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.

Bye Crosswood Lane

We loved living in Granite, and loved our home on Crosswood Lane. We were very blessed to live in such a great area with wonderful neighbors and friends, plus a beautiful view of the Wasatch mountains. I love the mountains. Sad we're missing their autumn colors which were just starting their show their colors for us to enjoy.

A view of twin peaks from our street, looking east

A view of Mount Olympus from our living room window, looking north

Are We Done Yet?

To keep the kids out of the house as we finished, I loaded them in the car, where Abi cried for a while... it's been a long process. Joe helped her calm down and she eventually fell asleep.

The Final Touch - Waxing the Floor

I thought they all looked so cute. There are the worthy medalists working hard.


"Did you just take a picture of our butts?" (yes, me taking pictures, thus no medal for me. Come on Tiff, get to work! Help out here, will ya?)

Giving me a better shot. Cheese! What a great family I have.

Saturday's Warriors

These saints spent their Saturday cleaning my home. Thank you for saving what's left of my sanity. And our winners are:

GOLD MEDAL WINNER - LINDA!!!!

for going above and beyond the call of duty, motherhood, and reason. This woman went to bed Friday night later than I did, washed my laundry sometime during the night between midnight at 5 a.m., and was back at my house at 6 where she worked until 11 p.m. cleaning. The house would have never gotten cleaned and I wouldn't have survived without her.
Prize - You get to go home.

Honorary Gold Medal - Beka

I don't have a picture of her, but this young lady receives an honorary gold medal award for choosing to come to my home and clean boogers off the walls for 2 weeks instead of hanging out with her boyfriend and for taking care of Lily Saturday night.
Prize - You get to not come over any more. (You'll notice that the bronze medal gets the best prize, next best is silver, and golds don't get jack. Totally unjust, I know)

And did you know if you google "boogers off wall" my BLOG POST on said subject is at the top of the search results. I know, you're impressed. It's my claim to fame.

Silver Medal - Stephanie and Grant

...for packing, cleaning, storing, running errands, and changing hard to reach lightbulbs.
Prize - box of random groceries including chocolate protein powder. (I'll miss you!)

Bronze Medal - Neil

...for washing, cleaning, storing, etc.
Prize - a lawnmower and a Wii

Didn't place:
I was not functioning well, after 4 weeks of this packing/moving shtuff. Glad my family helped drag me over the finish line. I felt it was my duty to document the evening though, so here I am doing what I did okay at, taking a few snap shots

Yeah, Oh, Uh, My Bags?

Arriving in Liberia, Costa Rica, after a long and sleepless night, I learned that Delta lost my bags, temporarily. These bags had all my belongings. The bright side: No dealing with kids complaining about their lost/missing stuff. But mostly I was thinking "Doh!" I felt worried too cause I didn't remember putting a name tag on those. (Luckily Mom told me she was 100% sure they were labeled cause she and Beka had done it. Explains why I didn't remember... Mom, what would I do without you!?) So what followed at our arrival has been nicely portrayed by Brian Regan in THIS CLIP (start at 1:45 through 2:10). No baggage claim office in Liberia though. Everything was taken care of right at a table by the spinning thing. I was even offered an essentials kit! (BTW, I love Brian Regan! Highly recommend any of those clips, he's hilarious)

The people at the airport were totally great though, my bags came in today on American Airlines, and they were delivered to our house less than 24 hours after reported missing, with a Sorry note attached. No complaints here. Survived totally fine since Corey shared his underwear with me.

My Visualization Boards

Packed away, but not forgotten. I hope CR will provide time for Corey and I to slow down and think, make new goals together, and map out our plan of how to get there.

Our Home and Life Experiences...

Our Life, Gifts & Talents, and Hobbies

I was listening to this talk by Sister Beck as I packed these papers away inside boxes of scrapbooking papers and projects in progress. Packed up and put in storage, who knows when I'll get to them... I teared up when she said "A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do." My heart yearns to do a lot of things. One of those things is to reflect and properly capture and record the days with these little children that pass by too quickly, but the time is not there, especially now with this adventurous move to Costa Rica that will change my "normal" daily routine for a while. When will I get to them, who knows? Perhaps blogging will be my new scrapbooking. :)

Oh, and Goodbye Legos

This was the kids one week ago during their (unknown to them at the time) last play day with Legos. (No Legos will be making the trip to CR with us). Can't you tell they are all just so hard at work? And I got all 7 of them in the shot, Lily was the cutest, sitting in one of the tubs - Corey had spent all Sunday organizing the Legos by color. He's convinced that someday we'll have a big lego room where Legos are sorted by color and element, and it will just save us all HOURS of time, cause that's what you spend most of your time doing when you're building with Legos, digging through it trying to find that one piece. What will we do with all that extra time?!


Lily was in the mini-figure tub. She found Sponge Bob.

30 Hours Till Departure

...atleast for Corey. Which is good, cause he's going nuts will all this clutter exposed. He doesn't know why all this stuff is in our house. HE didn't buy it. HE doesn't need it or want it. Yes, it would be best for him to not know about any of it. And he wouldn't know about it still, if it weren't for the fact that it all has to be unloaded and moved out of this home where I've been stashing it. Although I really don't think we have a lot of stuff. Still, I understand his yearning to get away from all the possessions that tie us down. If it weren't that we had to cook and clothe our children, I'd be happy if these boxes were all that I had.

Yes, these are my photos and scrapbooks, safely boxed away, hopefully to be all fully scrapbooked and enjoyed before I die. Lily is taking a nap on a bin of Memorabilia, can you see her? Without all the kids though, there really wouldn't be much I'd be excited about documenting or taking photos of. I've been packing for our crew. Each kid has a bin, each bin has a few books to read, paper and crayons to create pictures on, and costumes to play imaginary games in. Should be fun!!!

So, I still have 72 hours until I fly out AT MIDNIGHT. And a full day of cleaning on Saturday with my helpful family. But I think the internet will be being cut off tomorrow, so here's signing off until I come to you from a computer about 2717 miles southeast from here.

Just 5 More Minutes...

Isn't it so cute to see both of their belly buttons?

Chocolate Banana Protein Shakes

Lily and I will miss them.

Chocolate Protein Shakes are one of my daily essentials. I got this recipe from week 1's recipes in the Phase 1 Kristi Approved Book (check out their program's 7 day challenge HERE, it works) ...

6 ice cubes
1/2 c. water
1 scoop choc protein powder
1 T. cocoa powder
1/2 frozen banana
few drops of vanilla stevia

I love it... I have one more frozen banana, enough to have a shake two more times before I fly away on a jet plane AT MIDNIGHT. Lily will be so happy. Maybe I'll pack some protein powder with me. Guess I should load up our luggage and see if there's room.

Howler Monkeys

Well, Beka and Mom are here helping me clean again. Who am I kidding... they are cleaning while I'm wasting time on the computer. Anyway, I think the internet is going to be shut off tomorrow, so I thought I'd do a last post. Beka came over and saw me at the computer and read my last post which ended with a picture of a Howler monkey and me commenting that it kinda freaked me out. So, ever the computer savvy one, she said we should check them out on youtube. Duh, why didn't I think of that. And so we did, HERE they are for you to see, and now I'm thinking they might be one of the rude awakenings in CR. Apparently, according to this little National Geographic TV spot, they are the loudest land animal. Hope we're able to sleep at night, and hope they don't freak out the kids.