Shepp and I met through some of our dearest friends, Emily and Lee Schellhammer. I had just moved to San Diego when Emily insisted that I had to meet her favorite friend of Lee’s. She swore we’d hit it off immediately. My response? Absolutely not. I had just started a new job, just moved, and I was definitely not about to date some guy, especially not some guy in the Navy! But, I told her I’d happily be his friend. Ha. We all met up at a bar, and, of course, Shepp and I hit it off right away. But I was committed to the friend zone. Fast forward a couple of months, and we kept running into each other - at get-togethers, Friendsgiving, a Christmas party, and there was always just a little something. Then came a friends' ski trip to Mammoth. We ended up on a two-seater chairlift together, started talking, and… basically never stopped. We spent the whole trip together and decided to drive the eight hours back to San Diego just the two of us, and haven't stopped hanging out since. Fast forward 2 years, the Navy moved us out to Kailua, Hawaii and we are living our best lives. This past January, we capitalized on a trip we had dreamt about since the beginning of our relationship: a Ski/Food tour in Japan. On our second morning in Japan, we woke up to a perfect bluebird day in Hakuba Valley and hit the mountain. Shepp had been planning to propose in the first half of our trip, but at some point, he finally thought through the logistics, like how he was going to convince me to take my warm, gloved hand out in the middle of a snowstorm just to slip a ring on it. That day, we skied an epic backcountry run- deep snow, no crowds, just us. The run ended at the cutest little “ski-thru” shack, where we casually skied up, grabbed some beers (Shepp: “We’re chill like that”), and soaked it all in. After a couple more runs, Shepp suggested we do the same backcountry lap again, this time, for our “GoPro Video of the Day.” I led us down, stopped halfway (because, let’s be real, burning thighs), and Shepp, trying to figure out how to get on one knee in waist-deep powder, casually mused, "I wonder how deep the snow is..." I, completely oblivious, started figuring out how deep the snow was, and before I knew it, Shepp had popped out of his ski, dropped to one knee, and hit me with the full name: Abigail Rae De Tuerk. We celebrated the best way we know how- skiing straight to the ski-thru for more beers, lunch, and a whole lot of joy!