No family vacation is complete without...ME!

As I mentioned before, this June ruled. I've had one more weekend to add to a fantastic month. The last weekend in June happened to be my parent's 30th anniversary. Wow. That means my mom has been married more years than she was single and my dad is getting close. That just blows my mind. Personally, I think my parents are an excellent example of how a marriage should work. They don't always (or ever) get along, per se, but they both have a lot of love and respect for the other that keeps it going. Most likely, they each have pretty detailed, well thought out plans of how to get rid of the other and make it look like an accident. But not once in 30 years have either one of them reverted to those plans and I think that takes guts and should be commended. My parents were planning on going to New York to visit my brother that weekend and my brother had the brilliant idea that I should fly out there secretly and surprise them for their anniversary. That's David, always thinking. So that is what I did. (I realize this plan/anniversary present all hinges on the assumption that someone (my parents) would want to "receive" me or time with me as a gift. In fact, in this case, it goes so far as to assume someone would not only like to "receive" me, but pay for all my meals, cabs and lodging on top of it. I'm pretty awesome, so I'm going to say it is a pretty safe assumption.)

Manhattan, as seen from Brooklyn.

I planned to arrive the same day as them, just a little later so I would meet them at their hotel after dinner. Possible revelation scenarios included me already in the room, yelling surprise when they entered, a bell boy knocking on the door saying, "Delivery" and then the delivery was me or me randomly walking up to them in the lobby asking for the time. All my good intentions flew out the window when it stormed for three days in Chicago, prior to my departure.

Their flight was delayed. My flight was delayed even more. I ended up arriving at their hotel at 1:30 am. David had informed the front desk of my pending arrival and they had a key for me. David was pretty sick and took a Tylenol PM, so he said I should just let myself in if he didn't answer his phone. The only problem with that plan was the chain lock on the door. So after calling David about 15 times, he finally answered and let me in. We snuck into my parent's room where David woke them saying, "I have surprise for you." I snuck out from behind the door and said, "Surprise!" My dad barely rolled over. My mom picked her head up and looked at me (without glasses or contacts) and said, "What?" I said, "It's your daughter, Jenny!" My mom said, "What?" Dad said, "Jennnnnnny. Hello. " and then went back to sleep. My mother was pretty confused, understandably. The most she could spit out that night was, "What? I don't understand. But how did you get here? I don't understand. Where were you? How are you here? What? I don't understand." It was pretty cute. There was a pull-out couch that David was sleeping on, but he was very, very sick and contagious. So my parent's 30th anniversary ended just like every couple imagines theirs will end. In bed, with their 26 year old child in bed with them. Now that's what I call romance.

Little do they know this scene will be repeating itself 26 years from now, minus the contented smiles.

The weekend was great. David was really sick, and I felt pretty bad for him. But he hang in their like a trooper. He recently moved to his first apartment where he will have no roommates and I think he is just going to love it. He has a pretty sweet set up there. The apartment seems nice, it has cool people in the building and it is very close to a lot of fun.

It worries me that my brother just continues to get more good looking. Soon I'm going to have to stop uglying myself up so as to make him feel better. I hate him thinking I got all the good looking genes in the family.

We ate at some pretty incredible restaurants in Brooklyn, went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, went to the MoMA, walked along the river and just had a great time. Brooklyn is pretty kick ass. The more I go there, the more I really enjoy it. My parents were happy with my presence and were glad to have the whole family together. So overall, Operation Surprise Anniversary was a success. Even with the co-sleeping.