McPherson Marathon: Suprise Party and a friendnapping

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Suprise Party and a friendnapping

This year I got to drive up and surprise my mom for her 65th birthday. To make this plan come together I first had to get Jon and my dad on board. Jon was easy as I told him of all the silence he could enjoy in the 48 hours we would be gone - until we realized he had a retreat to run and then I let him know how great it would be not to have to worry about us. My dad had the same concerns as Jon about me driving 24 hours in less than 60 hours but I was able to make those fears disappear by calling on a friend!! I convinced Tina to drive back with me and spend 4 days hanging out with me and then to fly back to DC after a week of lunch dates and lots of talking. It was a win win win for all!! The girls couldn't stop talking about how great it would be see Granny's face when we surprised her and they were not disappointed. We arrived around 9pm and BertBurt had taken them to a dinner theater to get them out of the house so I had 1 hour to get black balloons filled up and put in the garage, get the presents out and then get the girls quiet so she wouldn't suspect a thing. After we had everything set I joined the girls in the basement (their favorite room in the house) and we waited and waited and waited until we heard the garage door. We ran up the stairs and waited just a little bit more then opened the door and yelled surprise!!! Granny was truly surprised as she thought her neighbors had broken in and filled the garage with black balloons and never suspected us driving up for the weekend. We ate cake right then and opened presents and finally went to bed after midnight. The girls enjoyed playing and talking all about the "Paris Party" we threw for granny.

On Sunday we loaded up the car and hit the road. We drove down and picked up Tina and got to say hi to her family and then steal her away for a little while. Jon's retreat was near a famous bakery so I asked him to pick us up some donuts from 5 daughters bakery and we did so we arrived home to an amazing treat!! Tina got to join me with school drop off and then we went and tried some restaurant in town for lunch dates. We got to meet up with other friends from previous duty stations for lunch dates and Tina even got to join me for PWOC kickoff and see friends she knew for years and years. After a great few days we took her to the airport - no more built in lunch buddy but at least I tried a few places with a trusted friend and can now drag some new people to these places.