St. Patrick's Day 2018. Whitney was home on spring break from medical school and her brother Ryan harassed her to come out and meet his new best friend, Zack. Little did she know, Zack told Ryan that night he wanted to marry her... Ryan laughed. They bonded over board games and frozen drink nights for the next 2 years until COVID hit and Whitney was home from school for 2 months instead of just 2 weeks. They celebrated Whitney's medical school graduation together- multiple margaritas and one little red dress later and Zack finally got up the courage to ask her out and she said yes. After a year of long distance, Zack moved down to Houston. He began working as a GI nurse at Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center while Whitney stayed 1 hospital over at Memorial Hermann. They escaped the Texas heat and traffic whenever possible- visiting family in Colorado and New York or planning international trips to Belize and Iceland. After attending a national conference in San Francisco last October, Zack convinced Whitney to take another little vacation to a Getaway House in the woods outside of Houston. While Whitney was cleaning up inside, Zack was secretly hanging up twinkling lights and tossing down rose petals outside. The proposal was one that rivaled the best of Hallmark movies. Afterward, Zack disclosed that he had secretly traveled up to Dallas while Whitney was in San Francisco and worked with a jeweler to make the ring himself- which caused Whitney to cry for about the 10th time that night. This past summer, we said goodbye to our Houston family and moved back to Colorado Springs where we both work in the emergency department and enjoy all the outdoor activities that Colorado has to offer. Several months ago, we adopted our dog Ilsa from Ryan and she has become a fluffy ball of laughter and chaos in our lives. Ryan still visits regularly and loves to take credit for turning his best friend into his future brother-in-law.