Surprise #2

My second surprise was for Nicole's birthday. This surprise was even better than I could have hoped. Justin and I talked a few weeks before and started our plan. I kept Justin's email from something Nicole had copied us both on for just such a occasion. I was so afraid Nicole was going to find out. Justin continued to assure me she had no clue. The weeks before she was lamenting on the fact that her birthday was coming and she was in TX and hated it and she was going to celebrate it alone. Hehehe. It was all I could do to not scream "BUT YOU WON'T BE BECAUSE I'M COMING!!!!!" I took a long weekend and flew from Seattle to Houston to the podunk airport of College Station where the ticket counter guy checks you in, runs security, drives your bags to the plane and loads them and then proceeds to hop in and pilot after checking that the runway is clear of obstructions. Justin picked me up and the plan was for him to go to class while I babysit Peanut and wait for Nicole to come home. I was so excited I could hardly wait! Savannah showed me all of her toys and we had fun taking a couple of self portraits. . .










Then. . . the garage door opens. . . what I didn't know was she could hear Savannah's toy (the reoccurring noise in the video)outside and she knew Justin wasn't home so she instantly knew something was up. But oh well. She comes around the kitchen corner and SURPRISE!!!!

The reunion was way overdue and the video is not that great because I was too excited to think about details like actually zooming in enough to get her facial expressions. But it was great! Nicole looked super duper hot in her little Friday work outfit - TX wasn't treating her so bad. I tried to teach Savannah how to say SURPRISE!! But that is hard to master in two hours. She did get a very excited squeal in though. I was successful in teaching her how to make an elephant sound and trunk motion which she continued to do long after I left. :) We had so much fun! Justin was so great to not only help plan and pull off the surprise but he watched Savannah so we could have a girls night out of sushi and dessert and go shopping in Houston. There we went to Saks where the sales lady treated us like trash, it was a very Pretty Woman moment (if only we had Richard Gere's credit card. . .) And I would just like to say that practically everything there is made in China and not that great. Then I introduced Nicole to the Nordstrom's perfume counter where you can get samples of anything you want you just have to ask and they send someone to make it for you! We went to Olive Garden and had a free meal because there were bugs on our table! What luck! Justin told me please take her shopping! I couldn't refuse. Shopping, shopping and more shopping! I almost had a meltdown on my hands when I made her try on 50 pairs of pants at GCGB but she persevered and found a ton of cute stuff. And the girl looks good in every shoe you put on her! Seriously she should be a shoe model. Companies that make ugly shoes should hire her because she makes them look good!
She took me to the Bonfire Memorial which was really cool, and sad. I think what I liked most about TX A&M is how important history and symbolism is to them. Everything is done a certain way or placed specifically to represent certain things. I like that so much thought is put into what they do. They are very proud and it shows. ( I still think the Gig Em is silly though). We also went to Austin and toured that city a little, we watched Twilight, and went to Savannah's drs appointment. I bring the last one up because I was so impressed with her and so amazed at how much those appointments cost! They asked Nicole like four questions that was supposedly an autism test and charged her $450 for it! But the best part was she had to get two vaccines and the nurse comes in and gets her all ready, Savannah is watching wide eyed the entire time, and she sticks her with the needle and Savannah, very quietly says "ohhh". And that is it! I was shocked and amazed and it once again confirmed she is the best little girl ever. Finally the weekend ended and I had to say goodbye to my girls. I was so sad. I miss them both so much and wish we lived closer. It is just not the same not seeing my BFF everyday. I tried to persuade Justin while I was there that Seattle has just as much to offer, if not more, than TX! But he was not convinced. It was a great trip and we only have one regret - I did not take a picture of the two of us!!! UGH! But I did get lots of cute ones of Peanut.

Thanks again Justin for helping me come visit and surprise Nicole. And thanks Nicole for sharing your birthday with me. It was a great trip! I can't wait until the next one!