We met on a chairlift at a local ski resort. But it took all season for me to realize he was interested. Even with him always sitting with me on chairlifts, inviting me to take some laps with him, finding common interests, etc. I was oblivious. Eventually I caught on when he came to my yoga class and asked me out to dinner after. Our first date was pretty awkward, but for our 2nd date he made a salad, packed a picnic, and took me into the Sleeping Bear Dunes, where we ate and watched the sunset.

It’s hard to choose. From our surf trip to Rincón, PR (where Rod lived for 10 years), to our 10 day UP ski resort tour, to our roadtrip from MI > Chicago > Mammoth Caves > Smokie Mountains > FL and back, to hiking out our door into the SBDs, to jumping in Lake Michigan after a long day at the store we run together, to planning our early spring snowboard wedding… It’s an impossible choice. I love our shared life so much that I don’t think I could pick one favorite memory.

We live in a very tourist area, where the cost of housing has become unaffordable for most locals/workers. But we just bought our neighbors house (to prevent it from turning into an AirBnB or another McMansion), so we could provide an affordable house to rent for local workers. So we would definitely use that money to help fix up the house!