The Murray Family: Bermuda, Bahama, Come on Pretty Mama

This mama just returned from an AWESOME weekend cruise to the Bahamas with six of my closest friends in the world. Amazing, right? The best part was no one knew I was going with the exception of my accomplice. I love surprises, and this may have been the granddaddy of them all when it comes to my involvement.

This story really begins a year ago. I believe at Katie's suggestion, 10 of my friends and I started plotting a vacation to celebrate the year in which we all turn 30 years old! There were countless emails exchanged, votes casted, and debates resolved. It was settled. We would embark on a cruise to the Caribbean in June 2011. Everyone was in.

Months passed and it came time to pony up the money for said trip. Different people folded. Myself included. Everyone was making reservations for the trip in January. Casey had been laid off work and we were in the mist of finalizing our plans for our Europe trip. It seemed like too much. I reluctantly said I could not attend. My heart ached though. I love my friends. I love vacationing. I love being a part of stories that we retell hundreds of times, each time laughing harder than the time before. Was I really going to miss out on this?

Months passed. I received text messages. "Really wish you were going Laura. You're the vacation queen." People made comments about how when they pictured the trip, they pictured me there. Everyone was understanding and these comments were not intended to pressure me. That's what made it even harder to sit this one out....my friends wanted me there too. I am an 'in girl'. I rarely have to sit events 'out'.

It's June now. The trip is three weeks away. My wheels are spinning. Research says, "you never regret money spend on experiences." Would I really use this money I was saving by staying home for one of our goals (new car, new house, etc)? Or would I piss it away on a target trip, a new dress, and a dinner out? Chances were, 'yes' to the second.

I googled flights and found the price to be rather reasonable. My parents generously agreed to pay for my flight as my 31st birthday present (nothing like getting your gift 5 months early!)! It seemed this was going to happen. Meanwhile, Darcy was trying to organize a summer get together in the Dells. Again, my thoughts were....is this really going to be cheaper than a weekend cruise if my whole family goes? Probably not that much of a difference. Darcy proceeded to tell me about how Ryan has been doing very well at work lately and has brought home some nice commission checks. She was wishing she was going on the cruise too. Looks like I had a partner in crime!

We pulled up old emails and called Carnival. We were all set to book when I asked the travel agent to confirm that our friends were indeed on the cruise. THANK GOD I asked this question. The girls had ended up booking a different cruise than the one that was originally emailed out. Catastrophe number 1 averted.

It was so difficult not to say anything to any of the girls in the next three weeks. The cruise came up countless times. Darcy and I decided in an effort to preserve the element of surprise we had to keep silent! We knew that we would not be able to convince any one else to join us with this late of notice, and it seemed that the all had 'made peace' with the idea of not going on the trip.

The week of the cruise arrived. Krissy happened to be in Milwaukee to visit her bf and wanted to hang while he was at work. Darcy called and reminded me to hide any evidence of our plans. Luckily, I had none! Krissy and I had dinner, chatted, and at the end of the night, I saw her off and wished her a wonderful trip. She was CLUELESS to the fact that I would see her in Miami in 2 days!

Thursday night Darcy drove down to Milwaukee as we were catching an early flight out in the am. I happened to log on to facebook and the very first status update happened to be from her husband. It read, "Looking forward to a great weekend with the kids at my parents. Just sent my wife on cruise to the Bahamas with all of her friends." I think there were a few other words in there too. I couldn't even finish reading it because my heart was racing so quickly. Was our cover really going to be blown less than 24 hours before the surprise was supposed to go down!? I called Ryan immediately and he deleted his status. The whole next day Darcy and I wondered if anyone had seen it.

Darcy and I had so much fun plotting every single detail of the surprise. We collected random junk from our plane ride to adhere to their door along with a sign Darcy had made. I made Darcy practice different scenarios. Pretend we just unexpectedly spotted them, but we don't think they saw us. Walk away nonchalantly. We laughed a ton. I sang the song, "Welcome to Miami" even though I didn't know the correct words the entire way there.

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and the shuttle service was waiting. We talked about how great it would have been to print this and put it on the girls door. We later saw there was a photo kiosk on the ship......next time!

Darcy was nervous

Thanks to facebook, we were able to monitor the girls whereabouts. They posted pictures of them boarding the ship, so we knew they were ahead of us and the chances of spotting them during boarding were slim.

Darcy and I boarded the ship where we had to use super sleuth detective skills to discover which room the girls were in. It turned out they were right across the hall from us. Perfect. We went to our room and hung the signs.

Hanging the sign

The sign

We then headed to the Lido deck (pool/bar area). We came out a very random door, sort of behind the bar. Darcy spotted the girls immediately. I panicked. What should we do? Darcy said let's just run out there, jumping, clapping, singing, whatever. Game. On.

I think it took a second for the girls to realize it was us. There was screaming. There were permi-grins. And there were tears. I still can't believe that they cried, but they all said we caught them completely off guard. No one had the slightest suspicion that we were coming. Of course they were downing Corona's, and they threw beers in our hands immediately. I unloaded the other surprise of a third 'person' who accompanied us on the trip, the baby in my belly!

We went on to have a weekend of laughter, sun, crystal blue water, stuffed tummies, hair spray, and more laughter. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate my birthday. I have spent the last 15 years with these ladies. Katie and I have 25 years of memories. They are my soul sisters.