SURPRISE BIRTHDAY WEEKEND (9.5-6.08) LONG

LtoR: Ashley, Jessica, ME, Joanne and April

As I am typing right now, I am sitting on a plane flying home from Alabama. What a weekend it has been. Let me first say that my husband, sister, parents and friends are the most fabulous people ever! They all surprised me with a trip home for my 30th birthday. My actual birthday is tomorrow (8th). Here is what happened:

Friday morning Brian shows up at my office. He comes in saying something like “Let’s go, we gotta go or we are going to be late!” I sort of looked at him like a mental patient because I had no idea what he was talking about. He kept saying this over and over again. He then flashes a piece of paper at my with my travel plans on it and says we have to go so I can catch my flight. So I go with him (obviously) and we head to the car. The 15 minute drive to the airport I am asking him every question you can think of and he won’t tell me anything that is going to happen. All I know is I am flying to BHAM for the weekend. I am thinking, YEAH - I get to see my family and friends!

I had horrible travels on the plane coming and going and I won’t go into any of that. I want to keep this positive! Anyway, after being very delayed on Friday, I get off the plane in BHAM thinking Ashley is picking me up and will then tell me the plan for the weekend. As I come down the escalator I see Ashley along with my 3 favorite friends: Joanne, Jessica and April! And they were holding a huge sign that says HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY! How sweet - I was so excited to be there and see them all and happy that I finally made it. Hugs all around and then we jumped in the car and headed to get a pedicure. Hooray - my feet looked bad so that was super good! Then we had a fabulous dinner full of wonderful food and LOTS of laughs at The Melting Pot (enjoy the photo above from dinner)! YUMMY! The 5 of us stayed the night at Ross Bridge Marriott - which was amazing! We stayed up way too late talking of course.

Saturday morning we got up and said goodbye to sweet April because she had to make Camden’s first soccer game. Kiddos come first ya know! The rest of us went to breakfast at the hotel. Then Ashley and I were off to Tuscaloosa to see my parents. YEAH! Ashley had also made an appointment for me to get my hair cut which I had been wanting to do for weeks and didn’t have time. After that we had lunch at TACO CASA (SOOOOOOOOO YUMMY!!!!!)! Then off to meet my parents. My dad and I went to the BAMA game which was awesome. Now BAMA did win but they didn’t play super well. We didn’t care though, at least we got to go. It was so fun and sort of like old times with just me and my dad at the game!

This morning we slept in - hooray. It wouldn’t be a vacation without that! It was strange to just have the 4 “original” Parkers together again with no extras. We went to see my grandmother and all was fine. I always worry when I go to see her because I never know if she is going to have forgotten me or not. She has very advanced dementia (short term memory loss) and we never know when her memory loss is going to shift into her long term memory. Luckily she did know me and all was well. We went to lunch and then Ashley dropped me off at the airport! Like I said, my travel delays and such have been terrible so I won’t go in to that. I am on my way home right now and about to land in Charlotte to catch another flight to Greensboro! HOORAY - home to see my 3 favorite boys!!!! Brian is so great for taking care of our 2 precious boys this weekend while I went on this trip!!!

Let me just say again that I have the very best parents, sister, husband and friends ever! To do all of this planning and pull off something like this was so fabulous for me!! I don’t deserve something this fabulous and I surely don’t deserve family and friends like this - but I thank God every second of every day for them all! Thank you all for being so wonderful - my life would not be the same without each of you in it!!!!!!! I am the luckiest girl in the world!!!