SURPRISE!!!!!

Well, later this month my friend Crystal will be celebrating the Big 4-0! We wanted to do something special for her, but I am not really the party planner. So, we decided to plan a little weekend get-away. My sister asked her about going to Chicago when the Dallas Stars were playing there and being the hockey fan that she is, Crystal immediately jumped on that idea. What she didn't know was that the whole Heston Clan would be crashing in on their trip.

We spent several weeks planning and even let the kids in on the plan. Shockingly, we actually made it all the way to the big day without anyone letting the cat out of the bag ... at least to the birthday girl. I know that both the older kids told their teachers and some friends about it....how could we possibly expect them to contain all that excitement for over a month.

When Rhonda and Crystal got to the airport, I believe all Crystal wanted to do was get something to eat. But, that pesky Rhonda wanted to go find the gate first to "find it and make sure everything was ok" ... or actually just to find us so that she didn't have to keep the secret any longer. Here we are on the plane. It was actually a 777, so we all got to sit in one row.

And, here is part of the birthday celebration. Cakes are too hard to get through security and on a plane all with kids in tow. So, we opted for Cookies on a Stick.....Big Hit!

Happy (early) Birthday Aunt Crystal!!! (more posts on this in the next couple of days)