Our relationship started with a plate of oysters. Caroline showed up at Westward, the restaurant Christian worked at, for an impromptu first date. He taught Caroline how to shuck an oyster, shelling a tiny, perfect Olympia as a demonstration. Weeks later, he turned the shell into a necklace. Caroline still has it. The day after meeting Christian, Caroline flew to Sonoma, California for an interview. She accepted the job on the spot and immediately started planning her relocation. Back in Seattle, she accepted a second date with Christian, figuring it wouldn’t go anywhere. Unfortunately, it was a really good date. We made it through 7 months of Seattle-to-Wine Country long distance before Caroline decided to move home to the Northwest. Not long after, we moved in together. Since then, we've survived a pandemic, adopted a little orange cat who now rules our lives, traveled to Portugal, helped each other through tough times, gotten really into Formula 1, celebrated holidays together, watched countless hours of Escape To The Country, graduated from school, changed careers, done the laundry, eaten more oysters, and gotten engaged.