The lack of any new posts on my blog the past three weeks has been for a really good reason. I headed back to the US for a month after my brother Matt was able to get his two week leave from the Army out in Afghanistan.

It has been tough to keep it all hush but surprising Matt at his girlfriend’s house in Orlando was very much worth the silence. Working on my parents to convince them that a surprise isn’t the older brother being mean was a trial but since Ashley was so excited about doing it with me, it made it easier to sneak it on him.

Ashley was awesome helping to make this a real surprise. Before he came home she was telling him how much it would be great if I could come home. Once he was home she really laid it on thick those few days before my parents and I flew in to Orlando. They would be shopping and she would off-handedly say how great it would be if I was there. He was completely caught off guard when I came through the door of her place!

At first we were going to surprise him at the airport. Mom and Dad would have gone in first then I would sneak up on him later. A desquise was mentioned as a possible option. The thought of security chasing after a man in a fake wig through the airport was not, however, convincing enough to stick with the idea.

Instead of coming to pick us up, we rode out to Ashley’s place. They were already grilling up some good stuff for us and all we had to do was find our way there. I was coaching my parents the whole time.

They were going in first. Setting him up so his back is to the front door they would do their thing. I stayed in the car, ducked down, and waited for the excitement to wear down then I walked through the front door. Matt was really surprised and excited. He couldn’t believe who he was seeing.

The rest is history but the truth is it was pretty awesome to have the opportunity to surprise him the way we did. I wouldn’t trade the world for the good time we had this past week. It’s been great to hand out with my little brother and to see all of us together.