On January 24, 2017, Emily walked into Biology 101, the World of Animals. Not knowing anyone, she saw an empty seat next to a cute boy in the back of the room. She would soon learn his name was Forrest. The first lab of the course was touching and observing water animals. To her dismay, instead of being paired with Forrest, her lab partner was the student on the other side of her. That day, her lab partner screamed every time they had to touch an animal, and never returned to class. Because the class was now an odd number, Emily got thrown into Forrest's lab partner group. Emily and Forrest spent 2 hours together every week for the next 4.5 months. On April 25th, the class took an observational field trip to the San Diego Zoo. Forrest offered to drive Emily to the zoo and she agreed. They spent the day laughing and joking - (mostly Forrest making fun of Emily). On the drive home, Forrest and Emily jammed out to Relient K. They stopped by Forrest's house to meet Dixie, the Freedom Fortress Pup. Dixie approved of Emily instantly, of course. They spent the next few weeks together before going home for the summer & the rest is history!

After going to midnight Christmas Eve mass with Forrest's family, Emily and Forrest spent Christmas morning at her childhood home in Anaheim. Forrest made a delicious (possibly a little too spicy for Mr. McDonald) lunch of red beans & rice. Everyone gathered around the tree to open presents. Forrest gave Emily his gift last. Emily started to open a beautifully wrapped box (she knew he had taken his presents to Hallmark - there was no way he wrapped them this nicely) but opened it only to find another wrapped box. Forrest's favorite quote from the day is, "It's another box!" which Emily exclaimed once or twice. Emily opened 2 or 3 more boxes and got down to a small, ring shaped box. Shaking, she opened the small box only to find a note which read "I'm sorry, I spent more than $50," the gift limit to which they had previously agreed. Forrest pulled the ring out of his pocket, said some sweet words (neither of them really remember exactly what he said because Forrest was nervous and Emily was in shock), and asked her to marry him. (Spoiler alert: she said yes!)

Emily and Forrest planned their dream wedding for October 3, 2020. The pandemic had other plans! Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to cancel our original wedding. We are so excited more than a year later to finally have the chance to have our ceremony and reception!

As Forrest likes to say, Dixie is the reason Emily and Forrest started dating. Dixie is a rescue pup who Forrest adopted with his housemates back in 2016. Dixie still barks at strangers and cats, but Dixie will always love her boys (Lyons, Solano, Rooney, Byrne, Grover, and Logan)! Dash is the baby of the house. He likes playing with just about anyone, but his heart is true to Emily & Forrest. He isn't a fan of being told what to do, but he WILL do anything for food. He is the best cuddler & a tug-of-war champ.