Birthday Surprise!

Both of my parents' 50th birthdays are this year, so my brother and I decided that we would surprise them and fly out to see them and celebrate their birthdays. It just so happens that Thanksgiving falls between their birthdays and both Dan and I had some time off that weekend, so we bought plane tickets, rented a car, and surprised my parents on Thanksgiving day by showing up on their doorstep. Unfortunately, Dale could not get time off work to join us, so he spent Thanksgiving alone in Texas:( Here's a little photo tour of our weekend...

This is my parents' beautiful home in Black Mountain, NC.

Birthday cake, flowers, and balloon.

Birthday decorations...my dad greeted us at the door when we got to their house, but my mom was still on the way home from work (yeah, she had to work on Thanksgiving), so we decorated to surprise her.

My mom's reaction when she saw us!

Dan with the tofurky...my parents are vegetarians.

Dad carving the tofurky.

My parents are both volunteer firefighters, so they took us to the fire station (that they helped build), and let us play on the fire engines.

My dad does a lot of recreational flying now that he's "retired," so he took us up in the warrior for a fun flight over their hometown.

Don't I look like a traffic reporter?

We also stopped at a farmer's market to get some snacks.

This is the farm village at the Biltmore Estate. My mom really likes this chicken, named Emerald, because it's blind and it lets her pick it up.

My dad drove us back to the airport, and on the way we watched Shrek 3.

We had a great weekend with my parents, and we already miss them!