One day after school at Nicole’s house, one of her best friends Vashawn, who is also Elby’s brother, said he needed to talk to her. He told her that he found out where his dad was living and also heard he had an older brother in North Dakota. He was so excited about this information and couldn’t wait to go to Grand Forks and meet them and so he did! Since Elby moved to Grand Forks to live with his dad 3 1/2 years prior to this at the age of 16, it was a tradition that Elby would come down to Florida every year (as long as football allowed) for Christmas and the New Year to spend time with his mom. So, in December of 2010, it was no different, Elby flew down to Florida for the holidays. Of course Vashawn was thrilled to spend time with Elby during his visit as well and Nicole and Vashawn being best friends, she couldn’t wait to meet his new found brother, Elby! As soon as Elby and Nicole met and got acquainted, she had a crush on him! Apparently, he had a crush on her too but they lived 2,000+ miles apart and he was a freshman in college while Nicole was a sophomore in high school. Over the years they stayed in contact and every year after they first met, until Nicole moved away for college, they would get together on New Year’s Eve with other friends and family members at Elby’s mom’s house. Fast forward 7 1/2 years, Elby still lived in North Dakota but was in town visiting family over Memorial Day Weekend. Elby reached out to Nicole to see if she wanted to hang out while he was in Clearwater, of course she said yes and so they did. Ever since then, they’ve talked every single day and the rest, is history!

The night before - October 9, 2019, Nicole and Elby were at Nicole’s mom and step-dad’s house for dinner. They of course brought the puppies with them, but when it was time to leave, her mom insisted on keeping the puppies overnight to give Nicole and Elby a little break, so they did. Engagement Day, October 10, 2019 - Thursday, seemed like any other ordinary day. When Elby got home from work, Nicole asked him if he wanted to do anything special since they didn’t have the “kids” aka the puppies and weren’t going to pick them up until after dinner. Elby’s response was “Do you want to watch Breaking Bad?” Something they did together most nights while relaxing before bed. Nicole sarcastically said, “We always do that! You’re so boring!” But, they watched an episode of Breaking Bad anyway until Nicole fell asleep (typical for her). At 4PM, Elby woke Nicole up from her nap telling her she needed to be ready by 5PM for dinner. Nicole, of course, asked a bunch of questions, to which Elby didn’t answer and then she jumped up and scrambled to get ready in an hour. Elby surprised Nicole with dinner at Jimmy’s Fish House on Clearwater Beach, where they had their first official date on June 22, 2018. They sat outside on the deck overlooking the water like they always did watching the sun go down. It was such a beautiful evening and after dinner, they decided to take a walk on the beach to watch the sunset. That’s where Elby got down on one knee and asked Nicole to spend the rest of her life with him!