Puerto Rico - Day 8: Leaving Beautiful PR

Saturday morning we woke up to a rain - I guess they were right about the tropical storm and it rained most of the morning. We were lucky that we had a week of perfect weather and it only started to really storm on the day that we left. We spent most of the morning just packing up and cleaning the house. Mom and dad left early in one van to take Grandma and Grandpa Iverson to the airport. So the 7 of us kids squeezed all our luggage into the other van and had a full load for the drive to the airport. It actually worked out okay because we had all just brought carry-on luggage (so we didn't have to pay extra) so the suitcases fit fine in the back of our van.

We got a few pictures of the house before we left.

Justin was making fun of us girls during the week because he says we always "cheese" for every picture. So I gave him my best frown and asked if that's how he wanted us to look for the pictures. Hayley was in love with the gates on the driveways and windows on all the houses around. She got a bunch of pictures of some of her favorites. They actually were really cool and fun looking.

And we loved all the colorful houses in our neighborhood.

This was the road our house was on - Calle 2. We were cracking up at Caleb because everytime he'd get out of the van or come outside from the house, his glasses fogged up. On our way out of town, Josh was nice enough to stop and let Hayley and I get a picture of our favorite trees. These "flat trees" as we called them were along one of the roads that led to our house - so we passed them at least 25 times during the week. We thought they were awesome cause they were flat tops.

This is the map that our car used for the week. We were not fortunate enough to have a GPS in our car, but we managed just fine with our little map.

We loved these flags along one of the bridges headed to the airport. Every other one was an American flag and then a Puerto Rican flag.

We stopped at a gas station to fill up on our way to the airport. Garrett ran inside and grabbed a few treats to share with everyone. He says these little hippos were one of his favorite snacks on the mission. He bought some for everyone and we snacked on them while we were waiting for the plane.

Dad was acting very excited to try his treat. In reality they are really delicious!

Garrett also tried to get us to taste this drink "Malta." I smelled it and decided that I was not even going to taste it. I don't think anyone else did either.

It was bittersweet as we were boarding the plane to leave beautiful PR behind. We had a fantastic trip and loved all the moments and memories we made. But one the other hand, we were headed home to see our girls - and that made me more excited than anything!

Thanks to Garrett for serving a great mission and allowing us to share in his home of the past 2 years. And thanks to the family for a great time and great memories that will last forever!

And that's our trip, in a nutshell!