Our Weekend Adventure

Friday evening there was a knock on our door and when I opened it I found our entire gang and Faith handed me a bunch of balloons; apparently the family decided to celebrate my birthday early. After all had entered and we were sitting down, I was handed a package to open. On the top was a tag that said "Happy Birthday Mom". I opened it to find a plastic bin with another gift inside but the tag read "Dad, we're celebrating your birthday too! Happy Early Birthday"-hubby's birthday is in July. So he opened it to find another plastic bin with another tag(are you seeing a trend here?); the tag read "Get Ready For An Adventure" and of course once we opened it we found another tag which read "Be Ready For Some Fun" followed by another package. Once we unwrapped that there was another plastic big with a package in it and the tag read "To Explore A New Area Of Colorado". The next tag on the package read "We'll Stop For Lunch" and you guessed it after unwrapping the next package the tag read "Pack Your Bags For The Night But You Won't Know Where We're Going! HeHe" Hum..where could it be? We still had another package to unwrap and the tag read"We'll Go Exploring But Before We Leave, We'll Let The Kids Go Swimming". We were getting down to a small package so I was hoping this was the end-how many packages and plastic bins can you fit into one medium size bin? The last tag read..."We'll Get You Settled". So we spent the evening speculating where we'd end up on Saturday~ not have any ideas but the clues we were given. We all caravaned and stopped in Boulder for lunch. Hubby and I were told a story about a gift certificate they were given for lunch at the Marriott. Well, we were all seated(all 13 of us)and thankful that we were the only people in the restaurant as our gang can get a bit loud at times. Before long a waiter came to take our drink orders and I was focused on him when all of the sudden I was tapped on the shoulder by a server. I didn't even glance at him because I had already given my order to the main server. I was able to tell though that this server now asking for my order seemed a bit older and had huge blond hair(which was a wig). I told him "no thank you" but decided I should be polite and at least look at him. When I turned I realized that it was my brother who lives in California and has always said "he wouldn't travel to Colorado during the winter". I was so shocked to see him but my sister-in-law(often referred to as the sister of my heart) wasn't at his side. When I asked him where she was he said she was sick and had stayed home, at which time she comes walking in with a dark brown curly wig on and carrying Sees candy. You can see why I call her sister of my heart.

We had a wonderful lunch and then the guys and kids went swimming in the indoor pool while the girls visited. After lunch my girls and their crews headed home and we spent the afternoon, evening and part of yesterday with my brother and his wife. Apparently this plan has been in the works since early January with our oldest daughter Carrie-how she keeps things a secret I'll never know. Kim had been in on some of the details but did not know my brother & his wife were flying in. Kudos to them as they knew we had a blizzard on Thursday but came anyway. The top picture is on my brother, myself and dear hubby-who was just as shocked at their coming as I was. The next picture of my brother, his wife, myself and dear hubby. All of the photos were taken with my new camera-that we are still learning how to use.
This had to be the best birthday ever-it was such a surprise but it was very hard to let my brother and his wife leave on Sunday. We always have so much fun with them and know that it will continue.
A big thank you to my girl, Carrie, who posted yesterday on my blog.
A big hug to all of you who came by and left me sweet birthday notes.