My Best Surprise

First off, let me define the kind of surprise I’m talking about here. This is not the, “Surprise! There’s a turd on the living room floor!” kind of surprise.

(Frankly, that doesn’t even surprise me anymore. Which is gross.)

I’m talking about the kind of surprise that you have NO IDEA is coming. The kind that you are happy about.

Up until two Wednesdays ago, the most surprised I ever felt  was on Jacob’s first birthday. I was expecting a UPS delivery of a cake pan from my Mom. I heard a knock on the door and assumed it was the UPS guy.

And there was my Dad!

I just stood there with my mouth open, not knowing what to say. It was really cool.

(The pic below is actually from the time Grampa Mike came out for Jacob’s second birthday. Close enough.)



Anyhow…

Two Wednesdays ago, I was all excited because my Mom was arriving in San Diego for a visit. It’s been since last November that she was here, and since January that we’ve seen her. That’s much too long.

Jacob was at a summer bible school thing, so Ryan and I got to the airport nice and early so we could park the car and go in and meet our special guest.

It was not to be. There was not one single parking spot in all of the airport. Seriously. We drove around for 20 minutes before I gave up and decided we’d just have to pick Gramma Jojo up at the curb. (I also refused to pay the $2.00 parking fee that they asked for upon exiting the lot. No parking = no paying.)

So we circled a bunch of times and finally saw Jojo standing at the curb. I pulled over, hopped out, and opened up my trunk to toss her bags in. As I walked towards her (with her abnormally large number of bags at her feet), she pointed over toward the benches and told me I needed to grab her “other” bag.

I didn’t see another bag. I saw the cutest little girl sitting on the bench, watching the buses go by and swinging her feet.

CARLEIGH!!!

I got all teary and couldn’t stop laughing. I ran over to her (may or may not have pushed people out of my way) and scooped her up and squeezed her.

I’d been missing that girl so much lately, and the whole time they were all planning a surprise trip.

She told me, “I’m your surprise!”

Yep. My best surprise ever.



Once I calmed down enough to have another thought, I got all excited again thinking about how happy Jacob was going to be when he found out that “his” Carleigh was here. We went to pick him up and tried to hide her…

By the time I recorded this, he’d already had a sneak peek so he wasn’t too surprised. His happiness, however, is evident.

We went on to have a busy, noisy, exhausting, entirely wonderful and special 10 days together.

Beaches, Disneyland, Zoo, trolley rides, pool parties, fireworks…so many memories that these kids and I will get to keep.

I’m so thankful to you, Mom, for making this trip happen. And for keeping it a surprise. Seriously, you’re not the best secret keeper I’ve ever met, so I’m not sure how you pulled it off. Thank you also for all of the things you did to make the trip fun for all of the kids (I’m including myself). It really was awesome.

Thank you also to Brian and Lindsay for letting Carleigh come on this trip. I know it was hard to let her go for so long and I know you guys missed her terribly. Thank you for trusting us to take care of her. I hope we showed her a good time.

Best. Surprise. Ever.

(I have lots more "unpublished" photos from this trip, plus a list of "Things I Learned" that I will write about when I have a few minutes. Here's a teaser: I learned that Disneyland has police.)