Surprise Parties and Date Nights!

Okay, first of all WHO gets a summer cold? RIDICULOUS!! And yet I did. Woke up with it Saturday and remain highly unamused by the whole thing.

Secondly, I wanted to tell you about our fun Friday night date!

So sixteen years ago, this darling thing was born:

As she stated this weekend, I've known her since breath one. It's true. I was taking pictures the moment she entered the world, and she became my bonus niece in that very moment. And now she's sixteen. SIXTEEN!!!!!!

We don't live all that close, so we rarely get to see each other, but 2018 has been good to us.

We both went to the same 40th birthday party in March:

And then she spent a day of her spring break with me:

And then there was my 40th...

And now she's gone and turned 16 on me.

Her parents threw a surprise party for her that doubled as a movie night! They had been waiting forever (five-ever, Savannah said) to see The Incredibles 2, and it showed at the drive in about an hour away from us, so we went over to surprise her and enjoy a date night!

Literally missed hitting a deer on the way - by about 2 feet. Hearts were back in rhythm about an hour later!

They had to open the gates early because the crowds were so huge.

We'd been told to look for a balloon on their van, so we found it...but that was a different van with a different party. Whoopsie! :)

Found the correct balloon, and it turned out the birthday girl was wandering around with friends. In the end, she found us before we saw her, but she was really excited and surprised!

We sang to her, and her mom had brought some birthday treats to share. So fun!

The movie didn't start until about 10, and we had made a little bed for ourselves in the back of our car:

We loved the movie! (We hadn't seen the first one and have been properly told how lame we are for it.) It was a good night, even though we got home super late. (No deer on the way home!)