Welcome Home Surprise Party!

We had a welcome home surprise party for Carrie on Friday night at our house. She was shocked!!! I'm so impressed that we were able to pull it off without her finding out about it and I'm pretty sure she had a great time.

Joel cooked out hamburgers and grilled chicken and we had baked beans and pasta salad, a ton of dips, and tons of desserts! There was a lot of food and drinks galore.

The cupcakes were from Carrie's favorite cupcake place in LA, Sprinkles. They were so good!

The plan was for Carrie and Andres to come over to our house for a drink before we went out to dinner. It worked like a charm. I don't think she was too disappointed when she saw 20 of her closest friends all at our house!

These were most of the girls. She has the BEST group of friends! I'm jealous that they are all so close. Thanks to all of you who helped put this together!

They stayed until around 11:30 pm Friday night (and then went out after that!), so by the time we got everything cleaned up, it was way past our bedtime! Ha! It was really fun though and I'm so glad we could do this for Carrie. We are SO happy she's home! Now, we've just got to keep her here! :)

I have to tell this funny story about Carrie because it would only happen to Carrie. She has the worst luck in the world and we constantly have to worry about her (sorry Carrie, it's true!). Anyway, she just bought a new car right before she left LA. She didn't want to put the miles on it, so she had it shipped. Well, somewhere along the way, the trailor that her car and several other cars were on got stopped by the police. One of the cars was loaded with marijuana. They impounded all of the cars and currently, Carrie's car is somewhere in Arizona I think. They took out all her seats and searched her car as well because they thought it might be a big drug deal. Her car was clean of course, but she still doesn't know when she is going to get it back and what kind of condition it's going to be in. They even told her that she may have to come out there! It's terrible, but it's so funny at the same time. If anyone knows Carrie well, you know that this would only happen to her! Seriously!

In case anyone is wondering, Hudson got to spend the night out with Joel's parents. Unfortunately, when they came to pick him up, he was asleep. When I went to wake him up (I did think it was weird that he took a nap that late in the day), he felt warm so I took his temp and of course, of all the nights, he has a fever. And, it was Friday night at 5:00. And, we were throwing a party in an hour. Awesome. Since it was Friday night, I went ahead and called the after hours doctor and got him in that night. Joel's parents so graciously took him so we could take care of the party, but it added some stress to the evening for sure! I didn't want to wait it out since it was the weekend though and I'm glad we didn't because of course, he had another double ear infection. They got him started on the antibiotics and had a terrible night which I feel so awful about, but luckily he felt better the next morning, although, he still had a fever ALL day yesterday. We had planned to go to the lake Saturday morning and spend the day there and then spend the night in my parent's new cabin in Cloudland, GA. We thought hard about it when we woke up Saturday morning and decided to go ahead and go. Usually, the antibiotics kick in fast and he feels better almost immediately. Even though he still had a fever, he didn't act like he felt too bad thankfully. He wasn't quite himself, but he he was ok.

We had a fun day at the lake. It was a hot day, but we got in a couple of really good boat rides! I'm loving the new boat! I am seeing lots of fun on the lake over the next few years!

Hudson really wanted to get in the water. We didn't put him in this time because of his ears, but next time, he's taking a dip! He did love to dip his feet in the water though.

And as usual, in Pops' arms! He loves Pops and picks him over EVERYONE else!

Papa John is teaching Hudson all about the tractor! Actually, I think he is telling them to get off his ride because he was ready to go home! Ha! Hudson came light years with Papa John this time though. He had been terrified of him, but this weekend, he was giving him high fives! It was so cute!

After dinner, we made the 30 minute drive over to Cloudland and saw the new cabin. My parents moved in on Friday and it is awesome! We felt like we were staying in a luxury hotel! It still has a ways to go to be finished, but it is so nice. Who wouldn't like to wake up to this view every day?!?!?

One last thing...let me introduce you to the new "cabin" dog. She has made a home at my parents new cabin and they don't know what to do with her! They have two TINY dogs (like under 5 pounds) and can't handle a bigger dog. This dog is the sweetest dog in the world though and we are trying to figure out what to do with her. She looks to be around a year or so old. She has a really great coat on her and looks to have some golden retriever in her, but is not as big as a golden retriever. She was great with Hudson and just craved attention. She had to belong to someone at some point because she knows simple commands like "come here" and most importantly, "no," but she obviously has no home now. It is so sad! If anyone wants her, let me know! We're trying to convince Joel's parents to take her, but if we can't find her a home, we're adding a dog to the Reed household. Seriously, she's SO cute and has a really good demeanor! My parents haven't given her a name yet because they said that when you name a dog, that means you've claimed her and they don't want her (although they are feeding her and taking care of her!)!

Hope everyone has a great week. Here's to hoping that Hudson is on the mend soon. I am seeing another trip to the ENT in our near future!