We met super early one Saturday morning on the beach in St. Augustine- it was around 7am and if anyone knows Kayla, it was a rare occurrence for her to be up that early on the weekend. Kayla and Kona went for a walk up the beach towards the St. Augustine pier, where they came across Eric and Blue playing fetch in the water. Kayla, trying to play it cool, goes to walk past the boys with no intention of stopping. Kona, however, had other plans. She laid her little hippo body flat and anchored herself into the sand refusing to move until the boys noticed her. The pups were like long lost friends being reunited at last and we spent the next hour getting to know each other. We then went our separate ways assuming we would run into each other again soon, I mean St. Augustine is a small town right? Wrong, we didn't see each other again until six months later when we were able to reconnect and decided to meet back up at the place where we first met, with the pups that brought us together. We then had our official first date later that night at Jack's Bar on the Beach and even with a minor Eric's moving to West Virginia scare... we've been together ever since!

Eric took Kayla and the pups down to Matanzas for an afternoon at the beach to "celebrate" Kayla's birthday. He caught her COMPLETELY off guard by getting down on one knee and proposing in the ocean. IN THE OCEAN! All Kayla remembers is hearing the words "Will You" and seeing the sparkle emerging from the ocean and blacked out immediately- managing to blurt out a big "YES!". We celebrated with family and friends later that night in downtown St. Augustine.