Surprise! I'm in Georgia!

I have been DYING to post on all forms of social media about my then impending trip to Georgia but the whole goal was to surprise my mom and since she follows me on all forms of social media, that wasn't really an option.

I was super sad not to be home with my family for Christmas this past year and my dad said that he would be willing to buy me a plane ticket for sometime in January or February so I could come visit then. That sounded all fine and dandy and we started keeping an eye out for tickets.

THEN I decided that for our 5th anniversary this year we should do something besides the typical dinner and a movie and I started looking for tickets to Maryland where my aunt lives. The goal was to stay with her and avoid hotel fees and then take day trips to NYC, DC and anywhere else nearby that strikes our fancy.

I had Chris nearly sold on the idea until he mentioned that he really couldn't go on both trips. Not because of money or time, but more because of our unfinished house. He wasn't happy about leaving the house so undone.

Since we haven't really ever done a vacation thing I opted for doing that before the baby comes and going to see my family in the late Fall early/Winter so they could spend time with new baby.

I found an INCREDIBLE deal on tickets to Maryland and started planning out all the excursions we would take while we were there. But before anything else, I had to tell my mom that we weren't coming to Georgia.

She didn't take it so well.

I think the words "dead to me" were thrown around. Possibly in jest, but I'm sure there was some truth to it.

After hanging up the phone with her I immediately decided that I needed to go to Georgia (with Evelyn and without Chris) but thought it would be more fun for it to be a surprise for my mom. The reason I had decided against going with just Evelyn in the first place is that my mom has a job now, so during the week it would be just me and Evelyn on our own. But if Chris was there we could do fun Georgia excursions.

In the end, I decided that getting to spend time with my mom and having the chance for her to spend time with her granddaughter was more important than some possible boredom.

Naturally there are some hoops to jump through when pulling off a successful surprise. She had a few scheduling conflicts that I had to sneakily figure out and work around, then of course there's the whole 'keeping it a secret' thing. That part was hard because I talk to my mom like 3 times a day, so in the last few days, not telling her that I've been shopping and packing and stressing about my impending trip was a trick.

My ridiculous packing list. Go ahead and make fun of me, everyone else has.

Finally the day arrived. Evelyn and I rocked a redeye (1am-6am) and she was really fantastic considering the circumstances. A super nice gate agent kept the seat next to me empty even though there were a ton of stand-by passengers for the flight and I got to take Evelyn's carseat on. It made my life so much easier and I actually got to sleep...kinda.

And they even let Chris get a gate pass to help his pregnant wife and baby and their bags through security. It was a life saver!

I saved some movies from youtube to my camera roll on my ipad for Evelyn to watch. And her huge head was perfect for children's headphones.

The hard part was that both Evelyn and I were starting to come down with a cold (not an ideal time to fly). Even after Evelyn fell asleep, she woke up every so often, crying. I couldn't tell if she was having bad dreams or couldn't get comfortable in her carseat or was too hot or cold. It was so sad. So it was not very restful for either of us. By the end of the flight she was sound asleep and stayed that way until we found my dad at baggage claim. Then she fell right back to sleep in the car.

My mom teaches an early morning religion class to some high schoolers and I thought we wouldn't get there in time to surprise her there. My plan was to get her at work. Amazingly we got to her seminary building right before she drove away.

I called her when we were about 5 minutes out, claiming that I was on my way to an exercise class (as it was only 6 am in Utah). As we were about to pull into the parking lot I could hear the door chime on her car. Dad sped up and pulled in right behind her so she couldn't back away. Still on the phone with her, I jumped out of the car and walked up to her passenger window.

She didn't see me so I knocked on the window and she looked up. Her eyes were as wide a saucers and she just stared. I finally hung up the phone and smiled at her. She just stared and stared as though I was a gun wielding stranger.

Eventually I ran around to her side of the car and gave her a big hug. Then, of course, we both started crying. It was fabulous.

Unfortunately after that she had to go to work. We saw each other for maybe 5 minutes before we parted ways again and Evelyn slept through the whole thing.

By the time we got to my parents house, Evelyn was up for the day and I was exhausted. Oh well...

Evidently it was cold at my parents house. While I was napping on the couch, she found her coat and brought it to me so she could wear it. "On, on, on, on. zippy zippy zippy"

Her cold has since gotten worse and we're just praying it clears up soon. In other news, if you want to hang out with me while I'm in Georgia, let me know!! I love catching up with friends and showing off my daughter. She's pretty fun.

Stay tuned for more of our fabulous Georgia adventures. I'll be here for 10 days!