surprise!

my youngest sister matti and i decided earlier this year that we wanted to go to new york -- well, she wanted me to take her to new york and to be her tour guide. swell.

but then we found out that sibling #5 is expecting her first baby! (yea!) so we changed our destination to something a little further south -- houston -- and i abdicated from the tour guide throne.

so matti talked it out with #5 and decided on the end of may. then matti talked it out with me and decided on mid-may ... and we decided not to tell #5. heh heh heh. we did tell #5's husband, though. and he was more than excited about the tricksy plan. mwah ha ha ha.

matti and i were extra careful to make sure our plan wasn't discovered so we carefully instructed mom to not let it slip. and actually, i am kinda impressed that we were able to pull it off. i even called #5 from the houston airport after i arrived and was waiting for matti's plane to land -- called "just to chat" and i thought it would then make for an even better surprise when we showed up at her house in the middle of the night. heh heh heh.

oh, and it was a *good* surprise! i have seriously never heard #5 scream in terror like she screamed in terror that night.

my only regret is that we didn't get it on film.

i am quite happy that she didn't go into premature labor, though. for the record. (thanks for that, inge.)

so yeah. then we just had so much fun, a week full of fun. and we didn't even wait to get started. having arrived at inge's apartment at 230 am, we promptly sat down and played mario kart for about an hour before heading to bed -- it's so much fun to be sisters when mom isn't there enforce bedtime! :D

the next day we gabbed like sisters. well, we *are* sisters, so there's that. and we planned all the fun stuff we wanted to do while we were there. here's what we came up with:

thursday 5/8:

hang out at the house and plan the week
play mario kart and guitar hero III
dinner at whataburger (mmm! it was vacation so i declared the whole darn week to be beef day)
watch the new episode of the office

friday 5/9:

go to the houston space center
dinner at jack-in-the-box for matti's sake since there aren't any in utah
take a ferry ride from galveston to the bolivar peninsula
walk half-way to this cool park (it was tooo far)
take a ferry ride back to galveston

saturday 5/10:

stay home because the baby was upset that we did too much yesterday
play more mario kart, guitar hero, ... and tanks!
pizza from all-star pizza
watch some episodes of firefly (oh my goodness, i love this show!)

sunday 5/11: mother's day!

go to church
take naps
make chicken bundles for dinner (way yummy, inge!)
play games

monday 5/12: inge's birthday!

open birthday presents
play in the gulf of mexico
get sunburned
play miniature golf
dinner at el toro
eat birthday cake at home

tuesday 5/13: girls day!

watch enchanted
pedicures
facials
make-up
dinner at brian's texas barbecue (mmm ...)
play parcheesi
swim at the rec center and play on the spiral water slide

wednesday 5/14:

pack/clean up
visit gordon at the sea center texas
learn that gordo is not a jewfish; he's a grouper
lunch at jack-in-the-box, again for matti's sake since there aren't any in utah
go to the airport
fly home

... thanks, inge & jared -- i had a fabulous time! matti probably did, too. :P

it was so much fun to visit you again.

oh. and i just *had* to take this picture: