Homerun!

I love surprises. Love, love, love, love them. No matter how big or small, the preparation and forethought that goes into planning a surprise makes me feel like a princess.

Last weekend, Paul and two of his buddies decided to surprise their wives with Twins tickets and a night downtown (no kids!) for no particular reason. I love my husband! Love, love, love, love him.

Here's how it went down. Paul went fishing Saturday morning with a work friend, and I expected him back around noon. At about 11:00, he called me and instructed me to put on warm clothes and pack two bags: one for the boys and one for me. He then gave me the specifics of what my bag should contain (clothes for dinner, toiletries, pajamas, clothes for Mass) but no other information.

So I packed. And repacked. And repacked. It's hard to decide what to wear when you don't really know what you're packing for! When Paul arrived home, we threw everything in the car and drove off. Halfway to Burnsville, I surmised that we were dropping the kiddos off at Grandma and Grandpa's house. An earlier interrogation had lead me to believe that our outing involved the kids, but it turns out Paul's cryptic answer had only meant that they were "involved" in the drive down to my parents house for a sleepover, then we were on our own!

We met up with the Ten Eycks and Cahills and carpooled toward Minneapolis. At this point, we started guessing Twins game, but the men were still elusive. ("I think they're actually playing in Toronto today. We're going to Itasca State Park. Oh, and dinner in Duluth.") Yeah.

Then... "We're here," said Luke as we pulled up outside a hotel in the heart of Minneapolis. The pieces were starting to come together! When we spied an envelope labeled "Twins Tix" we finally knew for certain. Target Field, here we come!

No matter that it misted for nearly the entire length of the game, no matter that I drank hot chocolate instead of ice cold beer, no matter that the Twins lost miserably in extra innings, we had a blast. We are Minnesotans, no amount of coldness and sogginess would keep us down! That is, until the twins were losing by 6 in the 11th inning and it was still raining. Dinner, anyone?

We went back to the hotel to dry off and change for dinner. Hell's Kitchen was packed when we arrived, so we crowded around a little table in the bar area and listened to live jazz until our table was ready. Dinner was delicious, the decor was... interesting...



but the company was spectacular.



We met up for Mass and brunch in the morning and then finally the spell was broken. Back to real life, back to parenting. We returned home to pick up the kids, and only then did I realize how much I had missed them! Overnight doesn't seem like much, but in an average day my only hours separate from my kids are when we are sleeping. So that's generally no more than five consecutive hours without seeing one or the other!

I cherish the rare time spent with Paul alone, worry-free and responsible only for ourselves. We need this time to recharge and reconnect, but every bit of me was rejoicing when the kids snuggled into my arms after a full day apart. I appreciate my children more now that I spent some time away, and I appreciate my husband more because of the beautiful children we returned to.

Everybody wins.

Except for the Twins.