Senior year of High School; Kelly and her girl friends religiously attended every basketball game so they could support their team from the stands. Matt [sometimes] played point guard. Kelly's best friend, Katie made sure to point out how good #4 was whenever he was on the court. While Katie acknowledged his skills, Kelly admired his handsome face behind his long brown hair. Meanwhile, Matt's friend, Peter was dating Kelly's friend Addy at the time. Since Peter and Matt were in a band together, he suggested that Matt give guitar lessons to Addy's little brother. Addy took the opportunity to invite Kelly over to "study" the same afternoon. It was then, that Kelly pressed her ear to the door and heard how talented Matt was and decided she had to know more. Fortunately, all the connections were there for Matt and Kelly to be in the same place at the same time. It only took one party for Kelly to watch Matt interact with his friends and see how funny and weird he was. She thought she was being obvious that she liked him; desperately trying to get his attention by making up situations where they could talk, but Matt was oblivious. Finally, one evening while the group was hanging out at Kelly's friend, Clare's house; Clare insisted that Kelly drive Matt to go pick up some taco's for everyone, and that it was SO important that no one else could join them. After that night; September 19th, 2008 Kelly didn't have to create ways to talk to Matt anymore.

It was a normal Sunday, just like any other. Kelly was at work and Matt was enjoying his day off watching football with Oakley (or so she thought). As usual, Kelly called Matt to chat during her lunch break. He suggested she try and wrap things up at work quickly so they could catch a few hours at the beach before the sun went down. Matt said he'd pack the ice chest and have Oakley ready by the time Kelly got home. Kelly rushed home and changed into her swimsuit. They loaded up the car and the three of them were out the door in no time. It was a typical day in paradise; playing fetch with Oakley in the ocean waves, eating sandwiches, and sipping on wine. It was no surprise that Kelly pulled out her phone to start snapping pictures of Oakley with the sunset behind him. What happened next, however, WAS a surprise. Matt suggested that they set the phone up with self-timer and take a picture of the three of them. Instead of smiling, Matt dropped to one knee and asked Kelly, "Will you marry me?". Sweet and simple. Marriage was always something that they had planned for, but Kelly had no idea when Matt would pop the question. Matt said he was going to wait until their 9 year anniversary, but that he "just couldn't wait any longer". Instead of watching football that afternoon, Matt called Kelly's mom to seek some advice on how to ask her daughter to be his wife. After the hugs and kisses and plenty of happy tears, they popped champagne on the beach at sunset. Just the three of them.