I Can Do All Things...: Surprise 17th Birthday Party

I had no idea what was going on. I got home from my missions trip and my Mom almost immediately told me about a youth activity that she had planned. She was all excited because we were going to have all Mexican food, a scavenger hunt, and then we were going to play board games the rest of the afternoon and make pizzas for supper.
It all started on Thursday when Jennica texted me and asked me what I was doing on Saturday afternoon. I told her that we were cooking for the youth activity and her immediate response was "I like to cook too!" So then she got permission from her parents to come and help Mom and I cook. Then she texted me and asked if she could stay over. So after we were done cooking, we all went home. That night she used my cell phone to text her parents to make sure that it was ok that she went to church with me in Rice Lake. As she is typing, she's reading it out loud and when she gets to the part about telling her parents that after church we will go to Hillsdale for the youth activity, she looses it. When I asked her what was so funny she told me it was an inside joke and that I would find out about it sooner or later. I thought that was kinda odd but I thought whatever.
So then Sunday morning we went to Rice Lake for church. There was a special speaker and he went over so church didn't get done until 12:30. I was freaking out because we still had to gas up the van and we were going to be late to the youth activity. Jennica kept telling me that it was all fine and that we didn't need to hurry.
When we were coming into Hillsdale, I saw a lot of vehicles...a lot more than there should've been for just a youth activity. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw my cousin's truck, my first thought was "Why in the world is Matt's truck here? He is WAY too old to go to a youth activity." So I parked the van and Jennica immediately grabbed my camera and went running in before me. I walked in the door and my cousin and his family and almost all the church family yelled "SURPRISE!" I had no idea what was going on.
First we ate lunch, all the food that I had helped make the day before, and then we opened presents and ate cake. I got a kindle from my parents! Then we had the teenage scavenger hunt and then the fun part, the pinata! Which by the way, was in the shape of a red chile pepper. The only mistake we made with that was letting my cousin hold the pole. Everytime you thought you knew where it was, he would move it.
After the pinata, everybody except for the youth group left and we played games and had pizza for supper before going out to Grandpa and Grandma's. Instead of having a Bible study, we sat around the piano and sang some of the old choruses.
All in all, today was one of the best days of my life. I've never been so surprised in my life! Mom and Dad, it will be hard to top this one!