Last Sunday Paul came up with this great idea that we should go to Florida for a few days. Then I had to go and throw in the idea that it should be a secret until we got there. Yeah, it was as hard as it sounds. Not so much the not telling them part as the logistics of getting a family of seven ready for a trip without letting anyone know we were going somewhere!
We decided we would leave that Wednesday after Caleb's open house/orientation. Monday I spent packing. I was walking in and out of kids bedrooms carrying arm-fulls of clothes into my bedroom. No one gave me a second glance. I managed to get everyone packed and the house ready to go by Tuesday afternoon without ANYONE even noticing.
Tuesday night we packed the car. There was a suitcase and tub of beach toys in the garage waiting to be put on the hitch hauler when we got back from the school. At one point Wednesday morning, Andrew ran in his room and got his travel pillow, monkey and backpack with some "necessities" and put them in the car. Then he came in and said he was ready to go to the volcano (no clue where that came from). His brothers kept telling him we were not going anywhere and that he was crazy.
We took the dog to the vet (we said he was getting groomed...no one wondered why we took dogfood, his bed and his toys for a groom), ran a couple of more errands and then headed for the school. We were almost at the school before anyone asked why there was a r/c boat in the back (nevermind the other traveling supplies).
The story went like this....we are going on a picnic, but before we go on the picnic we are going to go home and eat lunch because it will take us a while to get to the picnic spot.
They were fine with that story. No questions asked, they just continuously tried to guess where we were having our picnic.
No questions when we got into Mississippi. A few comments when we got into Alabama, but no questions. Some raised eyebrows and a few guesses as to where we were headed when we got into Florida, but the entire time they still think we are having a picnic and going home.
Along the way we had pulled into a shopping center and parked in the back of the parking lot to check on the stuff on the hitch hauler. I told the boys we were having lunch there. They said that was a lame picnic. When we got to the hotel someone asked if we were going to have a picnic in the parking lot (they could not see the beach yet). We said nope and Paul went to check us in.
We went up to our room and told the boys that we decided we were going to stay for a while. Then we opened the curtains so they could see the beach and pool. There was a lot of excited kids. The most amazing response was from Mady though. As soon as we opened the curtain she started screaming as loud as she could and jumping up and down. To say she was excited was a HUGE understatement!
Over dinner Thursday night Caleb commented on how much work it must have taken for us to pull off this surprise with noone knowing, especially going to FLORIDA! He said it was a huge surprise and he never had a clue as to what was going on until we got in the hotel room and he saw the beach.
This is the things memories are made of and we definitely made lots of new ones this week. I am so blessed to have my family and glad Dad had the idea for one more fun outing before school starts in ELEVEN more days!! It was so fun doing a surprise like that for the kids and I am glad we chose not to tell them!
If you know me, you KNOW I have LOTS of pictures! They will be coming soon.
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