We're getting married!

In 2012, Jen was just starting her 2nd year at UCSB and moving into her first apartment in Isla Vista. Little did she know that Hunter had just moved into the apartment right downstairs in the same complex for his first year at UCSB. His older brothers had hooked him up with a security job at the apartment complex. So it was only a matter of time before they met in passing on their way up the stairs, both dressed in sports gear - Hunter had just walked on the UCSB D1 basketball team, and Jen was on the club field hockey and lacrosse teams. Their first conversation was mostly small talk, mediated by their friends, who lived next to Hunter. Following that encounter, there always seemed to be a chance for Jen to pop her head in and say hi on her way up the stairs, or for Hunter to come up and tell Jen to "turn her music down."

After Jen "snuggled her way into his life," as Hunter puts it, he finally asked her out! Their first date was a classic - dinner and a movie. And what better place to wine and dine a girl than Chipotle?! Watching each other eat giant burritos admittedly isn't the most attractive thing he could have chosen, but Jen had never not finished her whole Chipotle burrito in one sitting, and wasn't going to start then just to try and impress a boy. After they had each grown a new food baby, they drove over to watch Taken 2. They thought it was a lot better than the 22% that Rotten Tomatoes gave it, but maybe it was just the company that made the movie so good. Hunter ended the night with a gentlemanly good night's kiss, and their story took off from there!

January 1st, 2019. Set to take a big trip to a cabin in big bear on the 2nd, they were left with "no plans" for the first day of the year. After tossing around a few ideas, they decided to visit their favorite beachside restaurant in Laguna, Beachcomber Cafe. Hunter made a phone call outside to "see if they took reservations," and said the earliest they had was 3pm. Little did Jen know, he'd had the reservation booked for weeks. They arrived at the restaurant on a sunny January afternoon and decided to split an appetizer and drinks. He wanted to take a walk and catch the sunset, which seemed like the perfect end to the perfect day. They had talked a lot about marriage lately, now that they had been together for over 7 years and Hunter was close to completing his Doctorate of Chiropractic. Hunter was saying some particularly sweet and romantic things during the walk, when he stopped walking and took something out of his jacket pocket...and got down on one knee! Jen was so surprised and overwhelmed that she dropped her phone right into the sand and started crying all over the place immediately. She hardly heard the words Hunter said (which is really a bummer because they were probably very well-thought-out and romantic) and just remembers jumping up and down and saying "YES!" They were practically alone on the beach with the occasional runner. They tried to snap a selfie, and Hunter took a picture of Jen with her new sparkly ring, when they heard a "Congratulations!" Jen assumed it was one of the random runners who had witnessed it all. She turned around to see her whole family running toward her after watching from the cliffs above, with tears in their eyes too.