Living the Dream: Trains, Automobiles and Planes...The adventure of Getting Kip home

If you know me, you know that I am the world's worst secret keeper. I forget I am not supposed to tell anyone, and end up blabbing, and can not STAND to keep a secret. I like transparency. It's the "new black" in my life.

So, when Lacey & I hatched a plan to surprise Kip in Dallas, on her way home from Costa Rica, at the end of her journey.....I had my doubts I could do it.

So we booked our stuff, and I tried to forget about it. Didn't tell my mom, didn't tell Hallie...nobody. Didn't even really talk about it with Lacey, because I just didn't want anything to slip.

Well, that would have been great and perfect, had I not left the itinerary on my printer, and the 13 year old see it. "What's this, Mom?" "Why do you have train tickets....plane tickets.....what's happening, what, what, what??" says the persistent 13 year old.

"WearesurprisingKipinDallasandyou'renotsupposedtoknowaboutituntilafter" I yell at her in my best no-nonsense mom voice.... "WHAT?" "WHAT?" "I'm totally going", she huffs as she slams in her room.

Neat.

"You have to pay for it", and remember, "This day is not about you". were my mantra, anytime she started in. Well, she totally came up with the money, and anytime she started to talk about it, AT ALL, I'd say, "HALLIE, what is that day NOT about?" and she'd hang her head, and in a small voice say, "Me." Ok, she was in.

So, here was the plan. Kip had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Dallas, and we were going to be there to welcome her. Since we purchased plane tickets, we could totally be at the GATE when she unboarded the plane. WHAT A PLAN!

We boarded the Amtrak to Ft Worth on Saturday at 8:30 am, and only had Grammie make 3 trips back and forth with various things we had forgotten in our squealfest in the morning of the big day.

I have long arms so I get to take the pictures. I even got our heads in it.

We made it to Ft Worth about 1:15, and we had finished our portion of the "Train" of our day. We were feeling good at this point... thinking that our "Plane, Train and Automobile" day was going to be stressfree, no problem. bahahaha.

Got a cute rental car, that was so tiny we could fit it in our purse....but it used $1.70 worth of gas for the time we drove it, so I have zero complaints.

We met my cousins, Mike and Shannon and son Austin at Olive Garden in Irving and had a superb, lovely lunch. Then we skipped over to the Irving Mall, and the 7 of us were the only caucasians in that mall. It was great. We made a video of what we thought Kip's reaction would be, and the Gaffneys were rolling at us...not to mention the other 40 people that walked by while we were squealing like stuck pigs in the mall. Of course, that was before "We Knew", and were still in LaLa land of thinking plans are always in stone.

I seriously love these people. They are "My People". I even licked Austin on the cheek because he was so tall. I don't know why I did it. I guess I have a compulsion to lick tall guy's cheeks. Better keep me away from USA men's volleyball team.

He's super way taller than Hallie. How fast our kids are growing.

Megan caught up with us after lunch and shopped with us. We were rocking the hats. Megan just got back from a two week trip to Beirut Lebanon working with special needs kids. Our family is weird like that. We wear interesting hats and dig people with disabilities.

It might have something to do with the fact that we are a bit "Special" ourselves.

We killed 2 hours of time going to see perhaps the cheesiest movie of all time, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. Cheese and all. I LOVE seeing So You Think You can Dance alumni, and this movie was packed full of them. So we are pressing down on 6:00 when we exit the movie....Hallelujah, let's go get KIP!!!!!!

Lacey checks her phone to look at the status of landing, so we will know exactly when to go deliver our rental toycar back to the place, and with dismay says, "Mom, I don't think Kip's plane has even left Miami"... WHAT??? She is supposed to be halfway to Dallas by now...and she hasn't even left MIAMI?

We go straight to the airport, trying to figure out what in the world to do, when my phone rings... it's Kip, calling from Miami. "MOM... the plane broke, and we are now waiting for another stupid plane, and it's going to be after midnight before I even get to Dallas.....whaaaaa" ... I'm freaking out, not wanting to spill our secret, yet, so unsure of what is going to happen when we get to the airport, knowing how they are about changing tickets.....so i spill the proverbial beans..... "Kip we are in Dallas, and we'll probably have to take the stupid plane you were supposed to be on with us, on home' Busted. After holding it in for WEEKS, and not telling anyone, I ruin it at the very last second.

Squeals and a sob come forth over my phone.... "WHAT?" MOM?!?! and I finish, with, "We'll see you in Oklahoma, we'll watch the boards".

I hang up and look at my two daughters that have been sworn to secrecy and they are basically sitting there staring at me with their mouths hanging open, like, "You just blew it, mom". Sigh. I suck.

We get to the airport, dejected as crap, and of course, the ticket counter lady, in her best broken English, tells us that "Sure, we can change your ticket for $150 each". WHAT? We didn't even pay that for the original ticket. For.the.ever.loving.love.

We dejectedly go through security, all the fun sucked out of us, when Lacey says, "I don't care how much it costs, I'm not LEAVING WITHOUT MY SISTER". and all the sudden all is right with the world.

YEAH. We aren't leaving without her. Period.

We go to the gate and find a sweet older guy named Santi (I called him Santa), and Lacey pours out our sob story to him... "We haven't seen her in a YEAR....this was a SURPRISE....we are so SAD....what can YOU do..." (she's good), when he looks her up on the screen, says "Yep, she's stuck in Miami", and proceeds to book her on the 9 am Sunday flight. Then he gets all our names, and books us on it too.... "You're not paying anything, just watch the board, she may get in, in time to make the connecting flight". yeah, and monkeys might just fly out my booty, too, there Santi....but THANKS for the encouragement.

Our Santa Claus at DFW airport, Santi

Well, now it's 7:00 and Kip's flight is delayed until 11:30. Yippy freaking skippy. What does one do in an airport for 4 1/2 hours. Especially at the gates, where no one is allowed except passengers??? We watched everyone in the airport depart, and all the sudden, we are about the only people left there. So, we did what anyone in our place would do, we raced wheelchairs.

I even had the granny look down..it's a must when racing wheelchairs.

Then we took a picture of our reflection in the glass. I'm really glad I was sitting so cool.

We were so excited, we couldn't sit still.

We were still delusional at this point, that we could somehow make our connecting flight. At first it was only 4 minutes from landing to take off, and only 4 gates away, but as time progressed, they moved our outbound flight to another terminal, so we knew that running would be futile...but we still went in the skylink anyway to time it and see just how long it would take to get from Gate D to Gate A. 12 minutes for those of you that need to know for future reference.

THEN FINALLY, Her plane came taxi-ing in. You have to remember, that she knew we had been there, but was thinking we probably had to get on the plane that was taking off at that very minute. Her teammate Charlene Geddes, who happened to be on the same flight as her, told her, "There is no way they will leave", but Kip wasn't sure.

THERE IT IS!

And when she walked out of the gate, I have never been so happy to see a beautiful tanned face in my life, like I was to see my girl...

HOME AT LAST!

The airlines put us up at the Hyatt (I think) and Kip was overwhelmed at the nice-ness of the room. She just squealed and squealed until the person in the next room banged on the door that joined our rooms. Oopsy, yes it's 1:00 in the morning. Sorry, sleeping person.

The best part of the stayover was we got to spend a few minutes with Kip's teammate, Charlene, whom I felt I already knew, being as I had stalked her like crazy for the last 11 months. What a joy to meet this precious person...

Heading to the airport, Sunday morning.

She wasn't leaving without her sister, and by golly, she didn't. Flying home.

...finally.......we landed in OKC, and headed to Grammie's house, for the homecoming party with the family.

First up...Grammie....

Then grandma and grandpa...

And one of all my girls, just because I could.

And my brother and nephew sneaked in (of course, no pictures), but the one she could not wait for, had yet to come...and she kept checking out the peep hole in the door to see if he would EVER get there....