The date is November 9, 2019. Steve is fresh back from his ASO training in Pensacola, FL and is having a drink with his friends. He slips in that he has a date tonight and he is immediately told by Mary and Michelle that he needs to go home and change out of his sweatpants. Steve gives a little pushback but with Mary’s persistence, Steve goes home and changes into something a little more “first-date-y” (thank you Mary and Michelle). Amanda is living next door to Alex & Alex and Mike is in town so she figured she could have Mike drive her up and drop her off at the date, just getting a couple beers, before family BBQ at the Dittrich’s. Mike drops off Amanda at Culture Brewing in the ol’ Buick and then tries to snatch a glance as he drives by at the mystery man. First date is going great, unbeknownst to Steve and Amanda, Steve’s friends are getting dinner next door and snapping pics of the first date (included). Time flies then we are each off to our separate dinner, topped off with an eager text from Steve right after, asking to get dinner the next night. Next date is a couple days later- Amanda meeting a bunch of Steve’s friends before another family dinner for Amanda. Trial by fire! By more encouragement from his friends (thanks Tiffany) Steve walks Amanda to her car and plants the first kiss. Things continued to move fast after that. Steve quickly became integrated with Amanda’s life down in Pacific Beach, becoming a 4th roommate, while Amanda equally started to make the drive up to Leucadia regularly. Amanda met Steve’s parents shortly after on November 24. The “boyfriend-girlfriend” talk happened January 2, 2020 on the beach in La Jolla with an epic sunset. Amanda’s friends always thought that her first boyfriend would be “the one” and they proved to be right! We went on our first ski trip together January 2020 where Steve got to meet Amanda’s family and some friends. Covid started which was met with lots of uncertainties and questions but one thing was certain, we were really falling for each other. The “L word” was dropped end of January, and it had been itching to come out for weeks. Amanda started dragging Steve on runs and to yoga classes while Steve helped cure Amanda’s flight anxiety by lots of aviation talk and many plane rides. Cue to the next couple years filled with trips up the coast of CA, Santa Barbara, multiple trips to SF and Colorado, Mexico, Chicago, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, etc. Many, many games of gin rummy, glasses of wine, and adventures later, here we are! The morning of the proposal we went to our favorite local coffee shop, Coffee Coffee (where the baristas all knew what was about to happen) and then walked up to our favorite beach up the street. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed our coffee and croissant on the beach then we stood up to head to brunch and Steve said “It would be fun if we had something to celebrate in Hawaii” (we were leaving for Hawaii the next day), then Amanda turned around and Steve was on one knee. Cheering erupted from the beach and parking lot. After saying yes (of course) and putting on the ring Amanda noticed a group of family and friends on the beach and the parking lot cheering them on. It was epic. We then had a really fun brunch (surprised by more family) and day in Encinitas and then were off early the next morning to spend the week in Hawaii on our “Engagement-moon”. Best. Week. Ever. We cannot wait for what the future holds and to celebrate with all of our friends and family.