So on Friday, July 20th at 2 a.m., my husband woke me up and told me that I had two hours to get myself showered a ready to go somewhere. He had a dress picked out for me, he packed the diaper bag and patiently avoided all of my questions about where, how long, clothes, baby necessities, babysitters, etc. The girls were already staying the night at Vicki's and all he told me was that the baby would be with us and not to worry about leaving him. So I did what he said and we headed out to the car at 4 a.m. When he opened the back, I saw that he had hidden two suitcases in the back, packed and ready. I was so excited and confused!
Once we got on the road, David handed me a bag and told me to open it. He had bought me three really cute belts to spruce up my outfits--belts that we had actually looked at together on Pinterest randomly and he had found on his own at the mall. Wow, I'm a lucky woman. He let me know then that this was the beginning of the biggest birthday present for me yet.
(Edison was perfect on the plane.)
At the airport, there was a huge line, which we didn't expect! We were afraid we wouldn't make our flight, to where I still did not know. Once we showed our boarding pass at security, I saw that we were going to....DENVER. Hm. I asked a few sassy questions like, "Are we staying at your brother's? Maybe in Kate's room?" to which he'd answer, "I just missed my brother so much" and "I think Kate's room at least has a lock on it" and my favorite, "I really wanted to take you to a Rockies' game."
When we arrived in Denver, we had a lovely breakfast at the airport, which confirmed my suspicion that we were in fact catching another flight. We saw the horrible news about the shooting in the movie theatre the night before. After breakfast, we headed to our next gate which told me where we were going in bright red letters, "ATLANTA." YES!
I put two and two together and realized that this was the weekend of his ten year anniversary, which he used as a good excuse to take me back to our "roots" and spoil me all weekend long for my 30th birthday. Love this man.
The last time both of us were back in Atlanta was just after we were married, in 2006.
I kept asking things like, "Did you bring Edison's church clothes? What about my prenatals?" etc, and he literally thought of EVERYTHING. I was amazed at how well he packed for me and the baby. He said that he watched what I wore and what things I used for a few weeks and took notes, which he showed me. Everything was so thought out and well-planned. He put so much effort into this surprise.
We headed to the city and he surprised me with tickets to "Bodies: The Exhibition" which I have wanted to see every since they were in SLC years ago, but we couldn't afford to go! It was amazing. (David still insists on carrying Edison anytime we have him in the wrap. And he said he wanted to see me in my dress, which he bought me for our anniversary this year).
Notice the new mango belt, courtesy of David. This was my first time at H&M. I know, I'm behind the times.
That evening we had dinner at one of his family's favorite restaurants, Dante's Down the Hatch. It's a fondue restaurant that was delicious and they even had a crocodile inside. Hazel would have loved it.
The king and queen.
We stayed at the Pett's house, a family that hosted games for the youth in our stake growing up. Basically where David and I fell in love! (It was in their living room that I first asked HIM for his phone number when we were fifteen and fourteen.) Their son, Scott and his wife Darcy were our hosts. It was so nice to catch up with such an awesome couple and get to know their little girl, Addie.
And then, the best day ever. David knows that if I could do one thing on my birthday, it would be a trip to an awesome amusement park. So he took me to Six Flags. And, he bought this thing called a Flash Pass that allowed us to literally RUN from ride to ride with no wait. We hit every big roller coaster in the entire park, twice. We got to go on our favorite one, the Goliath, four times.
This was the Goliath that was so unbelievably fast. At one point, it does this really fast turn after a loop and it presses down on your body so it's difficult to keep your head up. On our first time, right after that turn David said, "I just blacked out!" He has a history of passing out an inconvenient times (in high school when he was in charge of the blood drive, at the temple kneeling across from an elderly woman), so I was so worried, but I was also laughing so hard, I almost peed my pants. On the third go, we both almost passed out and had to hold hands. The best.
Glad we're young enough to still do this.
I hope I never get too old or fat to enjoy a good roller coaster.
Ahhh, when I am back home, washing the same dishes for the hundreth time and doing laundry and life seems boring, I'm going to remember this day.
After we had our fill, we headed back to Scott and Darcy's who had kindly taken care of Edison for us. We quickly showered and got ready to go to David's ten year high school reunion, which I was looking forward to because I had met a lot of his good friends when we dated.
And here they are: the game night group. They couldn't believe we had four kids.
On Sunday we attended David's ward where we saw several families that meant a lot to us. I had the chance to slip away that evening and head out to Marietta where my best friend from elementary school (this is back in California) now lives with her husband and four kids! She had just had her fourth baby two days before, so I got to meet her tiny little daughter. So good to see Jenny and strange that she lives in Georgia now when it was so hard to say goodbye to her when my family moved there from Cali, 19 years ago.
It felt so good to sleep in! I was still waking up to feed Edison of course, but there were no wild toddlers and preschoolers demanding our attention at 6:30 am! On Monday morning we headed to the best place to get a decent waffle in the south... the Waffle House.
Then Scott and Darcy joined us at the largest aquarium in the world (so they say), the Georgia Aquarium. And this was the first time I wished the girls were with us. It was just amazing.
Scott with Addie.
The sawtooth. I love these!
I love how Addie called Edison "Medicine"
After saying goodbye to our friends, we headed off to a fancy hotel for our last night in the city.
Olympic Park
I couldn't believe we were staying in the Omni! Not only is it an incredible hotel with the CNN center inside, but it's also the hotel my dad took me to the only time he came to Atlanta, for a business trip. I still remember the glass elevators.
Our view from our beautiful room.
That evening we went swimming on the roof and did a two hour "family planning" session where we discussed which sports, instruments, involvement we want to introduce to our children (something we've wanted to sit down and talk about for a long time). There was an older woman there with her grandson and at one point she chimed in with some advice about the importance of music. I loved the whole experience. What a good husband I have.
Plane ride home.
We kept saying all weekend, "Wow! It's so nice to be here without kids!"
and Scott and Darcy would remind us that we still have Edison. And we would then explain to them that going from four to one is just like being by ourselves.
Thank you thank you to the best man.
I'll never forget my 30th and this amazing trip with you.
