Like any great love story, ours began on Hinge with Austin asking how many dogs I had. Our first date included sushi, Freddy's shakes, and a late night trip to Target so I could grab milk for my morning coffee. I remember how his face lit up when I asked if he liked ice cream. The sweet good morning and goodnight texts were always something to look forward to from this first date on. The next weekend, our second date lasted 14.5 hours involving quite the range of activities from playing pickleball to breakfast, sharing stories behind photos in our camera roll and enjoying a walk in the Bosque before dinner and movies! Spending time together has always been the greatest joy no matter what the activities and adventures are. On a spontaneous third date, we bonded over our mutual love for spreadsheets and discovered we’d both, separately, tried to predict how long our future dates would be using different algorithms. We made it official on our fourth date, but we've been inseparable really ever since that second date. Cheers to spending a lifetime with my best friend, the love and light of my life.

Maya had to dogsit her old boss’s dog, Bacchus. Bacchus is a fluffy brown terrier, who loves pets, attention, and howling. We had been hanging out that day, but she had to go over there to check in on the dog. I didn’t want to stop hanging out with her, so I went over with her to spend some more time with her. After taking care of the dog, we decided to watch TV in the living room. After our show was over, we were sitting together on the couch cuddling. All of a sudden, I hear Maya say three words very quietly and quickly. “I love you.” ... “What was that?” I asked. She played dumb. I pushed her to tell me, but she wouldn’t budge. After a few minutes, I replied back, “I love you, too.”

When you know you know. Every relationship milestone came so naturally. Maya found Austin's engagement ring from a jeweler located in Colorado. This ring is engraved with a few 14er mountains, some of which Austin has actually climbed! Fun Fact: Austin has climbed over 32 of 58 14ers in Colorado! Austin and Maya both picked out Maya's engagement ring at the Balloon Fiesta. Austin picked the stone and Maya picked the band of the ring. We had a very special proposal day starting with breakfast at a French bistro. Austin picked the Fourth of July trail in the Manzano mountains as the proposal location due to the beautiful color changes of the leaves. Then, we shared the news with our families and enjoyed sushi at our first date restaurant, Tamashi.