Happy Birthday to me...

My birthday came a little early this year. Last Thursday, November 4, Ben woke we up at 4 am and here's our conversation went - sort of:

Ben: "We're going to Hawaii today.  Get up."

Me: ha, ha "Whatever."

Ben:  "Really. Get up and pack.  Here's your packing list."  

I took the paper he gave me and looked at it as best as I could without my glasses or contacts. I put it back down on the bed and said, "You're a dork." And laid back down in bed.  

I laid there for about a minute (which seemed much, much longer to Ben).  Meanwhile, he's all giddy and trying to get me to believe him and get up and start packing.

Ben:  "Really, Gina.  Our flight leaves at 7:20.  Your parents are going to be here in an hour to take us to the airport. You need to get up and pack."

I just laid there.

Ben: "Gina, I've known for nine months.  You know all those times I look at you and smile?  This is why."

I still laid there.

Ben: "Look, Gina.  There's a camera here recording all this.  Your sisters wanted to see your reaction."

I was starting to believe him, but I think I didn't want to get my hopes up.  Somewhere in there I even said, "Ben, if I get up and start packing and you tell me to go back to bed...." (I don't know what my threat was going to be, but it was going to be something good.)

I got up and he was pointing the camera at me and told me to say, "We're going to Hawaii.  I'm excited.  I'm going to get up and pack now."  and I said, "OK"

It was much funnier on camera but for some reason it won't download on here.  

But I do have to defend myself for my reaction.  There are a few reason why it took me so long to figure out what was going on and to actually believe him.

1)  It was the day after my sister's wedding and I hadn't gone to bed until midnight the night before so I was running on 4 hours of sleep.  

2)  I made my sister's cake so I had had little sleep for a few nights BEFORE that getting the cake and other things done.

3) My sister's new husband was surprising her for their honeymoon and I had told Ben the night before that it would be fun to be surprised with a vacation and just given a packing list.  If you know Ben, he would put together a packing list for me as a joke.  So I thought that was what he was doing.

After I finally did believe him, the 20 questions started.

"Who's taking care of the kids?"

"What about primary?"

"When are we coming back?"

I don't even remember all of my questions, but he had answers for them all. He had rescheduled the kids' doctor appointment, talked to my counselor and made sure primary was taken care of, rearranged car pool so the kids would be taken to and from school, gotten babysitters for all the kids, and written up 4 pages of notes/instructions for his mom and drove her around to make sure she knew how to get to Sara's piano lessons and to church.   I was surprised he had thought of everything.  I just had to pack and sit back and enjoy the vacation.  With so many people knowing about it, I don't know how it didn't slip from one of them.  Some people were trying to tell him he needed to give me at least a few days, if not weeks, notice so I could get ready.  Others were telling him to really surprise me and wait.  He knows me well enough to know that I would be stressed out for those couple days trying to make sure everything was taken care of and wondering how it was actually going to happen.  So he waited and I'm glad he did.   I don't know how he pulled it off, but he did and I'm grateful for that. 

A rainbow our first day there.  The only one we saw.

sunset our first night

the view form our balcony


**More from our trip to come**