Surprise!

Monday morning brought another fairly early wake up call for our shuttle to the airport. Many people checking in to their flights were wearing their RNR Marathon shirts. We were all moving fairly well, albeit a bit slow.

We arrived in Minneapolis a bit early and had time to grab some lunch. As we were heading back to our gate, they announced our flight overhead. Andrea said, "That's us ladies." The next thing we heard was "Passengers C., S., S., and W. please report to the gate for final boarding." OH DEAR!!! We moved faster than we actually thought we were able to and made it to the plane to head home.

Back in Memphis. The end of our marathon journey. We were all walking together, proudly wearing our medals, heading toward baggage claim. Laughing and talking about our experience - and how Nicole had RUN to claim an exit seat in the airport in San Diego! And then I had a great SURPRISE!!!

It was Jordan and Cooper!! With signs and balloons and flowers!!! My welcome home party!!! My mother-in-law had brought them to meet me at the airport. What a great surprise that was!! More tears from me.....

Cooper's sign says "MOMMY GO GO" and Jordan's says "Welcome home Mom. Thanks for runnin' with TNT and making us proud"

We definitely caused quite the commotion. I'm sure some travellers thought we were Olympiads what with our medals and all......

When the kids and I got home, Mom's car was in the driveway. "How sweet of her to come and fix my dinner," I thought. Well, she did come and fix my dinner. But they had invited tons of others to come eat too.

SURPRISE!!!!!!

It was a SURPRISE PARTY!!!! My kitchen was full of family and friends. I was so totally surprised I would just cover my eyes and scream. Then I would open my eyes and see somebody else and scream. And I would open my eyes and see somebody else. And scream. Some major emotion when I finally got to see and hug Jodi and Mom and Connie. And then again when I saw my uncle, Dad's brother. Here we are having a little moment and he's telling me that he knows Daddy was watching me and was so proud of me. It really just choked me up.

I think what started as a "let's meet her at the airport" turned into a "let's have a cake at home" which turned into "let's have a full blown surprise party"!!!! They had decorated the kitchen with balloons and streamers and posters. Connie and Anne were very sneaky and pulled all this together along with the help of my mom and my aunt. So, thanks to EVERYBODY for making this happen. It was so special. I had already told Sherrill and the kids at the airport that I would need to get everybody together soon so I could tell my whole marathon story. Jordan just said "Good idea Mom".

Look, I even had a congratulations cake!

So, I got to tell everybody all my stories about my marathon weekend. It was just a special, special, special night.