Team Oakley likes to take turns in planning surprise dates for each other. Some of us in Team Oakley are better than others (and when I am referring to Team Oakley, I mean Michael and Beka. Emery is very good at surprises. Just try to change his diaper slowly...you will experience a surprise that you will not soon forget!). Beka is very good at planning and executing the surprise date. You can credit that to her obsessive amount of thought and detail into her dates, or the fact that Michael is a creative brain, so he usually has 100,000 other things going on in there that he does not see the surprise date coming. Either way when it comes to surprise dates, she is boss. Michael, however, is somewhat lacking. It is not his fault. Amidst his 100,001 (yes, he had an awesome thought since you read that last line) creative thoughts jumbling around in his bright brain there is usually one or two that are really good surprise dates. His pitfall is the very lovely woman that his is trying to impress...Beka. She is so detail oriented that she can smell a surprise from a mile away (plus her sense of smell is suburb) and spot any inconsistencies in their schedule and calandar. So it is not often that Michael comes up with a date....or gift...or even dinner out without Beka guessing it before it's time is due. This is not fun. Michael does not get to pull off something great, and Beka does not get to be surprised. It is a burden they both have to live with....
But not today! Oh no folks, Michael pulled off a surprise date! Something that NEVER happens, happened today! Michael surprise dated Beka, and it was a great one!
One normal saturday morning Team Oakley woke up and got ready for what Beka thought was a meeting at church. These are normal for saturday mornings, and Beka and Michael both get email reminders separately for these meetings. Beka had "confirmed" that she would be at the meeting, and put it in their ical. There was an email sent out a few days later that the meeting was cancelled. This email went out to both Michael and Beka, but Michael was somehow able to take her off of the notification list by accepting the email for her (she is still not sure how he did it). So sneaky! In lieu of the meeting he planned a great day out. They did have all day free, now that the meeting was cancelled.
So team Oakley got up and got ready for the meeting like they did for every other meeting they had been to. Michael got Emery dressed. He did a great job.
Beka and Michael got themselves ready (we are so grown up, I know). Michael, knowing the whole time they were not going to a church meeting, was able to get dressed in garb appropriate to the fun day he had planned. But Beka, who was in the dark of said plans, was still appropriately getting ready for a church meeting. Michael was as coy as he could be, saying things like "wear these shoes, they are cute" which in his mind meant "we are going to be walking a bunch and I have to get her to not wear the heels she wanted to!" He also got her to wear a scarf, though she protested with "we are only going to church and back". He was on his game this morning! She had no idea of the trickery that was being had!
We were all on our way to church (wink wink) and we missed the exit. Beka, trying to be helpful and not a back seat driver...I swear....kindly pointed out the fact that Michael missed the exit. Michael told her the location had been changed last min. She accepted it. After he again missed the the exit he was supposed to take for the new location, Beka shot him a confused glance. He then could not take the excitement any longer...he shouted "SURPRISE DATE DAY!!!!" Beka was surprised, on so many different levels....and a bit taken aback from Michael screaming in her general direction in such close quarters of the Oakley Mobile. Once the shock had faded he told her his master plan to get her out of the house, the meeting being cancelled, and the day he had in store. He was so proud, as he should be. Beka kept saying, "you got me...you never get me and you got me!". The smug, sweet look on Michael's face was worth all of his deception. It was a great start to the fun surprise date day!
On a side note, we were both very proud that Emery did not spill the beans either. Michael had told him the plan previously, and he kept his little lips sealed. Great Job buddy.
The first stop on the fun surprise date day was Marcy Jo's. It is definitely the best breakfast place south of downtown Nashville. It is some good country eating, and a favorite of Team Oakley's.
Beka got an egg sandwich and home fries (her usual) and Michael got the strawberry stuffed french toast with whipped cream and an orange juice.
And coffee...always coffee...
Emery ate some milk, and was extremely cute during the entire breakfast. He had all of the workers and patrons in the whole restaurant making faces and googley eyes at him. He was a hit!
After breakfast, per Michael the tricky's plan, we headed up to Nashville to visit the Nashville Children's library. Michael heard the library was pretty impressive, and their was a puppet show today!
Team Oakley loves going downtown to the heart of Nashville. The sights and sounds of the city are always so exciting! Michael has lived in big cities, and we both have lived in the outskirts of Vegas together, but Beka comes from a small town in San Diego....and by small town, she comes from private property outside a small town in the very most outskirts that can still be called San Diego County. So driving into "the city" still makes her feel like a little girl, wide eyed and ready for adventure.
Once we found parking we bundled up to make the trek to the library. It was pretty chilly outside.
Beka is still not used to the cold. We have been out here for three years now, but Beka still does not cope well to what she calls "the arctic".
Emery was not a fan of the cold either. He kept looking at us like "really guys....you know I'm an infant right?....its too cold for me to be out here!"
We were glad to see the large stack of statue books that were outside the library. We were here!
Once we got to the library we were able to deforest and show our true, cool colors. Emery was the coolest of all. I mean look at this guy! There is no one cooler!!!
The library was HUGE! The biggest one Beka and Emery had ever seen! We were all so excited to be there! Michael was right in planning this into our surprise fun date day, it was awesome!
The puppet show that Michael wanted us to see was going to start soon, so we made our way to the Children's floor....Yes, floor. It was like wonderland.
We parked our stroller (Michael and Beka felt very cool doing this. We are finally parents that have a stroller to park at a kid's library!) and continued on our fun way.
We went inside for the show, and we had about five minutes to look around and take our seat. Sir Emery found one appropriate from him.
The small theatre was really cute! We could not believe we had not heard of it before this.
Once the show started it went very dark, so the pictures here are not the best. The play was an African tale about a wise and cunning spider who always gets his way through trickery. Just like Michael today :)
It was a fun show, and Emery was really amazed at all that was going on! He was so well behaved too! He did not make a peep the whole show (expect when they were reading the rules. They said "no talking during the show" and Emery yelled! We think he was just trying to be an example for the other kids who did not understand. It made everyone around us chuckle).
After the show we got to see the puppet up close, and outside the theatre they had an exhibit showing some other puppets they use.
The two Oakley men came out of the show happy and eager to see more of the library. They had purposely matched that day to look that much cooler. It worked.
After the show we walked around the Children's section and Emery got to see and touch many fun things. We tried to get a cute photo of him in a chair that was his size, but that didn't work out so well.
Oh well. He will grow up too fast anyways.. its ok that he cannot sit up by himself yet :)
After the Children's area, Michael took Beka to an exhibit he knew she would love! It was "the art of seeing" and it was based on design. He was right, she did love it!
Emery liked it too, but it was a bit boring for him. This is how he came out of it:
So even though Emery was down for the count, Beka and Michael continued their journey through the wonderland library. We went to an exhibit based not he civil rights movement and specifically what went on in Nashville at the time. It was VERY moving.
Then we went to an exhibit recounting the flood that had happened in Nashville a year earlier. Again, it was very well done, and VERY moving. It is crazy to have been here (Nashville) when something so tragic and historic happened.
Both exhibits were awesome and such an experience to walk through.
After we had seen all there was to see, we left wonderland and headed through the cold back to our car. We did manage to take some fun photos of the city on our hike back.
We wanted to spend more time out downtown, but it was just too cold! When we gave in and went back to the car Emery was kind enough to drive us home. We were a little tired.
Once home, we were all so happy and spent after our surprise fun date day that we spent the night in. We made the most of the rest of our day by just having fun as a family and being silly. Emery was the best at being silly. He always makes us smile.
OH WHAT A GREAT DAY IT WAS! Michael was successful at being sneaky, and everything turned out perfect! It was a great adventure for team Oakley, and will forever be a sweet memory for the three of us.
Thanks for sharing it with us! If you are local to Middle TN you should defiantly go to the Nashville public library (or wonderland as we still refer to it). It is a must see!
Until the next adventure, thanks for reading!
Love,
Team Oakley
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