In 2013, we met on a trip to Mexico, where Dustin and his friend played Irish-folk songs all the way up to the resort; needless to say, Gabby and her friends were not amused. We went our separate ways for a couple years and then, ran into each other on a night out in 2015. We stayed in touch from there on and after a couple of dates and snowboarding trips, we made it official. So, I guess it was the luck of the Irish? In 2017, Gabby crashed the boy's house and moved in with Dustin, Lee and John, while also bringing along her furry boy, Oakley. In 2019, we grew our furry little family to 4 with the addition of our Great Russell's (Oso and Jasper). In 2022, we not only sold our first home, where we fell more in love, but Dustin ended the chapter of the Surging Waters home with a ringer by popping the question on closing day! Throughout the years we have been together we have grown not only as individuals, but as a couple with unconditional support, trust, laughter and adventures. We have traveled a lot, collecting a pin for Dustin's legacy collection along the way. But, most of all we have made several memories with family and friends, and can’t wait to see what the future has in stored for us.

Gabby and I lived together for almost 5 years after buying my first place. It’s where we had tons of memories and also, where we got our two puppies together (Oso and Jasper). When deciding to sell the house, I realized that was where I should pop the question because of all the experiences we had there. On the closing day, I drove early in morning to Gabby’s parents' house, before they went to work, to ask for their permission to marry their daughter. I told them how I had been thinking on where and how to ask for some time now, and that it made perfect sense to do it where we feel in love and had all our first memories. After some shared tears of joy and telling them it was going to be that evening, everyone was eager to help however they could. Vanessa (Gabby’s sister) offered to be my partner in setting everything up that day. We drove around town picking up decorations and flowers to stage the proposal. As we were picking and dropping things off at the old house, Gabby was completely oblivious to what was going on and busy working from home. At one point, I even went back home to say hello, brought her lunch and got ready to go the gym to make it seem like it was a normal day off for me. Little did she know, it was far from a normal day. We had already planned to have dinner that night to celebrate closing on the house. So, knowing that the house was staged, and everything was ready, we took off to go to “dinner”, but I told her we had to stop by the house one last time to drop off the keys. I went inside first to make sure everything was set up just right, knowing that Gabby was too sad to say goodbye to the house. I went outside and encouraged her to come to look at one last thing. As she started walking up to the door, I closed it on her, so I could get into position inside the heart of candles (later she did say how confused she was that I didn’t hold the door open for her). Shocked at the sight, there I was on one knee and Gabby walked over and I had a wonderful speech but all you could hear is Gabby crying. After popping the question and her saying “yes” I told her I had one more surprise, hiding in the backyard, in the dark, I had both our families, our future best man and maid of honor along with her parents (Gabby's weekend parents as she says) there to accompany us. Everyone was super excited and came inside to continue celebrating with us this next chapter of our lives. Funny enough, with all the excitement and emotions, Gabby hadn’t even noticed what ring I put on her finger. I asked her if she recognized it and within seconds, she knew, it was her beloved grandmother’s wedding ring who had just passed earlier that year. I told her it was a temporarily filler that I had asked if I could use for this special moment until we picked one out together. After celebrating with everybody, it was time to go, we took our keys and placed them on the kitchen counter, and said our final goodbye to our first home, but hello to the rest of our lives together.