Two weeks before Heidi's 40th birthday the Gummow crew decided to be in Utah that weekend so that Craig could take Catcher to a Jazz game for his birthday. Months ago, I had kind of toyed with the idea of putting together a surprise 40th birthday party for Heidi in Idaho, but after she booked a trip to Hawaii and then to Phoenix, I figured it would be too much. Once I knew she would be in Utah I started thinking about how we could get everyone together for dinner, and I didn't want to have everyone over at my house, but pretty soon I thought that maybe doing a real surprise party might be fun after all. I messaged family and decided that I would put something together. I was thinking I would do a party for about 20 people and found this room at a hotel close by my house and thought I could have Cafe Rio bring the food. Simple, easy, done. I had a "let's invite everyone" attitude since I figured with this late notice that not many people would come. But here is the thing-- by some magic everyone was able to! We even had people from Texas randomly coming through town on the day so that they could come too. Pretty soon I was expecting about 60 people! Yikes! I was worried that the room would be too small, but it ended up working out great.
I played it pretty cool, but Heidi started to get suspicious. My main reason for keeping it a surprise was because if Heidi knew what I was planning, she would have been anxious about all of these different people being in the same room. She hates mixing her worlds. I figured she would start to realize that something was up, but she would have no idea that the party was turning out to be so big. I flat out lied to her several times to take her off the trail. She believed me each time because I never lie to her. But we laugh now because all of the "suspicious" signs she saw actually had nothing to do with the party. She was clearly looking for signs of a party.
The whole thing just kind of came together like it was meant to be, and it was REALLY easy to put together. The day of the party Shari, Ashley, and Stella helped me put the whole thing together. I was feeling a bit sick. I had been consistently sick for almost two weeks and it was getting annoying so I was so thankful for these guys and all of their help. Then after going home for some rest we headed back to the hotel. All of the guests arrived on time and we just hung out waiting for the big surprise! I was so excited!
I was never really worried about how Heidi was going to get to the party. That was Craig's job. But it worked out great because Heidi wanted to go to the mall, so she and Craig went before dinner without the kids. I had told Heidi that we were going to have pizza at the Pizza Factory and she thought she was meeting Craig's family for dinner. She was a bit suspicious when they walked into the hotel, but as I guessed, she was completely surprised by the number of people that were in that room. Some people she hadn't seen in years. She was crying. She was smiling. It was the perfect surprise.
Back in the old days, Heidi used to come up with a shower game where she would write a cute story about the person that was being honored and then people would guess which candy bars fit with that part of the story. Initially, I didn't want to do a game or any kind of activity, but it just felt like the perfect way to have a little program. All the kids held candy bars while I told the story. It was delightful, except that I had temporarily lost my voice and sounded like a maniac. Ashley also brought things so the kids could take time to make Heidi a little card.
Picture of lighting cake
I decided to order the cake, and it was such a good call. Ashley organized all 40 candles, and they looked awesome all lit up.
We took so many pictures of Heidi and I with the balloons. I love them all. I truly don't know how I got so lucky in life to have this one special friend that just gets me. Our friendship is so perfectly balanced and she is such an important part of my life. It was an honor to be the person who got to throw her this party.
After most of the guests had left, the kids had fun with the balloons while we sat and chatted about all the details that I had needed to keep to myself those past few weeks. I tell Heidi everything, so I had tons of stories to share. We had a good time laughing at all of the things that had made her suspicious, and how those things had nothing to do with the party.
Overall the night was a HUGE success. It became much more extravagant than I had initially planned. But the number of people that were there was only a testament to how much Heidi is loved.
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