Surprises:)

If you know me well, you know I have a love/hate relationship with surprises. I love being on the receiving end, I hate anticipating them. I love thinking of surprises and planning them out, I hate having to keep them. As a matter of fact, I'm awful at keeping them. I sent Derek a package and wanted it to be a complete surprise. Not even two days later, I told him to be looking for something in the mail... awful I tell you, awful. I get too excited and I ruin it. EVERYTIME. Except this time:)

We said goodbye Friday night, June 1st. Saturday morning I flew out to Florida for my dad's wedding and I'd be home Monday and we weren't planning on meeting halfway until the next weekend, so two weekends from when we said goodbye. On Monday I realized I had Friday off, I really wanted to see him, I wanted to head out to Cali to meet his best friend and see where he grew up, so... without too much thought, I decided I was going. After a few text messages and acquiring the help of his oh-so-helpful-can't-imagine-how-I'd-do-this-without-her-sister Tiffany and his super cool best friend Brett, it was on. I was going to Cali! I booked my flights out there on Tuesday and had to sit and wait and be so careful about my words. I wasn't about to ruin this one! Although, I almost did. And the worst part, I almost did it on purpose, it was SO hard! BUT I managed to not only not tell him, but to also steer him in a completely different direction! I made him feel bad that we weren't meeting in Vegas that weekend and told him I'd be ok and that I'd just spend lots of time with my roommate and best friend. I thought I had done a great job until he started asking so many questions Friday morning! My flight was leaving at 2 and I started getting ready for all of it around 10... he asked me what I was doing... "Getting ready for the day", and hour later he asked what I was doing then... "cleaning my room" (lie), two minutes later he asked what I was doing after... "Hanging with my roommate" (lie), next question was what I was doing with her... "Seeing a movie" (lie). I thought for sure he was on to me. DANG it! So the plan was for Brett's brother and sis to pick me up from the airport and drive me back and I'd probably have a lot of time to just wait... didn't turn out to be the case. We were in the car for two and a half hours! But it was fun! We got there about 15 minutes before Derek did and we had to hurry and figure out our plan of action! We had so many different ideas and it wasn't until his car appeared in the driveway that we decided on one! I was going to hide in one of the bedrooms while they took Derek back to a bedroom in the back next to the family room. As he went back to the back and I quietly followed him, I began to freak out! I was so excited! I sat down on the edge of the couch and it seemed like he was in the bedroom for so long! Finally Brett's dad told him to come out and look at something. When he walked out he was smiling and laughing at something, but the second he saw me, his face dropped. Not exactly the response I was expecting. ( Later he explained that he was just so confused and had a hard time processing the fact that I was in his best friend's house:)) I ran to him and jumped into a big hug and then we sat on the couch while he processed what just happened. I loved it! I successfully pulled off a HUGE surprise! Afterwards we went and got dinner and played games and such for Brett's birthday. I loved meeting all the people Derek grew up with and watching home videos:) He then took me to where I was sleeping and we said goodnight. The next morning, we drove around everywhere and he showed me all of his schools and churches and we stopped and met old family friends. I absolutely loved seeing where he grew up, but it was so weird to think that he wasn't always in Utah. Afterwards we went to the big giant mall in Ontario... one of the craziest things I've ever seen! And then! We went to the beach! We went to Huntington Beach which is both of our favorites! The waves were huge! And so much fun! Hands down the best beach trip of my life! We drove back and hung out and played games and it was just so nice being in his arms again. He dropped me off with only a few hours until we had to be up again so I could catch my plane. Saying goodbye in the drop off lane at the airport was the hardest thing ever. My recommendation? Don't do it. You will cry the whole way in. That's what I did at least! But it was so worth it to spend the weekend in California with my man and see what his world was like when he was younger. Love that guy... more than words can say.