Six months ago Stephen Grenier contacted me here at Pilates Anytime. He said his girlfriend Annie Maxwell would be celebrating a birthday on June 9th and he wanted to surprise her with a gift of Pilates Anytime. I knew Annie's name right away as an early supporter of Pilates Anytime and frequent participant in our class forums so I was glad to help. It turns out Stephen wasn't talking about getting Annie a gift certificate. Instead, he intended to surprise Annie with a trip to California to take classes on PA! He would tell her he was taking her on a wine tasting trip! Did I mention that he and Annie live in New Jersey?

Once I was assured that Stephen thought Annie would actually WANT a trip to Pilates Anytime to be her birthday present, I got very excited by the idea. I was thrilled to think that someone (a colleague) would want to share in the experience of PA so much that her boyfriend would go to such lengths to try and give it to her. I wanted it to be a special occasion for them both.

As the day drew near and after several email exchanges with Stephen about the possible classes that Annie could participate in, we settled on a schedule. On the day of their arrival we would film Meredith Rogers' class (we don't film them all) so Annie could be in it and on camera. Then, on Saturday, her actual birthday, I would teach Annie a Reformer class that we would also film for the website. I then sent Stephen a PA t-shirt and card for Annie to open should he decide to tell her about the gift before they actually arrived in California.

Last week, I received this email from Steve:
"Hey Kristi... I gave Annie her gift this past weekend and she is stoked!!!"

What followed is best expressed in Stephen and Annie's own words in the video above. What isn't said in this short video is that Stephen's gift of "Pilates Fantasy Camp" turned out to be a very special gift to all of us here at Pilates Anytime too! Thank you Stephen.

If you would like to see the class that I taught to Annie, then click here.