We managed to pull off the surprise! My brother's family drove up from Atlanta to surprise Benjamin for his 16th birthday. Here they are walking in (behind Katherine) to eat lunch with us at 3:30 (super long wait to get in)
Benjamin was completely confused!
Then super excited! He is very close to his cousins!
They even brought a birthday cake all the way from Atlanta!!
Look at all of those smiles
They couldn't wait for him to open his gifts. Peyton got him a new controller for his Xbox.
And they all got him this puppet...it was hilarious! Tyler got him some Yugioh cards.
We hid a present in the car for him...a pizza blanket! Is this why he's alsways hungry at night? hmmm
Cute puppy cake...and YUMMY!
Say cheese!
We stayed one night in a hotel in Gatlinburg. WE were so surprised when we walked into our room! It was HUGE! It has a full kitchen, dining room, living room, fireplace, movies...
The kitchen
Katherine LOVED the double oven. She wanted to cook something in this kitchen so badly! SHe kept begging to go buy stuff to make alfredo.
TWO balconies
Katherine said that the bathroom had a waterpark inside...the shower was huge!
The kids were excited about the indoor swimming at the pool...
complete with tons of water slides!
These indoor pools were heated.
The kids had the pool to themselves. It looks pretty full, but we just take up a lot of space :)
The kids played a game and baby Grace was the shark trying to tag people as they swam across...she LOVED it!
It the heated pool wasn't warm enough then there was the hot tub.
My king size bed (The other bedroom had 2 beds) plus we had a pullout couch.
Breakfast in the morning...fritters
chocolate chip pancakes
berry pancakes
Regan found a shirt on sale. It looks good on her!
The hotel also had a game room. The kids took turns playing air hockey.
This was Benjamin's gift from us. We took him to ride GoKarts (the fast ones...ages 11 and up) It was a success! We got to rounds each.
Regan and Paige
Katherine and Lauren
Benjamin
Jonathan and Hudson
Tyler, Benjamin, random girl, Jonathan, Regan, and Paige
Outside waiting for dinner
Aunt Kelly took her to go pick flowers. She had a big bouquet by the time they called us in.
Giving goodbye hugs after dinner
We laughed at this billboard, then laughed harder when Benjamin spontaneously imitated her!
