Surprise, Dan!

Oh man... I have been holding this secret in all summer long! On Saturday, August 23rd I pulled off a surprise party for Dan at ESPN Zone in Chicago! I have been planning this party since April... and it feels so good to finally have it out! It's hard keeping in a good secret... especially when it is a secret that you have to hold in for months! The final moments were the hardest, but I am so grateful that I was able to keep cool and make everything work out. Whew!

So here are the details: On Saturday I took Dan downtown so that we could celebrate his birthday. Each year we a plan a little special something for each other on our birthday and since we were in California for Dan's birthday I pushed back our little celebration for him to the 23rd. I wanted to take him somewhere fun, so I picked ESPN Zone in Chicago. All along he thought it was only him and I going out... when actually his best friend from college (Myk) had a group of Dan's friends and family waiting for him at the restaurant! Dan was very surprised when we got seated at a table with 12 unexpected guests! His sister (Stefanie) came down with her husband (Thomas) from Minnesota, his other sister (Mandy) came from Wisconsin, and Myk came in early from Colorado just for Dan's party! There were also camp friends, school friends, church friends... it was a wonderful bunch!

A special Thank You to Myk for helping me plan this awesome surprise for Dan and thank you to everyone who came out and helped make Dan's 21st birthday a birthday he'll always remember!