John's Birthday at The Gaylord

It was so nice to get away to celebrate John's birthday. We were given a generous gift card to the Gaylord Texas hotel from the Packwoods as a Thank You for keeping their boys a couple of weeks of Libby's NINE week hospital stay stay last year. Another generous offer was that they said they would keep our kids...woo-hoo!!!! We have discussed using it at different times, but it just hasn't worked out, so I started plotting a couple of months ago to use it for John's birthday. It was a bit tricky working out a weekend that we could do it, and a weekend that the Packwoods were available to add four children to their household! So, it worked out that John's actual birthday weekend was good for both of us. It also turned out to be the weekend of Home Fellowship and a Men's Breakfast that John wanted to attend. So, I went to work behind the scenes. I asked our new friends, The Butlers, to host Home Fellowship at their house, I asked our music pastor to "fake" ask John to do music at the Men's Breakfast (he had been asked to do it before, so that would not be out of the ordinary), and I began making plans for our stay during the day or late at night when John would not see the evidence! I had to coordinate carpool for the kids on Friday (thanks Beth!) and Gracie's sitter ended up staying overnight because Eric decided to attend a Men's Retreat at Sky Ranch (thanks Araenae!) I had it all planned out as to how we would pull this off. I would have John come home early from work to hear Whitney sing in a program at school. Then, we would come home and while he got back to work on our computer, I would finish packing, getting ready, etc. and just come in and ask him if he was "ready to go?" Then the shock factor would be there!!! Well, my John had another plan. WITHOUT any warning (call or e-mail) he pulled in the driveway as I was headed out with ALL of the bags and "stuff" for the kids. I was headed out to take Blayne and Reagan over to the Packwoods' house. I was loaded like a pack mule. He pulls in and I say "What are you doing here" he says "oh, I thought I would come home and we could ride together" and then I give a weak "Happy Birthday???" He didn't get it. He didn't see the fact that I had 4 stuffed bags and other random "things" required for our children to stay somewhere else! It starts to sink in and he starts questioning all of "his" plans for the weekend. I told him how I came behind and did damage control on all of that. I even had to call the piano repairman and reschedule him for a 3rd time....he is going to think that we are a nut case....last cancellation was because my grandmother died, now I called and said "I know that John called and scheduled you, but he doesn't know that he won't be here on Saturday" (poor confused piano guy)
Well, we had a wonderful time. It was the first night of the Christmas season there, so we got to see the Christmas Tree lighting (very crowded, thankful my kids weren't there) we ate a delicious dinner at Old Hickory Steakhouse and we attened the ICE exhibit! We SLEPT IN on Saturday and had a wonderful breakfast at a cafe' downstairs that serves made-to-order buffet style...yum! There was a magician that did some amazing tricks at our table. (like making John's wedding rind disappear...yike...then reappear in a sealed envelope...still trying to figure that one out) I left my camera in the room during breakfast and deeply regretted that decision. While we were checking out, there was an adorable little girl looking at the goldfish with her daddy. I offered to take their picture with her Daddy's camera. When I took his camera, I knew that it was a NICE very expensive camera. I snapped several shots. I couldn't quit looking at the little girl she was so adorable, and so familiar....it drove me crazy all day and that night, just before bed, I realized that she was the granddaughter of a friend that I taught school with 11 years ago!!!!! Her son (the dad) is a professional photographer. I was so glad to have that mystery solved. I just wish that I would have realized who that was when were at The Gaylord. We went to see the new James Bond movie...I don't recommend it. We did our Christmas shopping and got some things that John "needed" so that could wrap them up for his birthday from the kids. We had yummy soup at Quizznos which tasted especially good since it had gotten cold outside. We just had a perfect day and it was topped off by the fact that Gracie had fed and bathed the kids, all we had to do was go home and tuck them in to bed!!!
Here are some pictures from our time away. I used our little digital camera in the ICE exhibit, because it is so cold in there I was afraid that it might damage my nice camera.