We had fun celebrating Brooke's birthday this year! Brooke wanted to go to San Francisco on her birthday to do her "back to school" shopping. Since taking the kids to San Francisco for the day is one of my favorite things to do I was excited! Allie heard about our birthday adventure and, of course, she wanted to come too! She had been planning to come out for a friends wedding that weekend anyway. So, Allie and I came up with this great idea! We decided to have Allie fly into San Fracisco and arrive a couple of days early on Brooke's birthday, then she could take BART from the airport to Powell Street, grab some balloons on the way and show up at Cheesecake Factory (where we always eat lunch) at Macy's at Union Square in SF and surprise Brooke and Ashley! It all sounded great!
Of course, it was a little more challenging to pull off the surprise that day! Allie was a good sister, getting up at 5:30 am, just barely making it to the airport on time to find that her flight was delayed. Ugh! And then BART took longer than she expected. Back in California, Brooke and Ashley knew nothing about Allie's surprise arrival. We drove to SF that morning, arriving just as Macy's doors opened and enjoyed a morning of browsing and shopping at Union Square. Then Brooke decides that she want to go to Boudin's instead of Cheesecake Factory. I try to text Allie about the change of location but she doesn't respond because she doesn't have cell phone coverage on BART. Brooke is getting hungry and wants to eat now! I can't get a hold of Allie. Brooke is starting to get annoyed! You know how she gets when she's hungry! Allie finally arrives at Powell Street station. She lugs her big suitcase 5 blocks to Macy's, stops and buys balloons along the way! Still haven't heard from Allie! I try to prolong our shopping at Macy's because I don't want to stray to far from our meeting spot. Finally, Allie gets my text and replies that she is waiting at Boudin's! We make our way to Boudin's and around the corner Allie comes carrying a bouquet of balloons and yells "surprise!" Fun! Fun! I love surprises! We enjoyed the rest of the day with Allie, shopping and seeing the sights of the city!
As we were laughing and telling Dad that night about Allie's crazy adventure that day, Dad was like, "Now, tell me again why you couldn't just book her ticket to Sacramento and tell Brooke she was coming for her birthday like normal people? I mean was it worth all that hassle and trouble?" Allie was like, "Because I wanted to surprise Brooke?" Dad turned to Brooke and said, "So, were you surprised?" Brooke was grinning from ear to ear and said, "YES! It was the best birthday surprise ever!" So, to answer Dad's question about whether it was worth it, I think Allie will agree with me that sometimes it is worth all the hassles, work and stress to make a wonderful surprise memory for someone you love!
Brooke giving Allie a big birthday hug at Boudin's!
Posing in front of Boudin's! Brooke and Ashley are so happy that Allie has joined them to help celebrate Brooke's birthday!
All of us in front of Macy's at Union Square! Notice Allie's big suitcase in the background! We were on our way to the car to drop off the suitcase! We didn't want anything that would slow us down or get in our way during our shopping excursion in the city!
As we walked and shopped along Powell Street, we had to stop and get the "classic" San Francisco tourist picture with the cable cars in the background!
Brooke and Mom posing in front of the cool mannequins and gorgeous chandeliers at the Forever 21 store! Seconds after we snapped the shot, a lady yelled at us, "No picture! No picture!" Oops!
In front of the HEART at Union Square at the end of the day!
We all agree... We HEART San Francisco, birthdays surprises and most of all, we HEART Brooke...a lot!
1 comment:
Happy Happy Birthday Brooke!! I'm so jealous that you guys are shopping in my old stomping grounds! I so miss it there! I recognize Forever 21 in one of the pics! You girls are to beautiful and have so much fun together!
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