They met through a mutual friend during Steph's first year in medical school. Zach soon knew she was the one when he found out she wears Chacos approximately 99% of the time. Steph was charmed by his "Hitch" pick-up lines and his 7pm bedtime. They dated long-distance between Houston and Colorado Springs for a year before Zach moved to Houston to work at an oil and gas company.

Zach and Steph traveled to New Zealand during her 4th year of medical school. A 50+ (yes, 50) hour delay in San Francisco just added to Zach's stress as he was planning to propose during the trip. In true Zach and Steph fashion, nothing went according to plan. They hiked 2 hours along a lake, plus a 30 minute unintentional "scenic detour" to get to their very first multi-pitch climb aptly named "High Hopes." It was at the base of this climb that Zach got down on one knee and asked Steph to be his forever adventure partner. Exhausted, dirty, and hungry, Steph said yes. They spent their first night engaged eating boxed mac and cheese at a climbers' hostel and sleeping on the top bunks in a dormitory room with 5 other people.

Stephanie and Zach now live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Steph is doing her emergency medicine residency at the University of New Mexico and Zach is an engineer for Sandia National Laboratories. They have a dog named Kira.