Mack & Alexa first met in San Diego on December 11, 2016 through mutual friends. He will say that he told his best friend to keep him away from Alexa because “that girl is my kryptonite, she will be the end of me.” Turned out that as much as Alexa tried to deny that same feeling, she knew that she didn't stand a chance against his combination of confident, intelligent, cheesy, romantic, kind-hearted & captivating energy. They spent the first two years of their relationship together in San Diego, taking backpacking trips, frequenting live music and breweries, snuggling, and watching animal documentaries until Alexa was accepted into PA school in Monterey, CA in 2018. There were next to no job opportunities in the Monterey Area so Mack decided to take a job in Livermore, lessening the distance and the heartache of each goodbye. Mack then got into the UW MBA program that started September 2020. Prior to starting, Mack spent four and a half months with Lex in Monterey during quarantine. They spent their time together building/planting/nourishing a beautiful garden, cooking meals, stretching and/or yoga daily , crafting, watching WAY too much Love Island with Alexa's roommate, Erin & exploring their backyard: Big Sur. It was like a dream. Since then, Alexa finished up her clinical rotations and graduated PA school on May 22, 2021. WOOP WOOP! Mack is absolutely rockin' grad school and loves golfing at his club in Seattle in his free time. Alexa moved to Seattle mid-July to begin their next chapter together :)

Alexa: Mack did. He had taken me on a date to the driving range and as we were leaving I said “A beer sounds so good right now.” Seconds later, Mackey exclaims “I Love You.” Mack: "C'mon, there's a little more context than that... She had just spent her first time swinging a club flushing the ball and I was very impressed (and a bit jealous). The sun was setting on Mission Bay, we were in my pickup, and her exact words were: "Do you know what sounds sooo good right now?" "What?" "A giant beer." "......................... I love you." Are you kidding me? I couldn't keep myself from saying it. It was like, week eight of knowing her at that point, and I just completely gave up the game, folded like a Tommy Bahama chair." "I think the better question is, how long did it take for Lex to say it after that?"

Mack: "Right about four months into dating, I knew I wanted us to be forever, and I figured I should probably start saving for a ring, because I'd heard those cost a lot of money, so I setup an account and a monthly transfer and forgot about it until 2019. "In June of that year I start thinking about proposing, and remembered that I needed two things to do that: a ring, and the blessings of her family. She'd been dropping hints about which styles she liked for going on a year, so I wasn't too concerned about having to guess what she wanted in a ring, but the blessing was a bit more of an unknown. "In September I ordered the ring and made plans to drive out to meet with Greg and Rita, and a trip to Seattle to see Scott. Greg and Rita were almost as stressed about it as I was... "We knew it was going to be either really good news or really really bad news" Rita said afterwards. Scott too seemed to have an idea of what I was pestering him for a beer for, and fortunately they all said "eh, good enough" and I didn't have to send the ring back. During this, Lex was in the hardest year of school of her life, and I didn't want to be a distraction, so I planned to wait until the end of the year. And as luck would have it, her program planned a White Coat ceremony to honor their passing. That would be my best bet to get her people to one place and started letting members of our families know of the plan. The day came, I woke up sweating, and didn't really stop. Once the ceremony was over, a few of us went back to her house in Carmel Valley before meeting the families for dinner, and right away Lex was suspicious. She asked Cait Welsch point blank, "Is Mack proposing tonight?" Thankfully Cait, who is a terrible liar played it cool. A few minutes later, Lex was outside on the back deck with me, I got on a knee and once the shock wore off, she said yes, and made me not only the luckiest, but happiest person alive.