Why My Birthday Was Awesome

*This happened two weeks ago, I'm super behind*

For weeks before my birthday my sister had been bragging about my present. How much I was going to love it. What color it was. That it was huge. That I'd never in a million years guess what it was. I'm not one to make a big deal out of my birthday. I'm not one of those women who hates the day and denies their age...I'm just quiet about my birthday. I don't need presents, honestly I don't. But if you're going to keep throwing it in my face that you got me something crazy awesome, you can bet I'm going to be curious. But no one seemed to have any idea what she got me.

I had planned to take my birthday (Thursday) and Friday off. Veteran's Day was Monday so that gave me a lovely 5 day weekend. I planned to shop with Grant on Thursday and then send him to school on Friday because I had a cake to do. So on Wednesday afternoon I was sitting in my office with a major case of vacation-itis when my co-worker's husband called and she up and disappears all secret like. 

And she comes back in two minutes later with my sister. Fresh off a plane from NY! 

Apparently, just about every person in my life was in on it. Most of my office knew. My husband, of course, knew. All my family in NY knew. I had no clue. Husband even let it slip that week telling me "Hey, you and Shauna can go running together while she's here!" and it went right over my head because I figured he was talking about her possibly coming for Christmas. THAT was one hell of a surprise!

When we left my office, we went to pick up the one other person who had no idea my sister was coming. And the one person who would probably be even more excited to see her.

Grant.

We got to school and Grant smiled when he saw me. He was headed to the bathroom. He stopped when he saw Shauna behind me, smiled really big and said "I gotta go pee". Ha! When he was done, of course, he gave her a big huge hug.

Grant very much enjoyed the surprise visit. He liked to wake Auntie Shauna up by yelling "ROAR!" in her face every morning.

And he likes that she lets him get into mischief that he might otherwise not if she weren't there. Like getting into a bowl of the frosting I made Friday morning.

Note to party-goers: The frosting that Grant's hand
is in was NOT used on the cake you ate!

We did the shopping on Thursday that I had planned. Made the cake on Friday that I had planned (I loved baking and decorating while my sister went behind me and cleaned up my mess!). And on Saturday we went for a great walk at the park before attending the 1st birthday party of a special little guy and then taking my sister to her first ever NHL game! (More on that later...along with a ton of other stuff I've been too lazy to post).

A break in the walk for some playtime!

"Shauna, I wanna hold your hand."

We also came across a few lizards at the park and
my sister found one of them to be friendly.

Grant was not expecting him to scurry up Auntie's
arm when he tried to pet him.

Grant and Auntie Shauna decided to call him Reggie (and I
decided that his home would remain at the park).

On Sunday we had to say bye :( It never seems like her visits are long enough. Since we were going to the airport we decided to take Grant to the observation deck there. He kept asking when a plane took off if it was Auntie Shauna's plane. 

Pretending to be a plane on the observation park's mini runway

It was an awesome surprise and a great birthday!