Husband of the year...

I think my hubby wins the prize for "Husband of the Year". He, along with 5 other hubbies got babysitters and secretly planned a fun scavenger hunt for me and 5 of my closest friends. None of us had a clue of what was going on. I was only told that we were doing something on Saturday. That was it. We ended up having a blast! Us girls were sent just about everywhere in the city, met lots of interesting people, stopped for ice cream, made a trip to the liquor store, delivered some groceries to a needy family and at the end of it all, ended up in a beautiful home where our husbands had prepared a FANTASTIC dinner of chicken scampi, french baguettes, cesar salad and asparagus. How great are they? And they paid a pretty penny too. They are the best. Here's how the day went:

I was driven to my friends house by my hubby and told to "get out of the car". Kinda rude, but okay. I watched from the driveway as he drove away, kinda baffled. A couple of my friends started showing up and we all just looked at eachother and then started to try and figure out what was going on. We went inside the house and 3 other girls showed up, kicked out of their cars as well, completely baffled just like the rest of us.

About 10 minutes later, the second counselor in the ward pulls into the driveway with his huge van. His 17 year old daughter was sitting in the front seat. He told us to get in and buckle up. We all piled in the van and started drilling him for answers. He was very good at staying tight-liped about the whole thing...dang it. He drove us to the mall parking lot, handed us an envelope and sped off, leaving his daughter there with us holding a video camera. Inside the envelope was a key to a Chevy. All the clue said was something about holding the keys to their hearts and finding a car to go along with the key to find our next clue. WHAT THE HEAK! We figured out that it must belong to one of the girls Saburbans. We started walking around to find it and decided to split up because it was absolutly FREEZING. We found it alright....on the OTHER side of the mall! ...Stinkers... The boys tried to spy on us but didn't do a very good job. We saw them in their very inconspicuous Hummer (insert sarcasm here) many times. It was pretty amusing watching them all duck down when we passed.

Inside the car was clue #2...along with props... Inside the envelope was a disposable camera and instructions to take at least 10 different pics with 10 different strangers...we had to use the costumes...uggg... But this could be fun...right?... To throw them off (because we knew they were following us) we didn't go inside the mall like they assumed we would. We drove to the photo shop where we were to develop the film instead to take pictures there. We had a LOT of fun taking pictures...maybe a little too much fun. Here are some of them...

We went to the beauty school to have some fun and I got this hillarious shot sitting next to an old lady that was totally snoozing while under the dryer...SO funny.

Just down the street was the state liquor store...that should make for some interesting photos... Here are those... I do have to explain the Vodka... I actually did have to go in to make a purchase. I needed Vodka for my cakes. Really! You mix it with this edible dust called "Luster Dust" and it makes kind of a paint to spray on the cake or paint what you need to. That's how you get the chrome-looking details or the sparkly, shiney finish on some of the fancy cakes. The alcohol evaporates quickly and that is why it's ideal. If you mix the dust with water, it just clumps up. Don't worry, you don't eat alcohol...it all evaporates. Anyway...we had fun taking pics with my Vodka bottle:

We took the pictures to be developed and again, spotted the boys in their very inconspicuous White Hummer...

We had a little fun with the guys at the photo place...

We got our next clue to go to a specific park and use the GPS system that was given to us to find the next five clues that were scattered around the park grounds. We had an hour to kill while the pictures got developed so we went to go get some ice cream and chat.

We then headed to the park, tried to use the GPS, gave up and ended up just walking around the park and found them. We put all the clues together and came up with an address to pick up the next clue...Now the objective was to find our hubbies...

We went to the address, picked up the envelope and it had a puzzle piece in it along with another address. This continued until we had five puzzle pieces that showed a map to the city with a big "X" over the local grocery store. On the back were instructions to price very random and yet specific items. After we had completed this task, we were to ask the store manager to check it and obtain another clue. It was a lot of fun doing this... When we were done, we located the manager who presented each of us with a boquet of beautiful roses and a personal card from each of our husbands. Then, she gave us an entire basket full of groceries that was purchased by our husbands. After some smiles, tears, ooohs and ahhs (from reading the cards) we were instructed to take the groceries to a specific address in a neighboring city.

When we got to the location, we recieved another clue and informed the lady at the residence that we were instructed to deliver these groceries to her. She was very appreciative and we realized that our husbands had given us the gift of service and the wonderful feeling that brings. (How awesome are these guys?!)

In the clue envelope, we were told to follow our noses to a wonderful dinner that was being prepared for us at a close by location. We realized that one of our friend's parent's beautiful home was just around the corner.

We arrived at the home to find our husbands cooking away in the kitchen and setting the table. The food was absolutely fantastic! We spent the rest of the evening eating and laughing at the video that our friend shot for us. They even went as far as to go to the Cheesecake Factory and buy us the most AMAZING white chocolate rasberry cheescake on a oreo crust. (I've never tasted a better cheesecake.)

It was quite a night to remember. Our hats are off to you, boys. I can't believe that none of us knew what they were planning! We usually always figure it out. They even had these envelopes that each husband was given. Inside were their tasks that they had to do throughout the day to keep the scavenger hunt going. Now us girls have to top it next year!