Birthday Surprise!

We thought we would surprise Eric's dad, Clarence, for his birthday by showing up on his doorstep. This ended up being a 10 hour drive from Sacramento, California to Park City, Utah. Eric and I took turns driving so it wasn't too bad. Ally stayed busy drawing or watching movies. I usually try and have her just stare out the window like we used to have to do, but once we got past Reno, I couldn't blame her! What a drab landscape! The air quality was so horrible there would be huge mountains just a few miles away and you could barely pick out their outlines.

Anyway, we finally made it, safe and sound, and checked into our hotel. Luckily the resort is just a mile away from Clarence's house, but we decided we would surprise him in the morning. He had called us as we were arriving in Salt Lake City with his normal chat and we had to pretend like nothing was amiss. We were sure to slyly ask about his plans for the next day. His plans were minimal so we knew we would be good.

The next morning we drove to his condo. Eric remembered that you had to have a code to enter the building so we devised a plan and our only lie :) We called his cell saying that Fedex called us saying they have our package we sent for his birthday and weren't sure where to leave it. He said he would go (from an HOA meeting at his complex) to the front door to collect the package. We giggled as we hung up and retreated to our car. As soon as he appeared and was looking for a package we came from behind and asked if he was looking for a package. He first saw me and it didn't quite register, but once he saw Eric and Ally it hit him. We weren't quite sure how he would react and mostly he was just, well, surprised :) It was a success. He decided we were more fun than his meeting so he ditched the rest and we sat down to figure out a plan. He was thinking of going to SLC for the day to find a shirt for a wedding so we decided to tag along. Well, he didn't quite find a shirt he liked but Ally was excited about a new pair of jeans and t-shirt ;)

After lunch at Red Rock we headed to the new Natural History Museum in SLC. It was a very cool museum which takes you throughout time with authentic dinosaur bones found in Utah along with indian artifacts and displays of the local landscape. Lots of hands on exhibits, I recommend it is definitely worth a visit.

After a fun day with Grandpa, I still think he is still in a state of shock we are here :)