Surprise!

One really great thing about Eric's graduation being on the same day as my Dad's 50th birthday is that when Dad sees pictures of us at that in the morning, he gets no ideas in his head about us getting on a plane that night and coming to see him.
That's what we did though! At 10pm on the night of the 7th Rachel, Eric and I got on an overnight flight to Halifax.

Saturday morning my mom and sister Emma picked us up from the airport. The first stop on the way home was the Halifax Farmer's Market, where we got my mom's booth all set up and ready for Emma to work for the day. I love this place, it brings back such satisfying and triumphant memories of last summer for me. I'm glad we got to see it once on this short trip.
Then we headed to my aunt Sharon's place where we were stowed away for next few hours until they were ready for us. We mostly just slept the whole day. Then we had to go to the mall to get dress pants for Eric because we're away for two Sundays and the boy forgot them.  The way back was a bit stressful though. We got stuck in this huge rainstorm on the highway behind an accident that just happened for 30 minutes. We had to turn off the car. I'm grateful Sharon took the time to get us there, and that everything after that huge delay still worked out okay.
Then we finally got back to the house, threw ourselves together, and the Grannies picked us up for dinner. (Background: my mom and dad's families have known each other a long time. Last summer both my grandmas moved to Halifax from Ontario, and until they find more permanent places to live, they are sharing an apartment together. They are affectionately referred to as The Grannies.) Our family, with Alyssa, Victoria's boyfriend Eli and the Grannies, met at Jack Astor's for dinner. Eric, Rachel and I hid in the back until they were all seated and ready to order. Mom came and got us, and out we came. My dad was looking at his menu, so I went to the person behind him and got down to his eye level and said "Hi Dad, happy birthday". He looked up, saw the three of us and said "What the..." (and I think there were a tiny tear or two). It was so much fun to see his reaction. He really had absolutely no idea! We'd been planning this for about 3 months - and all the kids knew too - and still no one spilled the beans. It was seriously one of my favourite moments with my Dad ever. He really does love his children, and he knew he wouldn't get to see Haig on that day, but a small part of him really hopped he'd get to see the 3 of us - at least until he saw the graduation pictures. He said those pictures threw him completely off our tracks. There's no way he thought he'd see us that weekend.