The one where all the kids surprised Bill and Linda and it was awesome

So, one thing going on this weekend in addition to the Crafts & Drafts, that I haven’t mentioned, was a super secret surprise of getting all the kids down here to surprise Bill and Linda and celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Their anniversary isn’t until April, but part of a surprise is doing things unexpectedly, so, hey, let’s celebrate in January! We knew they would want to come down some time in January or February to see Amy and Isaac and the babies, and it just so happened that the Open House for January was going to have a blacksmith as the guest artist, and what better time for Bill, a professional blacksmith, to come down, right?! So. The plan was set… Cathy and Jenny would fly down, spend a few days at Amy and Isaac’s and play with the kids, and then leave there right before Bill and Linda showed up (the joke is they thought it would be a dead giveaway that the girls where there because the house would smell like cake and Aveda products) and come to our house. Billy flew into Gainesville and came right to our place Friday.

It’s been so hard for Amy and I not to post family photos before Bill and Linda knew what was going on! And at one point we thought the gig was up, because earlier in the week, Jenny’s mother-in-law posted on Linda’s Facebook page that she’d talked to Jenny and that she was flying out on Wednesday and she hoped we all had a good family trip. Cetty saw it, contacted me, I contacted Jenny, and Jenny got her to take it down. Fortunately it was only up for about fifteen minutes, and Linda never saw it… but man, did we think the plan had been blown!

So here are a few photos of party prep, and Bill and Linda getting to the Crafts & Drafts and being surprised (and the cake). Good times, y’all. Good times!