Surprise!

Beth celebrated her 16th birthday this week. Ah, sweet sixteen! We spent the day together as a family, goofing around, playing games, grabbing lunch at Outback, watching movies, etc. But the real surprise came the following day! Pulling one over on Beth is always tricky. The girl has the most amazing sense of hearing and a very curious nature. It's like she has this radar for detecting when something fishy is going on. But, somehow, we pulled it off.

Beth's best friend, Janae Eimer, flew up from Texas with her mom on Friday. Janae's mom is spending the weekend with an old friend in Norfolk, so we arranged to meet them at the Olive Garden in Fredericksburg. Of course, that meant coming up with a bunch of excuses to make the 1-hour drive. We managed to make it feel like it was all last minute, and Beth fell for it. We even let everyone chime in about which restaurant we wanted to stop at when we got in town (though the family would have voted and overridden Beth if she chose anything other than Olive Garden). When Beth walked into the restaurant and saw someone with a camera taking her picture, she wasn't sure who it was for a split second. Then she saw Janae's face, and the moment was beautiful.

But since a picture is worth a thousand words, see for yourself...