Surprise!

One of the by-products of living far away from  family  is that your kids grow up doing road trips. Since the time our boys were wee little things, we’ve been packing up the car and toodling down the road for days on end.

Back when they were little, we packed in a mountain of snacks and our own custom entertainment system.  Long before mini dvd players were even in existence, we rigged up an electrical invertor, garage sale tv, and our home vcr player.  The kids watched cartoons while we zipped away the hours down the road.  {Please don’t judge our parenting based on the amount of tv they watched during road trips!….}

Now that they’re older, we pack in, well, a mountain of snacks and a custom entertainment system…

This time it included a Wii…

{Again… no judging!!Winking smile}

***

Last Tuesday morning, we got up long before sunrise to catch the first ferry off our little island.  We were heading to Calgary, Alberta for a very special occasion.

DSC_1015

{The blue sky and sunshine on this trip was incredible.  This is the one and only picture, however, that I took while travelling.  It’s my husband (in the middle) and our 2 boys that are still living at home.  We missed you, Brad!}

My in-laws celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.  The actual anniversary date has yet to come, but they’ve already been doing a little celebrating.  It started with a cruise with 2 of their kids…

And the other 2 “kids” (one of which is my husband) decided that they wanted to celebrate this milestone with them,too.

They discussed various celebratory options, but ended up choosing to do a special meal customized just for Mom and Dad.

The twist was that it was going to be a surprise.

For weeks previous, my husband and his siblings kept the phone lines hopping making plans.

Finally, it was time.

We had arrived and were sitting in my brother & sister-in-law’s living room.  Mom and Dad arrived thinking they were being taken out for supper.

When they walked in the door…there we were.

mom's surprise

SuuuPRISE!!

Dad's Surprise

I do believe it was one of the only surprises I’ve been in on in my life…and it was sure fun! {My mother-in-law said she thought she was seeing a vision!}

mom and dad

Happy, Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

***

After spending a delightful 3 days with our family, we drove home on Sunday (a 16 hour trip).  A funny thing happened.  My husband had just bought this book:

outliers

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

In an effort to try to stay awake, I started reading it to him out loud.  I noticed things got awfully quiet in the back seat.  The tv was off.  Lo and behold, the kids were listening…

and loving it.

We had a delightful time reading through over half the book together.

It`s a fascinating read teaching us things about hockey players, computer geniuses, lawyers, pilots,  and Jewish garment makers.

It also sparked lots of questions like, “What’s your definition of success”, and “What kind of parenting style do you use?”  {Yikes!}

Once it got dark, the reading had to stop…

But, it was a great road trip memory.

What do you pack in for entertainment on your family road trips?

And, I promise, I won’t judge you if it’s a tv and wii!Winking smile

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One Comment

  1. What great looks on your in-laws faces. Our kids are grown up and I’m afraid there were no Wiis when we took them on road trips. They each had their music to listen to, and we played games, and I would read to them. Road trips can be good connecting times. Or experiences you never want to think about, much less repeat.

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