SURPRISE

Today I surprised Dan by telling him we are leaving tomorrow morning to Hawaii for his birthday. I have always wanted to do something like this, and when the opportunity came, I just couldn't pass it up. Dan and I were planning on going to Hawaii about this time, but our friend who works for Delta said he wasn't able to get us buddy passes, so we decided we needed to postpone our trip. That is when I thought I would just double check to see if Kolo could work his magic and still get us buddy passes, and of course he said he could. So that is when I started planning.

The Plan:

It all came together the last week in Sept./first week in Oct. I was very careful who I told and when I told people because I didn't want to surprise spoiled. As far as I could tell he had no clue. I had emailed his boss to get work off for him, I made plans so I could have the time off too from my job. I called Dan's mom and made arrangements with her. It was all going to smooth. I even had so much fun asking what he wanted to do for his birthday, and telling him how bad I felt that I wasn't doing anything special for him. The hardest thing was the lack of sleep at the beginning. I would have dreams about the secret getting out. I even felt a little guilty having a secret. Yes it is a good one, but I tell Dan everything, and usually as it happens (poor guy) so holding this in for so long was killing me. It was perfect until Halloween Day.

The Spoiler:
Dan came to my work party (4 days before I was going to tell him) and one of the very few people who knew about the trip, asked us "so when are you going to Hawa.... oh haha I mean when are you... uuuuu.... going to your office?" yeah I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head as I just stared in disbelief. I hoped by some miracle Dan wasn't paying attention, but no luck. When we did go into my office, he said with a smile "so we are going to Hawaii for my birthday" I tried as best as I could to convince him that I was talking to the spoiler and another friend about surprising him in January when we could get tickets from Kolo. He didn't really buy it at first, but I have stuck to that story and told him several times over the past couple of days that I just feel horrible that his birthday is going to come and go and we aren't going to Hawaii. I think I had him pretty convinced, but the seed was still planted.

The Decorations:
During lunch today my friend Lea and I went home and decorated my house Hawaiian themed. It was so much fun. While decorating I could just imagine Dan's face as he walked through the door!

Lea Posing on my couch

The Let Down: Ok I realize this is suppose to be a happy post... it will get there, but not yet. So about 3 hours... 3 hours before Dan will be home and I can tell him the big surprise and see his excited face that he is going to Hawaii, knowing that we probably won't be back anytime soon, Dan's brother calls to tell Dan the he is getting married NEXT MONTH. Yes so all of this planning, hard work, and excitement gone. Of course it is great that his brother is getting married ( Congratulations Ben ) but couldn't he have waited 3 hours? Is it too much to ask to surprise my husband and have it be an exciting thing? Oh well we are going tomorrow and we are going together.

The Reveal:
All day I have been calling and texting Dan to make sure he wasn't leaving work early, I don't think I could handle him coming home and seeing everything decorated without me there. Luckily his boss came in towards the end of the day which kept him there until the end of the day. When he walked through the door he was in shock to say the least. Here is a short video of his reaction. It really isn't very exciting, but he is camera shy.

As soon as the camera was off, I burst into tears. Yes Tears. I just said that all I wanted was him to be excited, but I knew he wouldn't be because he would be heading back to Hawaii next month for Ben's wedding. The sweet husband that he is, Dan hugged me and explain how excited he is to be going to Hawaii with ME and that he is so lucky to have a wife that would plan a trip like this. That calmed me down and I was able to enjoy the next 15mins of him jumping around super excited and saying "what's going on" over and over (I wish I had that stuff on tape).

So we will be on our way tomorrow morning. Thank you to everyone who knew the secret and didn't say anything, to everyone who had to endure my daily updates and anxiety, and to Kolo for getting us the amazing deal on the tickets.