Surprise

Greg had the idea to plan a surprise party for Dad's 70th and we decided we would come to NC to celebrate. We booked our flights in January and didn't tell the kids we were going anywhere until a few days before our flight as we didn't want to ruin the surprise. Mom didn't even know about the party as Greg worked with Mrs. Hodges.  We left our house at 6am and had to fly through Chicago.  We arrived in Charlotte about 20 minutes late.  As we were getting ready to get off the plane, I realized Ryan had not gone potty since we left our house, so it had been about 8 hours.  Just as I was saying something to Andy, Ryan said "The pee is starting to come out a little bit!"  The people across the aisle said we could go in front of them ;)!

We were fortunate to have Shyloe leave us her car in the valet area at the airport.  This meant we didn't have to bring car seats or get a rental car and was a huge time saver.  We ran into traffic getting out of Charlotte - it might have been an accident.  We finally started moving around 5:45 and were cutting it close with not much time to spare given the party started at 6:30.  On our way to Hickory, Avery and Ryan worked on their surprise faces! We pulled into the restaurant at 6:20 and still had to get changed and freshen up.  We saw several of mom and dad's friends in the parking lot who were excited to see us there.  We made it inside right around 6:30 and mom and dad walked in a few minutes later.
Mom saw us first and was definitely surprised.  When dad finally saw us, it looked like he saw a ghost. Glad we were able to pull of the surprise and be part of the surprise!  Greg and Shyloe did a great job figuring out the location, food, invitations, etc.  We had funcatching up with people we haven't seen since our wedding.  And, the cousins were excited to be reunited!

The party wrapped up and we headed to mom and dad's house.  Avery and Ryan were excited to sleep in Uncle Greg's old room (last time we were in hickory it was June 2011 and they were in pack n plays).