My birthday, Christmas, our wedding anniversary, and Shawn's birthday all fall within a matter of weeks. So, each year Shawn or I plan one big surprise for the other. Last year was Shawn's turn (it involved a shopping spree for me, a nice dinner, and a b&b). This year was mine! I started planning it back in June.

This past weekend was it- and it was SO much fun to have little surprises along the way. I thought I'd take you with me...in pictures of course!

We began driving...for 5 hours...to Dallas. So I experimented with my camera.

This is what you get if you take off your 50mm lens, turn it backwards, hold it nice and steady and shoot. Macro!

Finally we arrived at our hotel. I love Aloft!

The hotel has such cool, modern details. I could shoot there all day.

That night we went to Studio Movie Grill and watched Avatar. It was definitely worth it to see it in 3-D, although it made finding our food a bit more of a challenge. :) This is a terrible picture shot with my point and shoot. We tried to get a decent one, but figured the people directly behind us were most likely going blind from the flash.

The next day I only had dinner plans, so we just hopped from place to place depending on what we wanted to do next.

We started the day with breakfast at Ikea, which is typically only 99 cents, but this day it happened to be FREE!

After perusing the store, Shawn decided he needed some "man heaven". So we went here-

After that, we chose to visit the Nasher Sculpture Garden. (Yes, Shawn really did want to go.) It was free admission on Saturday, so that was an extra treat! It was such a refreshing experience. We spent a lot of time in the courtyard photographing the sculptures and each other.

The light was gorgeous.

Haha. We never get too serious.

I think I might change my title to include "bubble-ographer".

Yes, Layne, I stole your shirt. And I enjoyed wearing it. Thanks! :)

After that we decided to go see the "Bodies" exhibition we'd been hearing about. HERE's the main site. It was, um, interesting. More than anything I left in amazement that somehow God makes all of those bones and ligaments and veins work together to make a human.

After that, we had a few hours to kill so we went to Borders. Someone was tired, and someone was bored.

Then it was time for dinner! Neither us had ever been to Medieval Times, and we had a good time eating with our hands and cheering on the red and yellow knight.

After that, as far as Shawn knew, we were driving home the next morning. And after a yummy breakfast at Panera, we began to. Until I made an exit in Arlington. Here was the dialogue:

Shawn: We just exited. We're not going home, are we?

Lissa: Nope.

Shawn: ARE WE GOING TO THE COWBOYS GAME?? Oh my gosh. No way. (Hits me on the shoulder)

Lissa: Yep.

Shawn: NO FREAKING WAY! (Hits me on the shoulder again)

Lissa: Haha, yeah! We are going!

Shawn: OH MY GOSH. No way. (Another shoulder hit)

Lissa: Ok, you can open that present now!

Back in June, I had collaborated with his Mom and sister to get tickets for his whole family. As long as I can remember he's talked about going to a Cowboys game with his Dad. So we surprised them both, and somehow got them both to the stadium without spilling the beans! They were both shocked to say the least. We saw this face a lot.