happy 30th, Aron!

Lest you think I am creating a duplicate post, I assure you I am not. For the last 8 weeks, I have been secretly planning an overnight getaway for Aron's special birthday and amazingly, it's been kept under wraps the entire time...well, almost. Let me back up. In early October, when we first settled into temporary housing, I began to think about Aron's momentous birthday and what I might do to make it memorable. After all, 30 is a milestone, right?! Knowing that my parents would be in town before Christmas, I decided to take advantage of their good graces and booked us a night in a Concept Suite at the uber-swanky Hotel Zaza (thanks to the recs of Patti and Rachel). I confirmed with Aron's boss that he could indeed have off Friday, December 21, without his knowledge. All was going according to plan, until I found out Thanksgiving week that his new boss, was about to become his old boss, and a new boss was stepping into the picture. I emailed old boss to make sure everything was still kosher with the event and he said yes, he would tell new boss. I continued making plans for our retreat, when on Monday of last week, Aron tells me that new boss will be in town on Thursday AND Friday of that week. I immediately panic in my mind, wondering if I should tell Aron, contact old boss, or new boss, etc. After some wise advice from my girlfriend Kathryn, I told Aron that night that we had plans for Thursday night and Friday and he could not go to work. He was absolutely *stunned*!! I was thrilled, like I said earlier, that I had been able to pull off this surprise (almost) without his knowledge. I only told him we were going out Thursday night and would be busy all day Friday. Thankfully, new boss knew about it all along and was only trying to throw Aron off the trail by saying he would be in town both days, when in reality, would only be in town Thursday.

Let the fun begin! I had written various cards for Aron to open throughout the time together, so we started with a card on the drive downtown Thursday night. Arriving at Sambuca, a remarkable jazz lounge (at the rec of Patti) in Uptown, we dined on delicious food and wine, listened to a talented singer and band play, while engaged in thoughtful conversation with our friend Brad (whose wife, Tammy, was also supposed to join us, but was too sick to make it). We slept soundly in our king bed at the hotel (we had to sell ours when we moved to Chicago and this experience made us realize How.Much.Better we sleep on a king), slept in, woke up, lounged around the room, ordered breakfast, room-service style, and watched "The Kingdom." After we checked out, we grabbed coffee at Starbucks, hung out there for a bit, headed over to the driving range so Aron could hit a bucket of balls with his new clubs, then headed to a local massage school for 1-hour massages, that turned out pretty nicely. We ate BJ's pizza for dinner, then headed back downtown to anticipate our last event of the night, seats at the Mavericks vs. Clippers basketball game. Aron was super stoked, but unfortunately, had been feeling worse and worse as the night wore on, so we had to forgo the game. We came home, chatted with my folks for a bit, then went to bed.

Thank you, mom and dad, for taking care of Maggie and giving us much-needed time away! We are grateful for your love and service towards us.

And, once more, happy 30th, my love.