Our Vacation...The Surprise!

We arrived in St. Augustine yesterday evening.  Amaya kept asking if we were there yet..."mommy are we at the beach yet? Mommy are we in Florida yet?"  I think the first time she asked we were in Columbus...about 1 hr from our home. =) Fortunately she forgets easily so she didn't ask constantly..just enough to still be cute. =)

So far we have only spent about 10 min on the beach (yesterday) and 20 min. today.  I had a huge surprise planned for Chad for months now.  I don't even remember how long it's been but when we knew the dates of our arrival here in Florida, I contacted some friends (David & Suzanne Anderson) who moved to Florida almost 2 yrs ago. I wanted to try to set up some time with them when we came.  I also wanted to do it at the beginning of the week so that we would make sure we have time. Anyway, today worked out best for them so here is how it all happened.

Yesterday I sent Suzanne several texts and we agreed to meet at Planet Hollywood at Disney. I decided to keep our GPS with me in the backseat and give Chad just enough directions so that he had no clue where we were going.  Yesterday I told him I had something planned for today but I wasn't going to give him anymore details.  So today I told everyone they needed to be ready by noon. My mom was in on the surprise ..somewhat but my dad didn't know. Anyway, we started out going south of our location and Chad thought I was taking him to a place we had visited on our honeymoon. =)  That was so fun.  I tried to pry him to see if he had any idea and he didn't...so far so good.

We continued to travel south towards Orlando.  He still had no clue...later he admitted that as we got closer to Orlando he thought..."we should have contacted the Andersons and met up with them" but he never voiced that to me. We finally get to Orlando and finally make it to Planet Hollywood (got stuck in traffic...tried to find a way around it and lost some time doing that..=).

The plan was for Trent to come out and see if Chad still recognized him...he's changed quite a bit since they lived in Bloomington. Keep in mind at this point, I still haven't told Chad anything about our trip.  We were walking up to the restaurant and there was a huge alligator above the gift shop beside it and so Chad was busy looking at that.  I knew the Andersons were in the gift shop so we just kept walking.  Trent's girlfriend came out and walked up to Chad and said.."can you take our picture?"  Which at that point, Chad finally looked at them and since Trent's back was turned he hadn't recognized him yet. When he turned around Chad did a double take and said..."well, no I can't take his picture" (teasing) and then he says..."wow, what a coincidence that you are here". hehe...it was so fun. 

He didn't actually get that it had all been set up until David and Suzanne walked up...oh what fun!!  I LOVE surprising people..haha I think it made me tear up a bit...but out of the pure joy of the moment. I haven't surprised him like that since his 30th birthday and his reaction was so great!

I love you honey. I love that I was able to surprise you today....and I love that we were able to spend time with the Andersons again!  They are a special couple in our lives.  Thank you Andersons for a truly memorable start to this vacation!