Surprises

We have had our eye on Craigslist for possible cars for Ben for a couple weeks. Some of us (Ben) more than others. Kyle was in Australia for almost 2 weeks, and Ben found so many possibilities. I, however, was not buying a car without Kyle.

So once Kyle returned home, Ben and Kyle were looking at possibilities one night. They found a Ford Taurus X for sale in Duluth. It was a really good price, for what we found (after a fair amount of research) was a very good car. Even better, Ben said it was acceptable. Not that the decision was entirely his....he should be happy just to have wheels.

So, Kyle contacted the seller the same night, knowing that the car wouldn't last long. We made plans to head to Duluth the next evening. Just so happened to be a Monday when Ben was at marching band practice. We had the cash to buy it, so as long as there was nothing that Kyle thought was horribly wrong with it, we were going to buy it.

Since Ben had to stay back in Rapids for practice, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to surprise him. We knew the timing would be really tight between getting Ben to practice and making it back in time to pick him up from practice. However, Ben made this easier on us by texting me at about 3:30 that he was just going to stay at school until practice. I calmly texted back an "OK we will pick you up at 9" reply, and planned to leave early enough from work to head to Duluth as soon as Nate got off the bus.

We made it to Duluth in plenty of time, and had a quick dinner at Wendy's before making our way to Lakeside to look at the car, which ran great and appeared to be the good deal that we thought it was. After a test drive, we handed over the cash and headed back to Rapids.....with two cars. The timing was still a little tight, so there may have been some minor speeding involved.

We came up with a plan for the surprise as we got into Rapids right at 9. I drove my car over to where I normally pick Ben up, and Kyle and Nate sat in the Taurus at the other end of the parking lot. So, after Ben got behind the drivers seat to my car, we made our way to what he thought was home. Except as we got closer to Kyle and Nate, I asked him to pull into the spot next to his surprise. I got a video, but the first part is black because I was secretly recording with my phone in my lap so Ben didn't know I was recording. My favorite part is Nate's "SURPRISE".

So much fun that all of the pieces fell into place so that it could be a true surprise. Of course there was the instantaneous snap chat announcement that took place first.

We drove home to explore all of it more, and in his excitement he forgot to stop and get food (he had not eaten since lunch and it was now after 9.

They seriously look so grown up here.

So off we went, in the new car, to get some Taco Bell for Ben. It was a good night, and we even got hugs from the younger teenager.