LINDSEY AND SEAN ARE ENGAGED!!!

We are so happy to announce the engagement of Sean to Lindsey Howell!!  We couldn't be happier and we LOVE both of them!!  

The idea for the proposal was totally the brain child of Sean.  He had actually thought of this idea over one year ago.  He has known Lindsey for 7 years now.  They know each other well and have been good friends for a long time!  They met as sophomores at a football game while attending  Weber High School and continued to be friends while he was on his mission in Australia and she was going to school and living in China.   They also  wrote several letters back and forth during that time. I can still remember Sean coming home from that football game and talking about Lindsey.  Sean was Lindsey's first date just one week after she turned 16 and Lindsey was Sean's first date after he returned from his mission.  I have known for a long time that Lindsey has been in Sean's heart.  He has always spoken very highly of her and we have all loved her since high school days.  

Over one year ago, Sean and Lindsey were on a date while at school at BYUI and they were watching Lindsey's favorite movie  "Run Away Bride."  The opening scene of the movie is Julia Robert's riding on a horse through a field while the sound track is playing U2's "I still haven't found what I am looking for."  Lindsey told Sean at that time that she loves that scene and that one day she really wanted to ride through a field on a horse listening to that song.  I  also remember for her 21st birthday he gave her 21 yellow roses because of a reference to yellow roses in that movie.  Several months ago before Sean and Lindsey were "Sean and Lindsey", Sean had told Megan that if he ever proposed to Lindsey he knew his plan. Well after much thought and preparation we had a front row seat on Friday night to the big event.  

On Friday night at 2:30 p.m. Sean picked up the ring.  He had ordered it about 3 weeks earlier and was very anxious to have it come.  As you can see, it is a beautiful ring with one round diamond surrounded by a halo of diamonds in a square shape.  There are diamonds on both sides of the band.  It is beautiful!!

Sean's plan for the engagement was not an easy one to pull off.  He had the perfect idea in his mind how it was going to go.  Since the year previous Lindsey had told Sean that sometime in her life she wanted to ride through a field on a horse listening to the song "I still haven't found what I am looking for" he has had this idea in his mind. 

 I have copied the first part of the song here....

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

From that one comment, Sean knew what he wanted to do.  So, here is where it became complicated.  1.  Where to get horses  2.  How to involve horses in the plan.  For example would they get scared if all of a sudden music started playing loudly...would they bolt?   3.  Where to find horses AND land to ride. 4.  How to get a loud sound system on a mountain side 5.  How to surprise Lindsey and get her onto a horse.  6.  What to do with the horses once they get off and Sean goes to one knee to propose.  The list could continue.  But there was no stopping Sean.  We have some neighbors that have horses.  I gave them a call for Sean and was told that the name of theirs horses were something like Lightning Bolt and Maverick and they no longer let anyone ride them because of their wild nature.  I knew that my good friend Tonya Jones had some close relatives that also have horses.  I called Tonya to ask her and was told that they only have show horses and are worth over $100,000 they are only horses for show...not for riding.  She told me of someone else she knew of that owned horses. A few years Tonya was involved as a judge in the "Miss Rodeo Utah" contest with Kristy Davis.  Kristy and her husband Rick live in Pleasant View.  Tonya gave me Kristy's number and told me they were super nice people.  Unfortunately their number had changed but thanks to Tim, he tracked it down for me.  I called and Rick answered the phone.  He was super nice!!  Without the slightest hesitation he said they had two very gentle horses (they actually own five) and they had a lot of land and they would be happy to help and Rick gave me his cell phone number so that Sean could call and make arrangements.  HALLELUJAH!!  I told Sean and passed Rick's number on to him.  That took place about one month before the actual night!  In the meantime, figuring out the music was a problem. Sean was trying to figure out how to get a sound system in the mountains.  Mike Leger had a fabulous idea to get a truck that could go off road and that had a loud sound system.  The ring was expected to come on September 4th.  However the jeweler called and told Sean that the ring wouldn't be ready until September 7th.  He told Lindsey that the ring wouldn't be coming until sometime after September 9th so he was starting to get stressed because he  wanted the element of surprise for the actual engagement! As soon as he got the date of September 7th, he called to confirm with Rick Davis and asked if he could go up and check out the horses and land.  He arranged with Rick to go up on Thursday night the 6th. Sean, Tim and I and Joe who is a friend from our YSA ward and has a truck met up at the Davis home.  We all spent about 2 hours on Thursday night mapping out the horses and music etc...  Sean rode with their son Stran up into the mountain to find and figure out what to do.  Sean was wanting more time to figure things out and have the engagement on Saturday night.  However, Friday night was when Rick was able to help.  So late Thursday night, it was determined that Friday night was it.  We were all to meet again with Rick around 4:30 pm on Friday to set things up and then Sean would be bringing Lindsey up around 6:30 pm.  

When we meet at 4:30 pm, Sean had found the perfect spot with a field going up to the mountain where they could approach and then hear the music and look up and see a sign (see below).  Joe pulled his truck off road to this spot below.  That's where we found this perfect fence to put up this sign.  We had to do a sound check several times to make sure the music was PERFECT.  Sean hiked up the mountain found the perfect spot and placed a table and a rose on it for the actually place to propose.  As I watched him I couldn't tell what he was doing.  I found out later he was making sure there wasn't any "cow/horse droppings" around the site so not to distract from the mood  :).  He wasn't leaving anything undone.  He arranged with Joe and Megan and Tayleur (a friend of Megan's) to be waiting at the truck and they had sleeping bags that looked like horse type blankets covering the sign so not to spoil the surprise until the perfect moment.  When they saw Sean and Lindsey starting to come up over the hill they were to start the music and unveil and sign.  Sean and Lindsey would continue to ride onto a spot where Stran was waiting very dignified with cowboy hat and all and he would hold the horses while Sean and Lindsey walked so they could be alone at the appointed spot with the table and rose.  Sean had also called Lindsey's dad Brad earlier in the day to let them know what was happening.  They had had plans to attend their son Jacob's soccer game in Provo, but changed their plans to be there when Lindsey and Sean returned on the horses after the engagement.  So here is how it went down...

Sean had asked Tim to leave his phone in Tim's car which Sean was driving.  Once Sean had picked up Lindsey we were to wait for 15 minutes and then text Sean and tell him that Tim had left his phone in his car and we needed him to bring it to Tim at the Davis home.  Sean explained to Lindsey that the Davis family were close family friends and we were with them.  The ironic thing is that we had never met these people before Thursday night and yet by Friday night I felt like they were good family friends and we were hugging each other by the end of it all. 

When Sean and Lindsey got there, Tim and I were sitting on the horses and I told Lindsey that they just had to go on a short ride on the trail because it was so beautiful and I wanted them to see it.  She was slightly hesitant since she hadn't been on a horse since she was 12.  I told her how gentle the horses were.  She so trustingly got on the horses and Rick gave them a quick tutorial on riding horses as they walked down their driveway and headed up the trail.  They rode up over the hill and into the meadow where Sean had planned to break the surprise.  As they got closer to the banner and truck with the music at the ready, Joe, Megan and Tayleur lifted off the "horse blankets" from the sign to reveal the message and cued the music.  Lindsey was very pleasantly surprised and hadn't anticipated the proposal happening just as Sean had hoped.  The unveiling of the surprised was just as Sean had envisioned.  As they were fulfilling Lindsey's dream to ride through a field to that song, they arrived where Stran was waiting to take the horses and Sean helped Lindsey off the horse and they walked hand in hand to the spot where the rose was waiting.  He got down on one knee and after 7 years of waiting they fulfilled their dream of finding what they had been looking for.  

The sign :)

After the actual proposal, Megan walked up to where they were and she took these pictures!

I love how the horses seem to be giving them their privacy :)

Returning down the mountain to their parents waiting to congratulate them

This is what we saw as they were returning.  I love how they are just looking at each other going into their future :)

Lindsey posing as everyone is looking at her ring

The happy couple

Quick Photo Shoot

Sean and Lindsey with her parents Lori and Brad Howell.  They are fabulous people and we are so happy for our two families to join together.  The Howell's have four children.  Their oldest child is Stephanie who is married to Max and and they are living in Philadelphia, PA where Max is attending school at Wharton.  Lindsey is next in the family and then comes Bryson who is serving a mission in Houston, Texas Spanish speaking.  Then Jacob is a junior at Weber High school and is a fabulous soccer player. I'm sure Lindsey's siblings wished they could be there as well.   Sean is extremely excited and blessed to marry into this wonderful family.  We are extremely excited too.

  As we have told people. Lindsey is not only the girl of Sean's dreams, she is also the girls of our dreams too.

Sean, Lindsey, Margie & Tim

Megan also loves Lindsey and already feels like she is a sister!

Megan and Sean have always been there to help each other!

We wish Melissa and Adam and Hannah & Paige could have been there too, but Melissa was well informed on the events happening and we Skyped on Friday afternoon.  She was just as excited as the rest of us and was anxious to see the ring.  After telling Hannah that Sean and Lindsey were engaged, Hannah rode around on her bike yelling...Sean and Lindsey are gaged!

Just before we left, the sun started to set.  It was such a happy night!  To top off the evening...Rick Davis walked over and took one of the horseshoes off of the horse that Lindsey rode.  He presented it to Sean and Lindsey and wished them good luck.  It was the perfect ending of a perfect engagement.  So romantic!!