We got lucky! We met through Jordan, Austin's sister, who was my roommate & one of my best friends during med school. We had a lot of interests in common and quickly became friends. We started dating a little while after, and have been adventuring ever since!

From Austin: I had long decided to ask Tanya to marry me, but I was struggling to come up with something I thought was special enough for Tanya. I had many ideas, from our first hike together (Rattle Snake ridge), or in Hillcrest where we first admitted that we liked each other. I knew that I wanted us to be alone, in a location special to us. Then, it all became clear when we got the news that our friends Lindsey and Giedrius were getting married in Scotland! Tanya and I have long bonded over the smokey whisky that comes from a very specific place in the world, the island of Islay (pronounced eye-luh) off the west coast of Scotland. An extremely remote island with beautiful hills, beaches, and mountains. I then began my planning, plotting, and scheming, how to get to the island, and where would be a good spot. I eventually came across a 15 year old blog post of a couple detailing their hike up the north east coast of the island, through peat bogs and sheep, to summit an extremely windy mountain with a panoramic view of the island, and a view across the straight to the mountains on the island of Jura. With not much to go on but some pictures and a sheep path, all I could do was hope for good weather, and to not get lost. Ring secretly in hand, we set off to attend the wedding, and what Tanya thought was simply a fun trip afterwards. After months of planning both the trip and the proposal, secret ring shopping with Sasha, talking to parents, four thousand miles, a 4.5 hour drive on the left side of the road, a ferry ride, and a sunrise hike through bogs and sheep, we were on the top of the mountain, and it was indeed incredibly windy. On July 24th, 2023, Tanya agreed to marry me and start our life together.