Trip to Washington: Part I, The Surprise

[Editors note: We have 73 pictures flagged to be used in these posts, do not expect it to be coherent- but you can definitely expect to see some cuteness.]

We arrived ready to work on Thursday afternoon:

The pit had to be dug in which to cook, Sixty, the pig that Jeff and Niki raised for the occasion.

Oly and Pepper the puppy helped:

She was distracted for awhile:

But quickly got back to work:

Here's Charlie packing down the dirt pile. Good dog.

"Vwooooms!"

And Oly pet her first slug:

After a desperately needed bath, she caught up on her correspondence:

And read with her Aunt Pam, after meeting for the first time, finally!:

The next morning we went to the Olympia Farmers Market to shop for food (wait, we need to eat something other than pig?)

We kept prepping for the party while the Matriarchs supervised:

All of the hair had to be removed from Sixty, and Sarah was ALL about it:

We owe Lucy a couple bucks for babysitting:

We should slip Silly Grandmom $5 while we're at it probably.....

Here's a coupla' handsome Reading fellas:

The 5 kids played outside wonderfully, creating their own society where giant cow bones became currency:

Not really.

After all of the dog training, how are the beasts acting now, Jeff and Niki?

The kids also spent a lot of their time feeding scraps to Pig #2, now christened 'Sloppy' by Sarah, which fits. You're next porky!

When they weren't outside getting muddy or inside quietly reading, they were playing "Sharks!" a game I think almost everyone can remember playing in their childhood at one time or another.

After all that we had earned some cozy time on the couch:

There's a puppy in between those two:

Then FINALLY it was Saturday! THE day! Jay and Amy expertly made special B-day t-shirts for the kids:

While they made special Crazy Dave Art:

Once we were all ready,

We had to just wait.

It was harder than it looks! It was the perfect balance of keeping the kids calm, but not wasting all of the quiet minutes they have in them before the 15 seconds it took for David to go from the front door into the kitchen.

The video is here, that's Oly you hear wailing in the background because the surprise scared her- even though we practiced it twice.

I like this one, Steph is taking the hot coffee out of his hands because he's so stunned he's about to drop it:

Then we all settled into a fabulous shindig!

Here's Olympia Reading devouring her Silly Grandmom's Minestrone:

Here's the beautiful Sarah Diane snuggling with her favorite Uncle David:

Here's Oly doing some art on the floor with her Great Betty (still not positive how exactly they're related- but we all know that she's great so we'll stick with that)

All sitting down to the birthday dinner that we have been planning for months. Thank you Sixty, you were a delicious pig.

Thanks to Stephanie for making the German Chocolate Cake:

And thanks to Amy for making peach ice cream, Oly's a fan.

A good time was had by all!