The Proposal

A few different people said I should write down how David proposed so I wouldn't forget, so I figured this would be easiest. So here it goes!


For about a week before David proposed, I knew something was up because he would disappear for hours at a time and he was always texting my mom but he wouldn't let me read any of them. He said it was all for my Christmas present, but I didn't believe that one Christmas present would take up that much planning. I had an idea of what was going to happen, but I went along with what he was saying on the off chance that he really wasn't planning on proposing. It was also David's turn to plan the date that week so he said part of it was for that.

The date was on Saturday. He had to work in the morning and I had some homework I had to do on campus. We both got done around noon so he came and picked me up from campus and gave me a ride back to my apartment. I was glad the date didn't start for another 3 hours because I had some time to get myself all dolled up! When he finally made it to my apartment (about 30 minutes late...) he seemed so flustered! I asked him if I needed to wear anything specific and he just said to wear whatever I had on so we could get going! He told me later that he was so nervous that he just wanted to get it done.

We went up to the Snow building and got our instruments out to play some hymns together. It was really nice just being able to play with each other and have some fun. About 45 minutes into our duet playing time, David's friend Kellen came in and handed an envelope to me. He said "Have fun love-birds!" and left. David told me to open the envelope so I did and there was a clue inside. It was a word scramble the led me to the photo lab (I'm a photo major). So we packed up our instruments and started heading over to the photo lab. While walking, David made me slow my pace way down saying that we should enjoy the moment (really he was just trying to give Kellen more time to set everything up!) When we got to the photo lab, there was a mixing bowl there with another clue. The second clue read "Vincent and Pablo would feel right at home in this gallery." So we headed over to the art museum in the Spori building and found another clue attached to a bag of chocolate chips. I was a little nervous at this point that it was just going to be a regular date where we would get to the end and just make cookies or something, but I wanted to make the best I could out of it! The next clue said "Bagels anyone? Try the 3rd floor instead." This was because David and I would sometimes stop in the Manwaring Center after our religion class to get some breakfest. So we went there and there was the card game of Phase 10. I honestly thought at this point that it was going to be just a regular date (but still fun!) so David did trick me there.

The clue that we found in the MC said this "The doctrines here can help you Taylor your life for good." We had a religion class together that was in the Taylor building, so we headed over there next. When we got there, the clue was stuck in the window in the door of our classroom. There wasn't a prize there, but there was another clue! This one read "Let it Snow (on four chairs in the hallway)." I was so confused by this clue. I knew it was leading us back to the Snow building (where we started everything out) but I had no idea what chairs he was talking about. I kept asking David what chairs it was and he kept saying things like "I don't know! We'll have to find out!" I was getting frustrated because the whole way down the hill I was trying to figure it out. We made it to the Snow and started wandering around. I looked in a bunch of different places, but I figured out it was the chairs by the lockers where everyone keeps their instruments. When we got down there I saw a bunch of our friends sitting in chairs and on the table was a vase with beautiful flowers in it! I wasn't expecting that at all and was pleasantly surprised and the people sitting there were all smiling and looking very happy for us. David said that that was the point at which he wanted to make the switch into more serious thinking. The clue with the flowers read "Vroom vroom on loan." meaning the car that my parents were letting us use.

We headed out to the car (my awesome Ford Bronco!) and found the next clue which said "Holes. Greens. Birdie." I knew it was leading out to the golf course by my parents house. At this point I was starting to realize that David was going to propose and was getting a little bit nervous...but very excited! After David had helped me get into my side, one of the people that were sitting in the chairs came running out of the building and flagged David before he got in the car. David talked to her for a few minutes and then he got in the car. When he got in he turned to me and said "Are you hungry? Do you want to go get some food?" I was thinking, can't we finish this off and get some food after? So I asked him "Right now? You want to get some right now?" And David just said "Yeah, I'm so hungry right now!" I didn't want him to starve so I agreed and we went to Arby's (David's favorite place to go out to eat) and sat in the drive-thru for about 10 minutes. While we were sitting there we were having a lot of fun talking and laughing, but every once in awhile David would start texting people. I thought this was weird and that was another clue for me that something was up.

What happened was David's friend Kellen who was helping him get everything set up was waiting at the last place to take pictures but his camera had run out of batteries. He was asking David if he wanted to wait till he could run down to the gas station and get some batteries, but David said he was too nervous and just wanted to get it done with! So we went right out to the golf course.

When we got out there, it was just a bunch of wide open spaces. I asked David where the last clue was and he waved his arms over the whole area and said "You get to find it!" So I made him at least give me a general direction. We started walking and I saw Kellen standing out by a tree so I figured the last clue was out there. I started going but the snow got so deep that David ended up giving me a piggy back ride out to the tree (for some reason he had picked one far away from the parking lot!) When we got out there, there was a 3D puzzle of the Taj Mahal. I picked it up and there was a clue on top. I picked the whole thing up and was trying to figure out what the Taj Mahal was for. I opened the last clue and this is what it said "Take a look around. Surely there you will be looking down!"

I was a little confused and looked at David for an explanation. He was looking at me and said "Before I explain this last clue I want to explain the gift. I don't know if you know much about the Taj Mahal, but it was built by the emporer of India after his wife died. It's a great example of everlasting love. It's to represent the castle that I told you I would build for you. Now, these things are all things that we can only have in this life, but I want to represent something that will last for eternity." At this point he pulled a box out of his coat pocket, knelt down in the snow, opened the box and said "Abby, will you marry me?" I must admit that seeing the ring and him down on one knee and hearing those words I just started to tear up, but they were happy tears! I of course said yes and gave him a giant hug! We kissed and hugged for a minute and then David gave me a piggy back ride back to the car. Kellen was standing about 30 ft away the whole time and when we got over to him he told us congradulations and I was so happy to tell him that we were engaged! After that we went back to my parents house where only my mom was there and had fun calling all our families and being very happy ;) Later that night we went to a Christmas Concert put on by the Idaho Falls Symphony and enjoyed every minute of it!

It was a wonderful day and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of details, but here's a pretty good idea! I'm so excited to get married to my man on May 3rd and to be together forever!