Kyle and Kaitlyn first met in high school when they both attended a confirmation retreat. At the time, they just swapped Snapchats as new friends. Little did they know then what their future held.

Fast-forward to freshman year at UNL, they crossed paths again at an AGR Halloween party. Both living on East Campus, they quickly became friends, and by junior year, they were often hanging out in the same friend groups.

Kaitlyn lived with her friends Anna and Shaye in a house off campus, and because Anna and Kyle shared the same major, it was not uncommon for Kyle and his friends to come over to “work on homework” and show up with a bottle of Margarita mix or a case of Busch Light. Kaitlyn and Kyle grew to be even closer friends, with junior and senior year consisting of Husker football games, backyard bonfires, card nights, O-street adventures, and attending Mass together at the Newman Center. Kyle and his friend Wesley even flew out to Charleston, South Carolina, to spend a weekend with Kaitlyn while she was there for a summer internship.

Their friends tried many times to convince Kyle and Kaitlyn to try dating, but they always claimed they were just close friends. Then, a month before graduating from undergrad, they finally realized that maybe—just maybe—everyone else had been right all along.

The problem was that Kaitlyn was moving out west to Whitman to start graduate school research, and Kyle was moving to Sioux City for his new job, and they were going to be six hours apart…….. A summer full of FaceTimes and one weekend trip to Sioux City later, Kyle asked Kaitlyn to be his girlfriend. When the news got around to their friends, the common response was, “It's about time you two figured out — you liked each other.” The next two years were spent with many hours on the road traveling to see each other, enjoying weekends back home at the farm and the lake, attending friends' weddings, traveling across the U.S., and even going to Cabo together! Countless memories, laughs, road trips, and lots of love led to January 19th, 2025, when Kyle planned the best surprise and proposed on the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Now they’re officially adventure buddies for life—ready for all the love, laughs, and memories still to come.