A Few of His Favorite Things

It was the husband's birthday Saturday, and I knew he was excited about having the whole day off, so I planned some surprise activities all involving his favorite places and people. He tried his hardest to get as many hints out of me as he could, but I was surprisingly successful at warding him off.

Granted, he did guess a few of the day's events, but he is just good like that. Even when I don't give him clues, he's still a master guesser.
It couldn't have been avoided.

I had planned on hiding a bunch of helium inflated balloons in my trunk and then sneaking out to retrieve them in the night, but then pictured releasing them over his sleeping head and him awaking to the sound of 26 balloons hitting the ceiling or their strings tickling his nose in the night and ruining my surprise. So that idea was kaput.

Plus, I forgot to get them after work and couldn't think of a valid excuse as to why to venture back out again when I got home. All minor details.

I had also planned on writing on all of his car windows with window markers like I did last year (as kind of a new tradition, ya know), but dang blast, it snowed. A lot. Therefore rendering that idea impossible..

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the universe was intent on ruining all of my birthday surprises. I had to settle on decorating the bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker and calling it good.

Then I remembered the left-over punch-ball balloons I hadn't used when making our wedding reception lanterns. By this time, the husband was asleep, but I was still paranoid at the idea of him waking at the sound of balloons being inflated and therefore decided that putting two closed doors between us would relieve that worry.

Keep in mind that my surprise anxiety was starting to escalate by this point. And that is precisely why it took me approximately twenty minutes to, inch-by-inch, close the bedroom and office doors. And the universe didn't relent, because they both immediately became very squeaky, and I could have sworn his eyes were open for at least part of the time.

It was a pain-staking effort, I tell you, because I didn't dare move an inch without waking him. He has the unique ability to be dead to the world one minute and then jump up the next, alert and somewhat startled as to why he's suddenly standing.

I probably would have died right there if he had caught me in the act.

Needless to say, my nerves were fried by the time I hung the balloons over each doorway and crawled into bed. I was so hurried in my effort to be sneaky that I mistakenly hung three orange balloons right next to each other in the dark. That is a big no-no in the world of Corinner-Elly. I was mortified.

And then, wouldn't you know it, as I lay there listening to the husband's gentle snoring, I started to remember all of the other things I should have done before snuggling up. Thinking of his card and gifts resting neatly in my nightstand drawer, I painstakingly slid from the bed (smartly waiting until he restlessly rolled over, to best cover my movement) and took another twenty minutes trying to silently slide out the drawer, remove its contents and tip-toe around the bed to place them on his nightstand.

I immediately decided even careful movement in such a close proximity would be a problem and therefore dropped down on all fours and slowly crawled around the base of the bed. I'm sure from an outside perspective, it all would have looked rather ridiculous, but I was determined. I was like Pocahontas creeping through the woods, you couldn't hear a single movement..

That is until I hit every creaky floorboard in our entire apartment. I knew this was the end. He'd peek over the edge any minute now and see me crouched at the foot of the bed, a few presents in hand, card in mouth, looking back at him terrified and it'd all be over.

I waited for a few tense minutes until.. nothing happened. Realizing that I'd better just do it like a band-aid, quick and pain-less, I stretched out fantastically, plopped those bad-boys on his nightstand and raced back around to my side. He didn't even bat an eye.

And so I finally fell asleep, two hours later than I should have and with grand ideas still buzzing around in my head of all of the other things I still wanted to do but couldn't with no remaining courage left to venture out again.

I found out the next morning that the husband had awoken some time later and seen his birthday morning surprise awaiting him. But I guess, in way, my efforts were still a success. He was surprised, and I didn't die in the meantime. Which is always good.

He was gifted two DVDS (Megamind and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, both of which he constantly quotes), a hilarious birthday card containing a voucher for a 1-hour deep tissue massage and a pack of cards, documenting 52 of the many reasons why I love him. (I take no credit, Pinterest is my guide.)

They included such things as 'because he dressed up like a Viking with me for Halloween, even though it was hot and itchy.' and 'because he eats whatever I put in front of him and isn't a picky eater.' (Apparently I spoke too soon on that one, seeing as he refused to eat 'brinner' the next Sunday at my parents. I was quite surprised.)

A few that I forgot to include but are worth mentioning are 'because he, unknowingly, squeezes my hand very tightly when we're driving. Like death grip tight.' and 'because it's impossible for him to focus/listen to what I'm saying and/or praying when the TV is on.'

And so we got up, went to Denny's to redeem his 'free Grand Slam birthday breakfast' and raced over to American Fork for his surprise appointment at Lehi's Ole Town Barber Shop (complete with haircut, massage and beard-trim with a straight razor). It was pretty spiffy. She even used heated shaving cream and vintage looking aftershave. He was a veritable Dapper Dan afterwards. Literally.

Then we picked up a gift from his parents' house and shopped for a bit. I'm ashamed to say that we bought more things for me than we did the birthday-boy, but I can't help it if he likes making me happy. ;) After all, this birthday was about all of his favorite things..

Which happens to include 'challenges' and 'wings', both of which are a part of the eating experience at Wingshak. So we ate a few tasty morsels for lunch, admired his picture on the 'wing challenge wall of fame' and once again headed north towards, debatably, his FAVORITEST PLACE EVER: Cabela's.

Where we purchased a 'manly' insulated lunch bag (he was ruthlessly teased previously by co-workers for taking mine) complete with two aluminum water bottles for a steal-of-a-deal. He was quite proud of my haggling skills. Hey, we can't help it if we found in the $16.99 bin when it should have been in the $36.99..
Deal with it, cashier lady.

It's his birthday presen to himself! He's so happy...

We sadly missed out on the daily fish-feeding, due to the only times scheduled being 12:00 and 6:00 PM, which make sense for the fish but lands right in the middle of meal time for us humans too. I mean, who schedules fish feedings then??! The mind boggles..

I shamefully neglected to take any pictures up until this point. And therefore, will let them tell the rest of the story. For the most part.

 See? He's happy..

 and also surprised!!

 Our next stop was Scheels, a place to which we'd never been but heard great things about.

Don't ask me why he's picking Thomas Jefferson's nose. It was his birthday and, well, I try not to ask. 

 The inside was pretty dang amazing. And huge! Complete with awesome fish tank display.

 Not to mention a giant Ferris wheel in the middle of the building. FANTASTICNESS.

 The husband was convinced that they saved money by cutting this prairie dog in half and using both ends in their display. We were tempted to prove that theory but didn't follow through.

Overall, Scheels was a win. It was definitely added to his list of favorite places by the end of our visit. I highly recommend checking it out. It has something for everyone and is very family friendly.

Our second to last scheduled event was dinner at the Red Iguana. We had tried it for the first time on our way back from the honeymoon after recommendations from family and Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and fell in love with the deliciousness. So after a short drive around the state capital to kill time, we ended up making the two block trip to the Red Iguana 2 after finding the first to be closed due to lack of power and met up with his BFF/2nd favorite person, (I reserve the rights for 1st) cousin Eric.

Surprise!!! Okay.. he guessed it before hand, but I tried.

Sorry that I caught you with your mouth full husband. And on your birthday too..

He also guessed my final plans for the evening: a surprise showing of the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, at the Thanksgiving Point Megaplex (a film which he has been dying to see for months now), but we had some time to kill so Eric suggested a surprise outing to a nearby park to kill some time.

He had planned on taking the husband sledding in the freshly fallen snow, but in a surprise (theme of the day) and twisted turn of events, ended up hitting black ice on the freeway and slamming into the middle barrier. We were following immediately behind him and therefore witnessed the whole terrifying ordeal.

He hit hard enough that the airbags inflated and his truck was pretty mangled, so we pulled off and hurriedly jumped between the center barriers to wait for the police to arrive, but eventually decided to get off the freeway for safety's sake due to the buckets of snow that were now falling.

And so after a miraculously well-placed prayer, a lot of scared minutes, freezing temperatures, emergency bathroom trips to 7-Eleven and a tow truck later, we slowly puttered home along the unploughed belt route. It was very scary and we were very blessed. 

Needless to say, that was NOT a pleasant birthday surprise. Thankfully, Eric wasn't seriously injured, but we did end up missing the movie in the meantime.

And... I just realized that this post was quite the saga. It just goes to show how determined I was that the husband have the best birthday ever! Which, according to him, it was.

Well, minus that last bit and all.
But I guess you can't plan everything.