October is a big month for Jon and I. My birthday is October 5th, obviously the most important day in the month. We also celebrate our anniversary in October. On top of those two occasions, his mom, his sister, my grandmother and his uncle all have birthdays in October. Jon's mom lives allll the way in Massachusetts and I know it must be hard for her to be apart from Jon all the time. So, last year when he called to wish her a happy birthday I realized that this year (2011) was going to be her 50th and we should do something good. Once I pointed out the milestone to Jon, he said it was also going to be his sister's 21st, another milestone. We talked about it and decided we would save up and fly out to see her, as a surprise. We involved his Nana and asked that she plan some type of a birthday party for his mom so we had somewhere to show up at.
Over the past couple of months, I have been a nervous wreck that somehow the surprise would get out. I had told my friends here in Hawaii that I was leaving and my mom had told my family in Massachusetts I would be there. I am friends with Jon's family on Facebook and I was so nervous that someone would wish me a safe trip to Boston and then Jon's mom would see it and I'd cry. So, about a week before we left, I blocked every single one of his family members on mine and his and changed our privacy settings so you couldn't search for us on Facebook. Then, being even more paranoid, the day we left, I deactivated both our Facebooks to be 100% sure it wouldn't be revealed.
We flew in around 6pm on Friday night, the party wasn't until 5pm the next day. We got to fly in at sunset and I got this epic picture from the airplane over Boston Harbor.
We were so unbelievably anxious to see whether or not we pulled off the surprise. Luckily, my friends picked us up from the airport and kept us entertained Friday night. Then, on Saturday, we drove all the way down to New Bedford from Braintree just to get our favorite hot dogs at Gary's Best. Even after doing that and driving around aimlessly, we ended up with like two hours left and watched reruns of Bones waiting for the time to go by faster. Finally, it was a little before 5 and we could drive over to his Nana's house where the party was happening.
We came around the corner and Jon yelled out "Is someone having a birthday party?". Everyone seemed to just be in a state of shock and I couldn't even see where Jon's mom was. I finally saw that she had her back to us and she was leaning against the table with her hands covering her face, crying. It was perfect! All the fears that we didn't pull off the surprise went away.
We had an awesome trip home and the best part was getting to eat all of the food we've been missing. For me, it was mostly seafood- fried clams, stuffed quahogs, steamers, LOBSTER. For Jon, it was Chinese food from our favorite- Orchid of Hawaii. And we both enjoyed getting hot dogs from Gary's Best in New Bedford and getting to go to Dunkins EVERY morning.
We also go to go up to Salem, MA. It was my first time there and such a cool time of the year to go because it was right before Halloween.
And we spent our last day in Plymouth, MA which is where we had our first date. So that was also tons of fun. We acted all touristy and visited the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock too.
I had an awesome time visiting with family and friends but I was so happy to get back to beautiful Hawaii. I am proud of where I'm from but so happy with the choice we made to move here. I will be posting again soon with some wedding updates and hopefully some recipes! I haven't been cooking much because as I said, October is kind of a crazy month for us. I have the day off today and just stocked the fridge (finally) so I'm hoping for some yummy dishes in my future.
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