New Year's Eve 2019

We had a great night up at our friend's cabin again this year.

It's been great to have Mel home over for the break!

We "adults" spent the night eating and visiting, and the kids spent it drinking and spilling hot chocolate, and playing...

Plus there was all the usual fun: Swinging in the swing (pics 3-6)

...Playing with friends and new faces -

Daniel and Owen spent most of the night hogging attention from these two cute twin girls -

I don't now their names, but they were so cute to play with Owen and Daniel and let them basically harass them for hours.

...Foosball - Natalie's ready to score a goal

...Ping pong (Ethan turned it into a game of sting pong with the elementary boys in the neighborhood. Wes got stung a few times too)

Around 9:40, people started to prepare for the ball drop. We do it early at New York time, so we welcomed 2020 at 10pm. Then the traditional Polar Bear Challenge at the stroke of midnight -

This is Ethan's last year since he'll be on his mission next new years! He ran around the cabin barefoot -

Wes and Abi joined in with the rest of the kids. We coached them all through recovery and comforted them until they had feeling back in their feet. Then we hung around and visited more. Daniel was dancing for us, it was SO cute and funny. I wish I got all of his dances and strike-a-poses on video, he is cute cute.

Then Corey headed home to spend the night with Hyrum and get some skis that were left. They are all going skiing tomorrow. I went to bed shortly after midnight with Peter, cause he had had enough fun for the day. I told MelWesAbi to be sure the little boys got to bed! Goodbye 2019! We'll meet you tomorrow 2020

Grumpy Faces

Hi. Here is what Peter looked like this morning....

This is also what he looks like most every morning....

...and practically every time he wakes up from a nap.

I don't know if he has bad dreams, or if he wishes he could keep sleeping or what his deal is? I tell him he's free to go back to bed, but he just throws a little fit and curses me for a few minutes. He continues being mad as I change his diaper and he kicks my hands away from him. Oh, that little pouty lip, Peter! You're just a little sad guy. And with his tired puffy little eyes, it looked like a total newborn face when they are just delivered and wondering what happened to them and what all the bright ligths are for.

Mommy's monster... that's an appropriate shirt you're wearing Peter. He wasn't the only grumpy face. His older brother gets grumpy and pouty too - Those are pretty good sad eyes you have there Daniel.

He wants his bottle. He still drinks from a bottle. We're kinda trying to move on from it, and Daniel does know how to use a cup, but I keep the bottles around for Peter, but if Daniel sees one he claims it and cries for it and I usually give in to his pleas. They're not grumpy that much, but when they are, I'm glad that I usually find it cute and funny.

I Heart Mitt!

I'm not sure how much I'll be getting into the election this year, but I totally love Mitt. I'm 100% behind him, (I think it's probably because he reminds me so much of another certain amazing man I know...)  Still, I haven't been hyped up about the election this year like I have been in years past, where I'd listening to talk radio 6 hours a day and read too much online.  When I did that in years past, it just distracted me too much from my home and kids and left me feeling drained.  So, for the sake of my sanity and in an effort to be focused on what is most important in my immediate world of influence, I've had minimal contact with politics this election cycle.  Corey listens to more than I do while he's at work.  Last night he came home and we watched Mitt Romney's speech at the RNC last night, the kids joined us a little but we kept kicking them out cause they were playing tag and being to loud.  (You can see Abi in a blur in the photo below) Sophia was allowed to stay, it was funny to see her clap along with the crowd, even if she was nursing she would pull her hands around me or off to the side so she could clap.  She just loved all the clapping, it made me laugh.

I enjoyed hearing Mitt say basically what he'd give to go back in time and break up one more fight between their boys when they were kids.  Made me wonder, are these really the best years of my entire life?  I hope not, I really hope life keeps getting better, but at the same time I do know that there is something magical about having little kids under feet, cute little faces and tiny voices that depend on me and love me, and that are mine.  I kissed Sophi and tried to "behold" her a little longer last night.  I know these are special years.

So, my favorite line of the night came after he reminded us that "President Obama promised to 'slow the rise of the oceans' and to 'heal the planet.'  My promise is to help you and your family"  Yes!!!  Something real and tangible!  Please, help us! It was like a breath of fresh air.  Being the wife of an entrepreneur trying to make it happen in business while supporting a large family, we would love help!  But not with a handout or check from the government, just get rid of the taxes and regulations and paperwork garbage that keep biting at Corey's heels and that do nothing to help him and his dreams, they just get in the way.  Get rid of the mess in Washington.  I think/hope President Obama's heart is in the right place, but it's just not working and will not work.  We need Mitt.  And I totally love him, I love his character, his modesty and humility.  David French made these two great points , I especially loved the first - Mitt is not ashamed of his success, he is MODEST about his success.  "In fact, He is modest about every virtue in his life.  One of the most touching aspects of the entire convention was the parade of friends and church members who spoke about who Mitt is, because Mitt won’t do it himself.  In an era of self-glorification, led by a President with a false self-glorifying memoir, Mitt’s modesty is a refreshing change."

Here's one example of that if you missed it - his relationship with the Oparowski family is the antithesis of "the Life of Julia" - They are a real family who Mitt really and personally helped as opposed to a fictional character who was "helped" in theory by Pres Obama's policies.



Whoever wins, I know that ultimately it is the Lord that is in charge of this world and the things that are in the books to happen upon it.  I pray for Obama to be a good President and I pray for Mitt that he will be the next President.  I know it will be great! And if Obama wins, then I guess we deserve what's coming to us.  (...and we'll most likely head to Chile.)

Ok, who got in the markers?

The face of innocence.

There is a little face with a tongue sticking out on his right calf. Funny!

So, I said, "Who got in the markers?" I know it wasn't Wesley, cause not only can he not draw smiley faces yet, but I'm sure it would be hard to turn himself enough to be able to draw on himself in these particular place.
Melodie?!?!

Flamingo Beach

It rained all day yesterday and boy, did we get an ear-full from the kids. Ethan is the top contender for best complainer for some of these beauties: "I don't want to spend the whole time in Costa Rica just sitting here!!! We aren't doing anything!!! We haven't done anything fun! Is this what it's going to be like the whole time?!?" It hasn't been that bad - swimming's been fun, right? Or the beach on Monday? You forgotten all that? He's probably just mad that we haven't repeated it? (Slight crush on the girls, me thinks. I don't blame him, they were cute).

Below is a photo of Mr. Top Complainer complaining after we first arrived at the beach today about how the salt water was KILLING his toe, wail, cry, scream, wail - he had three small scratches on his big left toe, which said scratches he got from the edge of the stairs in our pool at home. He wanted a bandaid, but I didn't have one. I tried to explain that a bandaid wouldn't keep the salt water out anyway, but he didn't hear/listen... We've got a communication barrier between us.


Well, this morning it looked like a rainy day again, but we decided to try for the beach anyway, and had a GREAT time. We left our home around 9, it was about a 20 mile drive to Flamingo Beach, so about a half hour. We took a shortcut to the beach (unbeknownst to us at the time). We were riding a steep dirt road over the mountain and a steeper and narrow paved road on the way down, and thought we had reached a dead end at some nice homes on the south cove of Flamingo beach. We decided to head back to where we got on the mountain path and get back on the main road to see if that lead to the main beach, but as we came to a fork in the road I couldn't remember which one we came down, and so we took the one that went toward the beach, thinking if it wasn't the right road over the mountain, then it would probably lead us to the main beach. I didn't think all the people in those cove homes which were really nice would tolerate driving over that steep dirt road everytime they were coming or going. Luckily I was right, and we quickly arrived at a beautiful spot on the beach and had it practically all to ourselves.

Joe, always prepared with his nose plugs.

Joe and Ethan spent the first hour and last our of our time there jumping in the waves. A great activity for young boys (not sure what happened to cure Ethan's toe. Glad he was able to switch off his complain mode). Mel was busy making a sand castle, and it made me think of the differences between boys and girls, men and women. Men/boys looking for adventure and excitement, women/girls looking to create something beautiful... (as much as resources will allow - a stick with a dead leaf for her castle's flag...) and settle down and make a home. I have some of that in me still, I know it's there, wanting to make a house somewhere our home. It just keeps getting pushed to the end of the line of things to do. Corey has said that a home is on his list of acceptable purchases, so that's good. :)

I like something Corey said today, that the ocean provides a perfect combination of exhilaration and calmness for families and kids - Parent's and kids will get calm just watching and hearing the waves, and then you can send your kids out to get up close with the waves and burn some of that energy off while they slightly fear for their lives.

Lily of course loved laying in the dirt, here she is poking it with a stick.

She was so funny, I loved it. I'd try to dig a hole and it would fill up from the water that was in the sand, and of course she assumed it was a little tub for her and crawled right in it and just sat there contently, I was laughing. Corey got some video of it on the Flip Camera, but I don't know how to upload that... I'll see if he can later.

Abi, Lily, and I got a slight sunburn on our faces and backs - we haven't been out as much as the boys who are all turning so dark - their tan line from their swimming trunks is become quite the contrast of white skin to dark skin. They are almost Ticos! (Ticos are what Costa Rican's call themselves).

Abi loved throwing dirt

Wesley was busy building mountains

Hyrum, Ethan, and Joe played in the waves with Corey or I looking on - some of those waves seemed to be pretty big.


Melodie built sand castles, Hyrum joined her while Joe and Ethan kept at the waves.


Eth and Joe joined in on the sand after a while and they had a "sand castle contest".

I asked who won, and they don't know. I guess since we left in a hurry when it was raining, there was not time for the judges to choose a winner. Next trip to the beach I guess.

We stayed there till 1:00, at which time we packed up cause Abi was hungry (no surprise, she eats constantly) and thus fussy. Corey took her for a walk...

...then shortly after he got back it started to rain.

And I even documented my self photographically today

See! I was at the beach, too!

I give Flamingo Beach 5 out of 5 stars for small crowds, beautiful surroundings, lots of shore space to dig, good sized waves - not to big or small. Great beach. We'll be sure to come again!

Mine Time

As always, the kids enjoyed spending time in "The Mine" in Park City.  These two pics below are how they spent most of their time there:

But then there was also the occasional tv/movie watching ~

Sophia would give us a break from her cligy-ness in "the Mine" which was nice. 

Abi posing for the camera on the rocking moose.

Joseph enjoyed a few games of pool, here he is playing a game with someone else but with his brother hovering near by he started to tell Ethan to "Go away" when I snapped the photo. Brotherly love ~

This year they had a new addition in the Mine, a little yellow canary named "Sunny".  He was a pretty yellow little bird, but poor fellow was all alone in the cage.  They had a sign telling his name and the history of the canary and how they had a wonderful partnership with the miners who worked in the silver mines of Park City years ago ~ "The miners took the canaries into the mines and if the canaries stopped singing, the miners knew it was not safe and they could get out". Didn't mention the canaries stopped singing cause they were dead. Sunny wasn't singing in his cage, but I'm assuming it was safe in there. I stared at him for a while, felt bad for him being stuck in a cage and not being able to use the wings God gave him to fly around outside. His little black eyes looking up and with helplessness and humility reminded me of Natalie's little face looking up at me. 

So now we're calling Natalie our "pretty canary" and then we start going off quoting Brian Regan from the first minute here.  Funny ~ "Pretty canary!"

She's been looking up at our faces with great intent these past few days, and we say "Earth to Natalie, do you read me?" I think we are going to establish contact with planet Natalie very soon.

Pretty little cross-eyed canary :)  

Rainbow, Three Tables, and Coconut Joe

I have a lot of pictures to share today. It started off with a rainbow out of our window on a misty morning! Admiring the rainbow from our window -

And the view of it from our balcony. So lovely! I shared it on facebook - a friend from my childhood, Matt, commented "No rain, no rainbows" - like roses and thorns. "There's gotta be opposition" (-Dying Breed by the Killers!)

The little kid were bartering and trading with their coral rocks that we gathered yesterday.

The older kids needed to work, so I took away the little kids. 

The rainbow from the lagoon - 

This is a magical place! So we played in the sand - 

Trying to make sandcastles with the new bucket set that Corey bought yesterday. 

After Corey, Joseph, and Wes went boogie boarding last night (without success) the locals told them that for boogie boarding, you need flippers. So they picked up flippers at Costco on their way home. And goggles. And snorkeling stuff. And that bucket of beach toys. 

Peter and I moved toward the reef. Aww he's so pretty...

We just sat there enjoying the ocean, and then I noticed some movement on the rocks next to us and I saw a little crab. It was big compared to the tiny ones Natalie and I saw on Friday. It would come out if I was still. And then I noticed more and more crabs everywhere of all sized. I called the kids over and we had fun looking at the crabs

We noticed Hyrum waving to us - can you see Hyrum? He's in the top balcony on the right side there, you might need to zoom in. Hi Hyrum!

Natalie buried herself.

A view of the kids on the beach from the lagoon.

It was nice and therapeutic to just watch them play. 

Then we went on an outing. Hyrum and Wesley stayed to work on homework (it's midterms on Friday). Peter fell asleep as soon as he was buckled into the carseat - 

After a nice 47 min drive through beautiful Hawaii, we arrive. That was a perfect nap time for Peter. The girls ran to the beach first to go check it out. 

I straggled behind with the little ones. Abi came back to the van to help me get kids and towels, and that was lucky for her 'cause she got to see a chicken up close. She wants a "wild" chicken for her pet. She's a silly girl. Everytime she's seen chickens on the side of the road (actually quite common here) she squeals "A chicken!  Look at all those stray chickens! That's a baby chicken! I need a pet chicken!" She's joking and I'm playing a long, funny. 

We went to Three Tables so that Joseph could snorkel before he leaves tomorrow. 

Snorkeling today, surfing tomorrow. He flies out around 9pm. The waves were pretty violent in my opinion. I'm not sure how it went for snorkeling, but hey, we got a pic, so thumbs up. The waves were really busy, so we were on high alert for Natalie cause she swims well but didn't have a floatie and I didn't trust the water. Corey watched kids in the water, I watched them in the sand.

The sand on this beach was so light, it was almost puffy. 

You couldn't build with it, but it was good for digging.

Peter taught us how to dig. Then we built a moat around him just in case a big wave came up. 

I actually don't think it would have helped, but it was fun digging - Joseph on the moat, Abi burying Sophi and Natalie. Owen was running back and forth into the water. 

And DANIEL was cracking me up, cause he is just such a friendly little guy - he was making friends with these two girls who were laying out near the top of the beach, and he'd talk to them, then he'd get a running start and do a little somersault or toddler cartwheel flip thing for them. Showing them his skillz. Corey got this picture of him -

He's such a cute little boy, he cracks us up. You could try to build something or walk along the beach, but then a wave would come and wipe it all away in one swoop, and suddently you wouldn't be able to tell humans had ever been on this beach. It was really cool. Almost like Playa Conchal, with how steep the beach was, and how fast the waves crashed up on the shore. Also by how easy it was to dig in and with how the sand would stick to you. Here's Sophi's new skin after being buried -

She's sand girl.

Kinda like the pictures of the kids at Playa Conchal in Costa Rica, right? I was thinking of Wesley's face when I saw it sticking to Sophi, no one put their faces in it though. Joseph attempted a castle, but it doesn't work with this sand. 

Time to bury the toddlers... 

Joseph had dug a nice big hole for Owen and Daniel. Peter thinking he will make a stand against the waves. Nope.

So it was great. Three Tables was a spot that Corey's friend Eric had recommended. We loaded up in the car and headed home -

It wasn't dark yet and I thought maybe we could drive around the island an see the east side before it got dark. But there was another Eric recommended spot close by where you could maybe see some sea turtles... and the kids were ready to get back to the hotel asap (a ride around the island would be another 90 min prob) so we drove a short ways and all got out of the car again. More beach, more sand, more digging...

While we wandered around tide pools and looked for shells, Joseph found a coconut!

He threw it at a big rock over and over again. We joked that he was working on dinner.

He worked on that while we waited. 

It was a small alleyway from a neighborhood to the beach. Felt like Costa Rica

Joseph isn't giving up. He said pulling off the husk was very satisfying.

Peter saying cheese for me, aww, love that little baby face.

Corey is such a good father and husband, we are so blessed that he gifted us this trip. The kids don't want the day to end. But the sun had set, time to get going. Joseph! Natalie! Owen! Daniel! Let's go!

He's finally done it. He can leave the beach in peace. Coconut Joe from 10 years ago has returned and conquered the coconut.

He cracks it open, a little bit of coconut water...

And a little coconut meat. He didn't seem thrilled with the taste, but he'd going to enjoy it cause he worked so hard to get it. One last pic of the kids buried, Natalie buried them. 

And then for our final act of fun before we say goodbye to Joseph tomorrow, and since it's his last night, AND since he reminded Corey and I of Tom Hanks when we saw him trying to open that coconut, we stayed up late tonight (past 9pm) watching Cast Away. The kids had me laughing through it, especially Hyrum. A few kid quotes: 

Hyrum when Tom Hanks finally starts making fire "There we go! Why did it take him so long to get to this point?!?! It's been like 6 days!" - "I feel like he's gonna get attached to that, then his volleyball is gonna die somehow..." Hyrum does have foresight. Later with a smirk "Him and Wilson are arguing" then all the kids joined in - "Don't push your friends away! Yeah, Wilson was a toxic friend..." Abi asked with horror "He cut himself to fix Wilson?!?!" Hyrum again: "It's like life of Pi, and Wilson is the Tiger". When the whale peeks up to say hello "Hi Buddy! Hope you find your dad!" - from Elf, lol. When Kelley Frear faints, Wes feels sick with sorry for our main character "Oh no! She moved on!!!" When he's on the plane going back to his life before the island, Hyrum says with a little disappointment: "I was slightly hoping he's have his full beard..." And they say Cast Away 2 will be when Wilson will become a cast away on his own island. Fun kids. We had a very wonderful day with all of them. Joseph is leaving tomorrow! Suddenly it feels like this vacation is going to be over so soon! We only have 3 more days at the pool and beach, then Sunday church, and then we leave! We will try to soak it all up while it lasts. This has been wonderful, I'm grateful to be able to enjoy 4+ more days.