Surprise! Surprise!

Picture this:

It's your daughter's 26th birthday. It's time to celebrate. In our family the birthday person chooses where we go to dinner, followed by gifts, totally out of tune singing of the Happy Birthday song and finally birthday dessert.  When we asked Lauren where she wanted to go to dinner, she suggested Sherlock's Pub off Research Blvd.  I love their fish and chips but it's not really the kind of place I would have expected her to choose. But she made some kind of statement about choosing a restaurant we hadn't been to in a while.  Ok, that makes sense. 

Enter us arriving at Sherlock's about 10 minutes before 6. Lauren comes out the front door and meets us.  Hmmm...says they just got there too.  I step inside and my little buddy Rex comes running up to me. I'm so excited to see him and Lauren says something about running into him and his family at the restaurant. Hmmm. Ok but there's a Sherlock's (Baker Street) down closer to their end of town.  Ok, whatever. But then Lauren kind of makes me wait near the door for Lester who is parking the car.  Still I have no clue.

Once Lester comes in we head into the restaurant and SURPRISE!  She has orchestrated a surprise Bon Voyage party for us. Neither of us had a clue this was happening.  Here are so many of our good friends, come to wish us Bon Voyage and safe travels.  The Ryan's, the Karlins, the Georges,  Nicole David, the O'Daniels, Bill Bechtol, the McCornacks, Jane Wold, the Bankstons, Ambree Stone, the girls from Lester's office: Laurie, Nicole, Jessica, Melinda and her boyfriend.  (Hopefully I have remembered everyone.) We were so surprised and honored by this outpouring of love. We enjoyed visiting with everyone. We'll miss all of you.

This child of ours gave up her birthday dinner and celebration and planned this event with the help of her husband, David and her brother, Michael. How selfless is that?

Thank you to all who came out to spend a little time with us tonight. Thank you to David and Michael for their role in pulling off the surprise and huge thanks to Lauren for sharing her birthday with us and planning such a great surprise.

We did eventually celebrate Lauren's birthday with our fabulous singing voices, gifts and mini cupcakes for dessert.