Joel's (and Kevin's) Day Off

My husband is a twin, and he loves being one! Joel and Kevin are best friends and I wouldn't change that for the world. So OF COURSE when it was their 40th Birthday, I wanted to do something extra special for him -- and I thought a Day Off would be perfect.

Coordinating with my SIL was a little trickier than I had anticipated, so things didn't work out exactly as I'd originally planned, but the overall idea was still pretty close to what I had in mind. I'm not too sad though -- now I can go do the things we DIDN'T plan with Joel for date nights!

So, the first thing the boys really wanted to do was... go for a run. It was a little anti-climactic to work that into the plans, but I think we did okay. :) So, working with that, this is what I put on the gear shift in Joel's car before they left:

(I promise there was an exclamation point there too -- I really am excited for them!)

Inside that ribbon was a little bundle of clues -- eight, to be exact. In an effort to keep this memory FOREVER, and as maybe a help to anyone else out there who might be planning a special day for someone, I'm going to give you our timeline and the clues we gave out.

The first clue was labeled "CLUE #1, open BEFORE you run". Inside was this (written in a SUPER CUTE typewriter font from dafont.com called Traveling Typewriter, the same as the one in the picture above, but it's not translating well as a picture so I'll just give you the text):

CLUE #1

Dear Joel & Kevin,

Deborah and I have planned a pretty fun day for you both! We sure hope you enjoy yourselves. Remember you have families to come back to, but for today you’re off the hook, ALL DAY.

Have a ton of fun together, twinners!

Love,

Natalie & Deborah

p.s. Open your next clue AFTER your run. :)

And here are the rest of the clues, in order:

CLUE #2

Okay, guys, we know your favorite thing to do after a good run is… to shower! Just kidding, we know it’s a nap. Go to your own home, and take a quick shower, then take a nap and enjoy it until 9:15. Then meet up at Joel & Natalie’s house (by 9:30) to open your next clue!

  ©N&D

 

CLUE #3

Go to 3606 W. Center Street. Open your next clue when you get there.

  ©N&D

(this was a cute little place in Provo called CLASRopes Course -- I added a link to the name if you're interested in going, they have tons of fun things to do!)

CLUE #4

Guess what – you’re not going on the ropes course. Nope, instead we thought it would be fun to canoe up & down the Provo River! Go to the lady at the counter and tell her you have a canoe reservation under the name of Joel Smith. You’ll need to sign a waiver, and you might want to leave your phones in the car… just in case!

Oh, and here’s a copy of the receipt, just in case you need it.

Make sure you’re done and hand in your boat by 12:00, we only rented it for 2 hours. Then open your next clue!

  ©N&D

 

CLUE #5

Lunch is what you’re wanting now, right? Go to Kevin & Deborah’s Clubhouse, and you’ll find lunch on the counter.

Oh, and while you’re there… you might as well play Talisman together, right? We know you want to! But please be done & all cleaned up by 3:30 at the latest… and look at your next clue then.

  ©N&D
 

CLUE #6

You’re getting close to the end… but don’t worry, there’s still more to do! Go to the Provo Towne Centre mall and go to the Pretzelmaker – we know you’re probably not quite hungry yet, but you’ll open your next clue when you get there.

©N&D

 

CLUE #7

Haha, fooled you!

Pretzelmaker is just about as close to the movie theater as we could think of, for you to still be surprised. And surprised you will be… Go inside and ask the usher (the one who takes tickets) to let you go to Theater #16 – we’ve talked to him and he’ll let you do it. :)

Just DON’T PEEK and see what the movie is – you might be gravely disappointed if you do!

And open your LAST clue after the movie!

  ©N&D
 

(I was super sneaky -- I had no idea what movie was playing in Theater #16 -- I just said that to get them in the door. Deborah and I were waiting by the usher with the tickets, so we didn't even have to really talk to him. WE were part of that surprise! :) )

CLUE #8

Okay, guys – here’s the deal. We were originally going to go to a later movie, but decided it would be even better earlier, where we could get really awesome seats. Wasn’t it SO fun?!

But now your girls are HUNGRY – we’ve worked really hard on this little chase, and we think it would be great if you would take us out to eat! After that, we’ll go our separate ways – but the girls will put the kiddos to bed.

Love you two! ©N&D

They ended up having THE BEST time -- and it was definitely fun to plan for them! Although next time I might just do one for JUST Joel, and have him play with friends along the way. Doesn't that sound like fun?

 

Whoa, Nellie!

Hey everyone! I'm just popping in to say... this blog is not dead. But time has been racing past and I've got five kids home for the summer (and some other major commitments on top of that), so I've been sadly neglecting this blog. I'm hoping to really buckle down and get things together in the next little bit -- I've got so many fun, fun things to show you!  Not the least of which is my Olympics quilt... I'll have a tutorial for that up next week-ish sometime (please note: not committing to an actual day or week is totally how I'm rolling these days!).

But for today... I'll just post a little sneak peak of something else I've been working on. My husband is a twin and he and his brother just celebrated their 40th birthday! I had so many really great plans, but the one thing that was my favorite was their Day Off. I'll post about that Monday -- that one I can commit to, because I'm just that excited about it! :)

So, until Monday -- adieu, sweet reader!