The story all begins some 30 years ago with two young tikes growing up on different sides of the Mississippi River. Although our families visited the same park and movie theater, we took our driving test at the same place, and our middle schools were sports rivals-it wouldn't be until 2019 that Adam and I finally crossed paths. As the only MN Gopher fan amongst a crowd of Fighting Sioux, I met Adam at the Bulldog in St. Paul to watch a hockey game with our mutual friends. Although nothing came of this first introduction, three years later when Adam was scrolling the dating apps he would remember me as that "cute girl" from the Bulldog. After nearly 2 months of chatting back and forth and failing to find a time we were both in town, we finally met for our first date, Pistachio Creme Ales at Indeed Brewing. Adam likes to say that I drilled him on our first date and asked the serious questions, but thankfully his answers and charm led us to having another date, a walk around Lake of the Isles & Sebastian Joe's ice cream. Next came the ever important third date, a game of pickleball. The details of who won are not what matters, it's the fact that Adam was someone I had so much fun with and just wanted to keep seeing more of that does. I'll still always remember the night that Adam came to play trivia at the brewery I was working at during that time. He brought along his adorably cute Aussiedoodle, Blu, and I was lovestruck. After many more dates together, we eventually decided to become "officially boyfriend & girlfriend" after attending some Halloween parties on the night of October 29, 2022.

I'll let Adam take over from here...

The beginning of our relationship was filled with us trying to hang out with each other as much as possible. We cooked together, joined pickleball leagues, and took our first trip to Sarah's home away from home, Grand Marais.

Around March 2023, I had decided to sign up to run my first marathon- The Twin Cities Marathon. When I had told Sarah my plans, I had a feeling she could be convinced to do it but I wasn’t expecting it by any means. Slowly but surely, she came around to the idea and signed up. It was also going to be her first marathon. If you ask her, she’ll tell you that I gave her the courage to believe she could do it, but what I really think made her sign up is her insatiable competitive drive to beat me at everything.

Soon enough, summer had arrived, a considerable turning point in our relationship. Sarah went on a 3-week trip to Europe with her best friend Tayler, because teachers can do that. We face-timed every night (sorry Tayler!) and it was around this time that I began to truly miss being next to her. After 23 excruciatingly long days without her, she finally came home, but the adventures didn’t end there…

There's an old, old saying that if you think you want to marry someone, take a roadtrip with them and see what happens- and that's exactly what we did. Six days after Sarah came home from Europe, we packed up my Subaru and hit 3,500 miles of open roads and national parks. Perfect setting to really get to know someone, right? I admired her ‘go go go’ attitude and willingness to rough it with me in a tent during a hot summer. Even though we were on the road, we also had the marathon to train for. Changes in altitude, blisters, and the intense heat of the desert didn't stop us. When the trip was all said and done, we managed to hike Angel’s Landing, ride pack mules in the Grand Canyon, watch the sun set over Horseshoe Bend, make some Alpaca friends and see one of our favorite artists, Big Wild, at Red Rocks. Needless to say, after that roadtrip, I knew she was the person I wanted to spend my life with. And that's exactly what I set out to do.

With a ring in my pocket, her parents’ blessing and a flight to Norway in June 2024… I still did not know exactly when or how I was going to propose, until the night before it happened. On our second evening in Norway, in a small farmhouse outside a little town called Ullensvang, we opted to do a 13.5 mile *difficult level* hike the next morning called ‘Trolltunga’. It was then and there, lightbulbs were going off in my head. “A 7 mile hike up a mountain that brings us to a rock that juts out over a cliff that overlooks a lake and with one misstep, you fall 1000 feet to your death??” I thought to myself. “Yup, that’s the spot.”

Early the next morning, we entered the trailhead and embarked on our journey to the ‘Troll’s Tongue’. I kid you not, we hiked through all four seasons in that 7 miles- Rain, sun, snow and rolling fog. With a mile left in the outbound hike, I tried grabbing the ring I hid deep in my backpack to put in my jacket pocket. Not unexpectedly, Sarah, using her hawk-like ears, heard me fumbling around and turned to see what the commotion was. “What’re you doing?” she asks. “Uhh, grabbing a snack?” It was the perfect cover because Sarah knows I love snacking. She turned back around and I quickly thrusted the ring box in my jacket. Not long after, we made it to the spectacular Trolltunga.

The time had come for us to go on the rock and take pictures. Sarah enlisted a nice woman from Nebraska to take our photos. As her and I were walking up the rock, I was shaking a bit and breathing a little hard because it was really freaking cold up there. And yeah, I knew what was about to happen, so that may have played a part. We took some photos in different poses, and then we turned to each other. “Alright, don’t freak out,” I say as I reach into my pocket and start going down on one knee. “Adam, what are you doing, I’m freaking out!!”

I asked Sarah Rose Wargolet Kobelinski to marry me on June 23rd on top of Trolltunga, Norway and she said “YES!!”