Disney World surprise vacation with Jed

This is the story of the most amazing birthday surprise of my life.  :)

 

On Sunday night (May 1st), after Jed and I had spent the evening playing with his new toy basketball hoop, he said, “So, I need you to leave the house tomorrow morning from 8 until 9:15.” I thought it was very mysterious and exciting, and as I lay in bed I pondered on what he could be up to. But he is so sneaky, that after ‘reading’ him the next morning I couldn’t decide if we were leaving on a date when I got back or if he just needed to get something assembled for my birthday gift…  The next morning, he was up early and told me he would take care of the kids while I got ready for the day.  He had the kids dressed, beds made, rooms tidied, and was feeding them breakfast when I raced out the door just at 8am.  When I got back at 9:15 he escorted me from the car and into the van passenger seat, where the kids were all strapped in ready to go somewhere.  We dropped them off at my friend’s house and we headed off on our special surprise date!  I had no idea where we were going… maybe a movie or golf, or bowling or something like that? We started heading toward the airport but I just assumed that our activity must be in that general direction, although there really isn’t much there. But when we turned into the airport I was like, “What are we doing??” and he just smiled and said, "Oh, we're going to watch the airplanes for a while..."  It occurred to me that we must be picking up a surprise visitor!  But when we parked the car and Jed pulled out luggage, I was truly baffled. I thought to myself, “Surely we aren’t going somewhere?” He just smiled and bustled about, leading the way without giving me any hints.  It wasn’t until the check-in lady said, “So, you have a straight flight to Orlando,” that I realized that we were actually going to fly away somewhere… and LEAVE… like out of town… as in, we’re going on vacation… right now. WHAT?!! 

I was completely in shock!  I think I just stared at Jed with this “I can’t believe it” smile, and said over and over, “Are you serious?  Are you serious?”  While we walked to our gate I made him tell me every single detail and I found out that he had been planning this for the past week and a half, around the clock.  When my parents offered us their condo ‘points’ to use in the next month, he thought we just might be able to go out of town on the week that he was scheduled to have five days off in a row.  When he saw a great deal on tickets to Orlando, he decided to buy them and commit himself to it, and since he LOVES surprising me, he decided to make it one enormous, huge SURPRISE BIRTHDAY VACATION for me!  I can’t even believe all the effort and planning he did for every detail. He arranged for our kids to get taken care of until midnight the day we left, until his mother arrived in town (he flew her in to take care of the kids while we were gone).  He wrote instructions on our kids’ routines, medical releases for the kids, instructions to his mom on how to turn on our GPS and get herself home when she picked up our car in the airport parking lot… he had laid awake night after night thinking of what else he needed to do and writing lists of things to pack and arrangements that needed to be made, and added to all this, he actually PACKED MY LUGGAGE!  That’s what he had done while I was gone in the morning before the flight. He packed  every single thing I would have packed for myself and much much more! :)  He said he had to go through my summer bin that was still in the garage to get some capris and warm-weather clothes.  He packed a small corner of one of the suitcases for himself, and the rest of the two check-ins and the one carry-on was all dedicated to me!  I had more shirts and pants and shoes than I could have ever wished for. It was hilarious! I just had to take this picture of eight pair of shoes that I unpacked…  It was seriously amazing how he had thought of every minute detail – a few hand-selected necklaces, all my hair clips and headbands, all my makeup and getting-ready stuff (including bobbypins for my bangs when I wash my face, and pomade when I do my hair), two perfume bottles, and even my ENTIRE JEWELRY BOX securely closed with a strap.  How cute is he?!

We had a fun flight together  – It took me the whole flight to believe that this amazing exciting surprise was really happening and not just a dream!  We landed in sunny Orlando, found our cute condo/hotel, and went out to eat at Bahama Breeze restaurant, where we kickstarted our fun vacation with island music, Cajun shrimp, and the most mouthwatering virigin Pina Colada I have ever tasted or dreamed about. YUM!

We spent all day Tuesday at the Epcot Center in Disney World, and stayed for the evening firework show.  Just the two of us – no kids and not a care in the world! 

 It happened to be the 'Garden Festival' so there were lots of characters made out of trimmed shrubs...

 Visiting 'Mexico' at the Epcot Center.

 Playing with the interactive games.We had to put together a skeleton. Needless to say, I had a partner with some skilz.

 I found Rapunzel's tower and HAD to have a picture with it! :)

Wednesday morning we went to the most amazing outdoor water park ever (Typhoon Lagoon in Disney World) and went down all the slides together. We even got to put on snorkel gear and swim among sharks and fish in one part of the water park. We took off at lunch time and went to Cocoa Beach, about an hour away, and swam in the waves together. 

Wednesday night we went to the coolest miniature golf course ever! 

On Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom in Disney World. We really liked this theme park. There were some cool shows (Nemo "broadway" show, Lion King circus show, bird show) and rollercoasters and lots of neat animals.

 We went on a super fun safari ride, where the animals are right there next to you. Some animals kept wandering and settling down in front of the safari buses, and they would have to wait for them to move, so the ride was 40 minutes. I felt super lucky to get such a long, fun safari ride!  It was the perfect weather too - sunny but breezy and nice.

Our last night, Thursday night, we went to the Cirque du Soliel show. Wow.  There were acrobats, high trapeze artists, jugglers, gymnasts, bmx bikers, tight rope walkers, and all kinds of amazing abilities showcased. That was definitely a highlight. 

It was such a fun adventure!  I felt very loved that Jed would go to all that effort for me.  It was unforgettable!