Surprise!

**I apologize in advance for this long post.  I didn't take that many pictures, but we had a crazy trip that I have to document. So there is an extreme amount of text, sorry.**

My mother-in-law thought that it would be fun to go visit the guys in Kansas again.  Since they were still going to be there over Darrik and my anniversary, we thought what a perfect time to go.  We needed to be together for our anniversary, right? so I agreed and helped make arrangements.  She bought the tickets, Thanks mom! We wanted to surprise them though so this took a huge amount of effort on my part.  If you know me, you know I have a big mouth.  I just get so excited and have to tell everyone.  It was really hard at first because we had just made all the plans; flight arrangements (4 different planes), someone to watch the dogs (thank you Jared), someone to drive us to and from the airport both here and in Kansas, what Darrik and I were going to do on our actual anniversary (research on hotels, movies, dinner etc.) and whenever I talked to Darrik he'd ask about my day, or whatever and I almost slipped about 20 different times.  I had to lie to him almost every day during all our planning because he'd ask me things and I'd slip and say something that could possibly give it away so I had to make up some excuse or reason why I said, or did what I did. It was SO hard, but after all that was taken care of it got easier. I tried to pretend we weren't going and forget about it so I wouldn't slip and say something and that helped.  But then the few days leading up to it and the actual travel day was the worst.  Why are you staying up so late? Why do you need the portable DVD player charged? Why are you doing laundry on Monday? (laundry day is usually Fridays) Why were you talking to Brad (our friend who watched the dogs last time) Why aren't you working today? Just so many things.

Darrik kept saying things to me, before the trip, like, "I can't believe we aren't going to be together for our anniversary, " or "ask my mom if she'll pay to fly you to see me, " or "I'm going to see if I can fly home" and I wanted to act like I wasn't coming and like it was a big deal to me that we weren't going to be together to throw him off. So I'd say things back to him like, "Ok, I'll see if she can fly me out there, " or "I want to be with you so bad too, I hate that you are still working out there, just come home, we'll figure it out." I tried to sound so convincing. But hoping at the same time that he wouldn't come home while we were out there. I also told him that it was my High School reunion that week and that my girlfriends from High School were coming into town and it probably wouldn't be a good weekend for him to come blah blah blah. But he bought it. I also told him the day that we were flying in, the day before our anniversary, that we were having a girls night and I probably wouldn't be able to talk much that night, or at all. So he didn't think it was weird when he called me and I didn't answer while we were traveling.  So needless to say, he had no idea we were coming. It was so awesome.  

I was so proud of myself.  The first trip to Kansas I had a HUGE suitcase, a car seat, a stroller, and two very questionably sized carry-ons.  But this time I had one decent sized carry-on and a small back pack carry on, and the stroller. No checked luggage.  Darrik's mom had the guys take diapers, a pack n play and an extra car seat of hers back with them the last time they were home so I didn't have to bring then when we came out for the grand opening (or for a surprise visit, he he he). So that was nice.  I was so conservative in my packing, only brought 3 outfits and underwear for the 3 days we'd be there. I packed about the same for Brock. I was trying so hard not to over pack because we were going to have a connecting flight and I didn't want to have to go through security twice. So I was doing good. I kept starting to list things that I wanted to bring, or that I thought I needed to bring.  When I would start I had to remind myself, that, "No, you don't need 3 swimming suits, or 10 books for Brock, or the ipod, tripod, dvd collection, books, movies, games etc." pack just what we need. So I was a minimalist for this trip.  Also, I was all packed and ready to go 10 minutes before we had to leave.  I was early, which NEVER happens. 

I went to my mother-in-laws to pick here up and head to the airport.  We got all settled with our bags and went on our way.  On the drive there my mother-in-law asks me if i remembered Brock's birth certificate... and I just got this look on my face. You know, the deer in the headlights look.  Huge eyes and sheer panic.  Shaking my head continuously back and forth I uttered, "..nnnooo, no I didn't... I don't have it..... CRAP!" (Some of you might wonder what the big deal was.  Why would we need that to fly?  Kids under 2 fly free, but they need proof that they are under 2.  When we flew before they asked for it and luckily I had it because my friend had told me that I might need it.  So I was pretty sure that I would need it again.) So I went through a list of people in my head. Who can help us? Who has access to our house? Who doesn't work on Wednesdays? What do we do???? I called my mom to see if she could run out to my house and she was in Salt Lake.  My friend who was watching our dogs and had access to our house was working.  I called my sister Kacie and she was going to be going on a date soon... My mom suggested calling Paige and I thought for sure she would be working, but luckily and thankfully she had just gotten off. Not the usual day for her.  I told her I needed her help and needed her to go to my house as soon as she could.  She didn't even hesitate, she just hopped on the freeway and went and asked questions later. She is so awesome! I asked her if she could help me out and she just did exactly what I needed.  She had to go to my friends house, get our garage door opener, go to our house, find his birth certificate in our messy office (which turned out not to be so bad, she found it pretty easy in Brock's stuff), take it to the nearest UPS store and fax it to the airport. ALL within about 45 minutes and she was in North Salt Lake/Bountiful area, and our house is about 30 minutes away.  So she was hauling.

We got to the airport and were going to go through security, but Brock needed a boarding pass to go through security and they wouldn't give us one without his birth certificate.  So we sat on the floor of the airport, with our rambunctious, full of energy, almost 2 year-old in the airport full of people, waiting for the fax to come in.  Brock decides that now is a good time to dirty his pants. Awesome! So we took care of that.  He was crazy.  Running all over the place and saying hi to every stranger he sees.  I kept getting texts or phone calls with updates from Paige, got the garage door opener, I'm at your house, got the birth certificate, on my way to UPS.  Then the dreaded text... I just got pulled over, I'll be a minute... OH MY GOSH!! SERIOUSLY!?! by this time it was 4:20, our flight was leaving at 4:40, and we were still sitting at the baggage check-in counter.  We hadn't gone through security yet and the line was horrendous. 

I said to my mother-in-law, lets say a prayer. So we just bowed our heads and I said a short prayer.  I felt better after we finished, but still worried we were going to miss our flight.  Usually when things like this happen and I'm stressed out I call Darrik to help me get through it and he is so good about calming me down. I'm such a stress case. But he couldn't know we were coming, so I had to just deal with it and calm myself down, which is not in my nature.  But I knew it was in God's hands. Whatever happens happens. Let go and let God, right? So I took a few deep breaths and tried to relax.

I then got a text from Paige that said, I just faxed it. So we asked the people behind the counter, who knew that's why we were waiting there, to check their fax machine.  They said, just go on up to the gate and they'll have the fax for you.  "But we need a boarding pass for Brock to get through security." "Oh, we'll print you off a temporary pass to get you to the gate." YOU'RE KIDDING ME!?! All this time we could have been patiently waiting at the gate for the fax?

So we got the temporary pass and ran, I mean RAN through the airport to security.  They checked our ID's and mine is expired (it's not really, I just didn't have my new one. I had forgotten that my new was was sent and I had had it for a long time, but apparently left it at the credit union when I was there a few months ago. They sent it back but I just got the letter and filed it because most the time the letters from them are to let us know we were overdrawn, which has been a usual occurrence lately, so I just threw it in the file pile in our messy office and Darrik found it when he was home later cleaning out the office... anyway) They put up a stink about it and wanted more ID. So I was practically throwing things at them, Costco cards, debit card that had my picture on it, library card, whatever I could.  They asked me to step aside and someone else would help me.  AHHHHhhhhhh!!! We don't have time for this nonsense.  Just let me through.  Finally they say I can go and I threw off mine and Brock's shoes, pulled out our liquids, chucked everything we could in the tupperwear bins, folded up the stroller and shoved everything down the conveyor belt and walked through the metal detector. I always cringe when I walk through those hoping the alarm doesn't go off. We were good, no metal.  But then they had to check my bags for some 'questionable' substances.  We really didn't have time for these shenanigans.  They checked Brock's sippy cup and let us go on our way. I was freaking out the whole time, and lost my shoes for a minute, and the guys keeps saying to me, "it'll be ok, calm down, you won't miss your flight, it's ok..." As I'm walking around barefoot like a chicken with my head cut off and Brock is going nuts cuz he just wants to run... ya sure guy, it's fine, everything is fine. WHATEVER!

We finally get through security and get up to our gate, and I am wet, seriously, from head to toe with sweat. I sweat when I'm nervous, and we ran as fast as we could to get there. I had an excuse. Surprisingly enough everyone for our flight was still in the waiting area.  The flight had been delayed a few minutes.  {Me looking up: Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!} We were so blessed. Thank goodness for prayer.  I asked the 'nice lady' who basically ignored me, if they have received a fax of a birth certificate for my almost 2 year-old so he can ride on my lap on the flight that is leaving in T minus 4 minutes.  She kind of shushes me aside, so I stand there and wait.  Next thing you know, another lady comes walking up with a piece of paper in her hand, and it's his BC.  OH THANK GOODNESS!! We got his real boarding pass and got in line to board. I took the copy of his BC and stuck it in my back pack for the trip home. They boarded the plane seconds after we got his boarding pass.  Our flight didn't leave until 5:10.  We were so blessed.  We made our first flight.  But we had a connecting flight...

 
Our flight arrived in Denver at 6:50 PM.  Brock did really good, considering it was super bumpy and kind of scary.  He just watched cars the whole time and drank his juice. Our flight out of Denver was scheduled to leave at 7:33.  We had 43 minutes.  We had to gather our luggage, kid and stroller and race through the airport from concourse C to concourse A.  Five sets of moving sidewalks, a set of escalators, 2 elevators and a subway ride away.  We got there at about 7:15. So we were lucky.  We let Brock run around for a while to get his wiggles out.  He ran his stroller right into the boys bathroom.  I had to run in there after him. Ha ha ha.

 

Then we boarded our little two-rowed propeller plane and took off for our 1 hour flight to Garden City Kansas.  

 
Brock was so bored and ornery and wanted to play in the aisle and wasn't that interested in watching his movie. So that was a long flight.  I had to do what I could to keep him occupied. He was so tired, but he wouldn't sleep.  So I let him stick stickers to my face. He thought it was so funny.

Can you tell I'm so wasted tired? My eyes wanted to close so bad. It was a very long day.

 Brock and Bama on the plane

Darrik's sister and brother-in-law just so happened to be on a 'date' in Garden City right at the same time we landed (wink wink.) They picked us up around 10 PM got us dinner and then drove us an hour back to the house.  Brock crashed the second we got on the road, go figure.  I was just so happy to have gotten there in one piece and was so exhausted from all the stress from the day, I wanted to crash too.  But I was too excited to see Darrik.  Deareld, my father-in-law, called Teresa, my mother-in-law, probably 20 times that night.  He couldn't get a hold of her and he was worried.  She just kept ignoring his call because she didn't want to give him any ideas that we were coming.  He called 2 or 3 times on our way to their house.  We got to there (where Darrik is staying) at about 11 PM or so.

Brock was still asleep so we left him in the car for a minute, while we went inside to surprise our guys. We crept up the stairs and I went into Darriks room.  It was dark and I expected him to be asleep, but he was on his phone, texting his cousin.  He was so confused.  He turned his phone at me as a flashlight and said very angrily, "what are you doing?"  I could tell he thought I was someone else creeping into his room late at night, so I busted up laughing and said, "SURPRISE!  Happy anniversary!"  Then he said, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" in a very excited voice. I went over to him and gave him a big hug and a kiss.  He was so happy to see me, and I was happy to see him too.  He said he had had a very hard day and a very hard week and needed a hug from me. He just kept saying, "I'm so happy you're here, I can't believe you're here."

I told him Brock was here too and so we went out of his room to get him and my stuff.  Teresa was standing outside of Deareld's room waiting to go in and surprise him.  He had been on the phone to his daughter in Prague, so he had been talking a long time.  She just waited patiently outside the door.  Finally he was finished and Vicki came in and said to him, "I brought something back from Garden City." and she kind of acted like it was a bad thing, she seemed concerned.  So Deareld looked concerned and came out of his room and said, "what did you get?" and then saw Teresa and had to do a double take.  It was so funny.  He was so excited.  He says to Darrik, "did you know they were coming?" "No idea!"

So we pulled it off, and had a really great trip. Go us!!!

Thursday, August 12 (our anniversary), Darrik went to work at 7:30.  For lunch we all met at Six Twenty Grille, Vicki's treat.  Darrik got off work around 4, came back, showered, got ready and we headed up to the big city, Garden City, ha ha ha big city.

Teresa agreed to watch Brock for us that night, Thanks Mom!  Darrik's sister got us a really nice room at the Clarion and also told us to bill our steak dinner at Sammy's Spirits and Steak house, to our room. So FREE dinner and FREE hotel.  Score!!! Thanks Vicki.  We were so happy.  Can you tell? 

The food was so yummy.  Probably the best steak I have ever eaten.  The steak out there is so fresh because it is local. OH MY GOSH!!! it was so good, and perfectly pink. mmmmmmmmm.......!!!!  We also had calamari, yum!

After dinner we went to see Dinner for Schmucks.  It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard.  But it was one of those movies where you wonder, what else can go wrong? oh my gosh, did they just do that? seriously?!!  So I was pretty anxious the whole time.  But it was good.

After the movie we went to Walmart to get a few things and then went back to the hotel and hung out.  It was so nice to have some time together, some ALONE time together. We haven't been really alone in a long time.  We had the softest bed ever.  It was amazing.  I woke up around 7 am totally rested. (6 am my time) I got up and went out to the breakfast buffet, expecting cereal and muffins, and found a whole array of food.  French toast, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, yogurt, muffins, bacon and lots of fruit, juices and milk.  So I went back into the room to make Darrik wake up and come eat with me.  It was yummy.  Then we went back to the room and I went back to bed. Ha ha ha.  The bed was so comfy.  I slept for another hour. Then got up showered and we left.  We went to Sam's club on our way out to walk around. Where Darrik is in Kansas there isn't very much around.  So when he gets to go the BIG CITY he likes to go lots of places. We just went to Sam's club though.  Then headed back.  Lunch was ready for us when we got there.  Then Darrik went into work about 1 for a few hours while Teresa and I attempted to do their laundry. Ha ha ha we ran out of quarters, forgot to start one of our machines, and had to run one of them twice because there was still soap in the clothes.  But we got it all done for them.

That night we had dinner with the family and then Darrik and I went and got Ben and Jerry's and came back and watched Date Night up in Darrik's room.  It was fun to just relax together.

The next day Darrik went to work and we packed up and got ready to go back home.  Our flight out of Garden City was at 4:58 PM.  We decided we would go up to Garden for the afternoon and then go catch our flight to go home.  We went to Golden Corral around 2.  They had a bunch of yummy things. I got some steak, of course, and lots of shrimp.  Brock always eats a ton here, and loves the ice cream.

 
We went to a few other places and then went to the airport for our flight.  The flight ended up being delayed, or canceled even I believe.  I do not do well with changed or altered plans.  I was ready to go home, I didn't have any more clean clothes (remember, I packed light?), and I had lots of laundry to do and I'm a primary teacher, so I had a lot on my mind when they told us we wouldn't be leaving until the next morning.  Our connecting flight had to be re-scheduled. They paid for that and put us up in a motel room for the night.  Darrik's nephew Taylor was flying home with us, and all 3 of us got our own rooms.  I should have been grateful that I got one more night with Darrik, but I was so ornery.  I'm sorry honey.  We ended up going to the strip mall shopping and then to iHop for dinner, then back to our rooms to sleep.

 I was not in a good mood, but I did get one picture of Brock and daddy at the motel.

We got up early and went to the airport for our flight home.  It was about 25 minutes late leaving. Which worked out perfect because I was able to feed Brock before we left.  When we went through security the security lady was a Nazi and had to pull out all of my stuff out of my bag and had to tell me, "ok, so you can only take this and that, but since you ahve a child and he is entitled to some you can take this, and becasue she (Teresa) doesn't have any liquids you can take these too, but you have too many liquids, just so you know."  We finally got on the plane and while they are telling us all the rules and regulations whatever, you know the drill, Brock starts freaking out screaming. He wanted to get down and walk around, but I was holding him so he couldn't.  The guy in front of us yelled, "OH MY GOSH!" and looked back at Brock.  He was so disgusted that he was crying. I was so mad.  Who does that.  I said something rude to him, but I can't remember the exact words.  He ignored me. Then I said a little prayer to please let Brock be good on this flight.  After we took off Brock was out cold. I couldn't even move him really. He was sleeping like a log, for the entire flight. I was so relieved.

So that was our trip, and our big surprise.  Happy Anniversary Babe!!! Love you!