The Best Surprise Ever

Our little family drove into Las Vegas around eight o'clock last night. Right away, we called my parents, because even though I'm a big old grown-up, my momma still likes to know these things. After being on the phone with my mom for less than five minutes, it was apparent that she wanted to see us--it was Easter, afterall.
So, we made a mini-detour and visited them from the car. I couldn't really get out of the car. In the final hour of our approach into town, Dianna began to go absolutely stir crazy. From shotgun, I grabbed bags and her walker and stuffed them into my seat. I then wedged myself into the middle of the back seat between the baby carrier, more bags, and Nike laying on the floor beneath me. Like I said, we visited from the car. Chris got out to, of course, grab the food my parents had packed for us. We made one more stop to Chris' parents' house then headed home.

I'm not going to lie or even downplay it: I was so excited at the prospect of just being back home. So the Mr. took the baby out, a few things we'd pack, then I could wriggle out. I rushed to the door and the first thing I noticed was a box for a memory foam mattress topper.
Our eyes bulged. And I mean bulged. Suddenly, unpacking the car was not quite so important and we rushed inside. We didn't even get upstairs for minutes, though. From the moment we opened the door, we saw more of my parents' work. They had cleaned our home from the bottom up. Our floors were spotless, our trashcans emptied, our tables positively shining. Uh...speechless? Yes, we were, huge smiles and all.

Up the stairs, which were also clean, we found that all our laundry had been done (bless them!). All our clothes were heaped on the carpet by the laundry room, and it was all gone. Then we discovered that our bedroom had gotten an entire makeover. Not only was there a new mattress topper, but also a whole bedding set, curtains, and storage bins in the closet. And our littlest one got her room reorganized, too.

We felt like we had been visited by the house fairy, that HGTV had snuck into our home, and that we had such amazing parents who would do something so kind, helpful, thoughtful and so so so generous. I kept racking my brain for what I had done to nurture this, but it just comes down to my parents being who they are. For a while, we just stared at our new home in awe, thinking of the time and money it took to do all they did. It took a minute or two to absorb everything and fumble for our phones to call my parents to basically yell "THANK YOU!" in their ears and "Oh my gosh, it looks so great. It is so nice!" and "Oh, the memory foam! Thank you!"

An hour or two later as we lay in our new bed, we looked around still giddy, still unable to control our huge ear to ear grins. Nevermind the trip to California! It felt worth it to go just to get this surprise at the end. Before we passed out, the Mr. said, "I'm glad we made that mini-detour to see your parents!"

My parents are amazing, and I am so thankful for them.