temple weekend (in three parts) PART ONE - surprises

My brother JD has been working towards going to the temple to be sealed for the last several months. He wanted to do it on his wedding anniversary, May 14th. They live 10 hours from us and the month of May was so busy that I called him back in March to say that though I would love to be there I just didn't think I would be able to make it.

Well on the afternoon of May 14th he called me and said "If we come up to Idaho to be sealed on this weekened do you think you could make it?"

OF COURSE!

So we scrambled and made plans and packed to leave the next day. We planned and prepared so quickly that several things happened. First of all we decided not to tell Matt what we were doing. Steve's truck had been broken so I drove him to work that day and then spent the day packing up and cleaning and then left shortly after Matt got out of school to go and get Steve to head to Grandma's house. I had the car all packed before Matt got home and so I told him we were just going to pick up dad from work and then come home. We had decided to just drive as far as we could and not say anything and see when Matt wondered where we were going. I honestly did not think we would get too far. The scenery is completely different as we were headed in the opposite direction of home.

Ella knew we were going to Grandma's and kept singing about going there but Matt just didn't pay attention. Whenever Matt mentioned going home Ella would pipe up that were weren't going home that we were going to Grandma's. Matt was still clueless.

About 30 minutes into the drive Matt still wasn't curious - just hungry as it was dinner time and was complaining about wanting to get home and eat. I said '"Oh look, I thought you might get hungry before we got home - I packed us some food!" I proceeded to dole out sandwiches, chips, drinks, fruit and other trip treats for the next HOUR and still Matt did not wonder why we weren't home yet.

We kept driving and Matt still didn't seem to care that a typical 20 minute trip home had turned into a 1 1/2 hour commute. He read books I had packed and listened to the radio we even stopped at a rest stop for a potty break. And still he just thought we were headed home - as if we routinely need to stop at a rest stop on a ride home from getting dad!

About TWO HOURS from leaving Steve's work he finally got fed up.
"Dad! What are you doing? Why are not paying attention and just driving all over the place and not getting us home! I just want to be home already!"

Well at this point he was so mad that we had to tell him. When he found out we were heading to Grandma's he was so excited and surprised.

He had no idea. It's amazing how little attention our kids pay to their surroundings!

I have decided this is the best way to travel. It turned a 3 1/2 hour trip into and hour and a half for him!