The Plane Ride

For almost two months, Tim has been telling me about a surprise that he has been planning for my birthday. Sometimes he'd say he had it all worked out, except for the child care, or that everything was in order, but it all depended on the weather. Well, it didn't end up being a surprise because about a month ago at church, a man we know named Mike came up to me and asked if I was going to be okay going for a plane ride or if it was just Tim's idea. At the time I laughed and said that it sounded like fun, but that it was supposed to be a surprise, so we couldn't tell Tim that I knew. Meanwhile, Tim was behind my back giving Mike all sorts of signals NOT to mention flying, and then it just wasn't a surprise anymore.

Once I found out that my surprise was going to be a plane ride (and not a surprise trip to a Florida), I wasn't sure what to think. Part of me thought it wouldn't really happen because the weather wouldn't cooperate in Idaho in March, or whatever. Plus I wasn't sure if that was how I wanted us to spend our money; perhaps a massage would be more fun? But Tim kept making the plans and got his mom to watch the kids and things were in order.

Once I knew this was going to happen, what I really wanted was to take Ethan with us. He loves his modes of transportation. He's a planes, trains, buses, and trucks sort of dude. So Tim made a phone call and Mike said, "Sure! Bring Ethan along." Then I really got excited.

So, Sunday was the big day. This has been my birthday week and I, of course, like to celebrate all week long. The cool thing is that I don't really have to do anything all that special because it seems every day is special in my life. That sounds so corny, but it's true. I used to be disappointed on Mar. 3 because I didn't have my birthday to look forward to, but now I feel like I can just keep doing special things every day if I feel like it (not like plane rides, but making special dinners or playing games after the kids go to bed).

Anyway, Sunday was the big flying day. When we told Ethan that we were going to go in a plane, he immediately perked up and made his arms into wings and zoomed around the kitchen. When it was time to go, he found his toy plane and marched out to the car. He would have been happy just looking at the planes if that had been all that we were doing that day. I'll have to remember that next time we need something to do. . . just drive to the airport. Can you see him looking through the fence at our plane (sorry for a few fuzzy pics. . .someone's little hands had been playing with the camera and must have had sticky fingers)Look carefully and you can see Ethan peering out from his seat on the plane.


Ethan got to wear headphones and everything, and clung to his toy plane the entire ride.

Mama and Ethan in the backseat.

The view out the back. . . .

Tim flying in the pilot's seat. . . .

I kid you not. . . Tim actually flew the plane for most of the 30-minute flight. Mike's deal is that he is trying to "sell" aviation lessons by giving people a taste of what it's really like, so the flight was not expensive AT ALL. I was confident in Tim's flying skills because he is great at video games (ha ha), but I still was quite nervous during the first minutes of the flight. We seemed to be just a few hundred yards away from the side of the mountain, and I could so easily picture us getting caught by a gust of wind and barreling into the hill. For that reason alone, I was glad to have Ethan with us, for in case we crashed, at least we be able to meet Jesus together and poor Kate wouldn't miss us much after a week or two. I was praying that everyone else wouldn't miss us too much if we didn't make it home, and I got through the first ten minutes of the flight by whispering prayers for safety and by looking out the left window of the plane, away from the mountain.

This is not a picture of the mountain we almost crashed into. I was much too scared to take a picture at that point. This is a bit later in the flight, once we were higher in the sky, and perhaps after we had flown over the city and were headed out to the "practice aviation" area.

This is after the flight when Ethan got to sit in the pilot's seat.


Thanks, Tim, for making my birthday week extra special. It's great to be 33!