Surprisingly Fantastic!!

First off, it's not a surprise that the weekend was fantastic!! It was fantastic and absolutely the best that my mom and I were completely in kahoots (don't know the last time I've been there) and managed to pull off something so unexpected for my super sis, Kari, the Birthday Princess...

Kari lives 3 whole states away, but when our cute mom, Eagle-Eye Jan spotted a sweet deal on Southwest, we hatched a top-secret plan for me to fly up on the morning of March 6th...

It was totally fun to call Kari on the cell phone when Mom and I were about 2 minutes away from her house. Kari said she was waiting for mom to come pick her up for lunch. I told her to have fun and call me when whe got home. By this time, we were in her driveway and mom went up to the door. I waited another minute and then went up and knocked--that was quite fun!!

We had a grand lunch, did a little browsing in Sumner (on our way out of a great little shop, we saw this great white tray with a handle and compartments kind of basket without a pricetag-the lady called us back to let us know it was only $152.00-should she wrap it for me to take on the plane?? mmm, probably not this time...), went to see the rest of the crew, had cake, smiled with our sister-in-law, Jen--she's a March birthday girl, too...

We most certainly did not skimp on the See's Chocolates, chocolate brings families together...

And just like that, I am back home to at least one sign of Spring (our poor sickly-looking crocuses) along with our fairly constant companion: SNOW. For the record, it totally snowed in Seattle while I was there, too--sorry, you're welcome, whatever...

**Highlights-in addition to the complete and astonishing surprise factor for my sis--so glad my presence wasn't a bummer, that would've been bad...

--Her kid neighbor called out "HEY KARI-NICE HAIR!!" as I was retrieving my bag out of the car. Her poor panicky face as I turned around and the realization that the "nice hair" did not actually belong to Kari--oooh, good times...

--I now know where I stand with my cute nephews, Jack and Cole, who when faced with the incredible option of being cowboys and taking care of the brand-new baby calf that was born out at Grampa Larry and Gramma Peggy's that very morning, they opted to kick it shopping with Aunt Kirsten (unless Aunt Kirsten was going to play cowboy and then we could kick it together there)--aaah, thanks guys...

All in all, an awesome weekend!! So appreciate my superstar husband holding down the fort so I could go. Love my birthday sis and my partner-in-crime mom!! So fun to see the entire Seattle crew in their natural habitat...