What, it’s Over Already?
Finally, I can talk about it! For the past year, my Dad has been planning a big surprise birthday party for my Mom. I’ve not really been able to talk about it, as only a select few knew what was going on. The plan was for all us ‘kids’ to fly home and then be just hanging out in Downtown Holland. My Dad and Mom would walk to the restaurant and happen to ‘just bump into us’. Well, it turned into more family and friends, until there would be 23 of us.
I was incredibly stressing on Wednesday, as Thursday, nothing could go wrong. We had to catch the new direct flight to Grand Rapids, be picked up, get to Holland, change, get ready, drop Pumpkin off and get downtown all before 6pm EST. There was NO room for problems.
We arrived at DIA about 8:30am and our plan was to leave at 10am. Usually, there is no line for check in at United. Not today. Huge line. Would have taken forever. So I ask the United Rep if there was another place to check in, since we had a kennel (carry-on kennel for Pumpkin), she said YES. Phew. We head down to odd size baggage and within 10mins, we are all checked in. We all gave thanks to Pumpkin, as because of her, we weren’t late. Oh but wait, it did cost $85 EACH WAY to carry her on. We knew this beforehand but still, expensive. Plus, I was told I needed a Travel Certificate for her, which cost me $33 and NO ONE EVER asked for it or wanted to see it. What a waste.
Anyway, no one gave two shits about us carrying Pumpkin on. This worrying that I did, was for nothing. No one even looked at her. To be honest, we probably could have just carried her on without paying, as no one checked her ‘doggie ticket’ either! I had been worried that she would be too heavy, as she is 22lbs and with the carrier it was 24lbs. But like I said, not one United rep looked, asked or cared. She didn’t make a noise going through security nor while on the plane. She is just the perfect pup.
We arrive in GR on time and get to Kendra’s (my sister-in-law) parents house, change and such. Dad sends me a text message that they are leaving the house, so Micah (my brother), James and I can head over to their house to drop off Pumpkin.
We rush downtown to be in our allocated spots on time. James and I sit on a bench on 8th street, just past the Warm Friend and wait. We chat with a nice lady, who lives at the Warm Friend, until we see Mom and Dad. By the time they get to us, they have ‘bumped’ into several people: My Aunt L and Uncle S, family friends, Micah and Kendra, Kendra’s parents, Uncle D and Aunt J. Mom is very surprised to see James and me! It’s been almost a year since I was last home and almost 2 years since James has been back to Holland. No one else knew we were coming either, so it was nice to surprise the rest of the family. We walk some more and run into my Grandma J and Aunties. Finally, get to the restaurant where there are more family and friends. My grandparents were very surprised to see us as well.
After dinner, we all headed back to my parents house and had another surprise, Pumpkin!! We had not told my Mom that we brought Punky.
Overall, everything went off without a hitch, it was a great surprise and great evening. I was glad to see all the family (even my Aunt N and Uncle D gave over from Detroit). Got to meet my cousin’s new baby boy, actually he is almost a year now.
We spent the rest of the weekend together, going to Saugatuck for breakfast, getting pampered with a mani and pedi. Shopping downtown Holland (there are some great new shops there, which was nice to see). I even went to Church.
I have been bugging James to get a new car recently as well. We have been looking around and J really wants a unique car, so it’s proving to be a difficult search and coming up with something less than $70k, hard.
Well, being in Ford land (Michigan) we went to a few dealerships and J found an alloy coloured convertible 2007 Shelby GT 500 Mustang. It had all the features he wanted and brand new. It’s about $10K less than in Colorado. With these kind of cars, there is no test driving but the owner at least let James sit inside. Seeing as it was a Saturday, the banks were pretty much closed and we did not have all the paperwork one would need, in order to buy a car. So, today we are trying to get through all the work needed to buy an expensive car and being out-of-state. Hopefully, things will work out and J can get his car shipped out to us this week.
What a busy weekend.
I was quite sad to leave yesterday. I wanted more time with the family, but here we are, at home, in Colorado. All that planning and waiting, now it’s all over. No more nice sunny green grassed backyard for Pumpkin, either.
Comments
Welcome back. Sounds like you had a great time!
Posted by: Kath | April 23, 2007 2:12 PM