Aug 2025 — Jul 2026
The Journey
From "Nic asked me out" to "she said yes" — twenty-nine photos, three videos, and the milestones in between. Drag, scroll, or use the arrows. Every stop is real, and most of them involve food.
Aug 11, 2025
Nic Asked Her Out
It all starts here. Nicholas asked Carolina out and, in a rare display of good judgment on both sides, she said yes. Historians will note she had no idea what she was agreeing to. Neither did he. It worked out.
Aug 15, 2025
The Church Flower
Four days later, Nicholas brought Carolina a flower from church — hand-delivered to her at work, where witnesses guaranteed he couldn't play it cool afterward. A free flower, it should be noted. From church. The man's romance budget was already legendary.
Aug 16, 2025
The First Date
Lunch and ice cream. Simple, perfect, and — Nicholas would like the record to show — very reasonably priced. Carolina would like the record to show that she noticed.
Aug 23, 2025
The Zoo
Second date: the zoo, doubled with Mike and Sue. The animals were a hit, the chaperones approved, and nobody got proposed to yet, which in hindsight shows remarkable restraint.
Aug 24, 2025
Meeting Grandmother
Third date, and Nicholas skipped straight to the finals: a whole day with his grandmother and Debbie, his first time cooking for Carolina, grocery shopping together, long walks, and an introduction to his Syrian friends. Some men take years to reach this level. Nicholas took eight days.
Sep 1, 2025
The First Kiss
September 1st. That's all we're saying. It's a church crowd, and some archives stay sealed.
Sep 6, 2025 · Mount Hope Estate · Manheim, PA
The Big Weekend
The first grand adventure: the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire — a place neither of us had ever set foot in our entire lives. Costumes were scrambled together at the last second. Nicholas thought Carolina was adorable in her ears; Carolina was mostly negotiating a ceasefire between the humidity and her hair. We split one grilled chicken sandwich with ranch, at which point Carolina learned two eternal truths: Nicholas is proudly, unapologetically cheap, and he refuses on principle to pay amusement-park "we've-got-you-trapped" prices. She was also finally relaxing enough to eat in front of him without getting nervous — progress on all fronts. Her coworkers from Nello's specialty meat factory came along and had no idea they were witnessing the start of everything.
Sep 6, 2025 · Mount Hope Estate · Manheim, PA
Two Minutes Later
Same first afternoon at the Faire — two minutes and a whole future later. Nobody in this photo knows what's coming. Especially not Nicholas's wallet.
Sep 6, 2025 · Coca-Cola Park · Allentown, PA
Three Dates in One Day
Backstory: the week before, Nicholas skipped choir to sit with Carolina during her first services. Our choir director Nick came down afterward and delivered the verdict — new girlfriend or not, the choir sings from upstairs, and upstairs is where Nicholas belonged. A week later, feeling guilty, he handed us IronPigs tickets after Saturday vespers. So: Renaissance Faire, church, and a ballgame with Chickie's & Pete's fries drowning in cheese sauce — three dates in a single day. We walked laps around that ballpark half the night. Efficiency is romance.
Sep 7, 2025
Officially Dating
After the Faire, church, and a ballgame — one perfect marathon weekend — it was official. Boyfriend and girlfriend, as of September 7th. The committee vote was unanimous: two in favor, zero opposed.
Oct 23, 2025 · Sight & Sound Theatres · Ronks, PA
Carolina's Surprise
This one was Carolina's doing, start to finish. She planned it herself, took a day off work — an actual vacation day, spent voluntarily — and teased it only as "something we both did when we were younger." It was Sight & Sound's Noah, the one with the full-size ark and live animals in the aisles. We've since been back for Joshua. We also ran into Nicholas's old high school Latin teacher, Henry, and his wife Betsy, because the Lehigh Valley is legally required to be a small town.
Oct 25, 2025 · Hagley Museum · Greenville, DE
Powder & Parishes
Nicholas took Carolina to Delaware to scout other OCA parishes, then smuggled in a full history curriculum: the du Pont black-powder works at the Hagley Museum, the daily lives of gunpowder workers, the inner mechanics of old mills, and a founder's house built with walls thick enough to survive the family business — which exploded regularly. Gardens, parks, and an old-fashioned two-story diner closed it out. Yes, this is what he considers a romantic getaway. Yes, she married him anyway.
Nov 24, 2025 · Palmer Township, PA
Fasting, Efficiently
Making the most of a fasting day: Chick-fil-A fries and a kale salad. Her favorite restaurant, his favorite price point — a rare and beautiful alignment of the spheres.
Nov 29, 2025 · Bube's Brewery · Mount Joy, PA
Dinner, 43 Feet Down
A special dinner Nicholas actually splurged on (documented here for posterity): the Catacombs at Bube's Brewery, forty-three feet underground in stone beer cellars that thrived until Prohibition shut the place down in the early 1900s. Crab-stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta piled with tomato, cucumber, onion and mozzarella, a kale Caesar, salmon with rice — and the lobster bisque, which Carolina still ranks above most human relationships.
Dec 12, 2025 · Lowville, NY
Cooking for the Hosts
Nicholas was up in Lowville, New York, working a winter season with a family farm. Carolina came to visit for the weekend and decided the proper thank-you was to feed everyone: breaded lemon fish, homemade mashed potatoes, Caesar salad, and a macaroni salad. The host family has probably not stopped talking about it. Neither has Nicholas.
Dec 13, 2025 · Kingston, Ontario
Her First Beach
Mid-Lowville-trip, we slipped across the border into Canada for church, and Nicholas took Carolina to the beach for the very first time in her life. It was December. In Ontario. The beach was under a foot of snow. He maintains, to this day, that it counts.
Dec 13, 2025 · Fort Henry · Kingston, Ontario
Snow Angels & a Sprint Home
Snow angels and a wrestling match in the drifts at Fort Henry, hot chocolate at Tim Hortons — Canada's answer to Dunkin' — and then a genuinely frantic race back down Highway 401 to the Thousand Islands Bridge to make the host family's church Christmas concert. We made it. Barely. Border crossings build character.
Feb 12, 2026 · Colebrookdale Railroad · Boyertown, PA
The Jacket
Waiting on the platform, Carolina — dressed, as always, for a season that did not exist — started shivering. So Nicholas handed over his warm wooly bomber jacket and stood there quietly becoming an ice sculpture. Chivalry isn't dead; it's just very, very cold. Caught on video for the permanent record.
Feb 12, 2026 · Colebrookdale Railroad · Boyertown, PA
Her First Train
Carolina had never been on a train in her life, so for her birthday Nicholas booked a two-hour dinner ride on the Colebrookdale Railroad. Dinner, the countryside rolling past, and a first she'll never forget. He'd like you to know there was a coupon involved. There wasn't. He's just keeping the brand consistent.
Feb 12, 2026 · Colebrookdale Railroad · Boyertown, PA
The Lactaid Run
Nicholas is violently lactose intolerant and forgot his Lactaid, which meant a frantic sprint back to the parking lot before the train departed. He barely made it — not because the train was fast, but because Nicholas runs the way an anime character runs, if the animation studio had lost funding. The video speaks for itself. Carolina filmed instead of helping, a decision we support.
Mar 4, 2026 · JoshWay
Giving Back
Volunteering with JoshWay, teaching kids to use technology — the internet and AI included — well and responsibly. One of us builds software for a living. The other one is better with the kids. We won't say which.
Mar 7, 2026 · Bethlehem, PA
The Cay-Galgon Gala
Nicholas found the Cay-Galgon Life House through our parish's Christmas collections, reached out to their executive director Paula Albanese, and their program has since become a feeder into the affordable housing he provides. We came to their annual gala with friends and coworkers, spending the evening with mothers who came through the program, plus the donors and board members. The one card on this timeline where Nicholas being unable to mind his own business worked out for everyone.
Mar 14, 2026 · Allentown, PA
Vivaldi by Candlelight
A candlelit Vivaldi string quartet in a converted bank on Hamilton Street. The Four Seasons, performed beautifully, accompanied by our signature drink: half Sprite, quarter orange juice, quarter cranberry. The bartenders hate making it. We will never stop ordering it.
Mar 14, 2026 · Fountain Hill, PA
Lenten Favorites
During the Lenten fast we fell hard for Yianni's Taverna on Route 378 into Bethlehem, whose Greek menu made fasting season taste suspiciously like a reward. We're fairly sure that's not the theological point of fasting. We kept going anyway.
Mar 20, 2026 · Treasures of Russia
Store Duty
Fresh from a pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, Nicholas restocked the church store, Treasures of Russia. Carolina priced every item and made the displays actually presentable — a skill Nicholas lacks so completely that the before-and-after photos could be used in court.
May 25, 2026 · Philadelphia, PA
A Civics Lesson
Carolina claims to be an American. Born here. Raised here. Passport and everything. And yet, as this video documents for all of history, Nicholas found himself standing in Philadelphia explaining what Independence Hall was. We are not naming names. The video names names.
May 25, 2026 · Dorney Park · Allentown, PA
The Meal-Plan Economics
Season passes to Dorney Park plus the discounted all-you-can-eat meal plan: $124 per person, $248 total, four months of unlimited lunches and dinners. Nicholas ran the math out loud, repeatedly, to anyone within earshot: meals at $15-20 each, two people, several visits a week — an investment that paid enormous dividends. Including, he admits, on the scale. This card is his Sistine Chapel.
May 29, 2026 · Dorney Park · Allentown, PA
Kid Rides with Friends
Back at Dorney with friends, riding the kids' rides — by choice, as adults, with no children present — and pausing just long enough for this photo. The meal plan was consulted twice during this visit.
Jun 1, 2026 · Wilmington, DE & Longwood Gardens
The Birthday Trip
For Nicholas's 26th, Carolina planned the full Wilmington production: Dorney Park first (where she took a few too many Dramamine and slept the entire drive to vespers — a birthday gift to the car's silence), a night in Wilmington, dinner somewhere fancy, Divine Liturgy the next morning, a walk through the Nemours Estate, a night in Kennett Square, and dinner at 1906 inside Longwood Gardens — where Carolina met Darren Criss from Glee and was so enchanted that Nicholas briefly considered learning to sing.
Jun 13, 2026 · Youngsville, PA
First Time on Horseback
Carolina's first ride ever: an hour and a half trotting through farmland and across creeks on genuinely beautiful horses. She was a natural. Nicholas's horse filed a complaint.
Jun 13, 2026 · Youngsville, PA
Every Cute Creature
After the ride: photos with the horses and every other cute creature we crossed paths with. And one cat who did not consent but was photographed anyway.
Jun 28, 2026 · Coca-Cola Park · Allentown, PA
Brothers at the Ballpark
After a joyful Divine Liturgy, an IronPigs game with Carolina's brothers, Cristhian and Anthony. Easy, happy, family time — and the brothers' formal review of Nicholas came back mostly favorable, pending further ballpark visits.
Jul 5, 2026 · Hawk Mountain, PA
"Let's Go Hiking!"
Carolina had a whole date planned for after church. Nicholas, a man with a secret in his pocket, cut in with "Let's skip that — let's go hiking!" She was, quote, a little put out — she'd been excited about her plan — but she agreed. He took her up Hawk Mountain, all the way to the summit lookout. It was her first time scrambling up boulders and it wiped her out completely, which is exactly what you want in the person you're about to propose to: too tired to run. Then the lookout emptied, the whole valley spread out below them, and Nicholas got down on one knee.
Jul 5, 2026 · Hawk Mountain, PA
She Said Yes
"Carolina Giselle Lopez, in the presence of God and all His Creation, will you marry me?" She thought it was a joke — Nicholas had cried wolf about proposing before, because of course he had. Then she saw the ring. Then she saw him start to cry, and her eyes filled up too. "Yes, honey, of course!" They stood there holding each other for a solid two minutes over that view. The mountain kept the secret the whole hike up. So did his pocket.
Jul 9, 2026 · Milwaukee, WI
The Detour
Newly engaged for four days, mid-business-trip, and about an hour before boarding, we made the extremely romantic decision to fly on to Milwaukee for AAMP — the meat-industry convention. Some couples honeymoon in Paris. We toured sausage equipment. She stayed anyway. That's how you know.
Jul 9, 2026 · Milwaukee, WI
New Friends at the Mixer
The convention mixer: good food, new friends, and a fiancée who turned out to be a far better networker than the actual salesman she was engaged to. Several business cards were exchanged. Most of them by her.
Jul 10, 2026 · Mitchell Park Domes · Milwaukee, WI
Three Worlds Under Glass
The Mitchell Park Domes — tropical, desert, and the show dome, three complete worlds under glass. Carolina loved all three. Nicholas priced the admission against Longwood and declared it a value.
Jul 10, 2026 · Milwaukee, WI
Cheesehead Certified
Trip complete: guacamole and chips at the gate, trinkets for the people we love, and — obviously, mandatorily — the famous cheesehead hat. It was not purchased. It was tried on, photographed, and returned to the shelf. The system works.
Jul 11, 2026 · A Friend's Wedding
A Preview of Coming Attractions
Celebrating at the wedding of one of our tenants — attending purely for love and friendship, and absolutely not taking detailed vendor notes, timing the ceremony, or evaluating the per-plate economics of the reception. (He was. She caught him. Twice.)