Full of surprises...

This weekend was full of surprises at the King's casa!!

Our weekend started on Wednesday night after celebrating Miss Annaliese's birthday. Ryan had been gone on a 10-day work trip to Chicago. Ten long days and nights...and as much fun as I had with the kids all to myself (that is serious - no sarcasm. They were a DREAM the whole time), we were so happy to have him home. His flight wasn't arriving until 9:15pm which is 2 hours past Miss L's bedtime, but we made an exception and waited for him at the airport.

And then his flight got delayed. 

And then he didn't arrive until 10:15pm.

And we had some delirious kiddos on our hands. 

But.

It was completely worth it!

On Thursday, after our quick power freezing  session, Ryan and I surprised the kids with a trip to the pool. 

Sorry for the repeat pic, but I didn't bring my camera. I LOVE surprising them like this. Their whole soul just lights up with happiness. It is absolutely amazing what 2 simple hours can do for children. Nothing fancy, just a surprise trip to the public pool and they couldn't stop smiling. (And Emmy became a rock star and decided putting her whole body underwater was pretty cool).

On Friday morning we woke the kids up, got dressed, ate breakfast and loaded up the car for a surprise day trip! They had so much fun trying to guess where we were heading - which included Chicago, Louisiana, and the beach - all great guesses. All wrong. 

But they were still excited when we arrived...

We have talked about going on a tour of the creamery for a couple of years and just never made the time. This was no big deal to Ryan since every time he had ever delivered there he really did get to eat as much as he wanted. We snapped  a few pics before heading into the tour where no cameras are allowed (for employee privacy - not ice cream protection).

And I am kinda glad that was a rule. I had zero "pressure" to take a picture of what was happening and just enjoyed what we were doing. I should try that more often! 

After we learned everything there is to know about ice cream making, we each took our tickets up to the counter and picked our flavor of choice. 

And I would say...

that the trip was...

loved by everyone. 

Before we could leave they insisted on a picture by the cows. I love watching the faces of random people when my kids take a picture. At this point, Radley is directing me on what to do and Landry just walks around saying "cheeeeeesh" and we all know that Emmy loves to strike a pose. The look on people's faces is pretty entertaining - I should maybe tell them that they've had a little practice. 

And one with the Kruse brothers. 

After we were full of ice cream and knowledge of ice cream, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed for our next surprise... 

where one quick picture was snapped and 100s of memories were made. 

What a blessing this weekend was for all of us - full of surprises and fun and most of all time with my favorite people in the whole wide world.