Surprise!!!

On Monday, November 10th, Leo and I flew out of Anchorage, once again, and arrived in Spokane, WA that evening. We rented a car at the airport and drove to his folk's house in Colfax. We had been planning a big SURPRISE party the next day for Leo's mom's 80th birthday (which is actually December 15th). So, we spent the night with his parents and had a little story concocted about taking them to lunch before we left. Just before lunchtime, Leo's mom, Eva, started acting kinda weird and said something about meeting Wade and Terri (Leo's brother's family) for lunch somewhere. I hadn't been told that was part of the "plan" so I said I didn't know anything about that. Eva made me call Terri and Terri told me that we were supposed to say we were meeting for lunch half way between Colfax and Spokane... and then we'd take Eva to the Grange Hall in Steptoe, where her party was waiting for her. So, after I hung up, I told Eva that we were in fact meeting Wade and Terri for lunch. Well, she seemed super stressed out and kept saying she didn't think that was the right plan. It was a bit awkward, but finally "the hour" arrived and we drove to the Grange Hall.

When we arrived, there were tons of people there waiting, including all 6 of Eva's kids! When she saw everyone, the tears started to flow. Not long after we arrived the real story came out... when Terri sent out invitations to the surprise party, Eva's blind friend, Dorothy, had Eva read the invitation to her! So, she'd known for about a month about this party, but didn't tell any of us that she knew. She did, however, invite other people to come since she thought no one was going to show up. Come to find out, she was getting miffed at me, thinking I was going to drag her half way to Spokane for lunch and make her miss her party! Thus the head in the hands and deep sighs before we left the house!!!

I didn't get many good pictures, but hopefully the photographer who was there will send some. Here's one just after Eva came into the hall and is still in shock! Even though she knew she was having a party, she had no idea how many people would attend to celebrate her!

Here's the birthday girl, with three of her little boys- Leo, Glen and Wade. I met many new relatives at this party :) They figured out the last time all 6 siblings were together was in 1970, so Leo was just a baby then. It was really neat to have everyone all together.

Here I am talking with Uncle Wendell. It was funny because my hair is not exactly red right now, a lot of people that I'd only met once or twice was wondering who the woman was hanging onto Leo :) I think they were rather relieved to realize it was, in fact, me!

All "the kids" went back to Leo's folk's for the evening and spend a few hours visiting and just enjoying being together. I think, all in all, the party was a success!!!