Our 8th Anniversary

We have a tradition that we takes turns every other year planning our anniversary. Part of the tradition is that we totally put life aside, including the kids so we can give each other our undivided attention. This doesn't mean we have to leave town, we just need to get out of the house for at least one night two if possible. This was an idea we got from the Stake President of our Wymount Stake Eric Denna, so we've done this from year one. I am so glad we heard about this. During our get away we try to set goals for our family and for our marriage and re-evaluate how we did on the previous years goals.

We have had a good time surprising each other with going places we'd never think of. This year was my year and I chose to finally do something I've been trying to surprise Steve with for about 4 years. For those of you who don't know Steve is a huge Boston Red Sox fan. Every Red Sox fan aspires to see a Yankee's/Red Sox game at Fenway Park and Steve was no different. He has talked about this for so long and every year for his birthday for the last four years I have tried to make it happen but for some reason or another I haven't been able to work it out.

Well knowing he turns the big 30 years old this year I commited myself to doing whatever it took to pull it off this year. Well the first road block came when we discovered I was pregnant and due one day before his birthday. Also, for those of you who don't know the Yankee's and Red Sox always play each other every year the last weekend in September which is when Steve's birthday is, just before the World Series. This is always the most exciting game because if they're both having great season's, which they normally are, this determines a lot and the game gets heated. I was so bummed that we couldn't we couldn't go. I actually thought about sending him with a friend or a brother or two but I decided knowing this meant so much to him I wanted to be there to see him enjoy it and enjoy it right along with him. Plus not too long after that we discovered the miracle that we were having a boy. This was something we thought might not happen for us due to my genetic disorder, so I knew I couldn't send him knowing he could miss the birth of our son.

I just about gave it up for yet another year until while looking at the playing schedule I discovered they were playing on the weekend before our anniversary. I could go, I wouldn't be too far along and I knew he'd love it. I immediately began planning and looking at tickets. Everytime I'd get close to buying them I'd get a bad feeling and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Steve's last sibling and only sister Mindy ended up getting engaged and picking that same weekend to get married. I just about gave up after that, until in frustration discovered there was one last way to make it work. Do to the game on Sunday. They were scheduled to play Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. All along the idea kept coming to my mind to buy tickets to the Sunday game but I kept pushing that away thinking that wasn't something we should be doing on the Sabbath. That was the only way to make it work.

There were many other great things that fell into place make it work. My mom was coming out for the birth of my sister's baby who was due the 26th of July or that very Saturday Steve's sister had chosen to be married. My mom had some commitments that kept her from being able to come out any sooner than the 29th. Funny enough my parents even ended up catering and doing the flowers for Mindy's wedding. The way to pull it off was to fly through the night after the reception to be there in time for the 1:00pm game. Since my mom was coming out to Tennessee anyway I was able to leave our girls with her in Utah for a few extra days, and she brought them back home. It seemed flawless, and meant to be.

I went back and forth about when to tell Steve about this most awesome surprise. Knowing that the anticipation can be half the fun I thought about telling him early in the day, but I didn't want to take anything away from Mindy's special day so finally I decided to let him open a gift containing the tickets and some Red Sox paraphanalia for us to wear until after they left and the reception was over. Until that day I only told the people that absolutely needed to in order to make it work in hopes of keeping it all a secret. That day I told some close friends and family I was surprising him with something awesome for his 30th birthday and our anniversary if they wanted to stay and see what it was. I wanted it to feel like somewhat of a celebration because being due right before his birthday I don't feel like I'll be able to do much else to celebrate Steve's big birthday. I made him a wonderful card to express how much I felt he deserved this trip and how much I love him. He really drew it out, it was making me crazy because we didn't have a lot of time before we needed to be at the airport, but he didn't know that so it was hard to push him a long.

He was in such shock when he finally figured out what was going on that he didn't give the response I thought he would. I thought he'd be yelling and screaming and jumping up and down, but considering 30+ people were watching and he was totally stunned and quiet. The whole time we were racing to get to Boston he just looked at me in a daze saying I can't believe we're doing this.

Needless to say we had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed every minute in Boston. What a great place, we want to go back again some day.