On our first date, one of us (Alyssa) had the idea to go down to Louisville to go to Bass Pro and look around. When "Maps" got us to where we were going we (me, Alyssa) was stunned to see a big yellow "Cabela's" sign instead of "Bass Pro." Turns out, Louisville hasn't had an actual Bass Pro since 2016. Who knew? I (Alyssa) didn't! The only thing that saved me this day was the fact that Cabela's and Bass Pro are basically the same thing. Did I totally think this was the large infamous Bass Pro that actually lives in Tennessee? Of course, but Parker got over this incident rather quickly. What a champ! After we looked around Cabela's, we saved the trip by enjoying some ice cream at a near by shop and made the almost 3 hour trip back to my hometown. Was it the infamous Bass Pro? No, but we got ice cream and that's all that matters!

On this day, we took my (Alyssa's) nephew to the Indianapolis zoo. It had been on and off raining the day prior but when we looked at the weather this morning it was clear skies. We got to the zoo and had the best time. We asked Liam what animal he wanted to see, his answer was the elephant. As the day went on we noticed it getting cloudier. Suddenly, we hear thunder in the distance. Being a farmers daughter, I started counting the seconds between thunder and lightening (if you know, you know). I told Parker we had about 15 minutes. We are only a few animals away from seeing THE Elephant when it starts pouring down rain. Parker & I were not about to leave the Zoo without Liam seeing an elephant. We started sprinting trying to find these elephants. They were the very last animal we came to and as soon as we got to them it started pouring rain. Once we finally made it to show Liam we were hit with VERY underwhelming reaction of "Oh, nice!"

Our second date, I told Parker that I knew of a park where we could have a picnic near the river and it was perfectly half way for us to meet. Let's just say, we still wonder if Betty, who biked quickly passed us yelling "Kevin stole my dog - if you find him let me know!!" ever did find Kevin. We also learned that I am no longer allowed to plan dates that are not in Knox County. However, we did start our tradition of skipping rocks on this date. This is still one of our favorite things to do together!

When Parker came to me asking if I wanted to go Junk Fishing, I said "Why not!" - I had no idea what junk fishing was, but quickly figured out, this meant we were going to the trenches of Illinois to find some fish. On this day, not only did I lose a boot in the foot of mud we walked through, but Parker also found a good sized frog and threw it into the "Exploder" (Old Ford Explorer) at me. I screamed and Parker laughed. A typical day in our world!

Parker and I got engaged on December 20th! He proposed while we were both very sick. With a Melissa McCarthy movie playing in the background, Parker got on one knee and proposed. It was perfect timing for us and just made sense for our love story!