A Perfect Weekend

What makes a perfect weekend? A weekend without kids, of course. Brent and I had the rare opportunity to experience one of those just this past weekend. Our weekend away ties into Brent's birthday, so here's the whole story.

Brent's birthday was last Thursday. He's 33 now. (He's getting up there, isn't he?) I took the kids to the dollar store and let them each pick out gifts for Brent. I gave very few opinions and mostly let them buy whatever they wanted. Brent got some interesting presents.

Brittany made a birthday poster. A Hulk Hogan snorkel and Iron Man water toy from Damon.
A car wash sponge from Brooky. A parrot hat from Brooky.
And Checkers, also from Brooky.
Brittany gave two giant dice and a giant frog pen...
...and a pair of funny-face glasses.

As for gifts from me, I gave Brent a book he wanted about Parley P. Pratt and some cash to buy a new backpack for backpacking. Brent knew he was getting these items and I really wanted to surprise him with something. Its so hard to do that, he's so smart and always guesses what I'm giving him. Through all the birthdays and Christmases I don't think he's ever been truly surprised by anything I've done. So I was determined to have the element of surprise this time. I decided Brent and I needed a weekend away. I made arrangements with Karen (Brent's mom) and Grandma Audrey (my grandma) to take care of the munchkins. I contacted one of Brent's assistants at work and told her what I wanted to do and to have her make sure he was done for the day by 3. (Thanks, Katrina, for making it all work.) My plan was to just show up at Brent's Ogden office and "kidnap" him. He thought he had patients scheduled until 5:00, but he was actually done by 3. Katrina put some "pretend patients" on the schedule so he thought he would be busy all day. Brent was surprised to see me when I walked in and asked what I was doing. I told him I was there to kidnap him and he said, "Tam, I have patients." I said, "No, you don't." and his staff was standing right there to back me up. Brent was surprised so my goal was accomplished.

We headed south to Lehi/Thanksgiving Point. We stayed over Friday and Saturday night and went home on Sunday. We went to Cabella's where Brent got his new backpack and we did some other shopping and tons and tons of eating. It was so much fun. We've vowed to do that more often. Did I mention we ate a lot?

The added bonus was to return home and discover that the kids had been really good. Karen said there were no problems and I believe her, she's not the type of grandma to lie about misbehavior. It's nice to know the kids had a good weekend. I didn't worry about them at all.

Again, thank you to those of you that helped me pull this trip off. Brent was definitely surprised.