I'll let the pictures do most of the talking for this part of the story. We started our journey on Christmas Eve, but first we attended the 2:00 service at Redeemer's. I love that we got the best of both worlds this year as we attended a Christmas Eve service here and then got to be with family for Christmas Day.
When the service was over, we drove to Eugene to catch the first of our 3 flights. We have always flown out of Portland, but decided to fly out of Eugene this time since we were on a time crunch with me working part of the day on Christmas Eve. Plus, this was the only way we would be able to catch a red-eye and arrive in TX on Christmas morning.
As we waited in the Eugene airport, I began documenting our trip. Kory was already tired of photos, which I knew wasn't going to work since we had many hours ahead of us. I couldn't text any family about the progress of our trip, so pictures were my main entertainment throughout the night.
Who needs Kory to be looking to take a picture together? I can do this on my own!
Much better! This was on our flight from Eugene to Seattle. The flight attendants did an awesome "Night Before Christmas" poem/safety demonstration and then passed out chocolate to all the passengers. We were so excited at this point that it was hard to believe we had to wait over 13 hours before we got to complete the surprise.
I was really glad Kory gave me this book for Christmas so I had something to read on this trip. I spent about 3 hours in the Seattle airport with Dan Brown and my Reese's pieces.
There is something that really bonds people together when you're waiting in an airport for hours, especially on a holiday. We watched a lot of little kids play with and admire these Christmas trees while we waited for our next flight.
Hey, I got a picture with the Super Bowl champions lounge! I didn't know what good luck I was :)
Our flight from Seattle to Dallas arrived about 3:00 a.m. Oregon time, and this picture was as we were landing in Dallas. The plane was SO cold (and the lights were so bright) that I barely slept at all, and I was feeling pretty miserable at this point. This was the one and only time I started to regret this plan and I just wanted to be back in my own bed where it was warm and dark.
The next 3 hours of the trip were spent in the DFW airport. It was pretty deserted, so I thought we might actually get some rest while we waited.
I think the nerves/adrenaline kicked in for me at this point though, because I wasn't tired at all and was just anxious to get our next flight over with and be in Amarillo.
Just as Kory started to get comfortable and fall asleep, a woman came up to us and began to vent/complain about United Airlines for the next hour and a half. Granted, she had been stranded in Dallas for the past two days and wasn't getting to be with her son for Christmas like she had planned, but she went on and on and on and we got to hear ALL about it. The only redeeming quality of the conversation was that we got to tell her about our surprise and she was so excited with and for us, that she got us even more pumped for what was about to happen.
We finally got on our flight from Dallas to Amarillo and there were a total of 7 of us on the whole flight! It was a small plane, but that was still a lot of empty seats! We arrived in Amarillo and only had checked luggage, so we went straight to the Enterprise rental counter to pick up our car. The lady at another of the rental car companies let us know there had been a change and Enterprise wouldn't be open until noon. It was now about 10:00 a.m. and there was no way we were going to wait two hours to get a car. We stepped over to the Avis counter and they helped us right away. I asked for the cheapest car they had, which was our only requirement. The result: a convertible Mustang! :) Kory was quite pleased as he had been joking earlier that we needed a really fast sports car to get us to family quicker. It worked!
Even as I type these words, I can feel butterflies in my stomach and can remember so clearly the excitement we felt as we drove to Kory's grandparents house in Panhandle. Kory's mom and dad had each texted us during our flights and we were just flat out ignoring them at this point so we didn't have to lie about where we were or what we were doing. I was so excited to finally have the truth out and no longer hide our plans.
We arrived in Panhandle and Kory drove through the alley to the back side of the house. We talked quite a bit about the best way to surprise them, and we decided walking into the house would be the best way so we could see their reactions. I'll let the videos walk you through what happened next:
For some reason, Blogger will not upload my second video. Bummer! Maybe it's just adding to the suspense! I'll try to upload it in the final installment of this 3 part series where I detail the reactions to the surprise as well as our week spent in Texas. Oh, and we get to meet our twin niece and nephew for the first time!
1 comment:
Ahh! Come on, Blogger. I'm dying here!
Post a Comment