Happy 40th Rick!!

On Nov 13-15 my brothers and I flew to WI to surprise my brother Rick for his 40th birthday.  We planned ahead of time with his wife and my parents so we could make it happen.  It was so awesome!!  It was just a great weekend!  Peter, Ben and I flew on the same flight, so we left early Sat morning.  Matt flew on a different flight that would land an hour after ours.  The plan was to just wait at the airport until he got in and then Jen could pick us up.  Well, Matt's flight was delayed so there was a little hicup there, but it turned out just fine.  Jen and Mom picked the three of us up and to kill time for a while we went to grab lunch at Kopp's.  Mmm mmm good!!  And then we went to pick up some balloons and a birthday cake.  By then it was about time for Matt to get in so we headed back to the airport to get him.  I have to say, the whole time we were driving from the airport to their house I couldn't help but smile.  I was so excited, but what made me smile even more was to see how excited Jen was.  It was great!!  She wasn't excited for herself, but she knew how excited Rick was going to be and she could hardly contain herself!  It was hilarious. When we got to the house we hid outside while Jen went in and got kids downstairs so they wouldn't answer the door.  We had to wait 2 min before we knocked and those 2 minutes seemed like FOREVER!  Anyway, we knocked on the door and when Rick answered it we yelled "Happy birthday!!"  It was great!  He just kept saying "I am floored!"  It was priceless and something I won't ever forget.  He had no idea.  He knew something was up this weekend, but had no idea we were involved.  The only thing that would have made it better is if my sister could have come so we could have had the whole family there.  It was a wonderful weekend.  Saturday evening was my Grandma's birthday dinner so we got to go celebrate that with her.  It was awesome to see her and aunts and uncles and cousins that we don't get to see very often anymore.  On Sunday we went to church and then spent the rest of the day chilling with the fam.  Playing some games and just talking.  Monday morning rick made us some delicious omelets.  Then we played some more settlers.  After that we went to walmart looking for some Packers clothing and then we went to eat at George Web and did some more reminiscing.  After George Webb we went to kopps and had our last taste of the best custard in the world!!  :)  There we said good bye to mom, dad and Jen.  Rick stayed with us and we had some time to kill before needing to get to the airport so we stopped at the church we grew up going to since it was just down the road.  Some missionaries were there playing basketball so the doors were open so we took the opportunity to go in and walk through.  It brought back so many memories.  It was fun to hear the boys talk about everything they did there and what they remembered, etc.  I didn't remember quite as much as them, but I did recall some good memories.  We saw a plaque on the wall for eagle scouts and all of their names are still up there!  Crazy!  I also saw the Brookfield wards current missionary board and saw that my best friend growing up, her sister is serving in Las Vegas!!  Crazy!!  I miss Jordan and need to call her!  It has been WAY too long since we have talked.  I can't believe her little sis is on a mission!  I still think of her as a little girl!  Anyway...the whole weekend was just incredible.  We just spent the whole time hanging out as a family, playing games, getting advice from dad and reminiscing about the past.  I couldn't have imagined it to be any better!  I'm so glad we were able to do this.  And thanks to Udine for watching the kids so I could go!!  Happy Birthday Rick!  Thanks for such a great weekend!

Right after we arrived and surprised him (Ben, Me, Rick, Peter, Matt)

Dad and Grandma at her dinner

 George Webb

Ben at Kopps, this picture cracks me up...he went all out and got a scoop of each flavor.  Mmm mmm good.  His eyes were a little bigger than his stomach.  It was a good laugh for us all.  :)

All of us before we left