Bittersweet-ness/NYC '10 Part 1 of 293

I love, love, LOVE taking trips. There's really nothing like going somewhere with your best friends because, really, you could place us in the middle of nowhere and we'll still have the time of our lives. The one thing that's tough for me and vacations is that they all have to come to an end and I have to come back to reality. Cue Soul II Soul, "Back to li-ife; back to reality..."

This trip to NYC was unlike any other trip with the besties because it was a surprise for our Lena's 30th birthday. =) If it wasn't for the surprise part of it I would have had a 4 month countdown to April 14, 2010 on here. Work has been so draining right now so anticipation for this trip was like anxiously waiting for my wedded bliss to a certain Criminal Minds stud muffin. (I've been wanting to insert a reference to him for awhile, but didn't have an appropriate time till now...he's so dreamy...) This trip will have to be divided into a few posts due to all the pics, the random adventures, and the abundance of laughter-inducing moments, so I'll begin with this video of the actual surprise, but first here's the background details that lead up to this moment...

We all have been trying to brainstorm about what to do for Lena's big 3-0 since last year. She's the first of our group to hit the big milestone in life so we wanted to do something BIG. In January, we decided NYC would be awesome. Most of us had been there already, but not all together so it seemed perfect. Then we decided to make it a surprise: Lena wouldn't know where she was going or who was going. Besides her and Erin, all the rest of us live in other states so she wouldn't really suspect we would all be able to take time out of crazy life to go somewhere. Little did she know that we got on board: Sheena from Wisconsin, Jaci from OKC, and me and Jamie in Austin.

So exactly a month from April 14, Erin gave Lena a letter that said that she needed to take this amount of time off on these days, she can't ask any questions about it and Erin would let her know what to pack when the time came. The letter mentioned that she could either be flying, driving, or boating somewhere...she wouldn't know anything till the day of. Sneaky us would randomly email or text Lena to throw her off a little and get her thinking that we have nothing to do with it and that we're excited for her and that she's gonna have a great time.

Wednesday, April 14th arrives. Erin and Lena wake up pretty early. Erin's mom is waiting outside to take them to the airport. Lena still has no idea that she's going to the airport and Mom McGee did a great job confusing her even more on the way. They get to LAX...Lena now knows she's flying. Erin checks them in and then shows Lena her ticket. Lena gets super stoked: she's going to New York and will get to hang out with our friend Nicole who lives there. Awesome...Just wait, Lena, it's gonna get radder... 30 minutes before landing in NYC, Erin gives Lena a card from Sheena that reads, "See you in 30 minutes!!" Lena is shocked and super happy. Erin, Lena, and Sheena meet up at JFK airport.

Lena thinks that's the last of her surprises...

In the mean time, Jamie and I met up with Jaci at LaGuardia airport a couple hours before the other crew landed. We went to our hotel, checked in, and informed the front desk of our plan: our friend Erin would be coming in to act like she is "checking in" and requested that they play along. And they did so convincingly.

Scene: Mariko, Jamie, and Jaci, in hotel room waiting. Erin, Sheena, and Lena, just arrived at hotel and walking to room....