Surprises are my favourite...

It all started about 3 weeks ago when my Angels obsessed cousin called me with a plan... a plan to go to game 5 of the ALCS! That's right, Angels vs. Yankees wonderful-ness!!! Ahhh yes... the only catch, you ask?! Its a SURPRISE! :) While many would think this would be an easy feat being that I live 1,500 miles away, it really wasn't! There were numerous times that I had to, ahem, shall I say, stretch the truth to the parentals. My mom even saw my flight purchase on my credit card statement and thought it was merely my flight to come home for Christmas! Pfft... everyone knows I don't think THAT far ahead! Buuut, its OK mom, I'm glad you were oblivious to the obvious! :) Anyhoo, on to the surprise... Operation Halo began at 7am on October 22. I arrived in Fresno 2 short and sleepy hours later and was greeted by Alex (Angels obsessed cousin) who was wearing more red than there was on Parliament Hill for Canada Day!! Needless to say I had no trouble finding him. As we were waiting to collect my bag I mentioned in passing that my mom (who still knows nothing) was in Fresno for the day. Alex of course immediately called her and tells her he is in the area and needs to kill an hour so he would bring her some coffee. She of course, did not pass up the opportunity to down a free coffee so we were on our way! We pulled up to the office where she was waiting and summoned her to come outside. As the window rolled down, I held out the coffee to her and you could see the confusion/surprise/WHAT!?!? on her face and I believe her first words to me were 'You stinker!!' Now, I have never done this before but I hope that's normal! :) We had the chance to chat for a bit and then Alex and I (along with Lisa - the Yankee fan) were on our way to to complete the next surprise for my dad... but not without making sure my mother was sworn to secrecy for the next 2 hours before my dad saw me! (Sidenote - Although I did find out after the fact that she was THIS close to spoiling it... buuuut, she held back and blamed it on a senior moment instead!! HA!) The plan was for Alex, Lisa, my dad, and a 'friend' (aka me) to meet in Bakersfield and head down to Anaheim together. About 2 minutes before we pulled into Hodel's (the meeting point) I decided to call my dad and ask him about the game since 'I'm SO bummed that I can't go to the game with them'... He ironically answers the phone 'Hey Canada girl' (as I think, "Oh, if you only knew")... we continue our conversation as he was giving me a play-by-play of Alex and Lisa's arrival in the parking lot. He eventually opens the door to their car only to see me!! His reaction - Priceless! I don't recall any words being spoken but a step back and a cocked head (which, if you know my pops, any reaction whatsoever from him is quite the feat) said it all!! We spent the next little bit explaining how it all went down which in turn explained my mother's earlier phone call/senior moment to him! HA! It was great! The game was amazing too! We had awesome seats where me and John Lackey (and possibly Johnny Damon) became BFF! The game turned out to be quite intense and was glad I was able to experience it in person! A big thanks to Alex and Lisa for a successful/surpriseful trip home! I had a blast!

The rest of the weekend was full of sleep and the annual HGOF harvest dinner! It was a grand time with some amazing food thrown in!! All in all, a great weekend at home!

These are a few pics from the weekend! Enjoy!

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