Week 2 in PR

Week 2 in this new place turned out to be full of lots of goings on:

- Tilly found her favorite spot in the sunshine to spend the days while the kids are at school. She’s living her best life here. 

- In an effort to learn all things Puerto Rican, I made a new recipe of Puerto Rican pork chops and they turned out delicious. 

- The boys were surprised with a box in the mail from uncle Ty and Aunt Whit with “the best thing ever!” Pocket knives for each of them. They’re in heaven. 

- I got this random drawing of a rock from Rease one day…

- Our neighbor Wilfredo kindly helped us cut the last of the filler pieces for our kitchen cabinets. That’s the final thing we need to finish those up. 

- We finally found the “cuaderno de mapas” that Rhen has been needing for Spanish class since day 1. That little baby has been hard to find.

We dubbed Mondays our official beach day of the week and decided to visit a new beach every week after school. Not a bad plan. It was gorgeous and relaxing and just what we needed to shake off the Monday cobwebs. 

We made some big finishing touches on the house. At the last minute we added a tiny hidden cupboard with one of the filler pieces between the cabinets. Thanks to Hayley for the idea, we made a cookie sheet cupboard to fit those pesky pans that never seem to have a good place to go! 

We also exchanged one of the couches that got delivered last week for a loveseat instead. It fits perfectly in the room now and I’m so happy it was an easy exchange. 

The mini fridge got plugged in and snugged into its permanent place and now the cabinets are all complete!  

And our favorite guy Pepo finished the tile in the shower and it looks just amazing. I am in love with how it turned out. 

Josh had to go to a couple of the schools this week and sort out some chrome book and tutoring issues. While there he caught up with a few of the friends Rhen and Liev have made and somehow convinced them that our family came from Mexico and that’s how he speaks Spanish. I’m not sure how that happened or got believed but that’s the story around the school now. Poor kids with a dad that can’t help himself from a good joke. 

One highlight of the week…We took beck out on his 8 year old date! It was the funnest night with that cute boy, full of Longhorn stake, baskin robins ice cream and ans trip to Walmart to end the night. Just love that boy to pieces! 

Tilly got a new bed, Desh picked us out an awesome yellow flower to plant, Rhen found a big big while working outside and we got in a kerfuffle with a mean old lady at the tile store who yelled at us for not wearing a mask and then didn’t even wear one herself most of the time! Ooh I hate the mask debate. I’m so over it. 

The weekend is always welcome as the kids are ready to stop thinking everything Spanish and josh and I get to go out for date night. This week we found a delicious bbq place called San Juan barbecue and loved being out in the hustle and bustle. It’s fun to be downtown once in a while and see the lively Puerto Rican crowd out!

Saturday we got to swim at Kim and hectors and then later spent the afternoon at the beach. It was a good day to catch up from the busy week. 

Today at church I played the piano and each of the girls were asked to say the opening and closing prayers. They were both so nervous but did a great job. Rease did hers all in Spanish which I was so proud of! The last Sunday of the month the branch celebrates all the birthdays that were had and we stayed after for cake and plates of food. It was so fun to be together and Keen even got to jump in on that celebration. 

After church we were invited to the Vasquez house for dinner. We love them and love Hermano Vasquez’ cooking so we’re happy to get the invite. We went over a bit early and he taught me how to make the “perfect rice”. I have to admit, it did taste just about perfect. We hand a great time visiting with them and eating good food together. 

Overall a great week. We’re all settling into a good routine and the kids are doing good in school. I just keep feeling so grateful that they have friends and feel welcome. They have felt nothing but love from these wonderful people since we got here and I’m a happy mom to know my children are loved! 

Week 1 in PR

Well we’re off for an adventure! This week marks the first week away from our home in Herriman and into our new home in Rio Grande Puerto Rico. What a week it’s been. In some ways the week flew by and I can’t believe it’s already back to Sunday, but in reality it has been a long tough week for us all. Here are the highlights:

We’ve been working on getting ourHerriman home ready to rent for weeks now and when it finally came down to packing what we needed for the next year, this pile of suitcases is what we ended up with! We each planned to take two carry ons onto the plane and then we ended up packing two duffel bags full to check on. Our carryons took up a good chunk of space in the back of Hayleys van! We packed into the van, locked the doors and said goodbye to our house for a time. We all had a hard time saying goodbye but this has been in the plan for long enough now with a significant amount of prep involved that we were all just ready to say goodbye to that stage of the process. The house was ready to leave and we were ready to go! 16 carryons, 2 bags and a small dog in a kennel. It doesn’t get much more packed than that! 

We got to the airport and to our gate after hauling all those carry ons through the airport. I’ll have to say I was pretty impressed that, first of all we made it, but second of all nothing got taken away from us at security. We packed everything you can imagine: pre workout, heavy metal brackets for some shelves in the new kitchen, books galore, picture frames, and even my Bosch bread mixer! A few things got double checked but nothing was taken from us which was just a complete miracle in itself! Once we made it to the gate we were also asked if we wanted to gate check any bags which we promptly agreed to and offloaded 10 of the 16 bags we were lugging around including some bags that weighed well over 50 pounds. We felt light and relieved to get to that point. 

We had a very short layover planned in Dallas and as we sat in our plane in Salt Lake City and watched it be delayed by about 30 minutes we knew that our short layover would quickly become a run through the airport once we landed. And that’s just what it was. We got off the plane and luckily didn’t have those 10 extra bags with us as we ran through the airport and jumped on the train to get to the other terminal and got to our gate just in time to get on the plane before they closed the doors! As we sat down on the plane and caught our breath for a minute, that minute turned into a few more and another few more before we realized that the flight to San Juan was also going to be delayed. A few minutes turned into an hour and a half then two hours when they finally got on the speaker and asked us all to deplane and get something to eat before we got further instructions and waited for a new crew to arrive. As we were deplaning we all got notifications that the flight had actually been cancelled and we were given hotel accommodations, vouchers for food and a ride to the hotel and back. We quickly booked new flights for the next morning and were all 8 able to jump on the same flight luckily. We got something to eat at subway just as it was closing and found a taxi to the hotel that fit all of us somewhat comfortably.  When we got the the hotel that was “sketchy” (according to Keen) we realized just how tired we all were and fell asleep instantly. As much of a pain a cancelled flight is, we were so grateful for a bed to sleep in instead of overnighting it at the airport. Our flight the next morning was good and uneventful and before we knew it we had made it to Puerto Rico!  

We had a friend that had dropped off our van at the airport for us the day before we landed and it was sooo nice to have a car waiting for us that we could fit all our stuff and us into. We got to the house, unloaded and immediately jumped back in the van for a quick Costco run before it closed Saturday night. We realized that with the cancelled flight, we had lost a whole day that we had been planning on getting things done. So Costco was a must with no food in the house and tired as we were we knew we had to get there. After we filled the van again with food we got home and just crashed. It had been a long few days and the fatigue hit us hard. We slept 12 hours and woke up just in time to make it to church Sunday morning then back to sleep again for another 4 hours after church before we felt somewhat rested. Saturday and Sunday were a bit of a blur looking back now. 

School started this week and we knew that the first order of business this week would be getting the kids ready for school and getting all registered. We had a load of paperwork and documents that all the schools needed so we took Monday and did just that. We had to transfer all the vaccination records from home to the Puerto Rican system so we left all our records at the health department and went to each of the schools. We met teachers, saw classrooms and made sure everything was in order for school to start in two days. Most of the teachers are sooo nice and positive despite most of them not speaking English. A couple teachers (Lievs and Deshs) do speak English and I said a silent thank you for that tender mercy for some of my kids! Keen had a little change with his teacher as his first one that he was assigned to was NOT excited about being a teacher to a student that doesn’t speak Spanish. So the principal luckily switched him to the room next door and his new teacher and him hit it off right away. She had him at “You can eat snacks as much as you want in my classroom”! We felt like lucky parents that our kids are being watched out for even in small moments like these. 

Meanwhile back at the house, things continue to get done. Pepo started working on the tile in the bathroom upstairs and it’s such exciting progress! Carmelo also came to remove the old railings and put up the new ones. All this finish work is so fun to see. It’s getting so close. We had vanities delivered and shopped for a couple other pieces of furniture and it’s starting to come together like a real house up there! 

Monday and Tuesday this week were long, busy, stressful days filled with lots of worry and a few tears as we knew that the first day of school was approaching. I’ll admit that we thought multiple times about just switching to online school for the kids to make it easier on everyone! But remembered that one of the reasons we’re here is to immerse ourselves in the culture and the language of this place that we love. So we’re sticking with it.  

Wednesday morning the kids got up and got ready for school and all looked so cute in their uniforms! They may not like it but it sure makes it easy for moms. We dropped all the kids off at three different schools and, again with a few tears. Some from the kids and some from mom and dad. We knew we had to make it through the first day to have any idea how the rest of the school year would go. I worried and prayed all day. Among the craziness if these first few days, Josh and I reached a different milestone that got a little overlooked until it hit us. This was the first day in 15 years that we had all 6 kids in all day school! With Desh in first grade we reached that point. So crazy that we didn’t realize it until it hit us right in the face :)

I was trying to guess what kind of reactions the kids would have when I picked them up after their first day. I hoped it was ok and was pleasantly surprised to see a big smile on Rhens face when she jumped in the car. She told me a group of girls approached her a lunch and told her that they thought she was so pretty and looked like a supermodel! They chatted with her in broken English and struck up a friendship. That’s a win for this girl who was super hesitant about school at all! The other kids had similar reactions and I couldn’t help but tear up hearing about all my littles being welcomed into their new home. What a beautiful answer to lots of prayers :)

A few other things from this week:

We got our first letter in the mailbox this week and it was a birthday card for Keen! We made some delicious pasta for Keens birthday meal Sunday and ate it up on the deck. We found some cute furniture and picked it up Saturday when we were out. One large cabinet barely fit into the van complete with a ghetto bungee cord to hold the back door closed on our way home.  We got some plants that we had started from seed planted into larger pots. And had couches delivered for the upstairs family room! They make it look like a real home now! And had date night Friday night and went to a yummy pizza place with an awesome back story. We’ll definitely have to go there again along with the ice cream shop across the street that served the most delicious “corn” flavored ice cream with cinnamon sprinkled on top. 

What a week it has been. One for the books definitely. But one that is a good jumping off point for the rest of our adventure on this Isla de Encanto. 

Keen's 10th Birthday

Keen turned 10 today!  And just in time to see the new Thor movie right before his Thor birthday cake was made! He loves ALL the marvel movies and characters and his favorite is always the most recent movie he watched.  So right now his favorite is Thor :)  We had birthday dinner at Aunt Hayley's and celebrated all the August birthdays while we were together.

 My favorite things about 10 year old Keen:

1) Keen is very passionate.  When he wants to do something or is interested in a particular thing, he's all in.  He'll do whatever it takes to do it or make it happen and puts his whole heart into everything.  He loves to have fun and LOVES to eat.  So especially when it comes to treats or good food, he's all in to do whatever he needs to do to get his treat!  Love that about this boy.

2) Keen is a loyal friend.  He has a couple of really good friends and will do anything for them.  He wants the best for them and always wants to be with them.  He stands up for what he knows is good and helps others around him to be good.  

3) Keen has a really tender heart.  He loves babies and is always the first to volunteer to hold any baby that is around or change diapers or whatever needs to be done.  He hates being yelled at and takes criticism to heart.  I have learned to be extra gentle with this giant of mine.  He is big and tall, but soft hearted and I hope he never changes!

10 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 5'0" - 98%

Weight: 87 lbs. 1 oz. - 87%

BMI: 16.9 - 55%

Happy birthday sweet boy!

Braces

Rhen got her braces off today - just in the nick of time to head to Puerto Rico without them on!  She was so excited and her teeth look so good!

First stop on the way home to celebrate?  Of course it's Swig. 

 

Dinner for grades

The girls have been waiting patiently for their celebratory dinner for having straight A's last school year.  We finally made it to Fleming's tonight as their reward for working so hard at school.  So proud of them and what they are choosing to make important in their lives!

 

Oakcrest

Rease got to go to a special Oakcrest camp this summer as well! The 8th and 9th grade girls that missed out on Oakcrest as 7th graders (covid) had this make up camp up at Heber Valley to mimic the Oakcrest camp that they missed out on.  Shelley was the director of the camp so I got asked to be involved with it a couple of the days!  I'm so glad I got to be there with Shelly and Melissa as leaders, with Rease as a participant and with my parents as missionaries!  It was all in all such a special camp to be a part of and I'm so glad I was there.  We did all the fun things that Heber Valley offers: the wall climb, zipline, hatchet throw and all the team building activities.  Those missionaries are such gems to be able to take charge of so many girls and make them all feel so special.  I loved the feeling in the whole camp.  

Rease loved camp because all her friends were there and they got to hang out and see each other as often as they wanted!  They would gather in one cabin or another on their downtime and it was a great time for her to spend time with her cute girlfriends before we move.  I know she's really sad to be leaving, but was so glad she got to have this time with them.  

They are such cute friends and have fun and have each other's backs. They're loyal and honest and kind and good to each other and that's all you want for your kids!  She is going to miss them dearly.  

 

Funny faces

Why is it so fun to make weird faces for the camera?