Rodger & Cortney: Happy SURPRISE!

Since January, I had been holding in a secret. I booked a 5 day trip to Orlando, Florida for Rodger's 25th Birthday, which landed in July. For 6 months I held this secret in. I couldn't believe it!

Tuesday, July 10th, Rodger thought we were going golfing with my dad at Oakridge. I secretly packed us the night before, left out most of the clothes I would bring for Rodger, so he wouldn't notice they were missing. I went to work on Tuesday, like any other day, and left early to go "golfing." I changed into golfing attire, but accidentally left my necklace on, see above, apparently this was a big red flag for Rodger. My dad pulled up, I told Rodger our clubs were already in my dad's car (another red flag), so we loaded in. Soon after we were in the car, my dad got a "phone call" from Fred, one of his good friends. He played it off very nicely and came up with a story of how he had to go pick up Fred from the airport, because he couldn't get a hold of his wife to give him a ride. My dad apologized a number of times and said it will only take a minute, and that we should be okay with our tee time, Oakridge was wide open. We continued on our way to the airport with normal conversation. My dad made a small slip and said, after I drop you guys off, I'm going to go see my brother, Doug. My neck started turning red, as it does when I'm nervous or embarrassed, and I carefully looked at Rodger, who was in the front seat. I could tell her noticed what my dad said and his mind started racing. He was getting uncomfortable in his seat. If only he knew!

We pull up to the curb and my dad gets out, as do I, saying I was going to move the carseats into the trunk. My dad grabs our suitcase out of the trunk and rolls it around to the passenger side of the car where Rodger was starting to get out, to allow Fred to sit in front. He sees the suitcase, pauses for a minute, and myself with all smiles says, "Let's go!"

I was so excited and thrilled and couldn't believe the day had come and I finally got that huge secret off my chest. He was so surprised, confused, anxious, any of the above. He desperately wanted to know where we we going....I made him guess, until he saw the luggage tag on the suitcase. ORLANDO, FLORIDA here we come!!

Rodgie was a little panicked at first, due to work purposes, but I reassured him that his dad and Holly were aware and ready to cover him while he was gone, plus we were still in the U.S. where he could easily use his phone.

We flew in late Tuesday night and got to our hotel, luckily it was right by a Denny's, so we grabbed dinner because we were starved!

Careful me was so nervous to book this trip in the first place, the room I got didn't fly with Rodger. It was just a simple La Quinta. We stayed there the first night and when we woke up, Rodger was on the phone, working his magic, transferring us to a different hotel. He said if he had to come home to this each day, while we were there, he would never want to. We laughed about it and still do to this day.

Here we are, happy as ever, in our new room at Disney's Dolphin.

Downtown Disney was a treat, in and of itself. We walked that most every night, enjoying the sights and people watching. Of course, I had to get my picture taken with Winne the Pooh. My all time favorite.

The first full day, Wednesday, we took a cab to some Outlets and did some shopping. It was a relaxing day, just what we needed.

On Rodger's actual birthday day, we went to Universal Studios. He wanted to celebrate with Harry Potter.

HP land was magical, just magical. The details and atmosphere were very impressive.

This ride, in the Hogwarts Castle, made me sick! My eyes were closed 93% of the time. Rodger sure loved it though.

The "Butterbeer" was delicious.

My favorite part of the entire trip was definitely coming out of the "Hogwarts" ride. It was POURING rain, I mean DOWNPOUR. We waited it out for about 5 minutes in the clasrobopic castle and I finally turned to Rodger and said, "Let's go." We walked hand in hand through the park just letting the rain devour us. Everybody around us was either running, standing under shelter, or walking with an umbrella or ponchos. It seriously was so much fun, not worrying about my hair, because let's be real, the humidity had killed it earlier, or my makeup, or the fact that we were completely drenched. I had never done that before in my life, just let the rain take over, and now it is definitely in my top favorite things of all time. As we were approaching the exit, towards "The Boardwalk" with all the restaurants, clubs, and shops, I turned to Rodger with a big smile on my face and said I am LOVING this. He couldn't agree more.
Rodger decided on Bubba Gumps for his birthday dinner. We walked in, soaking wet, and ate a delicious meal.

On Friday, we went to Blizzard Beach. We both came here with our families years ago, back in our fresh teenage years. We remember loving it so much, we wanted to go back. We thought about doing Typhoon Lagoon instead, the other waterpark, but we decided whichever bus came first (the free transportation to all Disney theme parks), that would be our decision. And it just so happened to be Blizzard Beach.

It was a blast!

The pictures below were from one evening where we went to Downtown Disney. We saw a movie, Ted, which was extra hilarious because of the two gentleman sitting next to us with the contagious laughs, and then enjoyed walking around seeing the live entertainment.

The picture above makes me giggle. This is where Rodger told me to take a picture of him, because he was looking "damn good." I couldn't agree more baby bear bear.