My AK Surprise

I mentioned earlier that almost my whole family came up to Alaska and surprised me for my birthday. Well, I've finally got the pictures to prove it.

Nicole, Adalyn, Dustin, & Mel at the car rental place. They ended up getting a giant white van that seated 12.

Can you tell that my mom was just a wee bit excited?

I think Nicole wore a different colored M&M shirt almost every day, courtesy of Wally World.

Here's a picture of everyone prepping to sneak up to our door. They walked along the garages of all the houses so I wouldn't see them coming if I glanced out the window. Good thing I hadn't gone to get the mail...

This little cutie came all the way from Missouri to play with her cuz.

They left Addie on the door step with a note that said, "Can Andy play?"

Andy & Brig were checking everything out from the landing of our stairs.

So, here's more of the back story of the surprise. Apparently Nicole had decided way back in January that she wanted to come up to AK for my birthday (which obviously meant that Addie would be joining her.) Melanie quickly decided that she wanted in on the gig as well as my pops. My mom and Dustin weren't going to be able to come because Dustin was graduating from High School and there were all sorts of activities and things going on. As it got nearer, it turned out that Dustin and my Mom were able to come so they joined the others in the scheme.

I was completely clueless about the whole thing until it got closer to my birthday. I tend to get a little more suspicious around that time frame.

It started when Brig asked who I wanted to come over for my birthday dinner, and then mentioned that he had some people in mind. When I asked who, he said he couldn't tell me. *Red flag goes up.

Then he said we were going to have 4 people over for dinner the Thursday night before my birthday, but wouldn't tell me who. *Another red flag.

My sister was supposed to by flying to "Utah" on Thursday... *Yet another red flag.

I was highly suspicious of Nicole... but wasn't sure who the other people could be. And plus I didn't want to think too much about it just in case I was fabricating the whole thing and no one was actually coming.

My family arrived on the Wednesday afternoon before my b'day, and the first thought that went through my head when I saw Addie on my doorstep and realized what it meant was, "They're not supposed to be here till tomorrow!"

So in that regard I was completely surprised. :)

And almost everyone was there! I was only expecting 4 and I wasn't sure if Adalyn was included in that number or not.

It was so fun to have most of my family up here and especially for my birthday. It was the perfect celebration for being "Half-way up the hill."