We're getting married!

For years, Marie and my grandma, Barbara, were on a mission. We constantly heard, “I have the most handsome boy for you to meet,” and “You have to meet my granddaughter.” It’s safe to say, we brushed them off for quite a few years, or else this story would be beginning in 2007 or so, instead of 2011. I finally gave in and texted Kyle the summer before our senior year of high school. With him busy with basketball, and me busy with my job, we decided to meet once school began. Luckily, we had an English class together on the second day of school. Our teacher wanted us to play a “get to know you game” that consisted of matching boxes to personality traits that someone in the class had. Kyle came up to me, asked me which box applied to me, wrote my name down and walked away. Super romantic. …But that’s how we met. Classroom games aside, it really was a perfect match. We got along instantly and officially became boyfriend and girlfriend on September 27th, 2011. Opposites do attract. Kyle keeps me calm while I keep him in check (all of us ladies like to say that about our men, right?) While we are opposites in some way, we are the same person in a lot of others… like our love for dogs, pizza and running errands together. Besides the issue that Kyle only likes white cake and I only like chocolate, we really are each other’s best friend. In March 2017, we got our first place together in Huntington Beach. Shortly after moving in together, we made the super responsible and rational decision to get off the plane from Costa Rica and adopt a dog the next day. Patrick came into our life and it hasn’t been the same since. In March 2018, we made the totally rational decision to get Patrick a friend and adopted Blue. While it was rough at first, our two boys quickly became best friends. They play together, sleep together, eat together… their ears even decided to mimic each other. Our dogs are a huge part of our relationship and have taught us so much, all 180+ pounds of them.

Living together with our pups, I started to wonder when the proposal would be happening. I would constantly send Kathy, Kyle's mom, rings and drop hints to both of them. We had a trip planned for our 7 year anniversary and my 24th birthday (yes, they are back-to-back, don't get me started...) to Santa Barbara, so I thought that would be a time that he might do it. I think I drove Kathy, Kyle and my maid of honor, Jaclyn, crazy trying to get hints out of them. Instead, he surprised me by taking me to the dog beach on the night of our 7 year anniversary, where he wrapped his arms around me and said a beautiful speech, to which I turned around to him on one knee. While we have moved to a new city, Huntington Beach will always be special to us. It's the place we first lived together, started our little pup family, and say "yes" to spending the rest of our lives together.