The Story Behind the Surprise!

A year and a half ago, we decided that we would really like to take our kids to Disneyland during the off season one more time before they got into Junior High.  We told them that we would probably take them sometime during their 6th grade year- when missing school isn't as big of a deal.  However when Tavi and Brian invited us to go to San Diego in June, we decided that we couldn't justify the cost of two California trips in one year.  That was until I stumbled upon a great deal.  I was able to find airline tickets for such a good price that we had enough credit card points for free flights for our family AND a free hotel.  So, the only thing we had to pay for was our Disneyland tickets.  We just couldn't pass up a deal that good.  So, we booked everything for the third week in September.

Baylen and I decided that since the kids weren't really planning on doing Disneyland anymore, that we wanted to surprise them.  I can't remember the last time I was so excited about something.  I couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when we told them where we were going.  As the trip got closer, Baylen and I came up with a master plan of how we would carry everything out.  I'm pretty proud of us that we were able to do everything without the kids suspecting a thing.

For days before I shopped and packed while the kids were at school.  I hid the suitcases while they were home.  On the night before we left, Baylen and I hid the suitcases in the back of the van.  We also set all the clocks in our house forward one hour.  We decided that we couldn't take any chances, so we unplugged the satellite (since the TV displays the time) and even changed the time on all of our computers.

The next morning we were in a panic (acting, of course) when we woke the kids up, like we had all slept in and were running really late for school.  The kids rushed to get ready and ran out to the bus stop to find that they had missed the bus (not really, because it was really only 7:15 instead of 8:15).  Baylen and I decided beforehand that we needed a way to get Ashlyn up and in the car without the kids suspecting because she usually sleeps in.  So, we planned "dentist appointments" for Baylen and me that morning.  We told the kids we'd just drop them off on the way to our appointments.  So, we finished getting ready and headed out the door.  Beforehand we planned for Baylen to call his dad and let him know we were leaving and then have his dad call us back a few minutes later.  So, we were on our way to the school when we got the phone call on Baylen's cell from the dentist office (Baylen's dad) canceling our appointments.  We played it up that it was so annoying that we had hurried so fast to get ready when the appointments ended up cancelled.  It was then that Baylen said that since we were already in the car and together that we should just have a family fun day and bag school.  The kids looked at him like he was crazy.  We already knew that the kids would start wondering if I just went along with it (because I would never let them just ditch school) so I told Baylen there was no way we could do that.  Baylen continued to argue that it would be fun and that we were going to do it.  Most of the kids were excited about this "fun day".  However, Tanner was really worried about missing school.  Baylen convinced him that we could just go for awhile and have him back by science.  So, Tanner agreed.

We had lots of time to kill because we wanted to get out of our neighborhood before kids did actually start going to the bus.  So, we went to Krispie Kreme and got some donuts.  Then we ran over to Walmart where I went in to buy Orange Juice.  A few weeks before we went out to Tooele and on the way out we talked about Salt Air and how we had never taken our kids there before.  So, I brought up that that might be a fun thing to do.  Ashlyn really just wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  So, to make everyone happy, we decided to drive out to Salt Air, then drop Tanner off at school and take the girls to Chuck E. Cheese.  

Well, the airport is on the way to Salt Air (we're so sneaky).  So as we got closer to the airport, Baylen mentioned to the kids that his mission president's wife used to take her kids to the airport  to watch the planes take off and land.  In a split second decision (not really), we decided to go to the airport first.  We hopped off the free way and went to the long term parking.  As we pulled into the parking lot, Baylen said, "Since we're at the airport anyways, why don't we just go to Disneyland."  Of course, the kids just blew it off like there wasn't any way that was going to happen.  Baylen kept saying, "No, I'm serious.  Let's go to Disneyland."  When we finally got the car parked, he told the kids to get out so we could go.  They were all so confused and kept saying, "We can't go, we don't have anything."  The looks on their faces when we opened the back of the van and pulled the suitcases out was priceless.  It took a long time for it all to sink in.  The whole shuttle ride over I think they were in shock (like they still weren't sure if this was for real); except for Ashlyn, who had a HUGE smile on her face.

The kid's next surprise came while we were waiting for our plane to board and Grandma and Grandpa Sillito showed up to go with us.  So, so fun.  Writing about this now makes me sad that we'll never be able to pull something like this off again.  But, I'm so grateful that we did it.  The memories we have of that morning are priceless.  I think that that part of the experience was just as much fun as the trip (which was amazing!!!)  

I don't really have any pictures of that morning because we didn't want the kids to suspect anything.  But here are some pictures of our flight over.  It was the kids first time flying and they LOVED IT!!!