Montana on a ski trip! Nick planned a dream trip with an authentic ski lodge right on the slopes. We had incredible weather, fresh powder, and some great food! During year 4, Nick continued the grind in Atlanta and completed his Certificate of Financial Planning. Meanwhile, Sam continued clinical rotations and school in Augusta, GA.