Surprises

My sister is a 3rd year vet student at Tufts. She finished her coursework in February and participated in her school's white coat ceremony, symbolizing that she and her fellow students would be let loose upon the world. My parents bought tickets to fly out to the East Coast. Which meant they would of course be visiting their respective families in Maryland and Pennsylvania, even though both families were going up to Massachusetts to see Cassi.

And because my grandpa Lauver turned 80 in February, it meant they were going to have a surprise party.

My mother's family cannot resist a surprise party of any kind. My mom turned 40 the first year after we moved to Alaska, and my dad and her parents arranged for them to visit for her birthday. They've had surprises of random family members showing up at birthday parties, anniversary parties, graduations--pretty much any time they can surprise somebody, they will.

So when my grandmother decided to throw a surprise party for my grandpa to coincide with my parents being in town for Cassi's white coat ceremony, my mom asked me if I would like to get in on the surprise. 

Absolutely I would.

It meant I had to fly from Denver to Baltimore with all 3 kids by myself, but it was totally worth it. We lied to my grandpa and said that the kids and I were also coming to the white coat ceremony. We told a lot of lies that weekend. WORTH IT.

Grandma Huelin made the cakes--even my dad's family was in on the surprise!

Having me and my parents at the party wasn't surprising enough, so my sister flew in from Boston for the weekend and my cousin Steven and his wife came up from Florida.

Do they look happy or what?

My grandparents and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Minus Ryan, who had to work :0(

Also, Cassi looks taller than me in this photo, but I assure you SHE IS NOT.

We hung out at the restaurant for about 4 hours, then moved the party to Aunt Dori and Uncle Kevin's house for another 4. It was fantastic to hang out with my extended family. Everyone had a blast, and the kids were even on their best-ish behavior.

Poor Benjy needed a nap after all the partying.