Matt's Surprise Birthday last November

For Matt's 23rd birthday, I planned a surprise getaway for him. I arranged with his awesome boss to get him off work early on Friday. Little did he know...he was coming home to a packed-up car and going to LA! As I was driving, I kept pretending like I was going to exit in Santa Barbara, Ventura, etc. It was so fun teasing him! We finally got to the Pantages Theater and saw the musical Wicked! It was incredible!!! We can't wait to see it again. 

That night we stayed in the LA Temple apartments (thanks Alma & Ed!) and had donuts with Nana & Bobba the next morning (thank you very much Nana...yummy donuts are always a welcome treat)! They were all in on the surprises! Saturday was a peaceful day spent in the Temple.

Saturday night we went out to eat at a jazz restaurant in Bel-Air. Matt LOVES jazz music and we had so much fun dressing up and pretending like we were rich. (We do that any chance we get!)

That night we stayed with my aunt and uncle, Susan and Perry, in Santa Clarita. We had a fun time with them and all of their animals! We did breakfast with them and had a great time visiting. 

We got ready for church and then started driving...Matt had no idea where to! He was driving, and when he asked which exit and I told him, "Kanan Road," he knew we were going to see his Mission President! We went to church with the Hamiltons and had dinner with them and their beautiful girls. It was so fun to hear Matt and President Hamilton talk about all of the cities Matt had served in. I was able to keep up because I remember all of the cities from writing them on countless envelopes throughout those two years! What an incredible family. Matt and I decided that we want our future family to be like theirs.    

***My reason for this belated birthday post is as follows:

I had planned this birthday surprise for months. The thing that was hard was I couldn't do things ahead of time, because he would get suspicious! "Why are you packing our suitcases babe?" Yeah. Not too sly. 

On the day of the getaway, I had to work, pack our bags, fill the car with gas, load up, make sure we had our tickets, etc. Well wouldn't you know it, I woke up sick on Friday morning. So my perfectly-packed-and-planned schedule had to accommodate a doctor's visit and a trip to the pharmacy to fill my prescription for antibiotics. 

In all of this madness, I could not find our camera for the life of me! I searched high and low and was on the verge of tears because I really wanted to capture this weekend in pictures. I had to leave without being able to find it. We had to leave Santa Maria to make it to the play in time. I ended up taking pictures with the camera on my phone, and then buying a disposable camera. (When we came home I found the drawer I had put it in...sometimes I clean and stash things without thinking about it. So annoying!)

Oh but the story doesn't end there!

We used up the rest of the roll on that cheesy disposable camera so that we could get the pictures developed. I looked in my purse, and it wasn't there!!! Months pass. I figured out that the last place I had that Fuji Film cardboard piece of junk was when we had gone to Farmer's Market with my dad. I finally asked him last night if he had found a camera in his car and he said YES! It has been in his glove compartment this whole time. 

I believe that these pictures deserve to be posted after all they (and I) have been through.

Don't you?