Surprise 1, 2, AND 3!!!

When I purchased my tickets back in January, I purchased them with every intention of surprising my mom for Mother's Day. By mid-February the plan was down to an art and everyone involved knew of the plan and their roles. So this surprise was a very long time coming.

There were so many more details than most people know about and even some that I didn't know about, but the main idea is that my dad picked me up from the airport, I spent the night at my neighbor's, got ready at her house in the morning and then it was time for the plan to take place. This video pretty much says it all:

To do something so special for my mom and to see her that incredibly happy was all I ever really wanted out of this whole thing. She is one heck of a mom and an amazing woman and she deserves the world, which I can't give her, but I strive to do what I can to give her some laughter and happiness.

For months now my oldest brother, Collin, has been itching to propose to his girlfriend, Lydia. I kept hounding him to please, please, please wait until I came home. Well, certain circumstances and things fell in my favor forcing him to wait until I came home. That afternoon he and Lydia went out to lunch and then we decided we'd (them, me, Marty - my 2nd oldest brother, and my friend Kaitlyn) meet up at Lake Michael just to hang out. I brought along my camera pretending I was taking photos of the nature for myself as well as the people in Australia. We just kept walking along the trail until Collin found a good spot. I took pictures of them just to make it look like I was taking pictures just because and then he proposed. It was a sweet moment to see him so very clearly ecstatic about this and to see the two of them commit to take this relationship to the next step. Collin is an amazing man with the biggest heart and deserves a beautiful, kind, funny girl like Lydia. I'm beyond thrilled for the two of them and the journey they have taken and are going to take together - first as friends, then as boyfriend and girlfriend, now as fiances, and eventually as husband and wife. I am so thankful I got to be home, let alone there, for this moment.

When I bought my tickets I knew I was going to surprise my mom, but I hadn't decided if I wanted to surprise my 2nd family or not as well. It took a few weeks before I decided that I wanted to surprise them and then several more before I decided how and when. I told my oldest little sister that a package was going to come to the door around 6:15pm and that she needed to help mom get it off the porch. Everything was all set and good to go, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, she wasn't available when I got to the door so when I opened the door my 2nd dad was saying, "sh sh sh", and my little sisters just hugged me silently. I stood there for a minute with an arm around each sister and afterwards I got the story about mom being in the back room so she didn't know I was here yet. They told me to sit on the couch and wait until she came out and to surprise her that way. It was so hard having not seen my 2nd family in 10 months and now I'm sitting in their living room but we are barely even allowed to whisper if we want to pull off the surprise for mom, however it was worth it. Here's the video of what took place:

Wow. Oh wow. Just wow. This was one heck of an amazing, jam packed day first day home. =]