A weekend full of surprises, birthdays and family!....in VIRGINIA! :)

On Friday morning, Papa/Grama/Shea/and myself packed into the car at 3:30 AM and began our adventure to Richmond, Virginia! We were headed for a fun filled weekend of families, parties, and surprises. I have thought ALL weekend /// oh I need to blog about this!...or oh I can't forget to write about that! /// So hopefully I can remember and gather all of my thoughts so I can share them!  :)

After an almost 13 hour drive on Friday, although VERY exhausted, we were greeted at Aunt Sherry's house by the Tuttles, Binkleys, and my family. I suddenly had a burst of energy and stayed up way later than I planned!  :)  We got all of our stuff situated and Aunt Sherry had a wonderful dinner in the making. We all could not get enough of Baby Tate (of course!) We ate dinner, all the boys got out all of their ipads ( I have never seen so many ipads in one place! haha) and we sat around and talked and laughed for the rest of the evening. After the grandparents went to sleep, we started decorating for the surprise party :) :) :) 

There were exactly 10 people staying at Aunt Sherry's house and her house was big enough to house us all! I could NOT believe it! I was lucky enough to stay in the "Mickey Mouse" room! Everything was soo cute!  I don't think I got a picture though! :(   

Saturday was SO fun ! We got up early and Uncle Andy made all of us a fantastic breakfast. Then I frantically put all of the finishing touches on Papa and Grandma's scrapbook for their anniversary party. At 12:00 PM everyone was to report together so we could take pictures and surprise the grandparents. 

I think we all can say that all of our hard work paid off! It was wonderful! we had Famous Dave's BBQ and then we presented the grandparents with their gift! We compiled a bunch of letters from their friends and family and scrapbooked them into a huge book. It turned out so cute! Then Aunt Sherry made a WONDERFUL carrot cake to top off the party ! :) Here are some moments that I caught :::

The whole gang! 

Celebrating 50 years was wonderful! We all kept talking about how we can't imagine being married for so long! HA! :)

After the party ended the boys went to Kings Dominion, which is an amusement park, and the girls went shopping! 

We hung out for the rest of the night and went to sleep. Sunday morning we went to TWO church services! (ha) I don't remember the last time that my family went to church (in the same car) and just sat in a service. All 5 of us are always running around doing something at church, but this day was different. We were told we had to go to a church down the road because it was so interesting. There was no worship service, which was not my favorite, but it was a good service. After that, we went to a Baptist church. We all really enjoyed that. But it was still weird to just go and sit in church!

Once we had one party done, it was time to get ready for another! Tate's very first birthday was on Sunday! Adriane had the fam over to her house for her adorable party. Everything was put together SO WELL! Here are some pics::

Way to go Aunt Sherry! The cake turned out ADORABLE!

Tate's birthday outfit that Aunt Sherry made her...

So after the birthday party, we were all partied out! 

We went back to the Tuttle's house and relaxed and ate pizza! 

When we weren't trying to convince Papa to let us stay another day, we were just hanging out around the house. The trip was absolutely wonderful and definitely WAY too short! 

As we made the long trek back to Tennessee yesterday, I sat there and thought about how blessed this weekend was. It was so encouraging to see all of our family together. All the cousins are more grown up than we were when we saw each other last, Baby Tate is just the most adorable thing I have ever seen, and it was so much fun to sit around and talk about family memories. We are all spread out around the country (from Massachusetts to California) and who knows when we will all be together again. (The joke was that it will be at my wedding...in TEN YEARS! haha) But I left my with my heart full and thankful. The Lord has really put His hand on all of our family. I am so thankful that Papa and Grandma raised Aunt Sherry and mom with a love for the Lord. And both of them married men that share that Love for the Lord. And both of those couples raised their children with a love and passion for Jesus Christ. We all have different talents and abilities and different personalities, but the Lord has definitely worked in all of us to further HIS kingdom. And believe me... we aren't done yet!  :)

THANK YOU Aunt Sherry and all you Virginia folk! :) Your hospitality was wonderful and we miss you already!