Zach and Elena met in London as part of Pepperdine's abroad program. Both sophomores, they left their hometowns in Colorado around the same time not knowing each other. They both got on a connecting flight to LA to meet and travel to London for the semester. After Elena's first organic chemistry exam, the house dinner that night was an outing to a crepe restaurant known as My Old Dutch. Zach and Elena were sitting across from each other and decided to split both a savory and a sweet crepe, because why not have the best of both worlds. Toward the end of the semester, there were many more group outings, one of which involved Zach sitting next to Elena and splitting appetizers known as "snowballs" of powdered sugar pizza dough that kept the conversation flowing for the whole night and led to him walking her home. Elena returned to Malibu to continue her science curriculum and Zach remained to finish out the year in London enjoying the fine arts and travel opportunities..... their story took a break until almost 1.5 years later as they both entered their senior year on the Malibu campus. Their first date was after Elena's night class one night in May 2015, at a place called Padri's in Agoura Hills which ended up unexpectedly being a white tablecloth establishment neither of them were quite dressed for. They attempted to blend in by ordering what Padri's is known for, martinis. They each received approximately 3 oz of straight vodka tempered by a single olive and proceeded to both act like this is a "strong one, isn't it?" They talked the whole night, staying until closing at 12 am. The rest of the summer was filled with trips back and forth through the canyon for movie dates and beach walks. He said "I love you" for the first time on Ralph's Beach about a month after asking her to be his girlfriend on his birthday in August.

After a year of dating their senior year, they walked across the stage to graduate from Pepperdine together and moved home to Denver to begin a year of career exploration. They spent afternoons taking walks around Wash Park dreaming having a dog and one day owning a home. Denver offered amazing opportunities like going skiing every weekend of the winter (Zach pulling Elena on her snowboard on every flat stretch) and jeeping over different mountain passes as the weather warmed up. Elena soon accepted an offer of admission to Midwestern University College of Veterinary Medicine and moved to Glendale, AZ to pursue her dream.

Zach remained in Denver and he likes to think he kept Southwest Airlines in business that year with taking trips to visit every 2 weeks. After enjoying the escape to warmer weather (and the love of his life), he decided to trade his ski poles for swimsuits for good as Elena began her 2nd year of vet school! He landed his dream job in digital marketing in Scottsdale and began saving for a ring. Arizona became their new playground, offering wooded escapes in Flagstaff, breezy days on Lake Pleasant, tube floats down the "rapids" of the Salt River, and a short drive across the border to Mexico. The next addition was a chocolate lab puppy named Mousse last July. Nothing like relationship building through attempting to house-train a puppy in 115 degree heat from a third floor apartment! Elena's clinical rotation in Texas was cancelled due to COVID, (the perfect time for Zach to subtly ask Randy's blessing), so Zach insisted they take a last minute weekend visit in August, which seemed odd at the time but still flagged nothing in Elena's mind as far as proposal on the horizon.

From Elena: Zach secretly arranged a sunrise hike to the top of Camelback Mountain with friends Nikki and Josh. He woke me up at 4am on Saturday and I resisted the whole way, rolling out groggily to the car with a bare face and the first hiking outfit I could get my hands on in the dark. I was totally oblivious to the fact that Josh brought his nice new camera because he “just wanted to play with the settings to take nice sunrise shots.” It is a brutally steep to the ascent to the top of Camelback, not to mention one side of the mountain is closed so we had to take the more difficult trail! As the morning light was becoming pink and we neared the summit, Zach showed me his heart rate tracking reach 192 bpm and I thought “wow, COVID has really gotten us out of hiking shape.” Little did I know it was the nerves! In the golden light just after sun came up, Zach took my hand as if to pull me closer but then said “Lanie” and I looked up to tears in his eyes. My mind raced and I thought “Hmm wait, it’s windy up here but it’s not that windy...” and he knelt as he said “I love you. I want to be with you the rest of my life. Will you marry me?” and opened a box holding my dream pear shaped diamond ring! (He later told me he had practiced 100 times pulling the box smoothly out of his athletic shorts pocket) The other sunrise hikers watching clapped and cheered as I squealed yes! and buried my face in his chest. I was floating on air and couldn’t stop giggling to myself the whole way down. I wouldn’t trade the moment of 100% pure surprise for anything, chipped nails and all.