Flori's Surprise Visit

 When we heard Mary and Bob would be in town right after Thanksgiving we got a girl's night planned and hoped Maggie and Flori would join us. For Maggie it was an easy sell —Justin had a work convention in SLC which he needed to be here for anyway so we knew she could join us. Somehow Mary Braun had talked to Flori about her Thanksgiving schedule and was sure Flori had plans the weekend after so we didn't try to convince her to come join us. It turns out Flori didn't have plans and when she heard about a girls weekend she bought a ticket to come join us and then didn't tell anyone (ok she told Joseph and me to find out details and make sure she had a place to stay while she was here). It was super duper sneaky because all the siblings called her and tried to convince her to come at some point. Mary Braun felt bad she hadn't told her about it in the first place and begged her to come join because we love her so much. Then Maggie called to ask her to come and then Johnny did too since he and Krista decided to bless Finn while Bob and Maggie were in town. Flori totally lied and said she just couldn't do it all while having her ticket and surprise plans in place — such a LeBaron move! Too fun.

Anyway, Flori showed up at Mary Braun's house having her SIL Amy drop her off and Mary was completely surprised. Flori had the cute idea to record all the surprises too. Her family back home loved seeing those! For our girls' night we met up for dinner at The Dodo and Flori made sure everyone was inside before she came in to join us. Above is our shoddy picture with bad restaurant lighting but we were all so excited to have her there. After dinner we drove up to the cabin and Maggie met us up there after driving up from SG. Flori surprised Maggie up there too and it was really funny and pretty sweet to see all the reactions. No one had any idea so it was awesome!

Timer picture!

We had a lovely night just snacking and chatting until after midnight when we actually made a responsible choice and went to bed. In the morning we made a yummy breakfast and then got to work on a 12 Days of Christmas package for Nanny and Grandpa Neil. Mary and Seth and their kiddos were headed to Houston the week before Christmas and took all our gifts with them and got them started on their daily gifts for the 12 days.

 Maggie and Mary Rubow had to get back to their families but the rest of us went for a good hike on the hills around the cabin and enjoyed the fresh air and quiet mountains while getting pretty sweaty. (Jess had only joined us for dinner since it was Porter's birthday and she had lots to prepare for).

Once we came down from the cabin the 5 of us grabbed a huge and delicious lunch at an Italian place in Kimball Junction and then we came back to our kids and husbands. I kept Flori with me so she could stay with us that night. The extended LeBaron family planned their annual holiday party for this same weekend (everyone in town —might as well!) so we drove to Orem for more LeBaron fun at Aunt Gail's house. Neil's kids make up the huge majority of those relatives so it was more playtime with lots of people we love.

Sunday morning we drove up to Suncrest for baby Finn's blessing and joined Krista's siblings and parents. Such a huge group there for sweet Finn!

 All the LeBaron siblings together. I can't believe these people have been my people too for more than 15 years. I love them so much and feel so blessed to have them in my life.

We tried again for a picture of all the sisters but Luci had an important family call from Brazil about her mother's health and had stayed home to make sure her mom was ok. These girls! They are the best extra sisters. I seriously love hanging out with them and think they are such beautiful, kind hearted friends and mothers. Plus, we're so lucky to have cute Mary Rubow added into this mix.

After the blessing we had Tom and Jess and Flori come eat chicken enchiladas at our house and then Flori headed over to Tommy's house to stay with his little family for the night. It was our "super-duper LeBaron weekend" which was fine with us. I feel like we have to work extra hard to make sure we connect as a family while Ruth Ann is gone and not here to rally us all together herself. Gosh, I feel pretty ready for Nanny and Neil to be done with their mission :)