Goodbye to my twenties...

More than a month ago, Chad told me not to make any plans for my birthday weekend. (Nevermind that I already did have plans, though I managed to cancel them.) For several weeks, it was a great mystery what we would be doing or where we would be going. I asked a lot of questions to figure this out but Chad held steady, which is impressive considering I did my very best to get him to slip up.

The night before we left, here's what he told me to pack:
1) an outfit for a nice dinner
2) a swimming suit
3) clothes to hang around in

It turns out that numbers 1 and 2 were simply to throw me off--I didn't need either!

On Friday afternoon when I got in the car, Chad gave me our destination: a cabin in the Shenandoah (a place near where we'd been earlier this summer--that I loved--but not the same place). We got there around 5 p.m., just in time to watch the sun set.

The other surprise was that, while Chad went to the store to buy food for dinner, Rachel and Paul showed up! We spent the weekend reading magazines, playing cards, eating (a lot), fishing (a little), and hanging out by a fire. Talk about relaxing!

It was such a fun weekend and a great way to say goodbye to my 20s. I wish I had a few more of them left (both days in my 20s and days at the cabin), but it was a pretty awesome trip. Chad put a lot of thought into what I wanted and I'll always remember what a thoughtful, perfect getaway he planned.

Some highlights:

Our little cabin in the woods

A rare moment when neither of these two is movingWatching the leaves fall Rachel and Paul by the river Making s'moresStaying cozy by the fire