to the risk of sounding redundant.
check the picture below, so, that's the pyramid, the base is a 3x3 and therefore has an area of 9 ft².
the slant height of the pyramid, is really the "altitude" or height of the triangular face, so each triangular face is just a triangle with a base of 3, and a height of 8.
![\bf \stackrel{\textit{4 triangular faces' area}}{4\left[(1)/(2)(3)(8) \right]}~~+~~\stackrel{\textit{area of its base}}{9}](https://img.qammunity.org/2019/formulas/mathematics/high-school/uv2iy4unpphiupznb3n5cfooze0xf2jc7w.png)