Thank goodness I got him a good gift

I started the weekend thinking I had the best anniversary gift ever. Those pictures I gave my husband, I thought, were better than a hundred diamond rings. The truth, though, was that my husband was working on a gift that was just perfect … and much needed: A weekend get-away without the kids.

For months, Jon had been calling my friends, setting up babysitters and making reservations for us to go away for a long weekend for our anniversary. He surprised me with the news Thursday night that we would be leaving Friday afternoon. He took care of every detail.

The thing is that almost every person I see on a daily basis – and some on a not-so daily basis – new about this trip and no one slipped. I really had no idea.

This was the first time I have ever really been surprised by anything. When I had my baby shower or my bridal shower, I kind of knew they were going to happen. They were a surprise, but I knew they would happen so the surprise was not huge. This was really, truly a surprise.
Friday morning, our aunt came over to help watch the kids while we packed our bags. After nap time, we got the kids in the car and dropped them off at their weekend babysitter. By 3 p.m., we were on our way to our weekend get-away.

One of the things that is really endearing about my husband is that he loves cheesy, romantic things like giving flowers, writing poems … and booking vacations at couples-only resorts. Never in a million years would I suggest we go to "the land of love," but I'm glad he did because it was so much fun.

All through the resort there were couples walking hand-in-hand. The activities were geared to couples. Every day the resort had karaoke, dinner, dancing, a comedian and bands. They had couples games, like the newlywed game and couples trivia. Jon and I stayed away from that stuff, but we did archery, went horseback riding and ice skating. We went hiking, got dressed up for dinner, sat by the fireplace and went swimming. We did all this stuff together and had a great time doing it. Basically, we acted like goofy kids the entire weekend and it was a blast.

We didn't have cell phone reception and we didn't bring our laptop, so we were basically cut off from everyone. (Of course, the babysitter had the number of the resort in case of an emergency.) At first this was a little concerning, and by Sunday I was really ready to go home to see my babies, but in between we were able to relax and not worry about anything.

It was a much-needed get-away for my husband and I. He did a great job at making the plans and my friends did a great job of hiding all of this from me.

** See, I told you I would post pictures.