W E L C O M E

Our favorite St. Patrick's Day! Colleen just so happened to be on spring break with her nursing school friends in Cocoa Beach, Florida (shout out Sydney & Shelby!). Since it was their first night and St. Patrick's Day, Colleen and her friends naturally went out to celebrate! It also just so happens that Matt's first assignment in the military was at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Matt, his brother Stephen, and a few friends decided to celebrate the holiday in Cocoa Beach at a place called Sand Bar. I think we all know where this is going...To make a long story short, Matt & Colleen legitimately ran into one another in the middle of the bar and truly the rest is history! Colleen believes it was love at first sight and Matt is still in denial...either way, 5 years later and we are sealing the deal!!

My oh my did Matt pull off a good one! The amount of times I THOUGHT the proposal was happening is a little embarrassing to admit, but the actual proposal I never saw coming. Again, to make a long story short...We had planned to go to Catalina Island with our friends Cody & Cam for the Catalina Wine Mixer (because, of course!). Unfortunately Cody was deployed just weeks before, so I assumed we would cancel the trip. Anyways, the WEEK of, Matt calls me to tell me he got a really good deal on a nice spot in Catalina that we could not pass up. It didn't take much to convince me to call out of work for what I thought was a "spontaneous" weekend trip. We get there, check into our gorgeous room and head out for a quick hike! Matt was distracted with "work calls" but I was taking in all the gorgeous views. We make it to the top of the hike that over looks the beautiful island and you all have seen how genuinely surprised I was... He crushed it! (& shout out Ethan for capturing it all so well!) To put the icing on top, my brother Sean and sister-in-law Olivia (who was 6 months pregnant at the time) made the trip cross country to surprise me and celebrate us! 100000/10 weekend!