The Element of Suprise

Since my kids were little I've had big dreams...BIG dreams about what I was going to do when they turned 12. It seems like such a big important age, but our society is lacking in coming of age traditions...so we decided to invent one of our own...the surprise trip.

We decided that Dad would "kidnap" the birthday boy...or eventually girl..and take them somewhere great...just the two of them. We would tailor the trip around the child's interests, and make a great memory. Dad-bonding with a 12-year-old is pretty high on my list of priorities.

So last Saturday we got to participate in covert ops 101 as we very sneakily planned and executed Zachary's special trip. He's obsessed with sports, so some kind of game was a requirement in the plan. After checking baseball schedules and seating options, we settled on a Saturday Night game at the San Diego Padres stadium. We got fabulous tickets. Then we booked a morning flight and decided to leave the day-time activity up to the boy. Dad would give him his options during the flight, and they would head directly wherever he wanted to go once they landed.

Here's where it gets fun. We woke him up early on Saturday morning...he was exceedingly grouchy. He complained that Saturday is the only day he ever gets to sleep in! (tee-hee!) While he was eating breakfast, I sneaked into his room and packed his things. We told him he was going somewhere special with Dad for his birthday. Aunt Kim showed up and loaded the passengers for the airport. Then they were off!

En route, Zachary settled on Legoland for the day. So Dad and son had a full day at the park, ate dinner, and headed into town for the game in the evening. It went 16 innings! Definitely got our money's worth on those tickets. They settled into a hotel LATE that night, slept in the next morning (see Zachary...I've got your back) and flew home in the afternoon.

As they were sitting at the airport waiting to fly home, Zachary shyly hugged his dad and said, "Thanks Dad, this was fun." Mission accomplished!

I have only two regrets. 1-I forgot to send a camera with them, and 2-We'll never have that same shock factor with our other kiddos.