We started off acquaintances, periodically bumping into each other at "athlete hangout spots," such as the field, or Apartmento Quince, (boy soccer house). It wasn't until one fateful night at The Pearl, (girl soccer house), that I Ivan plucked up the (liquid) courage to ask for my number and ask me out. I didn't think he would remember to text me the next day, but he did! We ended up going bowling, where I kicked his booty, (thanks Leland bowling class)! In the end, we had a ton of fun and shared a horrible first kiss, but that didn't get in the way of wanting to see each other again :)

Ivan suggested that we dress up real nice and go out for drinks and dinner because we had so many lazy weekends, just lounging in sweats. First we went to the Presidential Lounge at the Mission Inn for some drinks. Ivan seems very distracted and kept checking his phone, but I didn't think anything of it because his job had been stressing him out at the time. Once we finished drinks, we thought we would walk over to a nearby restaurant, Prohibition, to have some dinner, (and be back in time for Sunday Night Football, of course!). The walkways of the Mission Inn were lined with pumpkins due to the closeness of Halloween and it looks very pretty. As we were walking, Ivan stopped and looked up at something, so of course me, being naturally curious, looked up too. Didn't see anything. Then I went to look down at Ivan, who was not eye level with me, but on one knee! To say the least, I was completely taken by surprise, even 7 years later... He had one last surprise up his sleeve and that was both our families waiting for us at Prohibition! (Looks like he didn't care much about the Sunday Night Football game after all...) It was a perfect night, with each other, as well as our loved ones.