Beyond Surprised...

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have truly been surprised in my life: my 16th birthday party and VW convertible bug, Derek's marriage proposal, and the Sampley/Parker graduation celebration! Since Mike, DeAnn, Nicole and Nathan were not able to attend my graduation, they decided to plan and plot a surprise for the week before! Everyone was in on it...Derek, the boys (who knew they could keep such a secret?!), my parents (my mom stopped calling me the week before for fear she would blow the surprise!), everyone! The day was Sunday, June 6th...we went to church and everything was quite normal until the pastor asked if we had any first time visitors. Two aisles behind me, Derek begins to introduce some visitors....I turn around and who do I see? Yep... Mike, DeAnn, Nicole and Nathan!! Words simply cannot convey my emotions at that time....I screamed and started to cry right there in the middle of church! When I saw them it was like nobody else was there...I was so happy! After church we came to the house for pictures...DeAnn brought one of the girls' graduation gowns and we simulated graduation! So fun!!

Nathan cracks me up!...
The fam...

They spoiled me with a lovely card and gifts...

I love them...

We continued the celebration at BJ's for lunch and had a great time visiting and hearing all about Nicole and Nathan's upcoming move to England. We are so excited for them and very proud of Nathan for pursuing his PhD!

What an absolute amazing and perfect surprise...one that will be forever embedded in my memory.