Airplane Ride

I LOVE pulling the wool over our kids eyes!  It's so fun and I am getting really good at keeping things from them.  Bryan had a conference in Salt Lake last Thursday and Friday so we decided to make a big Conference/BYU trip out of it.

Bryan drove up early (like 3:45 a.m. early) Thursday morning to be at his conference.  The kids were bummed that he was gone and had a small break down after we Skyped that night, but they did okay.

The kids thought the plan on Friday would go like this:  I would pick them up and we would drive to Salt Lake, meet up with Bryan and then drive back to Provo for the women's soccer game and the football game.

The real plan was to pick up the kids, go to the St. George Airport and fly to Salt Lake.  This plan was VERY HARD to keep secret from a little girl who has bionic ears.  A few times I thought we had blown it.  We loaded the van (which Bryan drove up on Thursday) with all the stuff we would need so we wouldn't have to take luggage on the flight.  A few times we would say something about "carry on bags" and think she had heard but she never put anything together.

Friday, I picked the kids up right before lunch at school.  We went to Subway and got lunch and then got comfy in the car for the long drive to Salt Lake.  When we got to the freeway I saw the signs and thought they would comment when I turned going to "Las Vegas" instead of going to "Salt Lake."  But nothing was said. 

When we were on the freeway I expected my kids, who have drive the direction of Salt Lake MANY TIMES, to realize that we weren't going the right directions but again....nothing.  They didn't even say anything when I got off the freeway at the "St George Airport" exit.  And they still didn't say anything as we drove for 20 minutes on the road toward the airport which they have been on before.  Ethan had actually laid his seat back and was getting comfy for the long drive.  He asked how long it would be and I told him we would be in Salt Lake in about 2 hours....but he didn't say anything about that being 2 hours quicker than usual.

When we got to the end of the freeway and had to turn toward the airport, Ethan leaned up on his elbows, saw the "airport" sign and said, "Mom, can't we just fly to Salt Lake?"  I looked at him and said, "You know, why not?  Let's fly to Salt Lake."  The kids freaked out!  I asked Ethan why he thought we were at the airport and he said he didn't think about it.  He just thought we were on way to Salt Lake a round-about way.  They were so excited!

Here are our unsuspecting children:

When we got to the airport, we parked, got through security and boarded the airplane. Courtney was a bit nervous about flying on a "commercial airline" because she has only flown one time on a private plane.  When we taxied out to the runway Ethan held her hand to help her feel better.  When we stopped to wait for our turn to take off, Courtney turned to me and said, "That take off wasn't so bad."  I had to tell her that we weren't moving yet.  It was cute.  Ethan held her hand and she loved it, once we were in the air.  

 Our ticket said it took off at 1:15 but we left at 1:05.  The ticket also said it would take about 1 hour 20 minutes to get to Salt Lake City....it took about 35 minutes.  So...Bryan wasn't at the airport yet when we got there but it took us a while to walk through the airport and get outside.  He soon met up with us and picked us up and we were off to the hotel.

Exciting day!!!