Surprise!

One of the 30 Before 30 items I've been most excited about is paying a surprise visit to my parents.  I started realizing, though, that if I waited much longer, I would either have to fly by myself with two kids or pay for an extra plane ticket to make Daniel come with me.  So when some of my oldest, dearest friends tried to convince me to pop into central Arkansas at the end of April, I (very, very excitedly) agreed.

me, Rebecca, Whitney, Angela

These are my girls :)  We try to get together and go to a major-league baseball game at a different park every summer, but two of us didn't stagger our pregnancies very well this year.  So we settled for a minor-league game in Little Rock, followed by a little sleepover.  We also got to celebrate Whitney's daughter's first birthday and go to a baby shower for Rebecca (who is expecting baby Caroline at the end of June).  Have I mentioned that I love these girls?  Because I love these girls.  I'm beyond thrilled that I got to spend some time with them and celebrate fun things in their lives.


My girls knew I was coming, but they were just about the only ones.  But even with all my secrecy, I didn't quite get to surprise my parents.  I knew I would have to call my dad before I got there because I needed a ride from the airport from someone who had a car seat.  Then he had to spill the beans to my mom because she kept trying to make plans that interfered with our arrival.  So they both knew a few hours before Ben and I landed in Little Rock.

His hair was almost this curly the whole trip.  That Southern humidity is crazy.

I mentioned here that I was nervous about flying with Ben.  I wish I had wasted all those valuable minutes worrying about something else because he did soooo well.  I'm still in shock.  Everything about flying was the coolest thing he had ever seen.  The wings!  The machinery (he still talks about "machine-wee") inside the wings!  All the people!  With suitcases!  Different colored suitcases with handles!  The air conditioner things above our heads!  He was hilarious.  And never shed a single tear while we were flying (I gave him raisins or jelly beans during take-off and landing, just in case). 

He was also pretty excited about seeing Nana, Granddad, and the rest of the familial crew.  So excited that he barely slept the entire trip.  We never managed to get him to bed on time, and he would wake up around 6am and talk, talk, talk to himself.  For at least 30 minutes, non-stop.  I guess he had to review all the fun things he had been doing?  Who knows.

A smooch from aunt Mindy (my big brother's wife)

We were there Wednesday night through Monday morning, and we squeezed in time with all my siblings, both sets of my grandparents, and a handful of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  I can't really remember the last time I went home when it wasn't a holiday, so it felt kind of nice to see everyone without having crazy holiday rushing-around.  I'm counting the trip as a success all around.  Thanks to all of you who made it possible and made it special!

Could they BE any cuter?  Cale and Jude (big brother's sons), Ben

PS - I did a terrible job of taking pictures (I was having too much fun to bother), so most of these were stolen from my mom.  She has more pictures and stories on her own blog here and here.