We made it, by Jodi
We are officially in Costa Rica. It's still very surreal while at the same time completely overwhelming.
After 13 hours of flights beginning at almost midnight, 3 different planes, 17 pieces of luggage (3 of which have yet to arrive), and an almost completely sleepless night for all 6 of us, we arrived. Then we spent a couple of hours disembarking, going through customs, looking for all our baggage, filing claims for the lost ones (three were lost), kids somewhat peeing their pants because we were stuck between customs and the baggage check area with no bathroom while we filed the endlessly long claims, we finally made it to the exit and found our transportation waiting for us, along with our new friends, the Blanchards.
The Blanchards had just dropped Troy off for a trip to Chicago and waited around to meet us and welcome us to Costa Rica. It was so great to finally meet after all our e-mails and phone conversations in preparation for our move. They helped us find the bathroom and brought a bag of much needed snacks (we'd been living on granola bars for the last 15 hours).
We got our bags loaded, said goodbye to the Blanchards, headed to the rental car place, waited an hour while we went through the process of getting our rental car, then drove an hour and a half to our vacation home. The kids drove with Kevin in our rental car and were asleep minutes into the drive. Autumn and I drove in our bags hired by us through the rental house company to help guide us to our house.
After getting all checked in at the vacation house company, we had just enough time to get our bags in the house before we were supposed to be meeting at the Johnsons for dinner. Rod was going to meet us at our house to show us the way, but the directions we provided via our vacation rental company were not very helpful and it took us an hour to connect.
So, we finally made it to the Johnson's for a real meal and arrived to a house full of people: the Johnsons, the Blanchards, and a few local members of the ward (the Pina's and Victor). They were all so incredibly welcoming and we got to immediately dive into trying out our Spanish skills (Kevin was definitely a lot better than me). What I didn't know was I'm the only one who doesn't speak Spanish in the whole group. Staci, Rod and Troy all served Spanish speaking missions and Daphne majored in Spanish in college. Plus the Blanchard's kids went to a Spanish immersion school for elementary school. So, little did I know that we really are coming into this comparatively way less prepared than I had realized. But, I like not having an excuse to avoid learning Spanish. I really want the kids and I to learn it as fluently as possible.
We are all completely exhausted. For some strange reason only Jack knows, he decided to pull an all nighter and pretty well accomplished it. But we've all suffered the consequences of that decision the rest of today. He turned into a complete monster starting while in the customs line and it's been all we could do not to beat him. When we finally got him in bed, he just laid there and kept telling us how much he misses his grandma and grandpa that we just tore him away from to come here.
Autumn's exhaustion manifests itself as complete disgruntlement with everything that isn't just the way she thinks it should be. So, so far not having hot water in our house, not having her bag that was lost during the flight, the house not being as nice as she thought it would be, not having any shampoo or soap, hearing about all the snakes, spiders, scorpions, and bugs around here, and missing all the other comforts of home and extended family, she is not super thrilled about being here.
Sadie's exhaustion is manifesting itself as hiperness and an inability to fall asleep. So, she's in bed watching a movie.
Tessa is just going with the flow. She's tired but just climbs up in my lap and cuddles. She's always great with whatever's going on--unless Sadie is mean to her or Jack accidentally hurts her. Then, she's very sad. But aside from that, she's always easy, so this doesn't seem to be any big deal for her.
Hopefully after a full night's sleep, the fun part of our adventure will really begin.
After 13 hours of flights beginning at almost midnight, 3 different planes, 17 pieces of luggage (3 of which have yet to arrive), and an almost completely sleepless night for all 6 of us, we arrived. Then we spent a couple of hours disembarking, going through customs, looking for all our baggage, filing claims for the lost ones (three were lost), kids somewhat peeing their pants because we were stuck between customs and the baggage check area with no bathroom while we filed the endlessly long claims, we finally made it to the exit and found our transportation waiting for us, along with our new friends, the Blanchards.
The Blanchards had just dropped Troy off for a trip to Chicago and waited around to meet us and welcome us to Costa Rica. It was so great to finally meet after all our e-mails and phone conversations in preparation for our move. They helped us find the bathroom and brought a bag of much needed snacks (we'd been living on granola bars for the last 15 hours).
We got our bags loaded, said goodbye to the Blanchards, headed to the rental car place, waited an hour while we went through the process of getting our rental car, then drove an hour and a half to our vacation home. The kids drove with Kevin in our rental car and were asleep minutes into the drive. Autumn and I drove in our bags hired by us through the rental house company to help guide us to our house.
After getting all checked in at the vacation house company, we had just enough time to get our bags in the house before we were supposed to be meeting at the Johnsons for dinner. Rod was going to meet us at our house to show us the way, but the directions we provided via our vacation rental company were not very helpful and it took us an hour to connect.
So, we finally made it to the Johnson's for a real meal and arrived to a house full of people: the Johnsons, the Blanchards, and a few local members of the ward (the Pina's and Victor). They were all so incredibly welcoming and we got to immediately dive into trying out our Spanish skills (Kevin was definitely a lot better than me). What I didn't know was I'm the only one who doesn't speak Spanish in the whole group. Staci, Rod and Troy all served Spanish speaking missions and Daphne majored in Spanish in college. Plus the Blanchard's kids went to a Spanish immersion school for elementary school. So, little did I know that we really are coming into this comparatively way less prepared than I had realized. But, I like not having an excuse to avoid learning Spanish. I really want the kids and I to learn it as fluently as possible.
We are all completely exhausted. For some strange reason only Jack knows, he decided to pull an all nighter and pretty well accomplished it. But we've all suffered the consequences of that decision the rest of today. He turned into a complete monster starting while in the customs line and it's been all we could do not to beat him. When we finally got him in bed, he just laid there and kept telling us how much he misses his grandma and grandpa that we just tore him away from to come here.
Autumn's exhaustion manifests itself as complete disgruntlement with everything that isn't just the way she thinks it should be. So, so far not having hot water in our house, not having her bag that was lost during the flight, the house not being as nice as she thought it would be, not having any shampoo or soap, hearing about all the snakes, spiders, scorpions, and bugs around here, and missing all the other comforts of home and extended family, she is not super thrilled about being here.
Sadie's exhaustion is manifesting itself as hiperness and an inability to fall asleep. So, she's in bed watching a movie.
Tessa is just going with the flow. She's tired but just climbs up in my lap and cuddles. She's always great with whatever's going on--unless Sadie is mean to her or Jack accidentally hurts her. Then, she's very sad. But aside from that, she's always easy, so this doesn't seem to be any big deal for her.
Hopefully after a full night's sleep, the fun part of our adventure will really begin.
Congrats for getting there in one piece! What an eventful day you all already had : ) great job journaling. Super excited you guys are there. Get some rest, sleep always makes things better and I am sure everyone will have a brighter smile once you catch up on some much deserved Zzzzzzz. Here you go!!! Woohoo!
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