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For those who know Katie, it will come as no surprise that our story started with a dog. One fall night, Dan showed up to his first night of kickball, not totally sure where he was going or who he was looking for, so he and his dog Buck walked around the park waiting for his teammates to show. It didn’t take long for Katie to notice them and to come up to introduce herself - not to Dan, but to Buck. After gaining Buck’s affection, she welcomed Dan to the league, told him all about her dog Charlie, and introduced him to some of his new teammates. He watched her play her game that night and quickly developed a crush on her, admiring her speed and beautiful looks.

Despite the weekly kickball games, we didn’t see each other for awhile, and Dan had lost hope that he’d see Katie again, but on the second to last week of the season, our teams finally played each other. Lucky for Dan, Buck was along that night and Katie went over and said, “Hi Buck!” Buck’s tail was wagging at full strength, and Dan was trying to contain his excitement too, but was mostly impressed that she remembered his dog’s name. Little did he know of Katie’s obsession for dogs.

A couple of weeks later it was kickball playoffs and we both went to the party afterwards. Dan spotted Katie at the bar waiting to get a drink and decided he better go keep her company. He walked up and said, “Want to make a bet"?” Katie, curious, asked “What do you have in mind?” “I’m going to go over there and if the bartender serves me first, you’ll let me buy you a drink.” “Deal.”

Dan was smiling ear to ear when the bartender ended up serving him first, ordering two Fireballs and two MichGolden’s. He didn’t know that Katie hates Fireball, but she teased him and took it with a smile.

We chatted here and there but it wasn’t until a few months later when some mutual friends were having a barbeque that we hung out, and more importantly Charlie and Buck met for the first time - we all know that was the real test! That night we talked about our hobbies, music we like, and Minnesota sports, but most importantly, we ran the beer pong table. From that time on, we couldn’t get enough of each other.