We started by making up a story that we were going to an internet marketing symposium in New York. We went all out! We created a website for it (see it here: http://affiliatesymposium.com ) and we even created our own fake itineraries for the airlines. Justin’s company, Liquid Apogee Designs, was nominated for an award at the event.

Some of you might feel that we went a little overboard, but it only would have been a surprise if we went to great lengths to preserve the surprise…trust me…

It was great, we were planning on seeing a Broadway show in NY, as well as some other things. Dinner reservations were even made for a restaurant. We were planning our days and what we would do there and it was all in vain

The day we were supposed to fly to New York, we decided to break out a camera (my phone) and record a video of them learning about the surprise. Here it is:

If you’re wondering, we went to Paris, France; Rome, Montepulciano, Siena, Florence and Venice, Italy. We had a blast. I’ll try to get some pictures up here soon. Otherwise, you can see some pictures on Facebook already at http://www.facebook.com/chadneth

It’s funny that I say that I want things to move a little faster with the businesses because, I want things to move slower with my family. I don’t want my kids to grow up. I want them to stay this young and cute. I know that I’ll enjoy every age that they’re at, but if I could slow things down a little, I would.

I used to want to grow up so I could do so many things… I always wanted life to move a little quicker so I could do more, but now I want things to move slower so I can do more…pretty funny how that works

I’ll be finished with a couple of my songs soon. I’m just going to release the tracks as they come and maybe put together a full album when I have enough tracks to do it. I like it better this way because then, I can see what people think of the songs as they come. It might just steer the direction of my album a little to know the response I get with certain songs.

One of the songs will be called, “Hold On.” I just sang this song at a class I was teaching for Youth Conference in my home stake. I taught a class about the power of music. It was a lot of fun! “Hold On” is a title that doesn’t need much explaining. Basically, when life gets difficult, “Hold On.” It says much more than that…of course!

The second song I’ll be releasing is called, “Change the World.” It’s a song that encourages people to give things a shot. There might be people who don’t think you can accomplish certain things in life, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t. Give it a shot and prove them wrong! I did a little of this with my music.

All Erin and I were going to do was go to the park with the Dorton’s for a picnic. It was a little chilly so far, but the sun was shining and I was excited to see my friends and have a good time at the park.

When we turned the corner to go to the park I noticed that there were a lot of cars at the park, but there were only a couple people walking around at the park. I made a small mental note that it was odd that there were cars there, but then wrote it off when I decided that one of the people across the street was having a party at their home and their friends parked their cars at the park. Besides, it was a little cold outside… Who in their right minds would be at the park, besides us, anyway?

That’s when it happened. I parked the car and started getting out and was about to help get the kids out when all the cars that were parked there started honking and then people started yelling, “Surprise!” I could not believe it. It had not crossed my mind that there would be a party for my birthday!

Erin did an awesome job with the party. Not only did she keep it a secret, but she was able to get a lot of people involved. The picture associated with this post has most of the people that were there, but we are missing several people. I was impressed at how many people were able to make it to the party. It was amazing and I had the best time whooping some butt at volley ball. Okay… I was a little rusty, but I had a great time. My kids loved it too! It also turned out to be a nice, warm day as well

Thank you to all who were able to make it. I miss and love all of you!