Valeria and Scott met during her sophomore year and his junior year of high school. They were both in Mrs. Harwood’s pre-calc class. They bonded over both being part of the “crippled club”. Scott was in a boot because of a broken foot and Valeria was in crutches because of her knee pain. It all started with helping Scott study for class and eventually led to the usual note passing. (Funny story, Valeria still has these said notes). It was a Frozen movie watching and pool hangout that brought these younglings closer! It took one week for Scott to ask her out and of course in the Valeria fashion, she splashed him in the eyes with the pool water in the middle of him asking! Fast forwarding through the worst year of their lives, long distance. Valeria and Scott both found themselves in Buffalo, NY for undergrad. Valeria was studying Psychology at Canisius while Scott was studying… (what was he studying again?)… oh right! Political Science and Economics? You could say that Scott still would like to add 5 majors to this day. Their love and respect grew throughout these undergrad years where they dealt with loss of loved ones, exciting wedding of family members, and all those final exams… yuck! Now for the part of the story that you all are dying to hear about, the engagement! How was Scott able to keep such a secret from Valeria?! We all know Valeria is VERY observant and overanalyzes everything! While Scott is the more laidback and go with the flow person in the relationship. For 8 months, Scott went through disconnecting cameras, turning off his location while secretly ring shopping, and texting a friend to distract Valeria through FaceTime to make sure that the biggest secret of all wasn’t spoiled. He planned the spring break trip to a T (other than the bipolar weather during the whole time they were in Moab). On March 21st, they made a trip to Arches National Park early in the morning while Maxie napped. They went to the Delicate Arches trail and hiked the 1.5 miles to the arch (definitely more than 1.5 but we’ll let it slide). This was the Arch that Valeria and Scott had always found when they were playing one of their favorite games, Civilization! Little did Valeria know that Scott had been planning how he was going to get someone to take a picture of the engagement moment for a solid 4 months. Who to ask, what to say, how to not have Valeria hear. He was a little nervous to say the least. But again, everything happens the way it’s supposed to. In Valeria’s social butterfly way, she asked if a family wanted to get a picture together and asked the mom to take a picture of her and Scott! This was the moment. He was just going to have to wing it! As the mom took two pictures, Scott knelt down on one knee and asked Valeria the question that she had been waiting for for 8 years! “Will you marry me?” The mother understood the assignment and got pictures and videos, and Valeria was in total shock crying out of happiness. And again in Valeria fashion, the 1.5 mile walk back consisted of her excitingly starting the planning of their wedding. They got back to the Airbnb and celebrated with Maxie, walked another 5 miles with Maxie at Dead Horse Point State Park (and got lost on the West End trail… they really have to figure out that path), and enjoyed the rest of their spring break trip as a newly engaged couple!