Celebrate Today : Birthday Hike Surprise

When I knew that Anna had the day off from school today for Veteran's Day and that she was planning a hike with a couple of friends as a pre-birthday celebration, I had a crazy brainstorm to hike to the destination with festive decor and a birthday lunch to surprise her. I reached out to her friends and let them in on the secret, and Jason was game to help pull it off too. Anna drove with Sarah and Claire to Ira Spring Trail to Mason Lake, and unbeknownst to her, Jason and I were about 20 minutes ahead of her on the road to hit the trail. When we left the house this morning, we had told her that we were going on a trail run so that she did not suspect anything. We even swapped cars with our friend Bill for the day so that she would not see our car in the parking lot at the trail head to cover our tracks. We made our way to the lake with two full backpacks to set up shop with little time to spare as they were faster hiking up than we were with our heavy loads, but we found a spot right by the lake just in time and hid behind some trees to see her reaction. The snow around the lake was magical, but it sure was chilly which made for a quick birthday lunch. Fun was had by all, and it was a sweet gift to celebrate our almost-18-year-old today with gold sparkly letters in the snow!

Birthday Surprise at Mason Lake: https://youtu.be/U0W80vXbZJM

When Jason and I were scheming about this, it felt like a game of "yes" in improv. Let's bring our china plates that we got for our wedding. YES! Let's bring the new gold sparkly chargers I got for Anna's birthday. YES! Let's bring a bubble maker and get batteries for it. YES! Let's bring the gold sparkly "Happy Birthday" letters that I made this fall. YES! Let's pick up lunch from one of Anna's favorite spots. YES! Let's celebrate in spite of!