June 2017 - Backpacking in Colorado

Michaela

The North woods of Wisconsin were Michaela's home for the first 18 years of her life. With forest at her backdoor and her family being avid outdoorsmen, Michaela spent her childhood falling in love with the outdoors.

She spent summers biking to the banks of the Yellow River and frolicking through the woods with her good friend Leah, domesticating red-belly snakes and spring peepers and weeding the family vegetable garden. With snow depths averaging four feet in the winter, Michaela and her siblings, Shannon and Will, built snow block forts and carved tunnels from the house to their school bus pick up point at the end of the driveway. In high school, if she was not banging on the drums in the school pep band, Michaela was chasing a basketball or running with her cross-country teammates at a local meet.

Chances are good that it was her childhood outdoors and her time in the family garden that propelled her to pursue a degree in Horticultural Landscape Design from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. After catching the travel bug while studying abroad in college, Michaela completed her degree and immediately moved to New Zealand where she lived and worked under a Horticulture apprenticeship visa for two years.

After returning to the States, Michaela began her career as a Horticulturist/Retail Landscape Designer. As her passions for natural areas preservation and ecology grew, Michaela transitioned into land management and is currently a Land Steward with the Urban Ecology Center where she manages 10-acres of terrestrial lands and 8-acres of aquatic lands in the heart of Milwaukee at Washington Park. She has also taught students at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Horticulture program as a part-time instructor and shared her knowledge with the people of Duchity Haiti on multiple trips to the country with the goal to improve the village's sustainable agricultural practices and understanding of environmental sciences.

Noah

From the Badlands of the Great Plains to the Cape Cod of the Midwest Noah was strapped into a car seat at 2 years old and driven 600 miles to Sturgeon bay WI.

He spent his childhood in Door County, WI crashing his bike, playing soccer, and making a very small amount of noise with his tuba. After spending high school teaching himself Photoshop Noah moved to the greater Milwaukee area to attend Carroll College and study Graphic Design. (He designed the save-the-dates and this website) He kept himself busy at school playing in the college’s Wind Symphony, engaging in shenanigans with his fraternity, and studying abroad in England.

A couple months after graduation Noah stumbled into a 1 week temp job at the corporate offices of Kohl’s Department Stores. Ten years later he’s still at Kohl's corporate and currently working in the Merchandise Presentation department planning merchandising direction to Kohl’s’ 1100+ stores (If you've recently been in their Bath, Window, Rug, or Decorative Pillow departments and couldn't find what you were looking for you can blame Noah). We would be remiss to not mention that also in those 10 years since graduating from college Noah found running and triathlon as well as competed in marathons, ultra marathons, and Ironman triathlons.

Michaela & Noah

Both born in Madison but 500 miles apart it took Noah and Michaela 30 years before their paths would cross. Noah and Michaela met at the millennial bar scene: the internet. After a great first date of English beer and conversation filled with stories of international travel Noah and Michaela parted ways, not too convinced the other was all that interested. You could say neither read the other very well. A second date would happen about a week and a half later at the Milwaukee County zoo which consisted of animals, falafel, music, dancing, and the prospect of something more promising than their first date seemed to indicate.

Over the coming years they shared their love of the outdoors, travel, and challenging themselves with trips all over the country, backpacking trips, and teaching opportunities in Haiti.

On October 8th, 2017 Noah, out of the blue, asked Michaela if they could stop at Kadish Park in Milwaukee, which has arguably the best view of the Milwaukee skyline and overlooks the site of their first date two years earlier. With it being 9pm on a Sunday in which they had been out and about since 9am, Michaela agreed to Noah's random request to stop at the dimly lit park. After kanoodling long enough for all passers-by to be out of sight, Noah knelt down, held up a ring (that couldn't be seen in the dark, Noah, always the planner), and asked Michaela to marry him. After taking a second to realize what Noah was saying and holding, Michaela said yes and they walked across the park so Michaela could actually see the ring and confirm that yes was indeed her answer.

Michaela

Noah

Michaela & Noah

THE BIG DAY

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