We love Grandma (and United!)

When you grow up with a parent that works for an airline (my mom is retired from United) you definitely develop strange travel habits. For example, in the past my mother has flown with her friends (other UAL employees) to visit the Mall of America for an afternoon. When I first went to college, Cynthia would fly out to Provo to visit me for the day “just for fun.” So there should be nothing strange about me waking up early on Saturday morning and deciding to fly to Chicago and surprise my mom, right?

Well, that is exactly what the kids and I did this past weekend. At 4:00am (I’m not sure why I was up at that hour, but in this case it turned out to be a good thing J) I woke up Norm and convinced him of my crazy plan. He was in charge of dressing the kids and packing their clothes while I showered and did my hair. By 6am we were at the airport and at 7:20 am we were in the air. I did break down and tell my Dad about my secret “surprise” plot because I was worried that we would not all be able to fit in the car to get to my parents house. Our original plan had been to surprise my mom at her gate at the airport--she was also flying in on Saturday morning after spending the last 4 months in Tahiti taking care of my Grandpa. Her flight ended up being delayed so we opted not to wait at the airport but the kids still had fun “surprising” her when she finally got home around lunch time.

And although we were only in Chicago for less than 48 hours, we did manage to pack in the fun for every second that we were there:

Kobe & Tehani and their new pet –My Dad found a garden snake in his yard the morning we arrived. Everyone (except for Grandma) had tons of fun with “Snakey.” The kids were making all sorts of plans to smuggle their new friend home on the plane but we somehow convinced them that Snakey would be better off out in the wild with his other snakey friends and dropped him off at the forest preserve on Sunday morning.Playing with Baby Charlotte—As luck would have it, Cynthia was up in town as well so the kids got to see their favorite cousin. Kobe and Tehani had a lot of fun playing with Charlotte, watching her in her Jennie Jump Up, and helping Auntie Cynthia with all that baby stuff. (Cynthia tried to remind me that my kids used to make messy diapers and puke up all over the place but my mind has apparently repressed all those memories :)Chicago Pizza—A trip to Chicago would not be complete without some Chicago-style pizza. Uncle Raymond even managed to join us for some of "the good stuff" before his way into work.Cynthia’s Birthday—Ok, her birthday is not actually until Thursday but we figured if we’re in town, Kobe and Tehani mind as well sing Happy Birthday to Auntie Cynthia. It also gave us all a good excuse to get a cake from Jaroche, one of the best bakeries in the Chicagoland area. Charlotte is a quick one and managed to take a swipe at the cake when her mom wasn’t paying attention, but the cake was still good (even if some of the pieces had a baby handprint in them)Quality time with Jake—Kobe loves his cat—but he also loves my Dad’s dog Jake! Kobe is always the first to let Jake out of his pen and he spent who knows how much time rolling around with Jake in the yard before we left today.Whew! So if you see me over the next few days, don’t be surprised if I look exhausted—‘cause I am! But the trip was worth it.

Welcome back Grandma!