I'm Leavin on a Jet Plane....

This past weekend's adventure brought me to Manassas, Virginia, home to Hen's Mom & Stepdad, Grandmother, and Sister. I was working late Friday night and Hen was like let's just fly somewhere this weekend, anywhere.... So I suggested why don't we go see your Mom, but let's not tell her, it will be more fun. So the next morning we hopped a Delta flight to Virginia. The adventure begins.... So we get to Enterprise where we decide to rent a car, and as we are signing the paper work we inquire about the insurance because something told us to..... Normally I would just decline, but for some reason we decided to pay the extra $20 a day and get it. So Hen signs his name on the dotted line and we drive off towards Manassas from the Washington Dulles airport. We weren't ten minutes from the the car rental place when Hen turns on the windshield defrost. Before we knew it the windshield had cracked nearly a foot and was growing! We never even heard a pebble or rock hit it. We turned off the defroster to see if it would stop growing and sure enough it did. We called the car rental shop and they told us to bring it back, they also said that we were smart to take the insurance because we were covered. They swapped us out with another car no questions asked and we were on our way. So moral of the story is, unless you know you have stellar car insurance at home, pay the extra $, because you just never know what could happen! And by the time we brought the car back the length of the crack was nearing 2 feet!

The next part of the trip was one of my favorites, it is a good 45 min drive from the airport to Hen's Mom's house and so we chatted it up with her and Grandma on the phone all the way there. Of course little did they know that we would be arriving there shortly. On a side note we hadn't seen everyone since just before Thanksgiving last year. As we pull up the driveway we hear Grandma on the phone talking to Hen's Mom.

"Cheryl....Cheryl....there is a car pulling up the driveway...."

Then Rick comes to the window in the front room to peak out at the unidentified visitor.

Next is Cheryl at the window...

Hen steps out of the car....

That was the end of all sanity as we knew it, Henry might as well have been Ed McMann with a $10,000,0000 check!!

It was priceless! Cheryl was jumping up and down and screaming at the top of her lungs!

It was so cute and nice to have someone so excited to see us!

Plus it was so fun to suprise her for a change, since she is always suprising everyone else and constantly bending over backwards to help anyone in need!

Then that night her and Rick took us to Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. I have to say I am quite a fan!!! So if you ever pass one, you might just need to turn around and try it for yourself!

Also on this trip I had the opportunity to attend my first Bingo Night....

This was a HOOT!!! Let me tell you for those that have never attended, especially those that live in the Utah bubble like I do that do not know about this outside bingo world.......

These people are serious!!! No kiddin around!

First I walk into this big spacious room. People are sitting everywhere the eye can see. Some have anywhere from two bingo pages to twenty! It is as quiet as a library, you could hear a pin drop, and oh boy you better turn your cell phone on silent or you can bet somebody will make a comment about it! Hen goes and gets us a couple of cards and we sit down to play.

Next I am introduced to the official "BINGO DABBER". For those of you new to this object (which I was), it is a type of marking object used special for bingo. The end is spongey and it is filled with ink. See the below picture. (Mine is the pink one)

Next is concentration, if you want to look around the room for a minute, you can just forget it! It is so easy to get behind, especially when you are playing 6 cards at a time!!! It took a few minutes for me to come up with a rythym, but then I felt like a pro in no time! Ok, maybe not a pro, I know I couldn't have handled any more cards, but I still thought I was doing pretty good.

My eyes wandered for a second and I started to notice just how serious these people were. Not only did people have many bingo cards they were marking at once, but more impressive were the bingo dabber collections people had brought with them!!! They even had them stored in these special dabber purses! I never even knew about these dabbers, let alone something made specifically to carry them!

Anyway we didn't win any money, but we had a blast just the same! I now know you haven't lived until you have been to one of these Bingo Nights! Here are some pics of Grandma you won't want to miss!