the future Mr & Mrs Huibers

Summer is over & it's the first day of school in August 2009. The hits on the radio are Good Girls Go Bad by Cobra Starship, Lady Gaga's Paparazzi, and (Niko's favorite) Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me. Niko just transferred to Woodside for his sophomore year after moving to a nearby town called Emerald Hills. This was the first day of Steph's junior year and her first day in Woodside's new music class, a course for learning beginner's guitar. Niko registered for the class to learn to play songs by Metallica (his favorite band). Steph was particularly excited about the course because her mom used to play guitar, so she wanted to learn too! Thus, they were in the same guitar class together and sat just a few seats away from each other. The couple quickly became friends, little did they know what would emerge from enrolling in this class!

Niko first began hiding his ring hunting early last year. He had to get creative with hiding his efforts as Steph knows him like the back of her hand. One time, he pretended he was on his way to work in Gilroy, when actually he was on his way to San Francisco to look at engagement rings! Steph had absolutely no idea! Niko's original plan was to propose to Steph on their summer trip to Portugal with the Huibers family and friends nearby to celebrate. Everything was packed and ready, the plans were finally in motion. Instead, COVID struck most of the traveling group, and all proposal plans had to be put on a temporary hold. The silver lining to the COVID postponement is that it threw Steph off Niko's trail! She was beginning to grow a bit suspicious of Niko as she noticed his mother and sister were acting strange.

It was the day of the couple's puppy's 1st birthday. Steph wanted to celebrate by taking both of their dogs, Benny and Luna, to a beach the couple used to visit frequently when they were first dating. Niko and Steph took Benny and Luna to go watch the sunset, but it was a very cloudy day at San Gregorio. Niko was disappointed because they wouldn't be able to see the sunset, and things weren't going as planned. When the couple reached the end of the beach, Niko set up the phone tripod to "take family pictures for Luna's birthday Instagram post." Suddenly, the sun began to poke out of the clouds, so Niko and Steph posed for the gram. While they took pictures, Niko pointed out to Steph that there was something on Benny's collar! Steph looked down to see the shiny diamond ring, and the rest is history. Don't ask Steph what was said, all she remembers is seeing the ring strapped to Benny, and calling family and friends right after!