The woman in the middle, squished in between my mom and Mrs. Crappy, is my sister. She’s a great sister — to me and to Mrs. Crappy — and a great mom.
It’s also her birthday. She’s, uh, not quite as old as me.
Wish her a happy birthday, would you? Thanks.
The shenanigans that took place last weekend started a few weeks ago, when I got a text from my sister. I called her back and found that she and my BIL were planning a surprise weekend trip to Columbus. The goals: Get the kids to their first tailgate party and their first Ohio State game, and surprise the crap out of Mom.
And oh yes, we did both.
The Floridians initially wondered about surprising all of the northerners, but that would have been a little tough — we needed five extra tickets for the game, and we needed to make sure we had some kid-friendly food available for the party.
When Mrs. Crappy and I arrived in Columbus on Friday, Mom still had no idea that the Floridians were on the way. There was one close call — a friend who left a phone message about Dad’s requests for tickets — but my quick-thinking father was able to brush that off without a problem.
We had to think quickly again after we brought the Floridians home from the airport Friday afternoon; mom was out running errands, but Dad called her back to the house so he could check out a “chair” he had “purchased” for my former bedroom. Erin, Chris and the kids were waiting in the room when she opened the door — and the fun began.
We ate a ton of Donatos Friday night — four larges and a small, to be specific. The younger nephew actually got up before I did Saturday morning so he could help me load the truck for the tailgate. The party was spectacular, the kids all loved the game, and we had taco night back at home that evening.
The Floridians had a 6 a.m. flight back home Sunday morning, to get them in home in time for a week-long visit by our parents. And Mrs. Crappy and I had a one of those drives back to Pittsburgh where we had to switch off driving duties a couple times because we didn’t get a whole lot of rest.
The tired was worth it, for the surprise, for getting the kids to the game and for a great weekend with our entire family.
I’ll go into detail later, but today’s big deal — one that we’ve been waiting on for a while — was a surprise visit by the Floridians. The one who was surprised was my mom, who had no idea they were coming, for Donatos tonight and for the game tomorrow.
