One day, my husband decided to whisper a secret to his brother while I was in the room. Of course, I heard. I mean, it’s not like I was trying to, I just can’t help it. I love secrets. And thankfully, this was the good kind. He had booked us a romantic getaway for Valentine’s Day! That night, I admitted that I had heard about the surprise and begged him for more information. He gave it, rather reluctantly, but decided it was probably best for me to know about it so I could decide what the arrangements for the kids were. (We weren’t taking three littles with us on a romantic vacation!) Mom of 12 volunteered her house for the boys and Duchess went off to spend a couple days with her cousins. We invited The Frog’s brother and his wife to join us and we all anxiously awaited our trip.
Then, something interesting happened. The Super Bowl was scheduled for the day we would be driving into LA. In fact, our hotel was minutes from the stadium. The way timing worked out, it ended up not affecting us too much but we did get to see some fireworks and about twenty police cars drive around. It was an exciting night.
The next day was Valentine’s day and we boarded the Navigator of the Seas for our four night cruise. The ship was covered in balloons and hearts to celebrate the occasion and was full of lots of happy couples. We had fun playing games, watching shows, and eating. Our favorite part was the ice skating performance. Before the skaters came out, a hundred little drones flew above the rink and did a light show for us. I’ve seen drone shows on TV, but it was so much cooler in real life! Then, the drones went away and the skaters came out and they were amazing too.
While The Frog hadn’t kept the cruise itself a secret, he still managed to throw in a few surprises. He paid to have our room decorated and after our romantic Valentine’s dinner, there was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries sitting on our bed.
Unfortunately, my tummy was still way too full from dinner, but they made a delicious breakfast the next morning. Well, first breakfast, we were on a cruise ship after all.
We got off the ship in Catalina and Ensenada just long enough to buy gifts. We weren’t super impressed with either of the ports, but we didn’t really care about that part anyway. On the last night we headed to the gift shop on the ship to pick up a few last minute gifts and spend the rest of our ‘onboard credit’. When we entered there was a clearance table right at the front with some super cute jewelry sets. The Frog picked one up to check the price and quickly put it back down, “It’s over $100 still.” He said, so we looked elsewhere. As we were leaving, a mom and her little girl went up to the lady at the desk and asked how much the jewelry sets were. “They're only a dollar!” She yelled rather loudly, “Sweetie, grab one for all of your friends!” You know us Christensen’s, we can’t pass up a deal, so we ran back over to the table. Sure enough, The Frog had missed the little dot in between the one and the change. We let the girl and her mom go first, and then I grabbed a whole armful of clearance items. It wasn’t long till everyone walking past the store realized what was going on. The table was cleared before we finished checking out. It was crazy trying to stuff all of the things I got in our suitcases, but I now have my Christmas shopping done for all of my sisters.
Our trip was a blast. By far the most special Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had, and the kids had a great time without us. When we returned home from our last trip, the kids gave us a grand welcome. There was laughing and tears, hugs and kisses. This time, Duchess ignored us when we went to pick her up. She was having fun and didn’t want to go. The boys at least seemed pleased to see us, but mostly so they could tell us about all the adventures they had had with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a good week.
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