We met on an unassuming morning in Los Angeles. Dalton was headed to his kitchen for a bowl of Greek yogurt. Clare was working remotely in her brother Marshall's living room with her best friend Amanda. We got to talking and, after hours of conversation, realized we had met our witty, long-winded match.

Flash forward a year, and Clare found herself thinking of the quick-witted Californian. She bravely shot him an Instagram dm that read, “Can I tell you a secret? I have the biggest crush on you.” To her surprise, it was quickly met with, “Same tbh.”

From then on, we were in constant contact until Dalton took the next leap by flying to Minneapolis. Our first date was at Hola Arepa in South Minneapolis for what is still considered our favorite arepas ever. Afterward, we made a visit to Volstead’s Emporium, where Clare told Dalton she was looking to grow old with someone she felt would one day be excited to dress up as Santa Claus–which Dalton fortunately found endearing instead of insane.

Bound for the airport at the end of that first weekend in Minnesota, with Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Golden Hour’ on the stereo and tears in our eyes, we both knew that we found the person we had been looking for all along. Over the next year, we spent more than 114 hours in the air and flew over 40,000 miles just to see each other as often as we could. (Thank you, Sun Country Airlines, for your incredibly affordable flights!)

Clare then ventured out to California for a memorable trip to Sequoia National Park, completely unaware that they would return two years later and get engaged.

In July 2025, we loaded up the Corolla with Junior and Mr. Darcy for the final trip to move Clare to Los Angeles.

Our next year looked a little different. Instead of counting down the days until our next visit, we got to fill them together with fireworks, Walt’s Pretzels, joint travel, hikes, countless Costco runs, new friendships, time, and hard work.

And somewhere in all those ordinary moments, we confirmed that the person we had crossed 40,000 miles to see was also the person we wanted beside us for all the days in between. We now both call Los Angeles home and are grateful to have traded FaceTime calls for real face time. Two years, one cross-country move, at least a million laughs, and countless adventures later, we are even more certain that life is better together.