I was headed to the annual Heiberger 4th of July party that I had attended multiple years at this point. Lucas always invited his friends from multiple eras of his life, so it was always interesting to see who you might meet! Well, July 3rd, 2022 was the day that changed everything. Clark showed up later than I did, I was already in the pool and enjoying the sunshine when he jumped in. We interacted over the roves of nieces and nephews that were splashing around and we ended up getting in a pretty nasty water fight. I was definitely egging it on. He was a good sport. He was playful, yet kind, even when I picked on him. We all eventually moved out of the pool to eat, and commence the Second Annual Cornhole Tournament. Of course, Lucas, the mastermind, had curiously paired Clark and I as partners - not knowing how we might get along, as Clark was a friend from childhood and I had only met Lucas in college, and through working at Northwestern afterwards. Well, Clark was unusually bad at cornhole this day, and I carried the team as best I could (subpar at best). We got out in the first round, when most of our friends kept moving on. I am not one for watching cornhole, so I went up to get more snacks, and sit by the nearly empty pool. This is when Clark got up the nerve to come talk to me. I don't remember what we talked about if I'm honest. He was pretty shy. But he piqued my curiosity. We hung around with the friends the rest of the night for fireworks and a fire afterwards, and you can certainly say there were sparks flying 😉At the end of the night, he didn't ask for my number, I was feeling discouraged. But I knew that we'd get connected. I added him on Facebook on the ride home.

From there, we went on our first date less than 2 weeks after that, and we were officially dating 5 days after that. Clark was looking for a job at this point, so we dated long distance while he was in Sioux Falls, and I was in Iowa. In March, Clark ended up landing a job in Hull, IA. He moved to Orange City, and now we get to wave to each other on our way to work in the morning (when he actually leaves at a decent time😉). Clark proposed in July in collaboration with my family, and I couldn't be more excited to say yes to spending the rest of my life next to him. I'm excited for him to move into my house after the wedding in April, and see where God brings us in the coming years.

It was 4th of July weekend, 2022. I had spent Friday night up at Big Stone Lake with my friend Will and his family. Saturday morning I left to return home so I could visit my parents at the lake. However, the Heibergers were having their annual 4th of July party that day, too. It had been a few years since I had made it to the Heiberger party, so I figured I would stop by for a few hours before heading to the lake. I showed up in the early afternoon and was quick to hop in the pool. I didn't know anybody there yet, so I gravitated toward some people about my age. Come to find out, these were Lucas's friends from Orange City, one of them being Sarah. Within a minute, Sarah was bombarding me with questions. At first I thought nothing of it because I was new to them and they just wanted to get to know me, but then Sarah's questions kept coming and I started to wonder if she might be interested in me.

By now, Lucas's nephews had waged a water war against me. I'll be the first to admit I'm not the best with kids, but I wasn't going to let the boys take me down without a fight. Sarah and some of the other friends got looped into the fight, and it eventually turned into a water war between the adults. During this fight, Sarah "accidentally" blasted me in the face with a water gun while my eyes were open. She was quick to apologize and very endearing in doing so. After seeing this and how good she was with the kids, I was starting to develop a crush on her.

After taking a break to eat, I was ready to begin the bags (not cornhole) tournament. Earlier in the day, I asked Lucas who my partner was, and he told me Sarah. At that point I didn't really know much of her, but now I was excited for her to be my partner. Long story short, I sucked at bags that day as I couldn't adjust to the bouncy boards. Sarah was a good sport about it though. After we were eliminated, Sarah went back up to the pool while I stayed and watched some more of the tournament.

Anybody who knows me knows I'm quite shy, so it took me about 15 minutes to build up the gumption to go talk to her. Frankly, I don't remember what I said, and we were interrupted a few times, but I could feel the connection between us. After shooting off fireworks for a while, people congregated around the firepit. While we sat around the fire talking, I kept looking over at Sarah and she was always looking back. I couldn't tell if she was giving me googly eyes or if it was just glare from the fire. All I knew was that I had butterflies for her.

If you haven't figured out by now, more than a few hours had passed and my parents were wondering if I was coming up to the lake or not. I decided I should probably leave before it got too late. A few other people used this as an opportunity to leave as well. As we were all walking to our cars, I wanted to ask Sarah for her phone number, but I thought it might be awkward if I did that in front of the friends she carpooled with. I drove home and looked her up on Facebook. I was going to add her but thought it might be weird if she got the notification so soon after leaving the party. I went to sleep and woke up the next morning to a notification that Sarah had added me as a friend on Facebook. I guess it wasn't too soon, and the feelings were mutual.

We started talking regularly and exchanged phone numbers, but I had to wait two weeks to take her on a date as she and her family were on vacation in Michigan. On our second date I asked Sarah to be my girlfriend. At this point, I was still in Sioux Falls finishing up my CPA exams. We dated long distance for several months until I landed a job as an accountant at the cheese plant in Hull, IA. I moved to Orange City in March, and now we get to wave to each other on our way to work in the morning (when Sarah doesn't get there 20 minutes early😉). I'm excited to begin our new life together and can't wait to see what our future together holds.