Short story: We met in college at Cal Poly. Long story: Maddy had seen Eric around campus freshman year and thought he was cute. At the beginning of sophomore year, they started to attend the same parties. Maddy would tell their mutual friends that she was interested in meeting him and they would always offer to introduce us, but Maddy was too embarrassed and shy. Finally, one bold mutual friend decided to introduce us and the rest is history! Eric didn't want a girlfriend at that point in his college career, and Maddy wasn't looking for anything serious either, but we were simply compatible and loved spending time together, so we continued to do so until our relationship became what it is today.

We were lucky enough to have lived in Australia together where Eric was able to continue one of his favorite hobbies, rugby. We lived with some of our best friends including Maddy's cousins, Leona and Skyler! We had so much fun living in Sydney and traveling up and down the east coast of Australia. We miss the beaches and views of Australia (and the coffee!) and cannot wait to go back! At the end of our yearlong Australian Working Holiday Visa, we decided the smart thing to do would be to stay in that area of the world and travel Southeast Asia together. We started in Singapore, made our way up through Malaysia, into the beautiful beaches of southern Thailand, went east through Cambodia, traveled up through Vietnam (almost overstayed our welcome!) and then ended in northern Thailand where we made sure to eat Khao Soi curry every day. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime going on wild scooter rides, scuba diving, spelunking, staying in funky hostels that Maddy hopes she never has to do again, getting to meet up with friends, and making so many new ones.

We had been dating for over 8 years when Maddy started to realize how many of her friends were getting engaged. She started to pester Eric until he finally realized that it was about time to take the next step. At this point, Maddy knew it was going to happen at some point, but Eric did a really good job of keeping it a secret and a surprise. He couldn't think of anywhere more beautiful to propose than his aunt and uncle's property in Elk, California where we camp regularly. While camping, Maddy decided she wanted to find how many kilometers it is around the property, so she started walking and Eric followed. When we got to the end of the walk, Eric insisted we walk closer to the cliff edge where he got down on one knee.