70th Birthday Surprise!

It's my Dad's 70th birthday!!  Winry and I flew out this weekend to surprise my dad!  All my siblings came out, and we did a great job keeping it under wraps because my dad had NO clue that we were all here!  It was a lot of fun, and we've been having a lot of fun this weekend.  I'll fill in more details when we get to the pictures.

Grayson has been loving this hat he found.  I don't remember where it's from anymore, but it's made it's way back out of hiding, and Grayson loves to wear it around.

Monday was, of course, Valentine's day.  I'm realizing that this post probably should have been titled something about that... but this weekend has been much more recent, and Valentine's feels like a last week thing at this point.  Anyway, Brooke had a Valentine's party at school and made a box to take to put them all in.  It turned out really awesome.

The kids all dressed in fun Valentine's clothes.  Here they all are together at the end of the day.  In other Valentine's news, we revealed secret Valentines in the morning and swapped some gifts.  I gave Monica flowers and got some treats for the kids as well.  We didn't end up getting a babysitter this year, so no other outings to report, but Monica made lasagna for dinner and it was DELICIOUS!  We definitely don't eat it enough.

A few days later we had some spaghetti, and Grayson loves to feed it to himself.  He's a bit.... messy, but at least he loves it!

Grayson loves to sit in Brooke's cheetah chair!  And the girls love to spoil him with ice cream!  I had an all day training for work, so I got home during bedtime and the kids were all up getting ready/playing together.

On Saturday morning Winry and I got up early to head to the airport!  Winry was super excited to be on our way.  I looked online before we left, and there was no parking available by the airport, but a shuttle lot was open.  They haven't had those open for a while, so out to the shuttle lot we headed.  When we got on the bus we were told there was "standing room only," but people were pretty willing to make space on the empty seats for Winry to sit.  Here she is riding to the airport!

We got to go through the precheck lane, so that was nice, and then it was on the train.  Winry loved it!  She climbed up on the end to sit and got to ride next to some other kids.  She loved the train, and tonight when I was putting her to bed asked if we could ride it again tomorrow when we head home.

We took the train past our gate and out to C so that we could get bagels from Einstein's.  In the end, Winry ate like... 3 bites of hers, so good thing we both got one instead of sharing.

Anyway, with bagels in hand we headed back to our gate.  On the train we found a shoe!  Poor kid/their parent!  Winry enjoyed watching this train ride out the back where she could see the tunnel.  Oh, it's also worth noting that in Winry's backpack she was carrying her portable booster seat AND her travel potty seat!

After a little wait, we got to board the plane.  While we were getting on, the flight attendants asked if we wanted to see the cock pit, and one of the pilots moved and let Winry "fly" the plane.  When she got in his seat I told her not to touch anything, and the pilot said "Nah, it doesn't matter, she can basically touch anything right now."

They let us take off our masks to get a picture up there as well.

The flight went well, and after it, we headed to Jerusha's house.  My mom found an excuse to leave so that she could come see everyone. After hanging around a bit we headed to Hire's Big H for lunch!  Here we all are sitting at the table.

Winry was having a great time singing songs with Oriah.

Meanwhile, back at home, Brooke decided she should take over doing laundry for the family.  She did all the laundry on Saturday, so she's taking her self appointed assignment to heart.  Looks like I'll get some laundry help when I get back!

This morning Grandma did Winry's hair after she got out of the tub, and then Winry was all ready for church!  After church we went to Niki's house for lunch and general hanging out.  When we got back to my parents house after, Winry needed a little time to do her thing on her own and played in the basement for a while before dinner.  We had a lot of fun out here, and we've still got a little time tomorrow morning before we need to head back home.

Meanwhile in Colorado, Monica took everyone to a park to burn off some energy (I tried to get Winry to a park, but she said no).  Looks like Brooke had a fun time playing with Grayson.   I know Brooke has been missing Winry while she's been on this trip.  The night before we left, Brooke was crying because she was going to miss Winry, and our first day out she even made Winry a present for when she got back.  Today we called and talked with Monica and Brooke and I could tell that Winry was really missing Brooke too.  It'll be nice to be back home, all together.

Oh, I'm glad I took a second to think if that was everything I had.  I was texting Monica pictures of Winry and my airport adventures.  After we got to our seats I sent a picture of us up in the cockpit, and Monica responded that she was cleaning pee of the floor.  She was changing Grayson's diaper, and he got up and ran away in the middle of it and ended up peeing all over the floor!  I responded that that was a hilarious story when you were on a plane about to take off for a few days!  The good news is that Monica said it was funny for her as well.

I think those are the main stories from this past week.  Hope everyone has a great week ahead!