Los Domingos

Here is a typical Sunday for us here in Costa Rica.

The first few weeks it was a 45 minute drive, so we had to leave at 8:15, but I was so happy the week after I wrote my letter to Costa Rica that they listened to me, and that next Sunday a huge part of the dirt road had been smoothed over and there were no potholes -

Even with slowing down for the men at work, we were able to cut 10 minutes off our time. The next week even more was cleared off, another 10 minutes off our time - so now it only takes us 25 minutes to get to church. We even hear that the dirt road is going to be paved in January! A little too late for us, but glad there have been improvements on it, it's nice, so thank you Costa Rica!

And I also want to say, after we drove up to Liberia last week, I noticed that the road from Villareal to Liberia is totally flawless, smooth, all one piece of blissful continuous pavement, so I wanted to apologize for labeling the whole country as asphalt deficient, cause it's not, but it is in Tamarindo and Villareal and from here to Santa Cruz, and since that's where I've been driving 95% of the time, I was noticing it a bit too much. This is what the paved road to Santa Cruz looks like - A pothole on this road was responsible for my first flat tire. Okay, on to church. Arrive at 9:00 - church is ready to start, we sit down on the folding chairs, which I feel make a lot of noise with my constantly moving around kids. I can usually last the 20 minute til the Sacrament is passed. The chapel is very small since it's a small branch, so there is no nursery classroom, no mother's room, no couch to sit on with kids that are being noisy during sacrament meeting (those would be my kids) so during these first two hours of church we head outside...

La la la la laaa - let's walk round and round the building... Lily enjoying herself, but it gets hot fast, after a few laps she's all rosy cheeked and sweating.

Abi drawing in Wesley's ABC book with a pen. They snuck the book to church, but since it was keeping Abi busy we kept it. Of course I still had to take her outside cause she and Wes were fighting over it. It is his book, but Abi gets to have it cause she's spoiled rotten.

During the third hour, the little kids and I join the Primary in the nice air conditioned big room.
There is a bucket of legos at the church that someone brought in to keep a little girl busy who's mom is meeting with the missionaries. My kids saw it and it kept them entertained very well.



The kids are doing great learning the songs in Spanish for the primary program... we sing the songs so much at home that even Abi is picking up the tune and some of the words.

That's Tara Martinsen leading - she's from Arizona. There are only two Tico kids in our primary right now. Not sure how many are inactive in the branch, but it's a good thing all of us Americans are visiting, as we are making up 80% of the Primary right now (one family with three kids wasn't there this Sunday. I don't know how many Ticos weren't there. But usually there are only two)

That's Hermana Pina sitting with the kids at the far side. She's great.

While we are in Primary, Corey is in the Elder's Quorum. He's a counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. This is where they meet during the third hour...


Oh, so I forgot to mention, during the second hour of church it makes it hard to be outside with Abi and Lily running around cause there are classes on both sides of the church yard - I don't think they mind seeing us running around, but we do try to be far enough that we aren't too loud. Wesley and Abi like to hit trees with sticks


and they also found a frog one day that kept them quite entertained.


And finally, the parking lot. I think I mentioned previously that there are 6 parking stalls, but today I double checked what I said and now I correct myself - there are only 4 parking spots. You pull in to the property and you're at a T - you can turn left or right, two stalls on each side. Or you can just pull forward up over the curb and park on the grass/plants, as the car behind the men did in the picture above. Other cars just park behind the cars in stalls. So sometimes you're stuck.


Those are our cars stuck in the picture above. Usually it doesn't take too long for everyone to clear out. Sometimes when I'm anxious to leave, I do 10 point turns and go up on the grass and try to squeeze myself out - no dents in the car so far!

Then we go home, have an American lunch of PB&J sandwiches and leftovers the whole day, I blog a bit, write in my journal, try to take a nap, Corey takes a nap or goes to more meetings or something with the missionaries... (he's been in Liberia all day today at a leadership training meeting) and the kids run around crazy, write on walls with markers, drop raw eggs on the floor, and dirty dishes, and that's what we do on Sunday.

Hyrum frequently says he hates Sundays cause we don't do anything, and he's right, we don't. What do you do to make your Sunday's a day of rest or a spiritual day? Sunday for us is usually a day of NO's - No TV, no swimming, no beach, it's a day to NOT do things rather than a day to Do things. Please share if you have something that you do on Sundays that makes it a wonderful day for you. I'm in need of inspiration.

So that's a typical Sunday. The end.

Last Leg

After my bathroom breakdown, I felt a slight release of all the emotional pressure I was experiencing, took a deep breath, and got ready to face the last leg of our journey. We left the Sky Lounge and headed to Gate E6. We met a fellow traveler to Costa Rica coming toward us, he told us they changed the gate. I was glad we met him cause it saved me walking all the way down there just to have to turn around. His name was Terry. He was a blessing, and helped me carry our too many carry-on's. On the return flight I WILL NOT have too many bags. Learned my lesson.

Mel, Joe, and our heaven sent friend Terry.

Our flight from Atlanta to Liberia went well. Abi and Lily slept about half of the time. Abi was sweet to Lilian as you can see by these tender moment pictures.


I was still exhausted though and didn't sleep at all, and thus easily started to cry on the decent when Lilian started to scream at the top of her lungs for the last 20 minutes. I think her ears had to pop. She thrashed around so hard that I couldn't even hold her, so I just let her collapse on the narrow floor space at my feet and jam herself under the seat in front of me.

We were the last ones off the plane again, climbed down the stairs from the plane, and a few stewardesses helped me carry our too many carry-on's as we headed to the passport/customs check in area which was like a warehouse. Liberia is a small airport. With the kids they let me go to the front of the line and we got checked in to Costa Rica, then off to the baggage claim, where after we got my 8 checked bags I remembered my 2 bags that were checked at the gate in Salt Lake. Glad I remembered those, too bad they were lost, as I previously mentioned. Corey was supposed to meet me here. He wasn't there. I was supposed to look up the phone number of Becky, the lady in charge of the management company of our rental house here so I could call her, but in my rush leaving Salt Lake I had forgotten to do that. So I didn't have a phone number of anyone in Costa Rica, nor the address of where we were staying, and my husband wasn't around, Abi was screaming from exhaustion this time, my brain was fried and I just couldn't think. I had 10 taxi drivers and 4 several airport attendants surrounding me (small airport and all the other passengers were already gone, so I had their full attention), and they were pressing me for answers as to where I was going to go, what I was going to do, "No se, um, Joe will you please help Abi, Um..." we called several people in the US to see who was near a computer and could look up Becky's #, no one answered except my mom and she was out running errands... I kept writing down different US phone numbers for this one taxi driver to call, and when I'd try to write them down, Abi would try and grab my pencil so she could draw, and then she'd scream as I tried to pull away from her, it was just nuts. Had my brain NOT been fried, I would have remembered, as I did an hour later, that I indeed DID have her number as well as the address of our home on some papers that Corey had printed up for me that were in my bag. Oh well, I didn't remember that until we were in a cab with our bins tied on top, on our way to Tamarindo, cause the taxi driver said he knew where the Blue Water Properties office was, and besides it was a small village and we'd figure it out, I just needed to get my kids out of the heat. Good enough for me. So we left. I left the airport with my 4 kids in tow in a car with some total stranger in a foreign country, not knowing really where I was going or what I was going to do. I just kept a prayer in my heart that Corey'd either see our cab passing by and recognize the bins on top or that someone at the airport would tell him what happened to us when he showed up. 45 minutes later he called the driver on his cell phone, apologized for not being here when I arrived, asked how I was doing... "Better" I replied, since the kids were all asleep and calm and we were moving. I had been cursing him and this whole situation a little while ago when I was at the airport with all the taxi guys harrassing me. I would have been fine if they would have just let me alone for a minute, but they had my bags on the cart all ready to load into a cab and so I couldn't get the snacks for the kids or go rest in the shade, they were just a little TOO eager to help. SO ANYWAY... Corey called and told the guy the address, Corey called the Blue Water Properties and by the time we got to Villareal there was someone from Blue Water there to meet me and give me the keys and sigh we made it. Corey arrived with groceries an hour later, pumped full of testosterone from his chaotic and adventurous journey through the jungle (My trip was testosterone producing too, but testosterone makes a woman tired, whereas it gives a man energy. More on the differences regarding stress on Mars and Venus on another post if you want to hear it. ) "We have had an ad-ven-TURE!!!" he said as he bounded in the door. I smiled, gave him a kiss, and went to take a nap.

The Drive to San Jose

9:00 - leaving Villareal. Dropped off the keys at Blue Water Properties, and then we're on our way to San Jose. We got there around 2:00 p.m. Flight was at 5:30

Starting the drive - Lily trying to keep herself entertained by making faces - she had us all laughing. She fell asleep right away, then woke up when we filled up the van with gas and was awake most of the drive. Well, that should help her sleep on the plane ride maybe!


Wesley teaching Lily how to take good care of stuffed toys.


She was being very sweet with Wesley's dog. Wes was feeling so proud that he taught Lily something.

20 Years

Well, happy anniversary sweetheart. 1999 - 2019. It started with a kiss around 2 am on February 19, 1995. True story: I came home that night, looked at a calendar, calculated time for us to serve missions, and then wrote in my journal that we would be married on Feb 19, 1999. And then we were!

"Started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this? It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss!" Here are a few of the great things about these past 20 years:

12 kids - JMEHWALSNODP

We've started to often identify and refer to our children only by their first initial when we're typing or texting each other. But I guess they are probably the most important things that have come out of our marriage, so I could/should probably list them by name? Ok... here's each kid with one of my blog posts featuring a favorite memory of pictures/video of them:

1. Joseph
2. Melodie
3. Ethan
4. Hyrum
5. Wesley
6. Abigail
7. Lilian
8. Sophia
9. Natalie
10. Owen
11. Daniel
12. Peter

10 moves -

1. Orem
2. Provo
3. Pink House in Sandy
4. Wyview @ BYU
5. Ashburn, Virginia
6. the Chacara in Barão Geraldo, Brazil
7. Crosswood House, Utah
8. Villareal, Costa Rica 
9. Santiago, Chile
10. Sandy

7 cars (3 minivans) - Oldsmobile, Pathfinder, White Van, Chrysler Van, Hyundai, Fiesta, Odyssey

4 countries - USA, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile

2500+ blog posts.

It's been a good ride so far, I guess we might as well keep at it. Here's to the next 20 years!

Costa Rica Friends

We had some special visitors on Sunday night - Magaly and Esteban, some of our far away friends from Costa Rica. We met them in our church ward there. They were the second sent from heaven people on my list of Costa Rica angels who helped me get ready to go to Chile back in 2010. It was fun to visit with them and catch up. Esteban has been in the US since January, Magaly came last month, and they are headed back to Costa Rica today. We broke out our 2010 blog book so the kids could look back and try to remember them. The older kids recognized them, Abi and Lily, not so much. But we told them that Magaly and Esteban wanted to keep little Abi and baby Lily with them in Costa Rica. That made them both feel super special and they snuggled right up ~

Lily kept them entertained with songs while they ate their dinner:

Well, we didn't let you girls stay with them in Costa Rica last time... they offered again to take them home with them back to the land of the Rich Coast, with a promise to raise them well. What do you think Lily, Abi... would you like to go and learn to be Ticas and go swimming in the ocean everyday? or do you want to stay with us in boring ol' Utah?

Little Abi then:

And now:

It was a tough choice, but Lily finally decided to stay, and Abi, well, the picture above says it all. 

Just kidding, she reluctantly decided to stay in America too. It was great to visit with them and we decided we've got to go back. Once Movie Mouth hits it big we'll reward ourselves with a family trip. back to Villareal! Yay, the kids are praying even harder now and are looking forward to it! Come on, Dad's business!! Go go!

The Family Car

So here we are driving in Costa Rica. After Samara beach, we stopped to say a last goodbye to the RMs as we parted ways in Nicoya - them for their home, us heading back to Villareal. They said they had to get a picture of all of us jammed into our 5 person car.

Me and the 7 kids cause Corey's gone in Chile, yes, that makes 8 people in a 5 person capacity car. Shhh - don't tell the car rental people! And this isn't even our record. I'll try to get a picture of us on the way to church this Sunday, cause I think Esteban and Magaly will need a ride again... So if they come with us, that will make our 8 plus 2 more = 10 people. Thankfully those 2 are skinny and my 7 are small.

I actually have very fond memories of road trips as a kid in our white Buick station wagon, other memories in our hatchback Nissan Datsun -
(could be our old station wagon, minus the wood paneling... who would do that to a car?)
(almost like our Nissan - my sweet set of wheels during highschool)

...we'd just fold the seats down, everyone would grab their pillow and blanket and claim their space - we drove like that to Disneyland, up to Idaho to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hibbert, it was so fun. If we were driving at night in the Nissan, we could position ourselves to see the stars as we were laying down by the back window. What freedom! And lo and behold, we are all alive to tell the tale. My 2 cents right now as I'm basking in this lack of strict law enforcement of seatbelt laws... you're gonna die when your gonna die. If your work is done on this earth, God will take you home. He'll let you drown or let you get sick, if he needs you he'll take you. (knock on wood that no kid dies at the beach tomorrow) - So always choose the right and say a prayer of thanksgiving for another day of life. I survived my youth of driving around sleeping on a pillow in the car, we survived our time in Brazil driving around this way, and once again with a prayer and putting our lives in His hands, we are safe at home and have been safe while Corey's been gone. We're doing the best we can in our current circumstances.

Still, I'll admit, this is definitely not the safest way to drive with a 5 year old, huh? Wesley would surely be the first go through the windshield in an accident. And not only am I driving at night with a child straddling the stick shift, but as has probably occurred to you by the very existence of this photograph, I'm talking a picture of myself while I'm driving that way. In my defense this is a dirt road in the middle of nowhere in Costa Rica and I am not driving very fast (too many potholes). Still, I'm sorry for being recklessness. ...although I'll probably have to do it again tomorrow.

Here are the 7 and 8 year olds ~ asleep in the front passenger side of the car equipped with airbags. (That one was also taken by me while I was driving... bad Mom.) Thank you all for your prayers, I'm sure it's YOU that are keeping us alive! Thank you and we love you all! See you in a few months.

Frog in the Pool

After Church yesterday, the kids went to check on the water level of the pool, which usually get's higher after a rainstorm. It must have rained more in Santa Cruz than here in Villareal, cause it looked about the same. Melodie saw a frog in the pool, and it was swimming, and that meant it wasn't dead! We've found 3 dead frogs in the pool during the week - not sure if they drowned or if the plethora of chemicals in the water killed them. Mel saved the frog and they had fun playing with it for a while.


Acutally it might be a toad. Anyone know the difference? I'll google it later.

Tico Homes

Here are some of the Villareal homes on the dirt road that leads to our neighborhood. As you can see, most people here live in very humble circumstances. Makes me feel grateful for all that I enjoy. America really is an amazing country, the land of opportunity.

Providing that opportunity to others is Corey's dream and why he has been working so hard to get MovieMouth off the ground. He worked all day today on his application for Start Up Chile. We'll see what happens with that. If that works out or not, either way MovieMouth is gonna be great and help so many people. I love Corey and the desires of his heart - desires to serve and bless others.

The Lowlight of My Trip Story

No problems with checking the 8 bags. All within the 50 lbs weight and measurment requirements. 8 checked bags for 4 ticketed people, but really for 8 people, since Corey had me take stuff for him, Ethan, Hyrum, and Wes so he wouldn't have to worry about how to get it from San Jose to Villareal. Also cause I didn't have to pay for my checked luggage for some reason, so it saved us a few buck$.

So, now I will tell a story of the LowLight of my trip. It didn't go downhill from here, but was steadily at the bottom. Sadly, the only pictures of this story is at the beginning, which you see here

Us with our bags and Abi on her throne (aka the SmartCart). For the climax of the story at the gate, you'll just have to use your imagination. :)

SO! ...for carry on's, I thought that we four people (Me, Joe, Mel and Abi, not Lily cause she was ticketed as an infant in arms) were each allowed a small suitcase, a backpack and a purse, so I packed 4 suitcases, 4 backpacks, and 4 diaper bags. At the check in I was told each person was allowed 1 suitcase type bag and one backpack, laptop, or purse. OK, so we've got too many bags... I'll deal with it while we wait at the gate.

Security - what a hassle. Lily was asleep in her carseat, but I had to get her out of the carseat so she woke up. Abi had to get off of her throne on the Smart Cart which she was not happy about. Shoes off everyone. It really is ridiculous. (See paragraph 5 HERE) Common sense would save a whole lot of trouble for everyone and a whole lot of money for the government. Oh well, those are the times we live in.

After getting our 12 bags, carseat, and 2 toddlers back on the cart or in arms, we arrived at the gate, about 11:30 at night. I started shuffling stuff around from the diaper bags into the suitcases and backpacks, and just threw the diaper bags away. I wasn't quite done or ready when it was time to board the plane - "Those traveling with small children or who need special assistance" ...that's us, come on kids, let's go... grab your stuff, here, you help Abi... "those traveling with small children, please board at this time" Abi, you have to walk, I can't carry you. Joe can you push the cart, come on guys, Mel can you carry this bag too? "Tiffanie Wride? Tiffanie Wride?" Some men standing by seeing my chaos offer to help carry bags. We make it the 30 feet over to the boarding gate. Phew! "You'll have to leave the cart here" I knew that, but was just postponing it for as long as possible. I get Abi off her throne and take off the bags, and as I grab the small suitcase, it relieves itself of all it's contents, all over the floor, with all the people who don't need "special assistance" boarding the plane standing in line watching me. ALL MY UNDERWEAR AND BRAS, loose toys, a tangled phone charger, etc... The attendant sympathetically said "Ooohh... I'm sorry... can I help?" I was half done in my rush, "No, I got it..." I stayed totally calm and even smiled as I hurried and tossed everything back into the suitcase. I'm pretty good at looking calm in public.

So an attendant helped me with the bags as I carried Abi and Joe carried Lily, we got on the plane, they put the bags in the overhead, and we sat down. OK! Part 1 done.

Plane ride over went great kid wise. Joe and Mel sat on either side of Abi and she fell right asleep, they all slept the whole flight, Lily fell asleep pretty quickly too, and I tried to sleep while sitting upright and holding her in my arms to try and keep her sleeping when she's squirm. It was a long and sleepless night, but went well considering. Arrived at Atlanta at 4:00 a.m. Utah time for a 3 hour layover. 3 hour layover with toddlers = long and painful. I'll tell you about that one in the next post.

McDonalds in Liberia

So after having fun at the Parque Nacional Rincon de la Vieja, we decided we just had to go to McDonald's, seeing as it's a special treat to go there, plus 2 hours away.

Corey pulling in... going to park the car of course, and I kinda roll my eyes cause I forgot again there'd be one of these:

Corey's got a soft spot in his heart for these budding entrepreneurs. Here's this guy - puts on some vest to make himself feel official, goes down and hangs around the McDonald's parking lot to help people not hit lampposts and keep an eye on their cars while they eat. Cause everyone knows the McD's parking lot is where all the high crime takes place, and that goodness gracious people just don't know how to park. These guys are at the beach too, giving us little tickets that say "Parking" that you can tell they made themselves for us to put in our windshields. Corey's good and knows they'll be waiting for him, so he always leaves home with a few extra bucks in his pocket for "parking". I don't remember. Sorry guys!


As we got out of the car, I looked at Corey who had streaks of dirt and mud all over him, and commented "You're the dirtiest one!" to which he quickly and smartly replied "...and I didn't even do anything... (then correcting himself...) I carried kids and shoes." 5 points Gryffindor for making me laugh again, Corey. Yes, carrying the kids and taking care of the logistics are usually the dirtiest jobs. Thanks again for letting me play, sweetheart


The kids gobbled up all their fries and burgers. We're still under-buying the amount of food we think we'll need. But they're starting to get better at eating all their food at restaurants, so we might start to up the level.

I had a bite of hamburger. It was pretty good! It was a very nice McD's. It was well taken care of. It's at the northwest corner of the only stop light intersection in Liberia (I realized today that there are hardly any stoplights here in the country side of Costa Rica. There's one in Santa Cruz where we go to for church (half hour away) and then this one in Liberia, and that's all we've seen so far. None in Villareal, Tamarindo, Huacas, Belen, Filadelfia, I hadn't realized it these past 6 weeks and found it interesting.

Corey was really enjoying eating his McNifico burger and saying "Es McNifico!" (Magnifico means magnificent in Spanish) Cute name for the burger, good job McD's Espanol marketing person.


And our parking attendant giving us the clear to go. I thought this was great pic. And you can see behind him the Liberia stop light. Thanks McD's, maybe we'll see you again! If not, in the US for sure.