Surprise!

We decided to drive down to St. George for the weekend and surprise my mom for her birthday. I gave a heads up to my dad via email and we hopped in our car Friday after work and headed down. To hear the experience from here is best from my mom's point of view:
She was sitting watching TV with my dad, and actually a little surprised he wasn't getting ready for bed yet as it was almost ten, when she heard a deeper rumbling of an engine in their neighborhood that she'd never heard before. She peeked out the window to see brake lights reflecting off the house across the street. My parent's garage extends out from their house, so it blocked her view from her front window, and she couldn't see the actual vehicle, but knew it had stopped in front of their driveway. My dad got up, opened the door, and their dog ran out and around the front of the garage and out of view. Now, as their dog is very protective, he barks, and has an extremely loud bark at that, but he wasn't barking when he went around the garage, and it frightened my mom. That wasn't normal, something was up. My dad started to go out the door and my mom whispered "don't go out there!" She watched as he too disappeared around the garage, and she made her way from the window to the door. At that point Brynn ran around the corner into her view and it took her a few seconds to register who it was. The other kids were soon behind Brynn yelling "surprise!" Needless to say operation Birthday Surprise was a success.
The next day, being Grandma's actual birthday, we made Swedish pancakes,
took a stop at the St. George temple to cross it off our temple visit list:
and hiked and played above Dixie rock.
We took the circus to McDonald's for lunch and then headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's where the circus threw on their suits and "swam" in the hot tub while we adults crashed on the couch.
After that, Grandma decided on Applebee's for dinner. Where of course we made them sing to her, despite her asking for it not to be done :).

He IS smiling:

Poor West was attacked by the worst allergies when we got down there.

Tayler really got into the dessert (sadly, this picture wasn't staged): Happy Birthday Grandma KC!

The five girls went to the park in the neighborhood and decorated these pine cones for Grandma. Thanks for letting the circus come crash for a weekend Grandma and Grandpa! We had a lot of fun, and hope that we helped make Grandma's birthday a good one.