Nicholas and I met while I was working a very busy July 4th Eve at the restaurant. It was his birthday, and his aunt, a long-time customer and great neighbor, brought him in to celebrate with a few of her friends. She introduced us briefly, but I had to run to another table and didn't think much of our first hello. I would come to find out later that he was not so interested in the conversation happening at the dinner table and was, instead, busy checking out his server! A few days later I saw him at the gym where he came by to let me know he was craving a plate of pasta and that I might see him in for dinner later that day. A few more days went by, and I remember seeing him pop up as a suggested friend on Facebook, and, so, since he was new in town and didn't know anybody, I figured I would add him. He accepted and "with the help of a little liquid courage" (his words, not mine) he asked me out on a hike on Little Si via instant message. He said I had a beautiful smile and that I should always find a reason to show it. I couldn't say no to a line like that. One week later we went on our very first date. We haven't left each others' side since.

We decided to take a nice hike on Little Si one morning. It was great to experience it again, because although we had done many hikes since our first date, we had never made it back to Little Si since. The crawl up was wonderfully hard, but it was nice just focusing on our walk together and reflecting on the previous 2 years that we had shared together. When we arrived at the top, Nicholas surprised me by recreating our first date and "making" the same lunch we had enjoyed that day: an avocado, rice cakes, a plum and water. We laughed about this and ate every single bite. As soon as we were done we noticed that some rain was beginning to fall se we decided to start packing up. When our backpack was ready we got up to take the journey back down the mountain. Nick stopped and said that he forgot one thing. He scuffled in the backpack and pulled out a box, knelt down on one knee and told me how much I meant to him. He told me what a wonderful life we would build together if I said yes to being his wife. My eyes welled up and I couldn't contain my excitement nervously uttering the words "Really?! Really?!". Of course my next word would be "YES!". He slid the beautiful ring on my finger, and the beginning of the rest of our lives started there and then!