Surprise Texas Visit

This weekend, I flew to Texas for a surprise visit for my sister's 30th birthday party.  Everybody had been talking it up and of course I hated missing out, so I browsed online and found a super cheap flight in and out of Dallas (shout out to Spirit Airlines!).  The flights might not have been the most desirable times but hey, it got me from Portland to Texas and back and that's all I needed.  NOBODY knew I was coming for the weekend except for Emily (I had to make sure I had a ride to Waco!) and I was so proud of us for keeping this secret.

I got into Dallas at 5:30am on Friday morning, took a taxi to Emily's house and crawled in a bed upstairs.  When my nieces woke up an hour later, Emily told them to look in the bed for a surprise... and there I was.  It was much more exciting than the piece of candy they were anticipating.  Emily and I were able to go to Hannah's school and sit in the courtyard with her at lunch.  I can't believe she's in kindergarten!  Then we picked Alice Anne up from preschool and took her to Chick-fil-a for some quality girl time. 

We headed to Waco to surprise my parents.  They were sitting on the front porch with Carter and Henry when we pulled into the driveway.  The girls jumped out of the car yelling about the surprise they brought with them.  My parents were shocked when I got out of the car and the boys gave me big hugs (well, Carter did but Henry just screamed).

We got the best reaction out of Sarah.  We walked into her party at a wine bar downtown, she said hi to Emily and then I peeked out from behind her and she was completely caught off guard.  Booya, Sarah!  Totally busted.

The party was so much fun.  I didn't know my sisters could still party like that now that they're in their 30s.  We broke it down on the dance floor and even stayed up past midnight!  Totally worth the redeye flight to be there for this party.

Saturday morning, my mom hosted a brunch because the McCalls were all in town.  They didn't know I was coming in either and it was so perfect to be able to hang out with them.  I even got to meet my cousin's two-week-old baby girl who greeted me with a waterfall of spitup.  Thanks, Adeline.

The rest of the weekend I was able to just hang out in Waco: have wine on the porch with my best friend Hannah, go for walks with my mom, visit Baylor campus, and just enjoy being home.  Making out-of-state surprise visits are simply the best.  Happy birthday, Sarah... and Mom!

the three sisters at Sarah's party

loved spending time with these little ones... they're getting so big!

Mom's bday dinner

Keeping a Secret
At times I was so excited, it was tough to keep it together!  Kind of like this...