The music’s pumping, windows down, hair billowing in the wind, gas station snacks in the passenger seat. Driving a route that is so familiar they don’t even have to think about it. Road trips can definitely be fun, but 5 hours in the car isn’t a short amount of time. A five hour drive twice in one weekend can be hard, especially when homework is piling up and everything is demanding time and attention.

But they know that at the end of those 275 miles, they’ll be pulling onto a college campus where their favorite person is waiting with a huge smile and hug. The person they grew up down the street from in a small town their whole lives but didn’t get to know until they were teenagers working the same retail job. The person who would one day be their spouse.

Brianna is a year older than Phil, which meant that they knew of each other from around their western Minnesota town but didn’t interact too often. They slowly got to know each other and became friends when they worked together. Phil asked Brianna to prom, but he joked with her all the time and she didn’t actually think he was serious. It wasn’t until her friend convinced her that he was being serious that Brianna went out and bought a dress.

It was the end of her senior year when they officially started dating. She had already committed to going to school in Wisconsin, but they figured they might as well give the long distance thing a shot. They made it through that first year apart after only dating for a couple months.

During that first summer that they were together, she went along to help Phil and his parents pick up a couple new horses for their farm. After wrestling a particularly unruly one into the trailer, Phil smiled at her and asked her what she thought of her new horse. She smiled at him in shock and didn’t know what to say! She had been dropping hints about wanting a horse so he got her one! His parents have a farm and they keep her horse there. Clearly this relationship was meant to be!

They survived 5 years long distance and get to spend this summer together planning their wedding together before Phil goes back to North Dakota for one last year of school. They’ll be married a couple weeks after he graduates and will finally get to enjoy each other’s company full time!

They went on a date night to enjoy some beer at Union 32 Crafthouse and wandered around Lebanon Hills for their Adventure Session and all of the cuddles and laughter ensued!