Surprise!

Friday, May 25th. Kids home from school in a seemingly typical Friday in late Spring. All the planning has been done, all the contingencies planned. The dogs? To the boys, they were off to the groomers, but we had secretly brought them to Karen. Dinner? I'll bring home subs for a quick dinner. Suitcases? Packed, in the car, with the old Mexican blanket over them.

There were two things I was worried about: 1.) that one of the boys would see the suitcases, and 2.) that they would want a PSP/DS game we had stored in Nancy's bag. Both things ended up happening, but luckily no one noticed. I was outside standing guard, making sure Liam didn't climb into the 3rd row of the car. Meanwhile, Owen was having a trademark breakdown because he couldn't find MLB 09. I ran in, pulled them from Nancy's bag, and "found them" on the entertainment center. Back outside, I was shocked and stood frozen. Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Evan had made it to the third row of the car, with his elbow resting on a suitcase under the blanket. The third suitcase: the one we were bringing Nana and Grampy's leather pillows down in. Stay calm; don't make a scene; draw no attention to the bag.

Got the kids in the car, and quickly got hit with "When are we picking up the dogs?" I mumbled something incomprehensible, but it worked. We told the boys we were going into Boston, and let their minds take care of the rest. I think "a ballgame" was the popular choice. Nancy and I smiled slyly to each other. We were going to pull it off. Now, it was just a matter of when they noticed the signs, the tunnels, the planes: anything to suggest the airport and the end to our ruse.

Got through the Callahan, no questions. Got to the airport exit with all the HUGE airline signs, no comments. I just had to make it to the economy lot; just around the corner, almost there. My bad, one more turn and we'll be there. What, more turns, what is this, a frigging tour of the airport. My mind was screaming, but on the outside I was as cool as a cucumber. 17 turns later we were in the Economy Lot. The boys were clueless: one look out the window and the gig would have been up. Fine detectives they'll turn out to be. I was so excited, I just stopped the car right there, without parking, and told Nancy to get the video camera. We were going to make history! Cue the video!