Goodbye Boys

After a busy three days of theme park rides and fun, it was time to go our separate ways. Hyrum's final request was to go swimming with Joseph and Ethan. So even though it was late when they got back from Universal Studios, and even though I'd had a pool day already, we all suited up and went for a family swim. We had the whole pool to ourselves. 

Sophi and Joseph in the hot tub. Sophi was striking a pose with her back leg, so Joseph copied.

The pool closed at 11 but we stayed until 11:15. We had good intentions of getting to bed at a decent time. but not easy to do when ya start the bedroom routine at 11:30 pm. The kids heading to Brazil went in to say bye to Grandma and Grandpa, who were leaving to catch a plane ride back to Utah around 4 am. Then the kids said goodbye to their brothers. "Lily, I'm leaving tomorrow. Will you miss me?" asked Joseph "Yeah" - as she continues coloring (didn't look up...)

Ah, the freedom of youth. The older kids knew what was going on though, There were a few tears and that started more tears, and soon we had a full on cry-fest on our hands.

Abi's tears were the most uncontrollable, cause she's our sensitive little girl. Wes was a close second. I was able to hold it together, but could have lost when I saw Joseph was starting to tear up. Last look at their baby sister ~

This will be hard to be apart, but good prep for missions and college I guess? Yeah, this will give us all just a little taste of the big changes coming up in a few years. So sad, we're splitting them up.  

We went back over to Corey's parent's room where Corey gave Joseph and Ethan a father's blessing before they start 2 months being kinda on their own (they are coming down in June after school is out). And then Corey received a blessing from his dad and we all said goodbyes again. We fell asleep around 1 a.m. 

The kids all had good intentions of waking up at 3 to say goodbye. So they set their alarms for 3, which woke me up. I got up 3 times to turn off the honest intentions of the children's 3 a.m. alarms - but they were all zonked out. I'm glad we told them to say their goodbyes. I was awake so got my keys and was over in their room at 3:30 when their alarms went off. 

Good morning Joseph. A quick bowls of cereal, putting on of shoes and grabbing of bags and we were off to the Orlando airport

You excited Ethan? No, it's too early to be excited. It's too early to cry anymore, too, so that made it a little easier on the emotions.

Selfie with my Eth. I'll miss you buddy!

Selfie with my big boy Joseph. Love you Joe!

Ok, looks like this is it I guess... Have fun back in Utah. We'll miss you!!

Bye Ethan! Bye Joseph! Bye Grandma and Grandpa!

And then they were on their way. I briefly got lost on the way back to Cypress Harbor, but luckily it wasn't on an extra toll road (I don't like toll roads). We were going to have to run a few errands before we left for Brazil, so I thought I'd try to make one of them at 4:30 a.m. and ran into Walmart, then went back to the hotel and went into the room that had been checked out of, pulled the dark curtains closed, and tried to fall asleep. Wasn't able to. Until around 6:30 I was finally able to quiet my mind and zone out for a bit.

The maid knocked at 9:00 and woke me up. I thought maybe it was the kids looking for me, wondering where I was. I grabbed my purse and told them they could clean the room, we were done with it, and headed to our room where everyone was still asleep! I thought that was amazing. Even Natalie was still asleep. They started to wake up, have a bit of breakfast, and I started to re-shuffle and repack the bags for the flight to Brazil.

One final miracle before we left - we finally got Natalie's visa and passport back today. I hadn't mentioned this little close call here, but everyone else's visas had come in two weeks ago except for hers. They said it would be done on the 25th. So Corey was in touch with the travel broker often and she said the Brazil Consulate said it would be ready, and really it was totally out of our control, so we just went forward with our plans. Then it didn't come on Wednesday, but they said for sure the next day, Thursday, aka yesterday... (...we're really cutting it close here!!) and hooray, it was delivered to the LA Consulate yesterday, they sent an email of "PHEW!" and it was picked up for an overnight delivery to the hotel desk here in Florida, to be delivered today. Corey checked with the FedEx tracking number often, and once it said "delivered" he was there at the front desk, it arrived today at 10:12 a.m.

So now we really are going! Let's hurry and get checked out of the hotel ~ we have a long trip ahead. First a drive to Miami, then a flight to Campinas. I guess we're as ready as we can be. Here we go, next stop, Miami