surprise!

Friday (June 17) was my 24th birthday; all week long, Dustin had been pushing and pushing me to decide which restaurant I wanted to go to for dinner. When he first suggested taking me to dinner for my birthday, I asked if we were going to hang out with everybody that night also. He shocked me by saying, "No, let's just have a date--me and you. Then Saturday night, we'll celebrate your birthday with your friends." Of course I was ecstatic--no offense to my friends!

So all week long I'm telling everyone (ok, kinda bragging, in a way) that Dustin's taking me on a date for my birthday, just me and him, blah blah blah. I dressed cute--thinking we were going on a date--then told him I wanted to go to my parents' house after dinner so I could see them on my birthday. He kept trying to get me to change my skirt--"in case we go to like Hot Shots or something after dinner"--since it was a little on the short side, but I never even caught on.

We got to Friday's and as we're walking up toward the restaurant, I'm looking around and just chatting away. That's when I looked up at the restaurant and noticed a familiar person standing outside. "There's Krack!" I said, wondering why he came all the way to South County from Breese to eat dinner. Then, "There's Cliff...and Carly...and Becker...what did you do?!" "Surprise. Happy Birthday." Dustin and Carly had orchestrated--all week long--to throw me a surprise party for my birthday. They got about 15 people up there at the restaurant to surprise me. I've never had a surprise party in my life!

Dustin, you told me last week you were going to make sure I had the best birthday ever, right? Well, mission accomplished, hon. Love you. :)
(Thanks to all his little "minions", too! ;)