last year Nacho hit the big 4-0. the year before, when i turned 40, we had planned to take a trip somewhere so i could surf for my 40th. i'd just always wanted to try it. not a bucket list kinda thing, cuz i don't have a bucket but i do have a list & it's not the type of list anyone or anything wants to be on. my list also ends in a T, but it doesn't start with a B. i digress yet again. so in my usual fashion, i cancel any plans for my 40th trip. have you seen me walk UP a flight of stairs w/o falling? never happens, so i figured surfing was $$ wasted on me. later that summer (2009) i decided it would be time, money, & effort better spent on TheMan! so i started a year in advance planning the Ultimate Surprise 40th Birthday Party EVER!!!
Dunaways provided us with the location because they'd been going to Flagler for years & put the kids in surf lessons a few years ago & the whole family just loved it - you can see Dan & his son Cole on the ZWave site. couldn't say enough about it. and since i've been trying to get TheMan to take a warm weather vaca for some time, i figured this was my chance! the more they talked about it, the more interested TheMan seemed so i knew that was where we had to go.
okay, so now i have to book us a place to stay & figure out how to get Nacho from Illinois to Florida without him figuring it out. remember he's always late, not stupid. so i finally find a really cool place right behind ZWave surf shop. i explain my plan to Vicki who owns the apartments & she agrees to let me wait & pay until we get down there. how nice! but then she offers to decorate the apartment that we rent with birthday goodies. really? i get my brother, sister & nephew to agree to meet us. the Dunaways are already there so they are gonna help out as well. here's where it got really tricky....
i have Nacho's co-worker Darrell promise to book his calendar for the days we plan to be gone. i also ask him to pretend to take vaca time as well so Nacho would not be tempted to plan something on his own birthday (July 10). about 1 week before the plan is set to go down, i find out Nacho has decided to visit one of his work facilities IN INDIANNA!! GOOD GOD MAN!!! so i have to go above Darrell & contact Nacho's boss, Todd, to try & get him NOT to go. Todd has to then contact HIS boss and somehow it finally makes it's way to the CEO of the company, all trying to help me keep Nacho in town. the CEO makes Nacho cancel the trip & he is not happy! but i listen & try to be "supportive" w/o losing it! so we're good right? nay!
the day we are to leave, Nacho goes to visit another facility they have about 30 minutes away. okay, fine, i ask his co-workers to schedule a 2p meeting so we can get him back to the office & i can show up & kidnap him. cuz 2p was the drop-dead for hitting the road - oh, i planned for us to drive cuz i hate flying so i had no intention of dealing with that! a little before 2p Darrell calls; Nacho has decided he won't be attending the 2p, got too much to do at this other facility **palm to forehead** long story shor...ah screw short, they all lie & say a big announcement is being made & he HAS to get back to the office.
Darrell smuggles me into the building & up to the conference room. here's where planning went down the tubes. so say your wife NEVER just shows up at your office. one day she does? do you think Happy Things or Oh My God Something Terribly wrong has happened? guess which one Nacho went for? i didn't think that part through, but if he'd done what he was supposed to do....so several "no no no there's nothing to worry about" and one SURPRISE later, we are out the door & in the truck.
but he still has no idea what is up or where he's going. he just sees the truck packed in the back & i'm driving so he can still attend a conference call. Flagler Beach is about 19 hours from here, so of course we didn't drive it all in one stretch. it wasn't until the 2nd day, right about Jacksonville, that he knew where we were going. you see i'm from northern FL & when we didn't hit I-10 heading West, he knew! but he had no idea MyFam was coming & everyone was waiting in the room. needless to say he was surprised! he even had a bottle of wine waiting from the CEO of his company. how cool was that?
i got him in surf lessons the next day & that was all she wrote! my warm weather vaca was a shoe-in! so where was i going with this? oh yeah, unfortunately we let the kitchen remodel this year get in the way of taking a trip sooner & when i was at the end of a very short rope, we snapped & said "let's bail!". and we were off to Flagler so Nacho could surf....and i could give it a shot too!
so where's the photo of Nacho surfing? well, i have a folder titled Nacho40, but nothing in it & i can't find the pics i took last year anywhere. as for this last trip....well....i didn't check the battery on my point & shoot & the only photo i got before it died was of a live sand dollar that i found first day. but how cool was that? and the only photo i got of us together, a little old lady was nice enough to take on my phone. so until i can find that 1 pic, i guess we all just have to assume Nacho really has surfed, but we only have proof that 1 of us actually has.
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