busy weekend: part 1

we had a busy saturday. first, we had christmas at adam's mom's at noon and then we had to head to des moines to get ready for my mom's surprise party my sister and i were having for her.
anyway, we initially had plans of leaving the house at 8am to head to ankeny for breakfast at ihop...adam's craving...but since brynlee slept until 6:45am, i knew i couldn't get everything together in little over an hour and leave, so we scratched that idea. we were finally ready around 9:45 and left the house. we made the drive to montezuma and for once, were the first to arrive. we visited. we ate. we opened gifts. we were the first to leave ( i guess it's okay since we were the first to get there, right?).

we were on our way at 2:30pm, for an estimated arrival of 3:39pm...an hour sooner than we could get into the house, so, we went to the party store to get decorations. i got a birthday banner, party hats, and red and white balloons. as i was waiting, the kid blowing up the balloons popped 6 of them...and they were all red. i was hoping it was the kid and not defective balloons. after about ten minutes, fletcher and i were walking out of the store. in the meantime, i had gotten a call from my sister to stop by the grocery store and get a few things she didn't have. by the time we ran the few errands and took a scenic drive around the neighborhoods i grew up, we made it to my parents' house to start cleaning and decorating and getting food put out. the surprise was wonderful, plus, we all got a surprise we weren't expecting...cousins from minnesota showed up. one of the neighbors is a tall, well build man with a head full of white/gray hair and a face full too. when fletcher saw him, he said 'ho ho'. it was just about the cutest thing i've heard in the past week. this was good prepping for our sunday plans. anywho, tons of fun was had by all that joined in the celebration.

i think she was surprised

this is 'sam'ta

sunday morning, we woke up just in time to get the ourselves and the kids dressed to meet the northerners for breakfast. i never pass up free food, let alone, with those that i love being around. we enjoyed our meal and some catching up and then back to the house to clean up the mess from the night before. our big plans for the day included a man in a red suit. we left my parents' house and headed straight for bass pro to get in line for santa.  fletcher was so excited when he saw all of the christmas winter wonderland stuff. not lying, i was kinda excited too. when it was our turn, little boy ran to him and hugged him. sister wasn't as thrilled. i did get some good pictures and the free photo was good too, only they didn't capture the smile on my boy that i got. 2011 santa experience went down as a success. we did a little more playing after we had our turn, then we walked around, looking at  all the animals and doing a little shopping. soon, we were on our way home for a little lunch and some naps for all four of us.

a great weekend was spent with family, only to relax for a few days to do it again.