Well, my hubby finally turned the BIG 25.....I have been super excited for this birthday for him and have planned for the special day for months! Unfortunately I forget the military doesn't care about plans :) Things worked out okay, but it was a little touch and go for a bit......
Andy had said he would be home around 2pm on Monday (the day before his birthday), so I told him I would be home at 4ish and we could just hang out. I was really done with work at 2, but needed the time to run birthday errands. I went from work to Safeway to pick up the fly-fishing designed cake I had ordered and then to Peterson AF Base to get wrapping paper and lastly to the resort(
http://www.cheyennemountain.com/) Thanks to my brother James who works for a Benchmark Hospitality hotel in VA, I can get employee rate rooms at fancy resorts all over the
US. I went and dropped off all our luggage and got the room all set. After all that, I called Andy to see if he was home.....not only was he NOT home, but he wasn't sure he would be home before 9!!!! Inside I was freaking out, but I tried to act like it wasn't a big deal. I ran home and wrapped his presents and then picked up some champagne to chill in the mini room frig and went back to the resort again.
6:30pm rolled around and Andy still wasn't sure when he would get home and to make things even better, he said if he came home before 9, he would have several hours of work left to do at home. (I was NOT loving the AF at this moment!!!) I decided to start making dinner and just wait it out. Andy got home around 7:30, completely wiped out and stressed. A few minutes later I took off to drop off cookies at Colorado College, for something with our church. When I came home, Andy was only at the beginning of his work for the evening!!!! I literally had visions of us staying at our house and not getting over to the hotel, even though I had already set-up the hotel room! After eating dinner and trying to remain calm that time was slipping away, Andy suddenly got frustrated with working on the floor (we literally have the laptop on the floor of our living room) and wanted to move to the desk upstairs. I took that opportunity to "kidnap" him. I told him to
wrap up the computer and that we were going to have a change of venue. Once we got into the car, I put a hat over his eyes and then wrapped a big scarf around as well. Andy spent the whole drive trying to see if he could figure out where I was taking him by paying attention to the turns I took. (such a smarty pants :) )
When we got to the resort I kept Andy blindfolded and in the process, found out that Andy had never been "blinded" and led around by some else!!! (I grew up doing it at every summer camp and church "trust-building" event and thought everyone had "experienced" it) When I finally took off the blindfold, he was shocked!!! We walked around the grounds of the resort and then had a drink in the
pub and watched a little Monday night football. I was hoping for Andy to ignore his work, but nope. He is dedicated!
We finally fell asleep close to midnight when Andy finished his work. Unfortunately for Andy, we had this giant king size bed and I spent the whole night coughing in his ear! Neither one of us got much sleep because of my coughing and then at 5:15am the alarm started going off!!!! What does my wonderful husband want to do on the morning of his birthday (when he doesn't have to go to work?????) He goes to a 5:40am SPIN CLASS!!!! I stayed in bed and drifted in and out of sleep between my coughing fits. He came back all sweaty and happy around 6:45am and woke me up. After a quick shower for him, we went to breakfast. Andy was such a happy camper because he got a huge omelet, fresh fruit, bacon etc.... At the end of the meal, they brought him a piece of pecan pie....Pie for breakfast! What could be better!?!?! :) We went back to the room so Andy could do a little more work and
pack up a bit. Instead Andy fell asleep and took a little birthday nap. (Can you blame him, by 9am he had already been up for hours!)
While Andy slept, I sat out on our deck and read the paper waiting for Enterprise-Rent-a-car to call me back. Over 2 months ago I had reserved a Cadillac for him for the day! I always joke with him that when he makes General we will get him a Cadillac (that is all you see the Generals on base driving) I had been very explicit that I wanted ONLY a Cadillac and regularly called to make sure everything was set with the reservation. I had called them at 12:30 on Monday to confirm my 7:30am pick-up for the following morning. Because Andy got up earlier than I expected, I decided to pick up the car after breakfast. On the way in to breakfast I even called and told them I would be a little later than planned. At the end of breakfast they had called back and said "We are so sorry, but we don't have your Cadillac and aren't sure when we will get it" I was LIVID !!!!!! I wanted someones head to ROLL! I spent all morning calling back and forth, being told I could have a Pontiac (like that even compares) and that they were just SO sorry for screwing up!!!!!!! When I finally realized they were not going to come through with the car, I started crying and told Andy what I had tried to do for him. He of course, just loved that I had thought it and had such a good attitude about it.
Around 11am we packed up the car and headed to Canon City for Andy to spend several hours fly-fishing! I had already brought everything he would need the day before when I had checked in to the resort. From about 12ish to almost 5pm Andy was out on the Arkansa river, loving life, completely alone in nature. I sat in the car and read and took a nap, which actually was a nice break for me.
We raced home to shower and change for dinner. What Andy didn't know was that I had planned a surprise party for him at the restaurant. In the morning though, he suddenly wanted to try a place in town that we had been talking about. I totally lied and said I would make the reservations.....I told him I made them for 6:30pm knowing that would give us enough time to get up to the other place (it is very North of the Springs) I wore the same outfit I did last year because not only is this Andy's birthday, but also our 1 year anniversary of when we got engaged!!!!! I drove and Andy got birthday calls...about 1/2 mile after we passed the exit for the place Andy thought we were going to, he piped up telling me that I had missed the turn. I told him that I knew and had another surprise for him first and that I had changed the reservations for 7:30 (lying for the sake of a birthday surprise....I am trouble!) When we got off the exit, I thought Andy would begin to suspect something, so I said "Just so you know, we aren't going to O'Malleys" He then said "I know, because O'Malley's is in the other direction"!!!! I planned a surprise party I didn't know how to get to!!!!! (we had been there once before, and I thought I would remember the way, but didn't :) So I created another story line and pretended that the place I wanted to go to gave me wrong directions. We finally got to O'Malley's and when we got out I created yet another story (again I was so bad about the lying :) that I had dropped off something there the night before and wanted to pick it up and bring it to the other place instead. Amazingly, Andy says at this point he is still BELIEVING me....I was not even believing me!!! As went to walk in, he saw through the window all his friends and suddenly realized what was going on!
It was a great party. We had about 17 people, I brought Oatmeal Scotties for everyone (Andy's favorite) and the fly-fishing cake and for dinner everyone got to grill their own meat! It was a total low-key pub and a great night of hanging out celebrating Andy! It was also an amazing testimony and blessing to Andy and I about how fast the Lord had given us such great friends here in the Springs. (another thing I learned about Andy....he had never had a surprise party! or even a planned party with that many people!) Around 9:30, the party wrapped up and we headed home. At home as the last hurrah to the day, we had champagne and Andy opened his last gift.....All day he had been eating Oatmeal Scotties and opening presents.
In the end, even though Andy did some work on his birthday and the Cadillac didn't work out, it was a pretty spectacular birthday and Andy was a happy camper!
I love you Hun!!!! You deserved every bit of the day and I look forward to many more Birthdays and celebrating you!!!!
So Andy and I went shopping on "Black Friday" in Casper, Wyoming where his Mom lives. He had gotten birthday money from his grandparents that was burning a hole in his pocket and the fishing store was calling his name. While the rest of the family went to a Museum we ran over to the "Ugly Bug" Fly-fishing store.....(more on fly-fishing and the many things I have learned, in a upcoming blog) After Andy got a new net, we went over to this Ranching store to look at cowboy boots for him.....Whew, was that a learning experience!!!! I didn't realize that you could buy bareback riding equipment, children's spurs and hot pink leg protectors for horses all in one place!
