Surprise, You're 30 (well, 2 years ago)
Two years ago, my little brother turned 30! He is the guy that is always surprising everyone else with visits for moments that need to be shared, and even those that don't, so 3 years ago, I sent a group text to everyone asking if we all thought it would be possible to come together to surprise him. Pretty much everyone was immediately on board. We solidified that his actual birthday would work for everyone to join together and that Texas sounded like a good idea in the middle of June. I warned it would be warm, but it made the surprise part a little easier. A few months before, "the crew" (+ a couple) started looking at flights, and determined that June 14th had best pricing for tickets for most of them and anyone who needed to come in another day would just be an added surprise.
Who would have thought that a month before, Daniel would start to look at flights to see some of the crew that was coming here. I'm not kidding. He was all in looking for flights, which led to the guys having to give some pretty funny excuses, one of which, ended up making Daniel question so much more! Then, he found a house to buy, and closing date was 2 days before everyone was going to be coming in, but the couple wanted to "buy back" a couple days which made it to where Daniel was looking at a moving truck for that weekend. How do you tell someone they can't move?
We broke down and told him we scheduled a party for all the local friends and family, again, not enough of an excuse for him to not get a truck to move, but it at least made him think a little before pulling that trigger. Then the lie that Daniel had caught the guys up in started to unravel. So they said that they were coming to Texas and trying to make that weekend work because they had a work trip to pick up a truck that was in one of the local cities. You would assume that would have been enough, but knowing Daniel would research, Josh actually found a construction vehicle and knew all the details, so Daniel started to believe it. But then Josh and Zach would need a place to stay, right? Nope, the crew had found an air b&b that would suite everyone's needs, so Josh lied and told Daniel that a mutual friend had moved from McKinney to Southlake. "Where in Southlake?" Well, again, you would think the lie would all catch up, but somehow Josh pushed that question off long enough to have Daniel forget cause he would have looked up the address.
At this point, we are within the week of the surprise. Vehicles rented, house rented, tickets purchased, plan set for a couple days of fun & the rest was all gonna be on the fly, and Daniel was still not fully aware of anything. Zach and Josh were driving out, hauling a vehicle to drive while the families were here, and they said they were driving out to get a construction vehicle, so they even strategically took pics to send of them in the truck, while cropping out kids sleeping in the back seat. They arrived pretty early Thursday morning, but had told Daniel that they wouldn't be available until later in the day, so pretty much after all the flights arrived.
I met them at the HUGE house, and helped get them set up with some placed to grab food/snacks and discuss some options on how to do the big surprise. It was evident around noon that we wouldn't be able to hold Daniel off until 8 pm, which is when the last flight was coming in for Thursday. So Josh called Hank, the mutual friend, and told him to get to the house so that he, Josh and Zach were at the house when Daniel arrived. My mom wanted to be there for the reveal, so my dad dropped her off and then went to pick up the pizzas and pretended to be the delivery guy. The kids and wives hid upstairs and waited for the doorbell.
Daniel showed and was wowed by the house that Hank had moved into, which led to Hank suggesting he got a really good deal. The doorbell rang... the kids ran down the stairs, and somehow Daniel didn't hear it until he could see everyone coming from every direction. A year of working on a surprise for a face that suggested that he was actually surprised was pretty funny. At about that time, I got the text that John and Lisa landed in Dallas, and they kept me posted on their arrival so that we could further add to the nights surprises. No one really talked too much about how it all came together as to not slip up about everyone else's arrivals. They all just talked about how they couldn't miss this moment and they finally "got" him.
When John and Lisa arrived, I had ducked out of the house and coordinated on Daniel's location in the house to allow for John to come up behind Daniel. As Daniel was sitting at the dining room table, he mentioned how he was so excited that everyone currently there was there, but really wished that it could have been ALL of us together with John and Lisa too. John then came up behind Daniel and hugged his neck from behind. Daniel jumped, as much as we would expect for him to, and I feel like in that moment, he really felt loved as the family was back together and all for him.
We spent the night talking and catching up, and then parted ways until morning where we told Daniel we were going to the zoo for both him and the kids, but I had to pick up one more thing before going to the zoo. Wanda's flight was SO early in the morning that she arrived in Dallas before the zoo was open. Wanda and I made it to the zoo and hid a little until we saw the whole crew entering. The smile on Daniel's face when Wanda ran up for a hug was the icing on the cake. We were all there to celebrate.
Keeping things a surprise can be tough in our family! But we were able to pull off an epic surprise of friends for the weekend, plus some fun partying and even an day/evening that was super relaxed and spent shopping with some as others went to a baseball game. I don't know if Daniel would have traded that birthday for anything, but I know that I wouldn't. My dad put it best, that looking around at everyone who came to the birthday celebration both near and far was a reflection of the friend that Daniel has been to all those people. It's true. You put yourself out there with people, and sometimes, when you are the single one without kids, you might be able to do those fun trips more often, but then there are times that your friends pack up the families and bring them to you to show how much they love you. That is something that is very important in a great friendship!
I don't know if Daniel will ever really know how much work went into all of this, but I am super proud of all the people involved for keeping it a secret, even figuring out the lies to make him stay in Texas, and adjusting schedules to get the time off from work! We love all of you so much!
(I have blurred the faces of the kids in the images)
Who would have thought that a month before, Daniel would start to look at flights to see some of the crew that was coming here. I'm not kidding. He was all in looking for flights, which led to the guys having to give some pretty funny excuses, one of which, ended up making Daniel question so much more! Then, he found a house to buy, and closing date was 2 days before everyone was going to be coming in, but the couple wanted to "buy back" a couple days which made it to where Daniel was looking at a moving truck for that weekend. How do you tell someone they can't move?
We broke down and told him we scheduled a party for all the local friends and family, again, not enough of an excuse for him to not get a truck to move, but it at least made him think a little before pulling that trigger. Then the lie that Daniel had caught the guys up in started to unravel. So they said that they were coming to Texas and trying to make that weekend work because they had a work trip to pick up a truck that was in one of the local cities. You would assume that would have been enough, but knowing Daniel would research, Josh actually found a construction vehicle and knew all the details, so Daniel started to believe it. But then Josh and Zach would need a place to stay, right? Nope, the crew had found an air b&b that would suite everyone's needs, so Josh lied and told Daniel that a mutual friend had moved from McKinney to Southlake. "Where in Southlake?" Well, again, you would think the lie would all catch up, but somehow Josh pushed that question off long enough to have Daniel forget cause he would have looked up the address.
At this point, we are within the week of the surprise. Vehicles rented, house rented, tickets purchased, plan set for a couple days of fun & the rest was all gonna be on the fly, and Daniel was still not fully aware of anything. Zach and Josh were driving out, hauling a vehicle to drive while the families were here, and they said they were driving out to get a construction vehicle, so they even strategically took pics to send of them in the truck, while cropping out kids sleeping in the back seat. They arrived pretty early Thursday morning, but had told Daniel that they wouldn't be available until later in the day, so pretty much after all the flights arrived.
I met them at the HUGE house, and helped get them set up with some placed to grab food/snacks and discuss some options on how to do the big surprise. It was evident around noon that we wouldn't be able to hold Daniel off until 8 pm, which is when the last flight was coming in for Thursday. So Josh called Hank, the mutual friend, and told him to get to the house so that he, Josh and Zach were at the house when Daniel arrived. My mom wanted to be there for the reveal, so my dad dropped her off and then went to pick up the pizzas and pretended to be the delivery guy. The kids and wives hid upstairs and waited for the doorbell.
Daniel showed and was wowed by the house that Hank had moved into, which led to Hank suggesting he got a really good deal. The doorbell rang... the kids ran down the stairs, and somehow Daniel didn't hear it until he could see everyone coming from every direction. A year of working on a surprise for a face that suggested that he was actually surprised was pretty funny. At about that time, I got the text that John and Lisa landed in Dallas, and they kept me posted on their arrival so that we could further add to the nights surprises. No one really talked too much about how it all came together as to not slip up about everyone else's arrivals. They all just talked about how they couldn't miss this moment and they finally "got" him.
When John and Lisa arrived, I had ducked out of the house and coordinated on Daniel's location in the house to allow for John to come up behind Daniel. As Daniel was sitting at the dining room table, he mentioned how he was so excited that everyone currently there was there, but really wished that it could have been ALL of us together with John and Lisa too. John then came up behind Daniel and hugged his neck from behind. Daniel jumped, as much as we would expect for him to, and I feel like in that moment, he really felt loved as the family was back together and all for him.
We spent the night talking and catching up, and then parted ways until morning where we told Daniel we were going to the zoo for both him and the kids, but I had to pick up one more thing before going to the zoo. Wanda's flight was SO early in the morning that she arrived in Dallas before the zoo was open. Wanda and I made it to the zoo and hid a little until we saw the whole crew entering. The smile on Daniel's face when Wanda ran up for a hug was the icing on the cake. We were all there to celebrate.
Keeping things a surprise can be tough in our family! But we were able to pull off an epic surprise of friends for the weekend, plus some fun partying and even an day/evening that was super relaxed and spent shopping with some as others went to a baseball game. I don't know if Daniel would have traded that birthday for anything, but I know that I wouldn't. My dad put it best, that looking around at everyone who came to the birthday celebration both near and far was a reflection of the friend that Daniel has been to all those people. It's true. You put yourself out there with people, and sometimes, when you are the single one without kids, you might be able to do those fun trips more often, but then there are times that your friends pack up the families and bring them to you to show how much they love you. That is something that is very important in a great friendship!
I don't know if Daniel will ever really know how much work went into all of this, but I am super proud of all the people involved for keeping it a secret, even figuring out the lies to make him stay in Texas, and adjusting schedules to get the time off from work! We love all of you so much!
(I have blurred the faces of the kids in the images)