I'm the best surpriser EVER.

This Easter I decided that I would fly home and surprise my parents, it being the first weekend of my Spring Break. Now, I wouldn't have planned on doing this if I weren't absolutely positive that my parents adore me more than anything in the world and are thoroughly amused by and pleased with every single thing I do. Going home and spending time with them is a tremendous boost to my self-esteem (which, judging by this blog entry, clearly doesn't need much assistance); plus, I just really love my parents and missed them quite a little bit. I won't go into all the details, but the point that I'm getting at is that I am the best surpriser in the world. I think this picture (beautifully captured in "real time" by Rusty) of my dad's reaction shows how effective the whole thing was:

Isn't he cute?

But before that, I told one solitary soul, Mike, that I was flying in for the weekend. Together, we deftly succeeded at rearranging my mother's weekend plans, and as he picked me up from the airport, we laughed over his week's adventures of being a high school principal and revelled in the fact that my mom had NO idea that I was coming.

Mike dropped me off at the front door and quickly drove off to run some errands. I rang the doorbell, knowing that Mom was expecting my Aunt Sheri at around the same time. She opened the door, dropped her jaw, and said "What are you DOING here!!!" (only with more love in her voice than you can quite pick up in written form), while I began jumping around and screaming, "Surprise! I flew home for Easter!!!" like it was my proudest moment (which it might be. She seriously was really surprised.). I laughed, she cried, and every ten minutes for the rest of the day, she said, "Thank you SO much for coming. This is so nice." I love my mom. She's real' good to me. And purty, too.

That morning, I called me dad, woah, I'm Irish, MY dad, who was conveniently riding the ski lift up at Crystal and had a moment to chat. As I pestered him with questions about his next day's plans, it did raise a bit of suspicion - he was certain there was something wrong that I needed to talk to him about - and also caused a bit of self-defense when he started feeling like I was questioning his level of church activity. I just wanted to know if they were staying for the whole three hours...The next day I headed over before they got home from church and was waiting on the couch when Rusty walked in. I laughed, she screamed, and then she took a picture of Dad when I jumped out at him in the hallway.

Seriously, flying home to surprise your parents is AWESOME for your self-image. I've never seen anybody so glad to see me in my life. (Wait - notable exception - getting picked up by my family in Portugal at the end of my mission, not at the mission home that night as was planned, but in a park as my family drove by in a car yelling, "MACKENZIE!!!!" through the car window as I was walking with my companions to eat lunch. What are the odds of accidentally running into your family in the second biggest city in Portugal?? Super random. Point being, they were pretty glad to see me that time, too.)

Then I drove to Portland to see my best friend Kelli, her husband Dave, and their new baby Tyson. Kelli is my girl soul mate.

Then I drove to San Jose and saw Scott, Alexis, and my nephews on their way from the airport down to Carmel. My brand new baby nephew Bennett was obviously very happy to see me too. CUTE.

Nate and Grant were asleep and sacked out on the bench the entire time I was there, except for the first five minutes when I walked into the restaurant, saw Grant running around, and picked him up. I don't think he had any idea who I was (he's only three and I rarely see him), but he's sure friendly to strangers. He told me all about his dinosaur. Well, actually he just said, "Dinosaur!" and pointed. The rest was mostly implied.

Then, the next morning, bright and early, I took off to spend the rest of my Spring Break in the Mojave Desert. (Please see next post.)