Sweet baby Nicolas turned 30 in August. Everybody say, “Awwww.” Okay, enough! Let’s cut to the chase… I. ROCKED. HIS. BIRTHDAY. PRESENT.

Earlier this summer (back when I thought it was going to be a low key summer), I decided that a 30th Birthday always calls for some sort of surprise. Many of my friends have been having surprise parties, but I thought that was a little too obvious. He’d be expecting it. And since he typically manages to ruin my surprises anyway, I didn’t want to risk it. I needed something new, something fresh, something bold. And then it came to me… a surprise getaway vacation!!!

First, I had to figure out how to get him out of work for my little present. I toyed with the idea of trying to call his boss, but that seemed like getting too much out of my control… and I don’t trust the co-workers not to slip. So I decided I would just tell him that we would be spending the week after the Triathlon in Seattle, seeing friends and family, and he needed to take the week off. He didn’t give me too much grief, though he thought it was weird since we had already spent one week there this summer.

Then I arranged for our friends to watch the kids. We were staying at their house anyway, so we wouldn’t have to uproot the kiddos. I had my mom book the plane tickets and accommodations so that the charge didn’t show up on our card (ahhh, yes, I’m smart, I tell you). I typed up kid-watching instructions, printed out itineraries and confirmation codes, and even forged his signature on the bottom of the kids’ medical release forms – all without detection.

The night after the Triathlon, I smuggled two carry-on bags outside the door of the guest room we were staying in (after borrowing them from our friends). I set my alarm for 3:00am, and got up in the middle of the night to pack our clothes. Then I tried to go back to sleep. You can probably guess how well that worked. The alarm went off again at 5:00am, and this conversation ensued:

Karli: “Honey… wake up! I have a birthday present for you.”

Nick: (unintelligible mumbling)

Karli: “Honey, you need to wake up. I have something to show you.”

Nick: slightly more coherent…“Why? What do you have to show me?”

Karli: “I’ve got a birthday present for you?”

Nick: “Do I really have to see it now? Can it wait?”

Karli: in a firm do-as-I-say mom voice “No. You need to get up now.”

At this point he clued in that he needed to get his act together, and he got up and got dressed. He was actually quite well-behaved from this point on, and didn’t even ask any more questions… just did as he was told. We threw the bags into the back of the car and started driving, and he still didn’t know where we were headed.

As we turned off toward the airport, he got a little more excited. I was able to keep the location secret up to the point where I had to print off the boarding passes, which I presented to him with a little “Ta-dah!” face.

We arrived Monday morning in Las Vegas, and stayed until Wednesday evening. We had some great food, spent a little time with some friends who live there, and did one of those Time Share sales pitches, so we could get tickets to the show we wanted to see.

We got to see Ka’, by Cirque du Soleil, which is hands down the best show we have ever seen. It was absolutely incredible, and completely worth the trip down, in and of itself. We stayed at the Luxor on the south end of the strip, and wore ourselves out by walking up and down the strip to the other end a couple of times. On Wednesday, before we left, we also went to The Price Is Right, Live, which is a stage show based on the real game show. Same games, audience participation, real prizes and gigantor name tags and everything. We had a blast, even though Vegas is a filthy place full of disgusting people who walk too slow. Let’s face it… we were kidless for 3 days… we could have gone to Death Valley and had a blast . A BIG thanks to Cheri and Darren for stepping up to the plate on that one.

So, Happy Birthday to Nick…. and here’s to trying to top THAT present in a year and a half… go ahead… I dare you!