Kayla & Zachary

Zach likes to go on adventures and keep busy. He enjoys mountain biking, ultimate frisbee, and beach volleyball. One of his favorite activities is planning mountain climbing excursions. Indoors, he likes to play video games, juggle, and cook.

Kayla likes to keep things quieter and a little less busy. She has enjoyed music since a young age, and plays trumpet in a community band. At home, she likes to work on crafts or home improvement projects. She also has a large vegetable garden and loves spending a summer afternoon tending plants.

Both of us love the outdoors. In the summer, we enjoy bike rides, walks in the neighborhood, and being out in our yard. On a cool evening, you might find us roasting marshmallows over our backyard fire pit, or cozied up on the couch playing through a video game together.

We both have great relationships with our parents and get together with them frequently. When Kayla has band concerts, our parents often attend and enjoy dinner and games with us afterwards. Occasionally, we spend holidays all together instead of visiting our parents separately. We are blessed to have such loving and supportive parents. They are very excited to welcome a new grandchild into the family.

Zach has two older brothers, and Kayla is an only child. His eldest brother has three young boys who are full of energy and his other brother has a newborn girl. Although Zach’s eldest brother lives in Michigan’s upper peninsula, we get together with them at least twice a year and at Christmas. The entire family always looks forward to these family vacations, which typically involve swimming, craft sessions, wrestling, and plenty of laughs. Zach is the favorite uncle, and his nephews came up with the nickname "Funcle Zach" because they have some much fun with him.

There are also several families at our church and in our neighborhood that we enjoy having over for dinner and game nights. Sometimes, we like to just sit out on the porch with our neighbors and talk.

Looking back, some of our favorite moments together have been while mountain climbing. We’ve done trails in Colorado, Maine, and California, but Mt. Katahdin stands out above the rest. It was a beautiful challenge that took us all day, scrambling up rock faces and genuinely climbing our way to the peak. We loved the rewarding feeling of finishing it, but mostly just the uninterrupted time together outside.

We’re also big fans of smaller, everyday adventures like trying unique restaurants, checking out a weekend festival, or attempting a wonderfully over-complicated cooking project at home. For us, the truly great adventures are the ones where something unplanned, and maybe even a little chaotic, happens. That’s always what makes them unforgettable.