A "Wicked" Birthday Surprise

I was completely unaware that Neil had been planning my birthday for three weeks leading up to it. I should have known, though. Neil is the master of surprises, and this birthday was no exception. I had been telling Neil all month that all I wanted for my birthday was to go out to dinner. We planned to have Nathan and Andrea babysit Grace for us, but when Neil called to schedule it, he told me that they were busy helping a family member move. As a back-up, Neil decided we could have Sam and Spencer babysit Grace in the afternoon while we went out for just a few hours. Then, we would wait until his parents got home from the cabin later that night so we could go out to dinner. The morning of my birthday, Neil apologized because he hadn't really planned what we we would go do that afternoon. We decided at the last minute that we would go to the aquarium in Tempe. Neil has it easy surprising me here, because I still don't know where things are, and if he tells me that there is an aquarium in Tempe, I unknowingly believe him. We parked at a building that he said was across from the aquarium at ASU. Turns out it was the theatre that the musical, "Wicked" was showing at. I knew the show was in town this month because Nathan and Andrea went to it the night before. When I saw all the people flooding into the building, I asked Neil if before we went to the aquarium we could just step inside to see the set. He agreed, and as we were walking up to the doors, he handed me a ticket to the show! You can only imagine my joy if you truly understand how much I have wanted to see this show for the last three years. When I was a sophomore at BYU, I sang in the Women's Chorus when we performed three songs from "Wicked" during the football homecoming show. Later, I sang "For Good" to Neil for my wedding reception in Wyoming, and I sang it again for my cousin's funeral a year later. For never having seen the show, I was well acquainted with the music. Neil tried to get us tickets last year when they were in Salt Lake City, but they sold out within minutes of going on sale. I didn't figure he would get tickets now, because they are kind of expensive and we kind of don't have very much money;) Besides, Neil doesn't usually get excited about going to musicals. However, he did get me tickets to the show, and it was amazing. I won't say anything more, because if you haven't seen it yet, you need to see for yourself why it is so good. When we got in the car to go home, Neil put a CD in the player and the soundtrack to the show started playing. During intermission, Neil saw a vendor selling them, and just couldn't resist buying it for me. We've been listening to it every other day since then, and Neil always asks me to play "Defying Gravity" for him. On our way back home, Neil apologized again that I didn't get to go out to dinner like I wanted to for my birthday. I am on to him now. Any time he "apologizes" to me for something not being the way I expected, there is a surprise up his sleeve. Yet again, there was another surprise. We pulled into the Olive Garden where I saw, Nate, Andrea, Sam, Spencer, and Emily sitting at a table with the menus covering their faces so they could yell "Surprise!" when I got there. Man, it just couldn't get any better... but it did. Turns out, Nate and Andrea brought all their kids over to our house while we were at the show to help Sam and Spence babysit. While they were there, Andrea baked a birthday cake for me and bought my favorite ice cream. After dinner we had cake and ice cream and watched the kids dance around to the soundtrack of "Wicked." This is by far the best birthday I have ever had. Neil's going to have a hard time beating this one next year!