Surprise!

On Thursday of last week, I had my own plans for how our anniversary weekend was going to turn out. I was going to bake a cake and buy Kevin a present. And I had two days to do it, as Kevin was going to be at work all day on Thursday and all day on Friday.

I knew he wasn't taking Friday off, even though it was our anniversary and would have been a really great idea - as it would have extended a three day weekend into a four day weekend - because we had already talked about it, and he told me that he couldn't afford to take the time away from work.

So Thursday morning, I was at home with the boys, doing some general house stuff to get ready for a nice weekend at home, and putting together a shopping list for some great dinners and a fancy cake.

While the boys were napping, though, Kevin called and my plans started to change.

He asked me if I would like to go camping at Salt Fork State Park for the weekend. I told him that was fine, so he asked me to start getting things ready - do the laundry and pack and all that. I was actually already halfway through the laundry - so I agreed.

Camping called for a revised shopping list, since we would be eating different food, but I was still committed to the cake.

When the boys woke up from their nap, we went grocery shopping. I bought a ton of camp friendly foods. We came home, and I started baking the cake while I was making dinner.

Then Kevin came home and changed my plans some more.

He said to me, "Oh, I guess I didn't tell you on the phone that I'm taking tomorrow off."

This was great because it meant that we had an extra day of vacation and that he didn't have to work on our anniversary. But it also meant that I was out of time to shop for his present.

I asked him if he had booked our campsite already, and he said he had "made a reservation." Only the way he said it, I thought it was an odd way to answer the question.

So, we went along getting things ready for our trip, me packing clothes and Kevin doing the dishes. Which I thought was odd. Shouldn't he be getting the tent and camping gear ready? But, any time he does dishes, I don't complain.

He tells me that he wants to get an early start the next morning. Like really early. I ask what time check-in is at the campground, and he tells me 7:00 am. Which I think is odd, but I can understand - knowing my husband - if there was no one on our site, he could talk them into letting us have it early. And why would there be someone on our site? It was Thursday night, after all.

By this time we had put the boys to bed. I had packed up the Pack 'n Play for Lex, a beach bag with bathing suits and beach towels, a diaper bag, and I had gotten clothes together for the boys, when Kevin told me, "We need to talk."

That phrase triggered the usual anxiety, and then Kevin said, "I don't know how to say this. We aren't going camping. We are going to New York City."

His plan had been to drive us the next morning towards the campgrounds, and then tell me where we were really going when we blew past the exit for Salt Fork State Park. But then he realized how much extra packing a camping trip was going to take, and he felt bad about making me do all that extra work.

As it was, I had to repack clothing for the boys. A trip to NYC requires very different clothes from a camping trip, obviously. First of all, I no longer needed the flannel jammies for the 60 degree nights in the tent.

By the time we got the last bag packed with all the clothes and toiletries, it was pretty late, and we wanted to get a very early start the next morning. So, I took the two cakes that I had baked, wrapped them up and stuck them in the fridge. I figured that if they were good when we got back, I would finish decorating the cake. If not, I would start over.

I am now on the way to the kitchen to determine whether or not the cake survived the weekend in the fridge.