Aug 16

Aug 16 BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

'I've never landed in such a boring place', I heard Cinnamon say as we were landing in Phoenix. The view outside the plane was mostly brown, with mountains. There were not many trees.

'Boring?!', my son exclaimed. 'Look at the mountains', he continued.

We boarded an early morning flight from Austin, Texas to Spokane, Washington. With a one-hour layover in Phoenix, Arizona. I stayed up through the night to clean and pack as it made no sense to try to sleep, for fear of not waking up in time and missing our flight.

The last time we visited my mom was in 2022. I found it ironic that the time coincided with my having started my job six months before going on that trip and that my job ended with us going to visit my mom again. But this time we were not going to California to visit her where she lives. We were all gathering in Idaho, where my sister lives with her husband.

We boarded our Southwest flight to Spokane, their open seating option having been a new experience for us, and enjoyed the slightly over two-hour ride to Washington.

My mom was expecting only my son and me. She did not know she would be seeing both of her granddaughters. Her birthday surprise. The idea we had was that Sage and I would go out into the baggage claim area to greet my mom and her partner, then the girls would follow shortly thereafter.

She was surprised to see us and immediately asked about the girls.

'How are Saffi and Seena?', she asked. I wondered where they were, as we were getting ready to leave. My son used a delaying tactic by saying he had to go to the bathroom. He started going the opposite direction of the bathroom, to get the girls. I then texted them to hurry. When they finally arrived, my mom was greatly surprised. She was not expecting them.

We drove over the border to Idaho, playing the ABC game along the way. The letter 'X' was nowhere to be found, so we cheated and used 'Exxon' then continued to 'Z'. Our Idaho adventure was about to begin.