Dave's Surprise Weekend for his 40th Birthday!!!

Dada turned 40 last Friday!!! I knew I wanted to make his 40th birthday extra special. I actually started planning it clear back in October (I made an evite and I went back to see what day I created it... October 12th to be exact. Whew!) I think I talked to his friend Vicki about it right away... I figured people would think I was crazy if I started inviting them to something that was 6 months away!!! I knew it was going to take a lot of people to help pull this off. My plan was to have a bunch of his friends and family show up to celebrate with us. Understandably, not everyone that I invited were able to make it, but we still had a wonderful turnout and a weekend full of surprises!!

It started on Friday, his birthday. Me and Ashlynn had slept overnight at Primary Children's Hospital for her sleep study, I'll post more about that as soon as we have the results. I knew Dave's parents were flying in that afternoon and the zoo was also opening the lion exhibit (yeah, we totally renewed our membership, we love the zoo!!) and I knew we wanted to check that out. Since me and Ash were already up in Salt Lake I thought if the boys could meet us up there so we had two cars (so I could pick up his parents!!!) it would be perfect. I tried to stretch out our zoo visit as long as I could. Poor Ashlynn still had glue all over her head/hair from all the stuff they had hooked up to her at the hospital. I had Dave bring a hat but her hair still looked pretty bad. We had a good time, though. We finished up at the zoo a little sooner than I wanted to but we had to make it work. Dave and Ashlynn went home so he could give her a bath and me and Dawson went to the party store to buy some balloons for daddy's birthday and to kill time. We had almost an hour before Mema and Pepaw's plane landed plus it would take extra time to get their bags and stuff. Eek!

I was super excited once we had picked them up!! When we got home Dave and Ashlynn were upstairs in our bed, relaxing. I asked him to stay up there because Dawson wanted to surprise him by decorating. I finally went upstairs to get him (it felt like forever but really we had only been home for a few minutes lol). When he came downstairs Dawson jumped out and yelled surprise and then his parents came out. yay!!! That night we all went out (with some of my family, too) and had dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory to celebrate Dave's birthday.

His next surprise would come the next morning as we were getting ready to leave for the walk. His friend, Aaron and his family, drove here and got to their hotel at like 3am!! They were at our house a little after 7 to head to the walk with us. Aaron was in a gorilla suit, complete with mask and walked up to Dave. I can't remember what he said to him but Dave was so confused and didn't know who it was. When Aaron took off his mask Dave was so surprised!!!

So then we went to the walk, came home and had a little lunch and then went to Leatherby's with Dave's parents and Aaron's family. While we were there Dave's sister, Kelly and her husband, Pete walked in to sit down with us. Dave was super surprised to see them!!! Yay!!! 3 surprises in less than 24 hours and I still had one more to go!

After ice cream I pretended I was sick and me and the kids and Dave's parents came home. Everyone else went to see the Great Salt Lake. We quickly picked up the house and my mom brought some food that I had ordered (Brandee also brought some drinks and cake that my dad had ordered and picked up for me) and we got ready for his surprise party. A couple of his friends from work came and my family and all of the guests that we had here. :) Dave said he saw my dad's truck and thought something might be going on but he was mostly surprised. I call the weekend a huge success! We had a lot of fun and got to see and spend time with people that we don't get to see a lot. I hope Dave felt super special and loved because he IS!!!

I really wish I was better at taking pictures when we have a lot of people together!! My mom, thankfully, took most of these pictures. I'd love to have more pictures of us with Dave's family!!! Dave's sister took this picture of her and Ashlynn, I love it!

I am so thankful for everyone who helped make Dave's 40th birthday a memorable one! It took a lot of planning and I've been so excited that it's about killed me to keep it a secret!! I couldn't even tell Dawson!!! haha I love you, Dave, I hope you had the best birthday ever!!!