The Happiest Place on Earth

Last Wednesday I sent my kids to school only to pick them up shortly thereafter.  I was surprising them with a vacation!!!

I've always wanted to surprise them with a vacation.  I was pumped.  As soon as I got them out the door, I started throwing all the luggage I'd been packing and hiding under my bed and in my closet in the suburban.  I picked up BoyOne first because I was pretty sure he'd be super excited and I could hardly wait!!!  I was way wrong.  Now, I know he's a teenager, but the lack of excitement with which he responded to me checking him out of school disappointed me greatly, I'll be honest.  

"Why you check me out, Mom?'

"We're going somewhere really fun and you don't have to go to school!"

That was where he was supposed to whoop for joy and jump into the air.  Instead he grumpily demanded to know when he would be home so that he could play with his friend (that happens to be a very bad influence).  Still, I tried to stick with my awesome mom who surprises her kids with a vacation act, 

"I don't know when we'll be back!  It's a surprise!  We're picking up the other kids and going somewhere really awesome!!!"

Tears ensued.  Dead serious.  It made me feel grumpy.  He complains every day about school, about having soccer practice, about not having soccer practice, about playing with friends, about not playing with friends.  I guess it shouldn't have bugged me at all, as it seems to be a bit of his personality/part of being a teenager, but it did bug me.  I didn't let it keep me down, though because next it was off to the elementary!  I already had Four and BoyTwo with me because Four is in afternoon kindergarten and  (BTW she is freaking awesome!!  She saw me putting travel bags in the car and immediately got way excited!!  'mom, where are we going?!'  'it's a secret.  but it's going to be way way fun!'  'OOOOOOOH  I'm so excited!' and then she helped load the car, the whole time proclaiming her excitement)  BoyTwo has been having some... difficulties at school which I will save for another post altogether and is grounded from going to school so he waited in his room until it was time to go.  He climbed in the car completely unaware that it was packed with travel items and buckled himself into his 5 point harness (yep, we're back to that).

Because of BoyOne's tantrum when I picked him up, I was already off schedule so I phoned ahead to the elementary to have them call the other kids down to the office so that they were ready to go when I got there.  (By the way, I told the office what I was doing and THEY were excited:)

When I went into sign the kids out, they were all waiting for me, baited breath,

'mom, what's going on?!'

'where are we going?!'

'do we have to come back to school today?'

'are we going to the dentist?'

'give us a hint!!'

They had no idea what was going on but they were already getting excited!!  Once in the car they saw their pillows in their seats and the travel bags in the back and gave me the reaction I was after:)

We went back and forth, them trying to get me to say where we were going, me acting like I didn't know, etc etc etc.  Finally about half an hour into the drive, I decided to give them a hint.  Not just any hint, I wanted to draaaaaag it out.

So, we played hangman.  I told them that all I would draw was a head, body, two legs, two arms, two eyes, a nose and a mouth and if they didn't get it by then, well they were out of luck.  Fortunately for them they were able to guess all the letters,

"The happiest place on earth!"

I could hardly contain myself as they read the answer.  Instead of hearing all sorts of cheering and excitement, there was dead silence.  I quickly glanced back to see them looking at each other like, 'what the heck????'

'Seriously?  You guys have never heard of the happiest place on earth?!'  I asked.

Somehow, they hadn't.  And yes, the girls have all been there.  So I told them to guess and I'm so glad that I did.  Their answers were priceless:

heaven

Mexico

New Mexico

the mysterious island

the temple

The heaven answer was first, funniest and lasted the longest. 

'HEAVEN!!!  Yeah!!  WE'RE GOING TO HEAVEN!!'

lots of cheering and chanting 'heaven, heaven, heaven!'

'Wait a second.  Mom, are we going to heaven?'

'Wait a second.  Can you even visit heaven?'

'Well, heaven IS the happiest place.'

'But it's not exactly in our state, is it?'

'I don't know.  Maybe.'

'Do you have to be dead to visit heaven?'

'I love heaven!!'

'I don't think you can visit heaven.  Mom, can you even visit heaven?'

'I can't wait to see Grandma Tingey!!!! (who happens to be in heaven)'

'Guys I don't think we're going to heaven.'

'Wait a second!  Maybe we're going to MEXICO!!!!!!!!'

lots of squealing, followed by

'what's eximo??'

...and then I texted Huz and we decided to drag this out as long as we could...

to be continued