Surprise walk

My posting on the planned walk to see a white horse was a trick.

I told husband I wanted to see a white horse, and I pointed at Ashbury. He then 'planned' the day including lunch at a local pub. However, he wanted to start walking at 10 o'clock, and I wanted to start at 11. I had to slow him down. SoI

• lay in late
• showered
• remembered I'd forgotten my mobile phone.
• asked to stop in Stanford-in-the-Vale to look for the grave stones of distant relatives
• complained about the bumpy roads
  
• burped as if about to be sick
• asked for the loo.

But we still got to the empty car park before eleven o'clock.

Then step daughter #3 turned up. She beamed and announced that she thought she'd like a walk. We slowly put our boots on to delay a little longer. Step-daughter #1 with her husband and three children arrived too.

"Happy Birthday, Daddy!" "Hello Granpa!"

Step-daughter #3 & partner arrived next. And finally step son with his wife and two children.

Then he realised that he'd been set up and all the family were arriving to walk with him, and someone else had booked the pub for the 16 of us.

They all had their stories. One had started early then had to go back to fetch something for a niece; one had left Loughborough at 8 o'clock but had gone round every which way.

Husband thought that he was setting up the day, but actually it was his four children who were setting it up to give him a belated birthday surprise. The idea was to get him to the car park at Ashbury for 11 o'clock so they'd all be there to greet him, and it was my job to get him there.

Between them all they'd planned and organised a lovely day for their dad. He was surprised and pleased by his lovely four children.