Paths Cross Again
A decade later, Olivia got a job in New York where Sean happened to be living. She reached out to Sean and couldn’t wait to reconnect, remembering how much they had in common. Olivia and Sean started messaging, and when she moved there, they started meeting up and exploring the city together.
Sean fell in love with how much Olivia cared for other people, he knew how special that made her, and part of him knew immediately that this relationship was different. After-work dates in Manhattan followed, with fun Greek restaurants and carafes of wine, and a trip to Coney Island for time on the beach and a baseball game. Along an amazing walk through the botanical gardens, at Wave Hill along the Hudson River, Sean asked Olivia to make it official. Olivia was thrilled and couldn’t wait for more time with Sean, drawn to his adventurous spirit, calming presence and sense of humor.
Falling in Love
Two months after it became official, Sean and Olivia lived 2,500 miles apart, doing an involuntary long-distance relationship thanks to the pandemic.
After shelter-in-place, they met at Mesa Falls in Idaho, both worried that the distance, the pandemic, that all of it might just have been too much to keep such a good thing going. It didn’t take many miles on their road trip see they shouldn't have been worried.
Gross COVID Beard
Throughout the pandemic, they spent their nights listening to the radio, playing cards, cooking meals together, watching shows, and spending every second of every day together. In the make or break time for so many relationships that was 2020, Sean and Olivia were a resounding make.
What started with bougie urban dates shifted into hiking, biking, and of course, skiing. They met each other's families, and Sean got to see the farm and experience the Weitz family’s love of food and wine, while Olivia visited Sean’s family at Christmas and loved getting to do winter outdoor activities and travelling with the McSpaddens.
The Ring
In Phillipsburg, Montana, Rock Creek is famous for a gem unique to the state—the Montana Sapphire. Over the fourth of July, they spent a long weekend camping nearby, going to town, enjoying the live music at the brewery, and of course, hunting for their perfect gem.
​
At the last gem seller in town, they found the one that perfectly symbolized their love for each other. Olivia wanted a ring that reflected their time together. While their situation changed with each new town and curve ball thrown their way—from long distance, to cities, to rural towns, from pandemic lifestyle, to job offers, to Burning Man—their love adapted to each moment and became all the stronger for it.
In direct sunlight, it was a striking ocean blue sapphire. Indoors, it changed colors to a seafoam green. Like their relationship, it could adapt and change, yet it never wavered in its preciousness and its beauty.
The Proposal
Olivia spent many of her summers at the Pentz family reunions at Signal Mountain Lodge in Grand Teton National Park. Sean visited Grand Teton National Park frequently as a kid.
Along the beach of Colter Bay, Olivia said I Love You for the first time. Sean said it right back.
So when it came to proposing, Sean knew where it had to be. Olivia got them tickets to the Blue Grass Festival in Driggs, so it was the perfect cover for Sean to pop the question. He dropped hints for months that they should travel through both national parks on the way over.
While packing, Sean would wait for Olivia to leave the bedroom. Then he secretly stowed away her fancy clothing, nice shoes, a steamer—the works—ready to surprise her with an overnight stay at Jackson Lodge.
Sean wanted the proposal to be special, and the road trip made it a bit more complex. Using a backpack cooler and a secret compartment in his car, he set to work assembling, storing and hiding a charcuterie board along with a bottle of champagne.
Once they got to Colter Bay, Sean asked Olivia to go for a walk. There were a lot of people. Too many people. So they kept walking and Sean got very nervous and stopped talking and Olivia was maybe getting a bit suspicious. After a long bend of the beach, they found a section where the lake opened up into a prairie, and where a large log sat with the perfect view of Mt. Moran and the Grand Teton. Sean got on one knee, blacked out, said something that he hoped sounded very romantic, and proposed.
She said yes!
