Operation Bald Eagle Birthday Surprise...Over.

For Zach's big 30th birthday I told him I was taking him to Buffalo for the weekend for a special surprise. But the truth was that I was in kahoots with Dad and Tracy because they were making a surprise visit. Thursday evening they arrived while Zach was at church teaching catechism. We quickly unloaded everything and they hid in the garage when he returned home. He and I were sitting on the couch and he was telling me how his night went when the doorbell rang. He stood up, answered the door, and was beyond shocked to see Calvin and Hannah- SURPRISE!! Operation Bald Eagle Birthday Surprise was a success!
The guys grilled for Zach's birthday dinner.

What a treat to celebrate Zach's birthday, again, with family.


Zach, Cal, and Hannah had their scheduled tickle, torture, wrestle time.

They even paused to give a smile for the camera.

Tracy brought these beautiful decorations to add some beauty to our wall.

After the "operation surprise" success, Zach and Dad took on the big job of taking out some of our cupboards in the kitchen to open the space up. This is what the kitchen looked like at the start of the project.

Getting the cabinets out...


Evening out the ceiling...



Hannah joined in the fun.

I loved being able to sit on the counter without bonking my head!

Voila- the almost finished project! (Imagine two beautiful pendant lights hanging down.) Father and son after a job well done!

On Saturday we drove to Buffalo and went shopping at the mall and more importantly, Home Depot. Zach's big gift from his family was a lawnmower! He still had some birthday money burning in his pocket, and he was tickled pink to walk out of the store with some light fixtures, a shovel, and a rake for Spring yard work.
Here's Dad and Tracy pausing to smile at Home Depot while we were looking at the light fixtures.

We ended the evening with a delicious meal at Olive Garden followed by blizzards at Dairy Queen- it doesn't get any better than that!