Birthday Surprise

This year for my birthday my wonderful and amazing hubby decided to surprise me. He told me I needed to be ready and have the kids ready to be gone (and in something to sleep in) by 4:45. He wouldn't tell me anything else other than we needed to eat before hand because he wasn't quite sure when we would be eating next. Well, the time came and we all loaded up and drove toward the 60. (I thought we'd just be dropping off the kids at his parent's, but nope- I was wrong.) FINALLY, after driving for a while, he told me we were indeed dropping off the kids to be with his parents, but we had to meet them first at a T-shirt convention that they were at in Phoenix. (My father-in-law has a business selling screened and embroidered shirts, sweats, hats, etc.) After we dropped off the kids, we headed downtown and I started going crazy not knowing my surprise yet. Finally, after parking and walking a few blocks he gave me the hint of "The only thing your surprise cost me was the $12 for our parking." I had it figured out- he was taking me to a Suns game!

Back Up to August: At Jeff's wedding reception, Tom M., the former athletic trainer for Dobson High School was talking with Cauley and I and we found out that he is now an assistant trainer for the Phoenix Suns and he said that if we ever wanted to go to a game, just to give him a call. Both Cauley and I filed it away in our memory box to be used at a later date, and I guess Cauley decided it was time!

After we found our envelope at Will Call, we were excited to make our way to our seats. We didn't quite know what to do as we not only had amazing seats, but Tom had also given us Guest Pass's. We asked the usher who directed us to an area down on the North side of the court just inside the black curtains. Feeling WAY out of place, we made our way down and through. The media area was right in front of us and so we tried going in there, but we told we had to make our way behind that. So we did. And we felt even MORE so out of place being in the VIP area. It was AWESOME food, but there were people in that room that we both felt we should know, but didn't quite recognize. (It was mainly people's family members who were there.) Can you say AWKWARD!!! After we finished eating, we made our way out, just in time to realize we were right next to the Suns locker room! They had all come out and were doing a pregame huddle/jump/dance thing before running past us, giving high fives as they made their way to the court for their pregame warm ups. We caught Tom as he headed out and talked with him for a minute before we too headed out and to our seats.

The first half of the game was ok. There wasn't many people there, and not many of the fans there were really into the game. Besides, when the buzzer rang, ending the first half of play, the Pacers were winning. Jenn, Tom's wife, found us almost immediately and escorted us down to the VIP area the back way (to avoid everyone in the isles.) We got to talk to her for a bit before the Suns players came out to get ready for the 2nd half. We got to see all of the players and coaches again, and even got to talk with Tom once more before we went in and ate some more food. This time we sat and talked with someone's wife and son who had 2 of his friends there with him. It was fun, but we missed most of the 3rd quarter. We stocked up with cups of Sprite, water bottles, and popcorn before heading back to our seats to watch the end of the game. The 2nd half was so much more fun as most of the fans had finally arrived and it got LOUD! The Suns came back and ended up winning, although my 30 year old brain can't remember the final score.

We decided to head home after the game to relieve our sitters instead of heading back to the VIP area once more. (We were so full anyways, we'd probably look funny just standing around in that room!) Thank you so much Cauley for such a memorable birthday surprise!