No stress or anything....my brother's girlfriend just did a mega round the world vaction for his 40th about 6 months ago....
And Andrew is not exactly the easiest person to buy for OR to surprise....he isn't a fan of parties (esp parties with him at center stage)....and so I had a dilemma that I have been stressing about for oh maybe 6 months or so.....
Eventually, I settled on a plan to take him on a hot air balloon ride in Sedona....it's different, memorable and it's on his "bucket list" (the balloon not Sedona!) so I made plans in secret....and honestly that was the worst.....it's so hard to keep a secret with Andrew!!!
We also did a few other things for him (he finally got his Long Board (although the kids tricked him and used an empty long board box to put his other presents in....they thought it was hilarious!)
...and put together a little memory lane book for him....which he says makes him feel like he is going to die soon (well ok then....??) The kids made him a balloon puzzle to guess where he was going....(it was very cute!)
And the kids got into making some fun decorations.....
Andrew will be glad that those photos aren't too clear!!
We also managed to find an ice cream cake that didn't have any chocolate in it.....(we actually had two as this one was only tiny!!)
And then Andrew and I abandoned the kids (into the care of friends, I hasten to add!) and set off for Sedona......after driving the few hours it takes to get there we checked into the hotel and soon after got a call to tell us that the Balloon Ride had to be cancelled due to "bad wind" .....yeah, erm, hello??? What the heck??? I've been planning this for months and I don't know about the possibility of cancellation due to WIND????????? Yeah kinda bummed, but what are you going to do. Andrew took it in typical good spirit...."I bet it was all just a joke and you never really booked it" (he knows it wasn't on MY bucket list!!) Anyway, we were kinda disappointed but since we were already there we headed out to drive around and see what else we could do for the day tomorrow.....
We drove around a couple of trails....watched some of the "pink jeeps" traverse some of the crazy parts (I'll have to find one of the videos and add it in here!)
Tried to take photos of ourselves.....(yeah not so good at that apparently)
And watched a beautiful sunset....
Oh yeah and ate the best chinese food I've had since moving to Arizona!!
The next morning....can't say I was disappointed not to have to be up at 4.30am, but still....we grabbed some water bottles and headed out onto another dusty, bumpy trail....we drove around for quite a while soaking in the views and peaceful, tranquil environment that is Sedona and then decided to brave a hike....not that we were dressed for it (not exactly planned for in the packing stage)...but it didn't look too strenuous...
Oh yeah,...that was until it was a billion degrees around the middle of the day.....
oh and then the part when Andrew decided we needed to scale the rock face to get to the top of the bridge (there was an easier way....which we found to come back down!)
But the view were AMAZING...
And we made it back to the car without dying of dehydration (just...)
We may not have made the balloon ride, but we discovered a love for Sedona and loved the time with each other....
So maybe one day we will find another weekend to cross that balloon ride off his bucket list....but in the meantime Happy Birthday Andrew!! (I had to include one "kid" pic!!)
