Where Dreams Come True

HOLY COW.

This posting is kudos to N8. He has outdone himself in making sure I had a wonderful birthday this year...(granted the bar had been raised)...however! He made my day/weekend/month (let's not get overboard with adding 'year'). hah.

It all began with Gena's 30 days of 30. For the entire 30 days before my birthday, she organized that I receive a gift/card/email/phone call/ special delivery and whatnot to celebrate 30. It was a total shocker. It was during Bethany & DC's visit that it began. By the 3rd day, and 3rd gift, I was confused. At first, I thought, Oh...maybe because this is a 'milestone' people feel like sending something. And then I thought, well maybe they forgot my birthday was not until the 24th, but just decided to send it in March...and then Bethany, with a metaphorical thump on the head said, uh, Ange, are you noticing you're getting 1 gift a day? It seems to have started 30 days before your birthday. And I then, recognized by Polish moment.

So, then knowing I'd be receiving 27 more days of attention, I felt foolish until everyone told me to just enjoy it, and 30 happens but once. And so I did.

Day 30 arrives, N8's day. My actual birthday was not as enjoyable since N8 had to work late, but organized some friends to come over for cake. About 1 hour before their arrival and after about 5 ridiculous tantrums from Eri, I began cleaning for my party. Not fun. During the cake, I was discussing with our friends how I had learned that I needed to sign Eri up STAT with preschool, as the 'good ones' had already had their registration. Unnecessary stress, but it went on. When the day ended, it was nice to celebrate, but really, nothing special. The birthday card N8 had given me, had directions that I could not open the 2nd birthday card until he said so. Imagine my delight (sarcasm).

Days went by. A plan to drive to Colorado to visit our friends in from Denmark came to a screeching halt when N8 reluctantly gave some more details of my surprise. I was unavailable the weekend I intended.

This past Friday, we were awoken by one of N8's students around 6am. At first I thought it was an emergency, but it turned out all fine. In N8's sleep daze, he gave some more key phrases that told me the day had come. "I'm on leave"....no he wasn't! At last! He quickly got out of bed and handed me the card. His alarm was going to go off 13 minutes later and he was to give me the card then, so the surprise wasn't spoiled. The card said to pack for warm weather, my ride was arriving in 1-2 hours, he handed me a wad of cash and said go have fun and there would be more surprises to follow. My sleepy stupor kept me unsure of what to do. My many questions were answered with the same sentences that I had read in the card.

The many surprises consisted of our friend, Cheryl "my ride" really being my companion to my destination. She was able to get me upon the plane without knowing my destination and it was not until we landed and the flight attendant said "Welcome to Orlando, the current temp..." that I knew I was in the land of Mickey. Even the ticketing agents got the first class travellers to sing Happy Birthday. The TSA were even kind and playing along. Honestly, it was just that good of a day!

Cheryl stalled a bit upon arriving at the airport and I gathered there was more happenings at the airport. After we had food and walked around a bit, we went to baggage claim to be greeted by Sheila! Another surprise (I have no idea what number surprise I'm at by this point)! She came with chocolate in hand apologizing that I wouldn't be able to see my friend in Colorado but it had already been organized. I told her I'm sure Carina would understand and we went on with the rest of their plan. After hopping in a convertible, yep, that's right, the 2 gals surprised me with the next destination...day spa. Sheila had treated me to a day at the spa at the Woodhouse. Holy wonderful! After picking our special jasmine infused teas & settling into all white lush robes, we began our ultimate relaxation. The spa had even stayed open late for us and given me a birthday present of chocolates! We had achieved a state of ultimate calm and then moseyed our way over to this fabulous Mexican restaurant for a continued state of relaxation, induced by margaritas.

The surprise continued over dinner when they told me I was to pick the plan of Saturday. Impossible for me, as I was still trying to keep up with all that was going on. After much food & beverage, we had taken camp at Sheila's grandparents who were so kind to let us sleep in their very comfy condo. Bernie & Donna were so fun and allowed us to feel so at home. Donna made us breakfast in the morning while Cheryl & I took a walk with Bernie. And when I still couldn't decide on the festivities of the day, Cheryl encouraged the decision that she knew I wanted~ Disneyworld! We slowly made our way to the Magic Kingdom by afternoon and stayed until closing. We shopped! We really shopped....and we rode on the favored rides. Sheila had never been on the Pirates of the Caribbean and I was just dumbfounded- so that was first. After purchasing my tee of "I Love Jack" we continued to Thunder Mountain & PhilharMagic (a new totally cool 3D) and Space Mountain, of course, which was even cooler than I remembered, and a new interactive Laugh Floor featuring Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. Seriously- who ever goes there and can figure out how they do that show, I want to know!!! We watched parades, ate at Casey's & listened to the ragtime pianoman (who has been working there for 25 years!), had the famous churros & I even finally tried a big hunkin' turkey leg & stuffed ourselves with sweets at the bakery on Main St (no joke, I left Sheila & Cheryl for 15 minutes and they filled a tray more than I thought possible). We took pictures of everything, often taking the three of us with Cheryl holding the camera wayyyy far out. I was sure to have them take pictures of all of the "stroller parking" because it wasn't us. And of random people toting the kids around, because it wasn't us. It was just hilarious (Of course, upon arrival, we were getting all 'misty eyed' and myself especially because I was actually at Disney and we all were calling our husbands and saying it would be fun to return as a family & we needed to plan it STAT!). And by the end of the day, we were not tired, since that bakery on Main St. misunderstood our order of espresso, and we had 5 shots amongst the 3 of us. So, needless to say, our shopping from 11p-12a before the park closed went very efficiently.

Upon arriving at Sheila's grandparents by 130a, we were still too giddy (errr, high on caffeine) to go to bed and went over our purchases (Cheryl won). Our aspirations to wake early and shop en route to the airport came to a crashing end when we woke around 10a and decided to enjoy a casual breakfast with Bernie & Donna.

We drove back to the airport with the top down, one last time, and securing any last chances to get sun burnt (success on my shoulders). We had lunch in a terminal together and then parted ways with Sheila. And although Cheryl and I hit lots of race traffic and detours on our way home, we still had Chipotle & Starbucks to finish the evening, and we even brought some to go for the guys.

The kids were asleep when I came in, and Tucker was really excited to see me. N8's weekend with the kids was a busy one of strawberry picking, visiting the duck pond, playing on playgrounds, watching the jets take off, and playing with neighbors. The house was clean and the sleeping kids allowed me to share the details of my wonderful weekend with N8.

It was just so cool.
And I'm ready to go back soon! Next time, with the family.
But, getaway weekends are SO fun! I can't wait to do this again! hahaha

I was told not to bring my camera on this trip, so I am antsy waiting for the photos from Sheila & Cheryl's cameras. We were total clowns, so I'm sure there will be some goofy ones.

My birthday surprise was fabulous! My birthday month was fabulous! I love 30!
Hope you enjoyed the long-winded story.