The Secret Is Out ...

After much thought and consideration - mainly because we knew we would have to keep a bottle of Bayer Aspirin on hand - we decided NOT to tell the Johnson parents about Baby Langen-John and Baby Robb at the same time. We vacillated up until a few days beforehand, but in the end it was fun for us each to have our special moments.

Ryan and I headed up to Duluth Friday, December 12 after work. I had told my parents Ryan had some "hockey stuff" he needed to get for his team in Cloquet and Ryan had told Patrice "Ashley has a few things she needs to get from her parent's house." We must have sounded like two fifteen-year-old girls lying to our parents in order to sneak off to a party! In the end, the silly fibs were well worth it : )

The trip was very short as Ryan had a game in Rochester at noon the next day. We weren't exactly sure HOW we were going to tell our parents, but we knew we had a very small window of time to do it!

We had prepared a little "brag" book with our dear puppy Mylee (as a decoy before they turned to the ultrasound pictures) in it for the Johnson parents. We arrived in Duluth and anxiously awaited for Phil and DeeDee to return home. They were heading out to dinner and Christmas shopping. By the time they both finally got home ... and we shot the breeze for awhile ... they were running late for dinner. We panicked ... how do we get them downstairs as they have their coats and shoes on ready to head out the door? I was giving Ryan the evil eye to do something ... he was doing the same. Finally we ran downstairs and told them to come down for a second. We told them we had an early Christmas gift and they opened the book. They of course were overjoyed to find pictures of their "grandchild" Mylee ... and then they saw the ultrasound pictures! "Are you kidding? Really?" they said. They were overjoyed!!Grandparents for the first time! We exchanged a few words and told them to have a nice dinner : ) That must have been some "food for thought" ...

We then headed down to Cloquet to tell Patrice. We were both pretty relieved that mission one was successful. Ryan calmly asked if I was nervous - which at that point I had about 100 pounds lifted off my shoulders from telling my parents - and I finally got him to admit he was QUITE nervous! As he had told me "Oh, it's no big deal" when telling my parents, he now realized the anticipation and nervousness : ) For Patrice, we had prepared a belated birthday card with a picture of the phone we were getting her mixed amongst Mylee decoy pictures and the ultrasound pics. We walked in the door and Ryan immediately ran over to her and threw the card in her hand. "Here, open your birthday card! Open your card!" Now if THAT wasn't obvious : ) He REALLY wanted her to open her card and open it IMMEDIATELY! She read the card, looked the phone picture, and turned to us and laughed. She then hugged us and said congrats! As she was taking in the excitement of becoming a grandmother for the fourth time, Gary was trying to see what was in her card. "What is THAT? Is that black and white thing a picture of Mylee??" We then realized he didn't have his glasses on! Patrice proceeded to explain NO that is not a picture of Mylee in the womb but a baby! We had a good laugh : )

Because my sister and Kevin obviously knew (and we were waiting to tell the Johnson brothers until Christmas), Ryan then called all the Langenbrunner brothers to tell them the news! Amongst a few "brotherly" comments here and there, everyone was excited and anxious for the summer ahead! The girls (Liz/Laine) and I decided we had great timing. June would be just in time for their arrival back in MN : )