Today is Fall Recess for my Emma girl. After a lovely time sleeping in, I woke up and looked about my house… It didn’t take me long to realize that there was no way I wanted to stay home and do nothing. There was nothing vacation-y about that place. It was blah city and messy on top of that. I had the itch for something better. I checked out all my options, made a few phone calls and made a plan.

My plan consisted of packing for an overnighter, picking up my mom, heading up north to the frozen tundra and surprising a big sister of mine who had just sent me an email this very morning saying she wished I’d come and visit.

In 30 minutes I was out of the house. When I picked up my mom we had to have a bit of a nervous giggle. We were feeling kind of crazy and wild.

Half way into the journey we started to panic thinking that perhaps my sis had plans of her own. We called her and there was no answer. We called and called and called. No answer. We were already half way into our 3.5 hour drive. We decided to stop for lunch and think about what we were doing and what would be the wisest plan of action.

We started imagining arriving at my sister’s house and having to break in somehow. Would I be able to fit through the doggie door? Would her giant Rottweiler eat me alive? What if they decided to make a vacation out of their fall recess as well and we made that long drive for nothing.

I think my mother was a bit more nervous than me, not being very accustomed to spontaneity. In fact, I think she started the worrying. What a relieve it was when I finally heard my brother in law’s voice on the phone. They were indeed home and doing nothing for fall recess. Wooh, what a relief. It was hard to avoided the questions of why my phone number was on their caller ID a hundred times. What did I need? My fake casual conversation seemed a bit out of place.

I eventually broke down and told my sis we were half way there once she said that she was wishing we’d come and visit. I figured that was enough of a surprise. She let out a few whoops and hollers but I wish I could have seen her face.

I love pulling surprises on people but I think she appreciated the 2 hour notice. There is nothing quite like showing up on someone’s doorstep and seeing their reaction. When I moved from Maryland to Utah I didn’t mention one word of it to my mom and dad. We just showed up at their house at 1:00 am, told them that Jer got a job in UT and we were moving in for a bit. We captured that one on video. I don’t think we’ll ever top that surprise off.

So here I am in Idaho. It’s a bit more chilly here but the company is wonderful. My kids and their cousins are of course trying to fall asleep as I type and are doing a horrible job of it. Some little person is singing a song to herself and all the other bodies are hollering at her.

What fun it is to be spontaneous!