So about a week before the cruise Kristie and I decided to modify our itinerary. Instead of heading back to SLC after the cruise, we thought it would be fun to head back to Massachusetts for an extra week of vacation. We knew mom would be really excited about this idea, but I only discussed it with dad, and we decided to keep it a secret. Coleman was flying back to Utah with us, and had really wanted to go home too, so we switched his itinerary to match ours without him knowing.
So when we got off the cruise ship, we all headed to the Orlando airport. Coleman, Kristie and I went to one terminal, and mom, dad and Andrew headed to another. I had wanted to see how far we could get Coleman before he realized the final destination, but he ended up figuring it out at baggage check-in. The guy said, “so your final destination is Boston?” and Coleman nodded, then looked really confused, and said “wait…no.” Before too much protesting we caught his attention and shouted “surprise! Merry Christmas!” It was pretty funny to watch his confusion give way to excitement.
So we boarded a Jetblue flight to Logan Airport in Boston, while mom and dad flew Southwest into Manchester, NH. Dad made up some excuse about having to drive over and pick up a package for work at Logan, and mom (somewhat annoyed) said “fine.” When they drove past us along the curbside pickup, we saw mom in the passenger side window and began waving. Her face was priceless, she looked like she just woke up in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I was just glad she managed to wait till dad stopped the car before she launched herself out of it. I think she was trying to figure out what state we were all in at the moment.
Anyways, at the last second I pulled out my camera and switched it on to video…here was the latter part of her reaction:
That’s awesome! I LOVE surprising family by doing stuff like that. My son and I got to surprise my dad when we went out to NH for Thanksgiving. So cool you guys did this for your parents Tom!