Disclaimer: This post is about the surprise that our eldest daughter planned for David’s birthday- so David will be writing today’s post:
I consider myself a relatively intelligent individual. However, as I have aged, I have come to recognize some good traits about myself and some decidedly not so good traits about myself. One of the more amusing “not so good“ traits is how clueless I can be when it comes to my wife and kids. Here is a good example of that:
For my 50th birthday Jenny arranged a special trip to Roswell, NM (see our post about that trip). We also visited three national parks on that trip as well. Arranging that trip involved a lot of planning. I am the planner in our family. I enjoy that aspect of traveling, so I am usually the one planning our adventures. Since this involved my upcoming birthday, I was more than happy to volunteer booking our hotels, arranging things with Frodo, finding dog friendly restaurants, etc.
Unbeknownst to me, Jenny and Julia, our eldest daughter, were already scheming. They secretly arranged for Julia to fly to San Antonio to surprise me. This involved booking separate hotel rooms at the same hotels that I had already booked for my birthday trip. It also involved Jenny disappearing for three hours one night to go to the airport to pick up Julia. Jenny and I don’t spend a lot of time apart. We enjoy spending time together and this is especially true living in a new area. Jenny came up with an elaborate story to get “alone” time and I wasn’t even slightly suspicious. Through it all I never even slightly suspected anything was amiss let alone imagine that Julia was coming to celebrate with us. This went on until my wife literally pulled up in the driveway. I went out into the porch to welcome her home and I saw a second person moving around in the dark. I was ready to charge forward thinking someone had followed my wife home. Instead, there stood my beautiful daughter sheepishly saying happy birthday! I was dumbfounded and could not believe she was here. I think it took me 30 minutes before it finally sunk in. Jenny and Julia both had a good laugh at my state of confusion. Looking back it was pretty comical.
I was not expecting a surprise guest, so I had not requested the following day off. However, after a quickly arranged request, my supervisor happily gave me the extra day. Jenny did not request time off work so that Julia and I could share some father-daughter time. It was yet another gift from my amazing wife and daughter. Julia and I headed out to see a little of San Antonio. First, we went out for a quick breakfast at our favorite crepe restaurant, Sweet Paris. Afterward, we went to the Riverwalk to take in the sights and enjoy a perfect morning stroll.


Once we finished exploring the Riverwalk we headed to The Alamo and then over to El Mercado. When you have half a day to explore you hit all the hot spots! We decided a pastry or two from Mia Terra was a necessity since we were celebrating my birthday together!

The morning and early afternoon went about as well as we could have hoped. Once we got back to the house Jenny had signed off of work for the day and we headed out on the road towards Roswell. I have a separate post discussing our delight (Julia and mine) at being in Roswell, but I figured it is worth mentioning in this post as well. We both had a blast exploring the city, and reveling in our love for aliens and all things space related. Having Julia there added another level of fun for me. She did not care what I wanted to do. She just wanted to make sure I was happy while we celebrated my birthday.

I am blessed with three wonderful children. We have had our ups and downs over the years as all families do, but I know how much they each love me in their own way. With that being said, I was beyond grateful that Julia’s surprise visit was my gift from her. There was a lot of driving that we did that weekend, but she rolled with it from start to finish. By the time we got back to San Antonio I had to stop and say a quick thank you to God. This was about as perfect a weekend trip as I could have hoped for. The fact that Julia was able to surprise me made the trip even more so. I will close by saying that I am grateful for so much in my life, but without a doubt being a dad to Julia, Savannah and Gage is the biggest honor and joy I have had as an adult.
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