Mother's Day Surprise!

The plan was hatched about a month ago... I was trying to figure out something special I could do for my mom for Mother's Day and her birthday, which is at the end of the month when I'll be in San Diego for my race. I thought about planning a party-- nope, too broke, too busy and too hard to do from the bay area. Then I thought about what would really make my mom happy-- and that was to have the whole family together for Mother's Day! My mom and dad were planning on coming down to visit me for Mother's Day weekend so I asked my brother if he might be able to fly down for the weekend. He thought that was a great idea and said sure he could do it! Perfect... I knew my mom would be SO surprised to see him here!

Because of the cost of tickets and our schedules, Grady ended up taking the train down from Portland to Oakland. He left on Friday afternoon, would spend the night on the train, and then would arrive at Jack London Square at around 8:30. Since I had to be at the Coached Run in Mill Valley super early that morning, and wouldn't be done until around noon, he was planning on just hanging around until I made my way back to the east bay and could swing by to pick him up.

The run in Mill Valley went really well. I went out with the first group since I had heard it was going to get warm (when I got there at 6:30 it was already warming up). The course was a double out and back... the first 5 miles out and back were along Tennessee Valley Rd. all the way out to the ocean, and the 2nd half was out and back from the start area to Tiburon. I was worried that the first half of the course was going to be boring because it was pretty much a straight shot out to the ocean along a tree lined road. It ended up being a gorgeous run but hillier than I was prepared for. After a flat 1.5 miles, the next mile are so was a long incline to the top of the hill... then we got a short downhill before we veered off on a trail which had a lot of rolling hills. I didn't do too bad on the hills, considering how much of a wimp I usually am with them! Two hours after I started, I rolled back into Mill Valley feeling very good!

Me, Deb, Ray, Belinda and Leslie at the beach... the turnaround point for the first half of the course.

I waited around for a few more hours cheering people in. Once our water stop peeps got back, I loaded my car back up and drove out to Oakland to pick up Grady. We got back to Walnut Creek, took some quick showers and then figured out how we could best surprise my mom! My idea was that when my mom and dad arrived, I'd sit my mom on the couch, tell her I had a present for her, bring out my brother, who would have been hiding, and then SURPRISE!!! My brother had a better, and slightly more evil plan. He thought he should hide in my closet and I then I'd tell my mom I had something for her, but she had to get it out of my closet, and when she'd open the door... SURPRISE!!!

I thought she might find it a little strange that I had something in my closet for her but we went with that plan since we thought it have the most shock effect. And boy did it ever!! My mom opened the closet door as planned, but since my brother is so tall, and she was expecting something to be on the floor, all she saw was his feet at first. It took her a few seconds (which seemed like minutes) before she looked up at his face and realized what she was looking at! She SCREAMED!!! And not an "Oh-my-gosh-I'm-so-excited" scream... it sounded more like "There's-an-axe-murderer-in-the-closet" scream! I think she was surprised :D

A reenactment of the "reveal"

After the shock wore off, we headed off to my new favorite BBQ place Cuz’nz BBQ for lunch. We were there for a LONG time enjoying some BBQ, coconut cake and just visiting. After lunch we looked around the bookstore, went down to 1515 for some drinks, and then went to see Iron Man at the movies. By the time we got out of the movies it was 9:30 and we realized we never did have dinner. I think we were all still so full from lunch that we weren't really hungry!

The next day my mom, dad, Grady and I went down the street to the Sunrise Bistro (owned by the same people who own the BBQ place) for a yummy breakfast. We got there kind of early, hoping to miss the major crowds and we were successful. We even got to sit outside on their patio! After brunch we went out to Borges Ranch in Walnut Creek to walk around a bit and take some pictures. I had never been out there and thought it would be a good way to walk off all the food we'd eaten :) My mom was having a bad allergy attack but we were still able to walk around and take in the gorgeous views. We even saw goats, chickens and piggies (big fat ones... not the cute little ones) :D We were all hungry for a treat after all the walking around so we went back downtown and had some ice cream at the San Francisco Creamery. BY then it was getting into the late afternoon and my parents needed to get home so my brother got packed up (he was going home with them for the night) and then they were off! It was a really nice Mother's Day weekend, and fun to have all four of us together for the weekend!