The story of Hannah and Ryan began in the modern way many couples connect nowadays: dating apps. They matched on not one dating app, but two! What caught Hannah's eye when looking at Ryan’s profile, was the fluffy adorable Bernese mountain dog puppy Ryan had cradled on his lap in one of his photos. Intrigued by Remy the pup, they wasted no time connecting. Soon, they were texting back and forth before finally meeting. Since Hannah loves walking and hiking, Ryan planned their first date around the local Lafayette reservoir. Ryan has a close bond with the reservoir; where he grew up walking often with his family, running the higher upper trail, and over many summers taught both rowing and kayaking at Roughing It Day Camp. Ryan was captivated by Hannah's gentle nature and beautiful smile, while she found common ground with him in their shared love for the outdoors and the importance of family. The date went so well, they both decided to prolong the date and spend more time together. Ryan picked a brunch spot for them to head to next called Batch & Brine in Lafayette. They had an amazing time and couldn’t wait to continue spending more time together. As time passed, Hannah fell in love with Ryan for countless reasons. She loves that he has a close bond with his two incredible parents, as well as his two kindhearted sisters. She loves that he is the youngest sibling, just like she is. She loves that he is smart, compassionate, hardworking, well-spoken, athletic, romantic, caring, calming, reliable, and so much more. She loves how he is a physical therapist, and like her, seeks to help people and make a positive impact on their community. She loves how he is a golfer just like her dad. There are so many reasons she fell in love with him. From their first date, she thought that he could be the one because he was very supportive and seemed like a great potential life partner. She wasn’t wrong. Ryan’s feelings progressed for Hannah with every date. Ryan loves her kind personality, her dedication to her students, her love and care for children, and her great relationship with her family. He loves her craftsy projects and fashion style. He loves that she is compassionate, dedicated, affectionate, funny, and beautiful. He loves that she is a teacher and is way better at handling children than he is! He loves their common bond of helping people in their professions and teaching their “students” in different ways. From their first date by the Lafayette reservoir, Ryan and Hannah's love has flourished and led to their upcoming wedding. They are filled with joy and anticipation as they prepare to embrace parenthood and welcome their son in August. They are grateful for the unwavering support from their loved ones. Ryan and Hannah cannot wait to celebrate with friends and family soon on May 4th, 2024!

Ryan has always had an interest and passion for athletics and high level sports. Ryan started his rowing adventure when he tried a week long summer camp due to his older sister Kendall enjoying the sport. He ended up sticking with it for his freshman year of high school and the rest was history. Ryan rowed for four years in high school with the Oakland Strokes and four years in college at the University of San Diego. Ryan competed at a high level, finishing 7th nationally in the lightweight 8+ category at the youth national championships his senior year. In college, he raced at the Head of the Charles his freshman and finished a program 10th out of 48 crews at the Head of the Charles regatta. While he was with the program they also qualified and attended the schools 2nd ever trip to the collegiate national championships in 2014. He stroked the 2nd varsity crew for historic wins at the Newport Regatta in 2014 as well as the first USD race victory over Stanford University in the history of the program at the 2014 San Diego Crew Classic. While competing in rowing at a D1 school, Ryan studied Biology with a chemistry minor. Ryan always had a passion for the sciences and loves learning about the world and makes it tick. After graduating, with his degree, he decided he wanted to become a Physical Therapist. Both of his parents are Physical Therapists which is the short answer of why he chose this career. The longer answer is that Ryan has always loved body mechanics and how to treat and move the body better. Technical skill was key for the rowing he enjoyed then and the golf he enjoys now. Ryan ended up attending Midwestern University in Arizona and earned his Doctorate of Physical Therapy in three years. He took special interest in wrist and hand treatment, as well as balance and vestibular treatment. Ryan graduated in the spring and summer of 2020. He worked in person directly at a skilled nursing facility in Utah during the height of COVID working every day at his rotation not knowing if he would be allowed to continue and graduate on time. He made it through and graduated summer of 2020. Originally Ryan had been accepted to a competitive high level sports residency post graduation with UCSF, due to COVID the position was revoked because there were no patients to treat. Ryan eventually heard from his mother Karen that she really liked the current PT clinic she was being treated at in Oakland called Fyzical. He applied for their job listing and ended up loving their treatment approach and kind owners Kathy Thornburg and Caroline Taylor. Since then, Ryan has worked at Fyzical full time for the past 3 and a 1/2 years. Ryan has learned and gained many skills, during this time. He completed Fyzical balance education allowing him to treat high level vestibular and fall risk patients, he also became a clinical instructor and has taught two students directly and helped them on their path to becoming physical therapists themselves. Now he treats everything under the sun, including TMJ issues, hand and wrist injuries, and concussion rehabilitation.

Hannah grew up on the foothills of Mount Diablo on a quaint three acre ranch. Her love of animals flourished as a child and her love of teaching. Since 5th grade, she was teaching students of all ages how to ride and helping with summer camps every summer. As a child, she had a passion for dance and did ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and much more. If she wasn’t riding a horse, she was probably in her room, dancing her little heart out. From a young age, Hannah daydreamed about being an elementary teacher and making an impact on the future leaders of the country. During high school, she was very busy between the barn, leadership, soccer, and volunteering. She was the only student in her class to be in leadership all four years. Hannah’s mom couldn’t wait for Hannah’s sister to be able to drive, because then Rachel could take Hannah to her A Period Leadership morning class that started before school bright and early at 7 am. Hannah’s mom Jill, is not a morning person. During leadership, Hannah made many posters, planned fundraisers, helped set up for dances, helped pick the venue for junior prom and senior ball, and MUCH more! In addition to this, she spent much of her free time volunteering. She volunteered at Xenophon, a therapeutic horseback riding facility for kids with special needs, her local Ygnacio Valley Library, food banks, school, and many other places. By the end of high school she had over 1,000 volunteer hours.

After high school, Hannah stayed at the family ranch as a manager of the equestrian center while attending Diablo Valley College. From running the ranch full time, attending her classes, and volunteering at Xenophon, she was VERY busy. Besides her general education classes, all of Hannah’s classes focused on Early Childhood Education while attending community college. After several years of community college, Hannah transferred to the University of California Santa Cruz. Where she earned her Intensive Psychology Bachelor of Arts. Compared to a regular Psychology degree, it requires more units and being a Research Assistant. Hannah’s first research lab was under the tutelage of Professor Kawamoto and focused on empirical and computer simulation approaches to the study of perceptual and cognitive processes with a focus on psycholinguistics. The time spent in this lab was invaluable and taught her the basics of being a Research Assistant and more about phonological planning during reading aloud and video based measures of lip movement. This area of research interested Hannah for many reasons but one main one was as a young girl, she needed speech therapy. Language and speech are an essential and important part of life. The other research lab was under the tutelage of Professor Su-Hua and focused on understanding how learning occurs in the first few years as babies and young children interact with parents in everyday activities that involve books, toys, and technology. This experience working as a Research assistant in the “Baby Lab” was exciting and transformative. Hannah has always been interested in children, how they perceive the world, and how they learn. Making this experience enlightening and fun. Hannah was also an Instructional Psychology Assistant and taught a Psychology 101 Discussion Section once a week for a quarter. Teaching in a prestigious college setting was vastly different from teaching in the barn among the dirt and horses. Despite this, the experience taught her even more skills and opened her eyes to teaching in that type of environment. During Hannah’s last quarter, she studied abroad in Madrid , Spain. Hannah took Spanish 1 for the fourth time. Despite this, when her sister met her at the end of her program, her sister who has barely taken Spanish, could still talk and communicate more fluently to their Uber driver at the airport than Hannah could. Following UC Santa Cruz, Hannah earned her Multiple Subject Credential and Masters of Science in Reading and Literacy from California State University East Bay to become an elementary teacher. She has taught in Walnut Creek, Martinez, Pleasant Hill, Moraga, and currently in Concord at Sun Terrace Elementary. While teaching at Sun Terrace, she met Ryan and now they are having a baby and getting married. She is beyond excited for what these next years are going to bring!