A long time ago, Fall 2011 to be exact, Robert and Elija met in Earth Systems Science (ESS) their sophomore year at Poudre High School. Robert wore flip flops. every. single. day. No matter the weather. He became known to her and her family as "Flip Flop Robert". They became buds. Robert would take Elija on adventures, her in the passenger seat, along with his jar of peanut butter. Fall 2012, their junior year, they remained buds. Elija remembers supporting Robert at football games by painting his number on her face, as high school girls do. Little did she know, but Robert's mom, Christy, was eyeing her at the game. "Who's that girl?" "She's cute." "You should ask her to homecoming." Elija would come to find out that Robert WAS going to ask her to homecoming. But he did not... Robert and Elija took Algebra II together that Spring, they were both in Mr. Fontenot's class. Nothing crazy happened, this isn't a high school love story. They remained friends, graduated, and carried on with their lives. Seven years later, in the midst of a pandemic, Elija was working as a paraprofessional at Wellington Middle School. Robert was working as a paraprofessional at Boltz Middle School. On April 16th 2021, during introductions on a professional development class, Elija saw him. She was sitting at her sisters house, holding her newborn niece and said... "Naomi, Flip Flop Robert is on this Teams meeting!" She had no idea he worked almost the exact same job as her, because his degree was in economics so what the heck. She messaged him on Microsoft Teams and they set up a time to "catch up". They met at the Blind Pig for mimosas and have been together ever since. On March 19th 2022, in the comfort of their first crappy one bed one bath apartment, Robert asked Elija to marry him. Now, their high school math teacher will be officiating the wedding, they will get the dance they missed, and man does the world feel small but so purposeful. Elija just can't believe she is lucky enough to marry Flip Flop Robert. And Robert can't believe he got a second chance with the girl from ESS.