Brown Eyed Girl Meets a Blue Eyed Boy: surprise trip to chicago

So right after Jimmy and I got back from Cancun I had one day to unpack, enjoy time with the kiddos, and then repack for a surprise birthday trip for my mom to Chicago for the weekend.

My sisters and I have been planning this trip for months and we were so anxious for it to finally happen! It all started when I saw that Kari Jobe and Chris Tomlin were going to be in concert in Chicago the weekend after my mom's birthday and thought that my mom would love to go - it also happened to be at Willow Creek Church, which is a partner church to our home church, and I knew my mom would love to just go there too. So, one a limb I sent an email to all my sisters saying, what do you think about doing this as a girls trip to Chicago? To my surprise they were all on board and completely excited. Even my sister in Colorado was hoping to make the trip.

So the plans begun - I found us a hotel in a suburb semi-close to the hotel, airport and downtown. The others starting looking into great places to eat, things we could bring along, and the details all this trip would entail.

The most fun part was that we left everything a complete surprise until the morning of! Her morning started with a bright wake up from my dad and sister in law Kristle, she was handed a packing list and told that she had an hour to pack and get ready. From there she and Kristle took off and headed towards Iowa City. Meanwhile, Jacinda and I were leaving Des Moines and had a 10am meeting time with them just outside of Iowa City. We parked in the Wal Mart parking lot and waited for mom and Kristle to join us. As they pulled up Jacinda and I were dancing outside the car and mom was shocked! It was so fun to see just the genuine surprise on her face! So they hopped in with us and we were off to Chicago.

Mom kept thinking she knew where we were going. With Kristle she thought they were going to Cedar Falls, then it was Cedar Rapids to fly somewhere, then when they met with us it was staying in Iowa City, then Quad Cities, then Galena - she was positive it was Galena once we crossed into Illinois, and then finally when we were about an hour away she figured out that it was Chicago.

Once we got to Chicago we checked into our hotel and told her she had 1 hour to relax, get settled, and get ready before we were off. We all showed her what we were wearing so she'd have an idea of what to wear and then we were off again. Next stop was to grab Subway for dinner and then to the airport to pick up Kirsten. Out came the blind fold and ear plugs so she wouldn't know once we got to the airport!, and we ended up having to drive around a bit longer than planned, we kept tricking mom and throwing her off by opening and closing doors, driving around in circles, and after trying to figure everything out she finally relaxed and actually said she got sleepy with the mask on :) So when Kirsten finally arrived, flung open the door, and yelled "Happy Birthday" mom was completely shocked and at a lose for words! She truly couldn't believe Kirsten was there too. Funny thing when Kirsten pulled off mom's mask her wig flew off with it:) we all had a good laugh about that later on. So after some tears, some explanations, and lots of hugs, we were off to the concert. Mom again was surprised at where we were and who we were seeing and the concert blew us all away. It was so fantastic and entertaining - we were all so pleasantly surprised!

The next day we had planned to walk around downtown for some site seeing and shopping. It was a little cold so we were a little light on the site seeing, and time outside, and heavy on the shopping - which was fine by me! We all found some good deals and had fun just enjoying the time together and kid free! Later that afternoon/evening we had dinner at the Rock It Bar and Grill and it was so yummy - except that Kristle's burger may have made her sick later that night! We hit up Ikea on our way back to the hotel and then spent the evening talking, laughing, drinking wine and just having fun!

It was such a wonderful weekend with my mom and sisters. My mom is so very deserving of something like this and we were all so excited to give it to her. The genuine joy, shock and surprise she had was so worth it. All our hubbies and my dad were so wonderful to be 100% on board too - I think some of them were a bit jealous they didn't get to come and just as excited as we were - so cute! After weekends like that I am reminded how wonderful my family truly is and how blessed I am to be a part of it!