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04/24/08 From Denise Cooper:

 

Okay, I'm finally getting around to writing it all out. Sunday I believe we left for my aunt's house around 11am. The plan was to stop there and drop off all of our stuff and then head to the first surprise. 

 

Once we got to my aunt and uncle's house and unloaded everything I found out that my great grandma was still at the nursing home (she hasn't been in the best of health for awhile now and after a trip to the hospital she went to the nursing home and has been there for close to 2 months and I had yet to visit her). So Noah and I stopped by the nursing home to see my grandma (and since Noah had been wanting a milkshake the whole way to my aunt's house, we stopped at a Culver's and got a large chocolate milkshake for him and brought a small one for my grandma) before we continued to his first surprise. I felt bad that I was taking away time from Noah and his surprise weekend but there was no way I could come all the way down there and not visit her. Noah was completely understanding and supportive, knowing it's been harder and harder for me to see her because I can't stand to watch her health continue to decline. I'm getting watery eyed just thinking about it. So anyway, about an hour or so later we left and headed to Belleville, IL (which was only about a half hour away) for his geeky surprise. 

 

Once we arrived and Noah saw that we would be playing laser tag, I think he was quite surprised that I first of all chose this and second of all would be playing. Before we started playing we grabbed a bite to eat at the pub attached to it. Then we bought our passes for an unlimited number of games. Once we got to start our first game, we first entered a black-lit room where they gather all the players and make sure everyone knows how to play, then you get to move into the next room where all the vests w/ laser guns attached were hanging. You could pick any one you wanted but you didn't know what team you would end up on (although later we found out that they printed out sheets with your scores and on those sheets they show what numbered vests are on what team). After you got your vest on you moved into another room that was quite dark w/ 3 different floors that were divided by walls w/ lots of windows. To sum up the first game, it was basically a learning experience, a good example being: I learned that people with the same colored vests are on your team and you shouldn't shoot at them. Noah had some bad luck and his vest died at the beginning of the game (but at the time we didn't know what was wrong with it). I believe we both got better with each game. And you don't realize it while you are playing but you work up quite a sweat. By the 3rd game I got pretty into it and I crouched down low under the windows as best I could so I wouldn't get tagged. The next couple days afterwards I sure felt it! My legs were so sore. NOTE: While playing in the arcade between laser tag games, we discovered that the batteries in my camera were dead so Sunday, we didn't get any pictures.

 

We got back to my aunt and uncle's about 9 or 9:30 that night and found the two of them along with my cousin and his wife all lounging on the back deck. So we sat down at the table with them and ended up talking until 11 or 11:30pm. Turns out my cousin is more of a geek than Noah is when it comes to video games! Who knew?! At times the two of them were off in their own little world talking to each other about games. By the time we were all done talking, Noah and I were ready to pass out because we were so tired.

 

Monday morning we got up around 7am and got ready for the other surprise. We managed to be ready, have everything back in the car, and on the road on time! In fact we arrived at the zoo early. I was definitely more excited about this surprise than the laser tag since it was closer to my interests. When the tour guide finally met up with us at the welcome desk, I told her that Noah still didn't have any idea what we were doing and so she let it be a mystery all the way up until we arrived at the penguin exhibit. Once Noah found out that we were going behind the scenes he got a huge smile on his face (and this was before he found out that we would actually get to touch some penguins). Overall the tour guide did an awesome job and Noah and I both enjoyed it. One of the penguins even left Noah with a parting gift (poop on the pants). We spent the rest of the day at the zoo and had fun. The weather was perfect and the zoo had hundreds of tulips in bloom all over. It was definitely an all day event and we were so worn out by the time we left to head home.

 

Oh and the pictures showing Noah and me with the penguins unfortunately didn't turn out. We do have pictures of penguins up close though!

 

Enjoy!

 

Denise