Labor Day Weekend

What a weekend!

Last year my parents came up and spent Labor Day weekend with us and we decided to continue the tradition this year and stay in Seaside for the weekend.

For a while I've been bugging my sister to come up and visit us and see where we live (along with her daughter-added bonus). 

My parents were planning on doing the drive over 2 days to make it easier and I had the magnificent thought revelation that my sister and her daughter should join them!! There would be room in the car for them and we could squeeze them into the hotel.

So I called my sister the day my parents were leaving and tried to convince her to join them. She laughed it off and pointed out how hard it would be to travel with a 2 year old and asked how she could possibly pack their bags in a half hours time.

I hung up slightly bummed that she hadn't liked my idea and feeling like she was never going to come to Oregon...but I was still way excited to see my parents the next day.

(I had also suggested to my parents that they should bring my 2 nieces and dog up with them-they laughed at how awfully hard that would be)

My parents eta was going to be while Chris was still in class and he kept mentioning how he wished he could be there when they arrived...I thought how odd, it's just my parents!

But I thought nothing more of it...

I had just finished doing some dishes when my parents knocked on the door Friday afternoon. After hugs and hellos we sat down and talked for a few minutes when there was another knock on the door.

I wasn't sure who it could be, maybe Chris getting home from school early? Maybe the UPS lady with another school book?

I opened the door and to my complete surprise I saw my 2 year old niece Savannah (aka Bana) standing there by herself, with a cute little grin on her face.

With my jaw dropped to the floor I tried to compute what was going on and exclaimed "BANA!? What are YOU doing here?!?!"

Had my parents really brought her all this way?

But who had knocked on the door?

Then my sister popped out!!

What?! Hadn't we just talked the day before about how she would never make the drive up to Oregon with a 2 year old?!

Turns out she was already packed and waiting to load up the car and leave while we were talking.

Man, they got me GOOD.

I'm still in a little bit of shock in this pic.

What an AWESOME surprise!

After all the ruckus of the surprises died down a bit I found out all the details of the planned surprise and that Chris had been in on it too!!

Now it made sense why he had wanted to be home so bad when my parents arrived...and why he randomly said Bana's name during a conversation about my parents coming up.
All the pieces fell into place that had seemed out of place the past week...a few comments had been made by different people at different times that made me HOPE in the back of my mind that one of my nieces would be coming up, but everyone had lied to me so well and covered it up so well that I KNEW there was no way that was happening!

Man how we've missed Bana!

Anyway, Friday night everyone stayed at our place...and we were reminded of just how little it is!

After dinner we took a walk around campus to see the Monkey Puzzle tree!

Bana sure loves Cricky

Saturday we went to our beach front condo in Seaside and explored and walked along the boardwalk.

That night we checked out the freezing cold water.

Sunday we went to Cannon Beach and had the BEST weather ever. (NO wind!!)

We explored the tide pools again and everyone loved them!

And everyone had fun building sand castles with Bana.

This is Cricky right as he dove into the water. He's crazy!

On Monday we went up to Astoria.

Some of us climbed to the top of the Astoria Column...

164 steps in a spiral staircase...very dizzying.

View of the Columbia River, Washington and the 4 mile bridge from the top.

Since we were too cheap to go to any museums, I made us stop at the Goonies house!

There was a lady inside watching us through the window...so I look ridiculous because I felt totally ridiculous!

And if you've watched Kindergarten Cop lately you might recognize this:

(the school in it-also in Astoria)

This was the sight every night after dinner and dessert:

everyone used the internet and either Chris or I would play hide-and-seek with Bana...which usually turned into you-hide-then-make-whispering-sounds-as-you-chase-Bana-around-as-she-screamed-and-giggled.

My parents left Tuesday morning for the long drive home and Nikki and Bana flew home later in the day.
After 3 1/2 days straight filled with family and fun it was quite depressing once everyone left.
But I am SO glad my sister and Bana were able to come up with my parents and I LOVED the surprise.
Thanks mom, dad, Nikki, and especially Bana for the BEST weekend ever!!