Surprise Ending

Welcome Home! I am anxious to hear all about your weekend...hoping it was all you had hoped for.

I had a great weekend...which ended on a perfect note. Friday night, we met D&M (from Watson& Crick Cafe night) at a new place up near the airport, that I found randomly online. Turned out to be awesome and we can't wait to go back. We hadn't seen them in almost a year, so it was great to catch up and get reconnected.

Saturday, football in the morning, as usual. In the afternoon we went down to the theater at the highschool with CK and JK to see a friend's son star in Singin' in the Rain. Totally worth going, even though I don't think J was all that interested in the beginning. He loved it more than anyone! We got home and finished up some yardwork, then decided to go to Applebee's for dinner. Afterwards, we met up at S&T's to sample his new salmon recipe and drink away our Saturday night.

This morning, my parents were due to come over, having returned from Hawaii late last night. My mom and I went to a craft fair in Tacoma, which turned out to be a dud, so we went to Costco instead. K&R had invited us all for dinner tonight (sans BroJ & CC); my parents graciously accepted since they had not received an invite to their own son's house, you know, the one with no social graces who can't think to invite his own parents to dinner one night out of the five that they are in town.

The five of us, Mom, Dad, J, JJ and I, had a fabulous dinner with T&S, K&R&TN; lots of great food and good wine. As it got later, I realized that JJ has school tomorrow and my parents are due to head north to visit their friends in Whidbey Island for a couple of days before Thanksgiving. My dad and I were talking about how I volunteer at school on Mondays, and he asked if I still went in if JJ were absent. "Yes," I said, "because I work in a different room on Mondays." "So," he said, "if JJ were absent, for example, for three days on Thanksgiving week, that wouldn't really affect you, would it?" It took me a minute to catch on, but all of a sudden, J and I were deciding to let JJ go off on vacation with my parents, on a total whim. Later, JJ asked me if I had known about the "surprise" all along. I laughed and told him no, I don't think even Grandad knew about the surprise until it came out his mouth. So typically my Dad, so much the Dad I knew growing up...telling JJ that he'd learn a lot about life in three days up north that he wasn't going to learn in school. It made my heart full.

So he's all packed and ready to be dropped off at their hotel before I report to school. He's not supposed to eat breakfast because they have a "great free breakfast at the hotel"...he's in seventh heaven and it will be a miracle if he can fall asleep before midnight.

And that's how my weekend ended...a terrific dinner with great friends and family, and a surprise holiday vacation for my kid with his grandparents. I couldn't possibly ask for a better way to face Monday morning!

Hope your weekend was equally awesome...looking forward to hearing all.
Love you, A