Our Anniversary Surprise

THANK YOU!

You know who you are! 

Thank you so much for giving John and I some time together.

For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, let me explain.  Our good friend organized an Anniversary Celebration for us.  We have come to find out that he orchestrated it, but many others were involved in helping him pull it off and in generously contributing their means to make it all happen. 

We were given only a few instructions on what to pack and when I was supposed to go to SLC to pick up John.  He assured us that he had set up babysitters from Friday to Saturday in both Logan and at Primary Children's.  I arrived at Primary Children's at 2:45 pm on Friday.  I picked up John and we were given a stack of envelopes.  Each envelope had a time written on it with instructions on when to open it.  We were so excited to be able to spend time alone, away from the pressures of the hospital. 

And the treasure hunt begins . . .

 . . . we ended up at the Downtown Marriott where we checked into our room and dropped off our bags.

We had time to just relax before we needed to

open the next envelope. . .

so we went shopping at the Gateway.

Our 5:30 pm envelope had us show up at Caffe Molise

http://www.caffemolise.com/

which was just around the corner from the Marriott.

Wow!  If you love authentic Italian food then this is seriously the place to eat.  We were graciously greeted and taken to our table where our waiter, John (ask for him if you ever go), took amazing care of us.  He brought us complimentary champagne and he laughed so hard when we told him we didn't drink alcohol.  He then brought us Italian sodas and a most delicious appetizer.  We enjoyed salads and our entrees.  Then, we finished it all off over an absolutely mouth watering chocolate mousse cake.  Yum.  You've got to try this place!

The next envelope was at 7:30 where we arrived just east of the Capitol Theater.  After a bit of a treasure hunt we found out that we would be going to The Lion King at the Capitol Theater!  We were thrilled!  We got in our seats and browsed over the program.  Then, to our amazement, John's cousin and his wife showed up and just happened to have two seats in front of us.  It was so much fun catching up with them. 

What a small world.

We got a little silly waiting for the show to start!

The Lion King is AMAZING!  The costumes, lyrics, acting, dancing, EVERYTHING was so enjoyable.  John and I love going to the theater. 

This was such an enjoyable time and we just kept commenting on how wonderful it was to be alone.  It has been difficult for our family to be apart so much.  The last 2 1/2 months has started wearing on us.  This wonderful gift, from all of those who had a part in it, was just what we needed at this point in our journey to buoy us up.  John and I haven't had this much time to reconnect and talk to one another since the first of June when Erin was diagnosed.  I am so thankful for my wonderful husband.  I am so thankful that we are married and that we are so in love.  I am thankful that he is such a wonderful father.  He spent the last 8 days alone at the hospital taking care of Erin while several of her caregivers were home sick and couldn't be around her.  I was so impressed with how well he did taking care of our Little Air Bear.  None of us had ever spent more than 3 nights at the hospital and he just did 8!  What a wonderful man.  I am so thankful that we can share this burden together. 

Thank you again, for helping us!