Surprise!

My oldest sister Teri's birthday is August 4 so I have been thinking for a long time that it would be fun to surprise her for her birthday. Since we live so much closer now it was possible. On the morning of August 1 I packed up the car and the kids and after sending Josh off to work we drove the 4 hours to Phoenix to surprise her. We got there just in time for lunch and the kids knocked on the door with a present and balloons in their hands. I had talked to her earlier that morning as I was driving there and knew that she would be home and had NO idea that we were coming. I was pretty excited to see her face when we knocked on her door! She was SO surprised and excited it was all worth it! Hours later that evening she was still saying, "I can't believe you came for my birthday!" We shopped, went out to lunch and gelato, and got massages and pedicures. It was so fun!

Aunt Teri always has some M&M's for Brinley

Teri got some cute little kid chairs and made Hayden some popcorn and he was in heaven watching some movies

My plan was to stay there for 3 days and come home on her actual birthday the 4th, because we had plans for the weekend. This all changed when Josh called me and told me his mom was in the hospital with a blood clot. As we received updates throughout the day the news kept getting worse and worse. We booked Josh a flight to Colorado for the next morning and I was going to drive home that afternoon in order to take him to the airport in the morning. When we heard that the doctors said the clot extended from her stomach down her leg and on a scale of 1 to 10 in seriousness it was a 9 and they admitted her to the ICU we knew it was bad. My sister offered to keep the kids there with her so I could go too. After discussing it we took her up on her offer and left her with our two munchkins for 4 days during her birthday festivities. She's awesome!

When we arrived in Colorado Josh's mom had already had one surgery to drain the clot and they were preparing for another one. In the few days we were there most of her kids came and she had a few surgeries one to fix the pressure on the artery in her leg that was causing all of the problems and a blood transfusion. She was released on Saturday so we were all able to spend a little time together before we had to go home. I was glad I was able to go, and I am so glad she is okay and was able to go home and get back to her normal life.

Shalane, Jamison, Josh, Jayson, Carla

Jessica, Me