A Surprise Reunion

Chris had asked me if I could drive down with one extra driver, to drive his team safely back to Prescott. He knew it would be the longest Sunday of their lives, literally. Because of the time change, his day was 38 hours! But his flight was scheduled to land at 6:46pm, right before bedtime. Our airport is two hours away, and Foster won't take a bottle. So naturally, I told Chris there was no way. 

I really wanted to make it happen. The girls missed their daddy so much, and to make them wait until Monday morning when they woke up just seemed cruel! So I decided to surprise him. 

Sunday morning I took a picture of the kids still in their pj's, pointing to the calendar Chris made them. (Every year he goes on a trip like this, and he always draws up a special calendar for the girls to help them grasp how long he'll be gone.) I saved it from the eyes of social media...

After a busy morning cleaning the house and car, my mom and I loaded up the kids and headed to our favorite park in Anthem. The girls played on the playground while Foster practiced his clapping skills. 

Next, we walked over to the little pond to make some 'Welcome Home' signs for his arrival. 

I wrote the words for Kinley and had her decorate all around them. For Harper, I told her to write the same words I wrote on Kinley's sign. Here is the sign she made, all by herself!

She's only 4 folks. It's insane. And she even knew how to shorten the word Daddy to Dad. (Sorry for the dark pictures, Chris had our good camera)

From there, we drove over to the outlets to grab an early dinner, then we made our way to the airport. Just before his plane landed, I posted the pajama picture (remember that?) to Instagram, with a caption about bedtime and seeing Daddy in the morning. Sneaky!!

As soon as the plane landed, we were up and in position to surprise him with their sweet signs and smiles. 

And the surprise worked! He ended up browsing through Instagram while waiting to disembark, seeing the fake picture of bedtime. When he turned the corner and saw us standing there, it was the happiest I've seen him in a long time. The girls ran to him, grabbed on, and hung from his neck for a while. I waited for my greeting as patiently as I could. And we were all so happy!