Day 6: Holy Freak Out Batman!

Our crazy luck is catching up with us…you know, the kind where crazy things happen but it all works out in the end?  Yup, that’s the story of my life.  

Getting off the plane in a new country is fun.  You've got no clue where to go or what to do or how to do it.  You just follow the crowd and hope you're in the right place.

Doing this with 8 children in tow is hilarious!  Luckily, people are friendly the world over (so far) and SUPER helpful--whether you want it or not.  We made it through customs no problem  (except when we took this picture and almost had our camera confiscated.  Apparently you're not supposed to take pictures in customs.  Who knew?!)  and decided we'd find the baggage locker and store our bags for the day instead of hauling them with us.  

That done, we found the Avis rental car place and got outfitted with our van.  Learning to drive on the left side of the road in Fiji was a good idea!  There's just one road that goes around the entire island so getting lost isn't too easy (we managed to do it more than once though).   The people drive crazy, but no crazier than in Utah if there's no cops around.  After an hour or two we realized that, if there were laws, they were more like suggestions than actual restrictions. 

We had a bit of an adventure finding the Koroipita community--there aren't really street signs so turning onto the designated road on the map is a bit difficult but we eventually got there.  The roads are so skinny that, in our big van, it was challenging to stay in our lane and yet stay on the road.  I never really realized what a 3rd world country Fiji really is.  I mean, you see the videos on youtube and wherever and it's all sandy white beaches and happy vacationing people.  

Not so when you're up close and personal.  Our first stop--we just pulled over on the side of the road to walk down to the beach and get out the initial excitement that we were in Fiji--was a big eye opener.  The first thing we noticed was all the garbage everywhere.  Like people just threw whatever straight into the ocean--which is pretty much what they do.  Their houses though, were what we'd call shanty town homes.  Basically it was corrugated metal held together in whatever way they could.  It was very eye opening.

At any rate, we finally found Koroipita and the group from Hobart, Tasmania that we were to be joining and helping out.  The lady that I'd been corresponding with was nowhere to be found, but the people there knew we were coming and were excited to see us.  But they had no idea what we were to help with/do.  There were some older guys building some beds, and some really older guys building a roof on a house--not really tasks 8 year olds can help with.  

Eventually they got the kids some hammers and set them to nailing the slats in the beds. 

 Another gentleman came up for a break and when he saw a bunch of us just standing around with nothing to do set us up planting some shrubs along the roads to stop the soil from eroding into the concrete gutters they'd poured.  It was a lot of fun but we didn't last too long, just an hour and a half or so.  It had been a long flight, a long drive, it was hot...and then one of the kids reminded me that it had been over ten hours since they'd last eaten.  It was time to find some food.

It took us about 2 hours--we kept taking fun windy roads that didn't lead us to where we thought they should!--but we finally found a restaurant.  We stopped and asked a lady walking down the road if we were headed in the right direction.  She confirmed that we were and I asked,

"Is there a restaurant there that we could try real Fijian food?"

She looked at me with an expression of consternation.  She paused for a really long time before she answered, "I've never eaten in a restaurant."

What a humbling experience!  

I didn't feel guilty that I was here on this extravagant vacation with 8 children--we worked and saved and sacrificed to be here.  But the reality of the 'luck of the draw' of where you're born struck so hard at that moment.  We didn't do anything special--we were just born in the US.  How does that entitle us to so much?  I mean, here I feel like we've done something extraordinary buy earning this money and being able to come on this trip when the reality is, all we did was walk the neighborhoods of Salt Lake.  These people have walked everywhere they've ever gone their whole lives.  They don't own cars.  They walk to survive.  The best way to describe the feelings raging inside is with the word humble...but it doesn't quite cut it.  Is there a word that's more fitting?  I don't know.  

The rest of the drive and all through dinner the conversation kept coming back to that woman.  Her simple admission carried so much weight, especially considering the audience observing the encounter.  What a lesson we all learned today!  As we ate our lamb fried rice, fish and chips and chicken stir fry--all names of foods we thought we knew but brought to life in a different way in a different country--we were further astounded that this bounteous fair was so inexpensive in our standards, yet is completely unattainably expensive to the local woman who kindly gave us directions.

Satisfied physically, we decided we should use the hour and a half of our remaining time on the island to go work out our mental and emotional obfuscation on the beach.  We meandered up the coast until we found a road that looked like it might lead to one of those iconic looking, white sandy beaches and followed it to a resort.  We drove along the access road running parallel to a golf course you'd expect to see Tiger Woods playing on until we came to a car park.  (I don't know why calling a parking lot a 'car park' makes the kids giggle so, but it does and I find that, as I wrote that, I chuckled a bit.  Good times!)

The pictures do a far better job describing what it looked like than I do so yeah, this is where we spent our last hour on the island.

 This is the path that leads to the beach.  Once we'd walked down it we thought, wow, that was really pretty we should probably take a picture! So that's our van in the distance.

Best swing set location EVER!!  Seriously, we each took a turn swinging and it was just so surreal!  We want to come back to this same spot when we fly home and spend a little more time, maybe have a picnic lunch.  It was the epitome of 'a day on the beach in Fiji'--well, the tourist division/story book version anyway.

We'd been told to be back at the airport 90 minutes before our flight--we choose to get there 3 hours early.  We returned the car (^ was so tired he fell asleep helping us unpack the van!), we picked up the bags from the 'left luggage' desk and we head over to check in and get our boarding passes. 

The guy starts scanning the passports after the almost obligatory, “Wow 8 kids?! You’ve got your hands full! How do you ever plan a trip like this with 8 kids?!” (I swear there’s a script somewhere that I haven’t been shown and I’m blowing my lines every time!)

Then he asks, “What is ∞’s birthday?” 

Rotely I respond with her birthday, only saying the wrong year.  I knew my mistake before he had a chance to respond.  I said, “2004, not 2006."  Immediately I knew what had happened.   "Did I put one date on the passport and one on the visa?!”  I knew I had.  He didn’t have to answer.  My fingers just want to make her two years younger every time I type her birthday, it happens all the time.  My head knows when she was born but my fingers refuse to accept it.  I’d made the mistake MANY times, but caught it almost immediately every time, I thought.

Clearly I missed it this one time.  This one CRUCIAL time.  I went to one of their internet access terminals and quickly filed for a new visa for ∞.  Done I went back over to the desk only to find that I hadn’t included her middle name on the visa, yet it was on the passport!  If the names don't match exactly, it's invalid.  I was about ready to break down.  Time was steadily ticking on and each new mistake I was making was costing more than money, it was costing time.

Seeing that I was at the end of my rope, he phoned the Australia consulate and got her cleared--even with the mistake.  We walked onto the plane as they were finishing boarding.  Three hours early for a flight, ridiculously early you say?  Just right I say.

The kids were sad to see this was a 'normal' flight without any of the neat amenities of the international flight that had brought us this far.  Bored before we'd even taken off, most of them fell almost instantly asleep.  I think only 2 of them were still awake when the plane took off, and they didn't last much longer than that.  All 10 of us were still asleep when the lights came up and the announcement came on that there was just 10 minutes left of the flight and we should prepare for landing.  

I love it when a plan comes together!  

Day 4: Catch up

Since we will be on a plane tonight (HOLY FREAKING COW WE'RE GOING TO BE ON THE PLANE TONIGHT!!) I thought I'd write this morning--this way I meet my goal of writing every day AND (for once) you get a coherent post instead of the exhausted ramblings of a worn out Mama.
I think I've also decided that I probably won't have time to upload pictures from 'the big camera' most days so I'll just upload on Sundays.  Maybe I'll do a 'week in review' through pictures.  Ooh, that sounds good! Let's try it.

Here's our "Before" shot.  We got all the van craziness taken care of then we headed down to Grammy's to pick up the littles.  It was so wonderful for Grammy to take the kids!  I hope to someday be that big of a support and help to my kids and their families when it's my turn to be the Grandma!  Only I hope my grandkids are a little more gentle on my home than my kids are to their Grandma.  (Sorry again about the Garage door!)

We stopped at our house in Beaver and signed a lease with a new tenant.  Oh how I love this little white house! (Well, it's off white now that we put siding on it, but in my mind it'll always be that little white house.)  Man how our family has grown!

 Our first temple was supposed to be St. George, but we got into town too late.  We'll catch that one on our way back into town.  So instead the first was Las Vegas.

 Is it any wonder these two get mistaken for twins?  They're just adorable!

 The kids were amazed at the palm tree/pine tree in the same garden space.  In their minds, pine trees belong in the mountains and palm trees on the beaches.  Having both together just threw them for a loop!

 With the car accident in between Temples, we were very happy to arrive at the Redlands, CA temple.  It's almost an exact replica of the Monticello, UT temple and Ri was especially excited to participate inside.

 I think they were dreading getting back in the van after such a long day so we took LOTS of pictures outside the Redlands Temple.  It was fun and aren't they cute?!

 Our little flag hasn't fared the drive all that well.  It was sure fun watching it wave in the breeze throughout the drive though!  I can't believe this is just the beginning of our trip!  How much fun can one family have?!  It just doesn't seem fair!  We are so blessed!!

Day 3: And the Hits Just Keep On Coming!

You are not going to believe our luck.  I can hardly believe it and I lived it!  But first...

The day started out GREAT! There were laughing and squeals of delight from the back yard.  The kids all slept out there and when they woke up they were just delighted to realize they were with their cousins!  However it was not quite 6:00 AM and the neighbors are VERY close.  Mary herded them inside where they proceeded to wake up everyone who was still sleeping.  You'd think that'd be a bad thing, but where you're trying to get 16 people to church at 9:00 AM, six is a great time to start getting ready!

I got the kids making their lunches for our day trip to San Diego and got on Facebook only to find that Laci has broken her ankle!  I was worried about how the girls would take it--J especially worries about everything so this had the potential to send her into fits!  Surprisingly both girls handled it well-- they just wanted to Skype home and make sure everyone was going to be okay.  We chatted briefly and they were satisfied.

We got to church (almost) on time and had a great worship service.  We came home and quickly changed, grabbed our lunch and headed out.

We stopped to see my Dad's cousin, Jalie, in Escondido.  I didn't even know my Dad had a cousin until a year or two ago so this is only the second time I've ever met her face to face.  She's a delightful lady and I'm so fortunate to have gotten to meet her.

We had a great visit, she let us pick the ripe oranges off her tree out back (YUM!), and we were off to see some family history sites.  First stop, Fort Rosencrans National Cemetery.

I never realized there was an "Arlington" type cemetery on the West Coast let alone that my Grandparents were buried there!  It was BEAUTIFUL!  I was in awe.  Cody was floored by the math involved in the head stones.  From whatever angle you look, they are in perfectly straight lines.  It's a huge cemetery and right on a peninsula so there's water on both sides.   Truly inspiringly beautiful.

I can't believe I've never been to my grandparent's burial site!  It was an emotional moment in light of losing my brother last month and it was made only more so when we received a call from Lela.  Sam's little brother has died in a small plane crash.  Uncanny that both Lela and Sam would find out their brothers had passed away exactly one month apart.  Our hearts are heavy and our prayers plead with Father to lighten their family's load right now.  So much grief!!

We wandered and played and soaked up the ambiance for over an hour and a half.  We decided to take a picture in a tree, then drive to the beach to eat a late lunch.  Only problem was when we got in the vans to drive to the beach, Mary's wouldn't start.  No worries, this happens all the time.  We just needed to give it a minute and we'd be on our way.

No such luck.  Hours later we ended up towing it to the mechanic's some 20 miles away.  Not a problem!  Cody and I have quite a bit of experience towing one another.  In spite of that experience, I don't think anything could have prepared us for towing on California freeways! We made it, slowly, and dropped the van off at 9:00.  

 Then we piled 16 people into a 12 passenger van and headed back to Corona.  The kids all fell asleep to the sounds of Ri and K singing hymns.  It was beautiful.  All in all, it was a really fun day!

Day 2: A comedy of Errors

The day started out great—we were up and out of Papa’s house just like I’d planned and within 5 minutes of my estimated time.  At the end of the day, I still haven’t had that dreaded realization that we forgot something at his house so our first night was a success!  Add that to the afterglow of a great visit with Papa—something that doesn’t happen often and is treasure—and we were sitting pretty!  We’d stayed up really late playing guitar and singing and just enjoying being together.  We never realize how much we miss Papa and Joyce until we visit with them again!

After all the potty stops, we finally pulled out of St. George around 6:00.  We weren’t going to make our  7:00 appointment at the Vegas Temple so I reached for the phone to call and let them know we’d be late.  Clicking the phone on, the time flashed 5:00 and I realized I’d made a critical error in my planning!  A critical error, in my favor!  I’d forgotten about time zones!  We pulled in to Andi’s house to drop off the little ones at 6:45!  We would be ten minutes late for our appointment, and in my book, that’s right on time!

Sadly, that’s where all planning broke down.  The GPS lead us to the LDS Temple-street chapel – which is across town from the LDS Temple.  We went 20 minutes in the wrong direction and arrived at the temple an hour late.  Luckily, it’s the temple.  They were fine with our late arrival and we had a marvelous time.

(Aside:  Temple Tour buddies—you’d LOVE the Vegas baptistery!!  It’s all wide open and the workers were so easy going!  π2 and I said, at the exact same time,

“This temple would’ve been awesome on the temple tour!” 

We love and miss you all!!!)

They have a weird system with family names at the Vegas Temple.  They must only have one scanner because they took the cards upstairs to the family file desk to be scanned.  When I went to retrieve them, they’d somehow lost the ten male names we’d just done.  An hour and a half of searching and the conclusion was reached that someone else must have picked our cards up with theirs.  No one had any ideas on what we could do so we eventually just left our contact information with them and if they find them they’ll send them back to the submitter.  We were sick about it until one worker let us know that the submitter can just re-print those cards.  A little more at ease, we left the temple—3 hours after leaving the kids to be babysat for an hour!—to go pick them up.

Luckily the kids had been on their best behavior and won Andi’s heart—and L bonded with her dog, Scooby—so the time wasn’t too bad.  Excited for our next stop at Aunt Mary’s house to play with our cousins, we headed straight to the freeway.  Waiting at the light, there was an earth shaking POP and I knew immediately that we’d just been in a car accident!

A couple of the kids started crying as backpacks flew from the back and wacked them in the head but otherwise everyone seemed unscathed.  Relieved that my most precious treasures were safe, I got out to assess the damage.  It’s funny how much you think in the time it takes to walk the length of the van!  By the time I arrived at the subject of my thoughts, I’d already formulated a plan for how we would proceed in three different scenarios that I’d played out in mind only.

Our luck held as I observed the only injury to us in the incident—a dented bumper.  Sadly, the young man’s Jeep hadn’t faired too well in the fight it’d picked.  It lost an eye, a few teeth and was going to need stitches across its brow.  Picking up the headlight, I walked to the driver’s side and had a flash of inspiration.  I needed to be very sweet to these very hard looking young men.  I love when that familiar, still small voice speaks!  (I love it even more when I listen!) 

“Are you boys okay?” was the first thing I asked.  The driver nodded that he was fine, but the passenger looked badly shaken.  Glazed eyes looked at me as I told him to lay back and put his feet on the dashboard.  As he moved his hand to lay the seat back, we both saw the blood at the same time.  It wasn’t bad, just some peeled off skin, but it was bad enough to need some attention.  Telling them to stay in the Jeep, I ran to the van to grab the first aide kid. 

I washed his wounds and had them all bandaged up before I realized he was almost in tears.  “You’re being awfully nice to the idiots who just jacked up your van, lady.”  He said to me.  “Aah, it’s just a little dent, I’m more worried about these,” I said holding his shaking hands in mine.  “You really need to sit back down and put your feet up.  You’re in shock and your body needs a minute to catch up with your emotions.”

I walked them back to the Jeep and got them both sitting down.  We exchanged information, took pictures and made sure they were really okay before we both drove off. 

Now I needed to deal with the emotional super storm that was brewing in my own vehicle.  We pulled over into a Target parking lot and took stock of the situation.  Two kids got bruised heads, a few of us had headaches and neck aches from the jolt, but all in all, we were all okay.  This was all of the children’s first car accident! 

Realizing that unless we controlled the explosion of emotion, we might end up getting blown away by it, we decided to go walk around Target for a little while.  The kids were a bit wild—which we expected—but all in all, it was the perfect distraction.  We spent a good hour browsing the aisles—trying on hats and watches and purses, looking at art supplies and trying to find the ugliest things in the store.  We had great fun, bought a bag of (nasty!) Popsicles and we were ready to get on the road. 

It took another 45 minutes of kids going potty and getting gas before we were actually on the road.  By then it was 1-1:30, the time I’d planned on arriving in Corona to visit Mary!  As we drove we realized we wouldn't make our 6:00 appointment at the Redlands temple if we went to Mary’s house first, so we made the call to stop at the temple first and realized that one of us would have to stay outside with the little kids while the others went in.  Cody volunteered this time and so we split up.

Inside the Redlands temple looks just like the Monticello temple!  Great memories of freezing cold water and picnic dinners at a complete stranger’s house flooded to mind and Ri and I got to reminisce about our incredible youth conference experience.

Meanwhile, Cody was outside having an adventure of his own.  X had needed to evacuate his bowels all day, but every time we stopped for a potty break, he just couldn’t make it happen.  Well, as they entered the church house located in the same parking lot as the temple to utilize their facilities, unbeknownst to Cody, X had an accident.  Embarrassed, he didn’t want to tell so he just kept following Cody around the perimeter of the church house.   The other littles followed, not paying attention to where they stepped.  By the time they found the bathrooms, the damage had been done.  Cody spent the next hour scrubbing stomped in poo out of the chapel rugs.  When I found him, he was on his knees, spray bottle in one hand, rag in the other.  I can’t remember the last time I saw him sweating as badly as he was in that moment!  Through clenched teeth he said,

“I have just earned a combo meal of my choice!”

I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

We arrived at Mary’s at 8:00—seven hours later than planned but all whole and ready for a good night’s sleep.  See you again tomorrow!

(Oh, and I still haven't found a moment to upload pics from my real camera!  Look for updates to these posts probably later this week!)

Day 1: Have a good Trip! See you next Fall!

The excitement was palpable as the kids unloaded Papi’s classroom stuff out of the van so they could replace it with the luggage that sat expectantly in a line on the picnic table out back.  Today was "Go" day! Imaginings of sandy beaches, new sights, sounds and people were the topic of conversation.  It shifted slightly when they started talking about what was in the bags they were loading into the cavernous space that is our Ford E350. 

“Wouldn’t it be cool if we could flip this seat around and have a ‘Deaf van’ like we had on the temple tour?” asked π².

“Can we try it, Mama?” asked é.

“Sure, give it a go!” I told him. 

Alas the bolts only secure the seat when installed one direction and we stripped the torque bit on the first screw we tried to break loose. 

Giving up, I turned to go inside when π said to K,  “Where’s the WD-40?”

Running to the shed, K came back carrying a little can.  Once saturated, the bolt did little more than just mock them and their puny efforts.  Still undefeated, they worked together to try a few more tricks.   

"I know, we'll lash it in!" was one brilliant idea.
Papi came out and shot their last idea.  They complained profusely and the only response was, "I just don't feel good about it."  The complaining continued so I stepped in,

"No matter what, if Papi doesn't feel good about it, we don't do it.  Find another way, or the idea dies."

When at last they exhausted their abilities, they were still not defeated.  They asked for more ideas.  I felt the need to encourage this type of perseverance, but I had so much left to do!!  So, I re-prioritized the only events left on the list:

1—Pack Mama’s suit case!
2—Pack Mama’s backpack!
3—Mama shower!
4—Pack van
to:
1--Switch seats
2--Everything else

I piled them all in the car to cries of, "Where are we going?!?!"  and we drove to Jiffy Lube.  I explained the idea to the guy who came out to help us and he rallied the other guys working there.  They were pretty excited about helping us until their manager came out.  When he realized I didn't need an oil change, he sent me on my way.  So we drove to Discount Tire where they didn't have the tool we needed.  I told the kids I'd give them until 10:30 but then I had to finish the other tasks at hand.  It was 10:20 when we pulled into Tunex and Kurt, the manager, greeted us with a smile.  When the kids explained their plight, he was more than happy to help.  When a breaker bar didn't work, he pulled out the impact gun and fixed us up right!

I can't sing the praises of Tunex and Kurt enough!  Thanks guys for starting our trip out right!

Getting Lost

The last week of April we were out doing flyers just like normal.  I'd drop two kids at the top of one street, drop the next two at the next street, then drive to the bottom of the streets to pick the first two up and take them to the next drop off point.  Like a lot of areas, these streets weren't straight and there were little out shoots breaking off of the main street here and there.  I dropped X and X² at one street, then ∞ and Oº at the next and went back for X and X².  They were almost to the bottom, but there was a horse-shoe street connecting to X's side of the street.  I sent him down the outside of the horse shoe and told X² when he got to the bottom of his side of the street to cross and do the inside of the horse shoe.  It was a simple maneuver-we'd done much more complicated ones in the past-so I wasn't worried in the slightest that anything would go wrong.  I drove to take ∞ and 0º to their next street and within 90 seconds was back checking on X and X².  Only X² was no where to be found.

We play a little game called 'follow the flyers' when we have kids who have left their cell phones home or when the littles go out in pairs instead of being paired with a big.  It's pretty self explanatory--you follow the flyers on the doors till you find the kid.  Well, following X²'s flyers was really simple.  It ended at the bottom of his street.  It didn't continue along the inside of the horse shoe like it was supposed to.  It didn't go back up the other side of the street.  It didn't even go across the busy street into the neighborhood that π² was doing.  It just stopped.  I drove and picked up ∞ and Oº, searching the whole time.  No sign of X².  I went back and picked up X.  Still no sign of him.  In the driveway as X handed his last flyer to some rough looking Mexicans I overheard one say to the other,

"Mira-ella parece preocupada." Look (at her) - She looks worried. 
"De veras-estoy bien preocupada.  No puedo encontrar mi otro niño. ¿Le han visto?" I am very worried!  I can't find my other son!  Have you seen him?

These hard looking men, inked from shaved heads to toes, put down their beers and jumped into action.  They called to a woman inside to grab keys and took down my phone number and took a picture of X with their cell phone so they'd know what X² looks like.  They drove off to the north while I headed south.

X² had now been missing for about 5 minutes and panic was starting to creep into my heart.  Turning to drive the streets again, I saw two official looking men in Police jackets walking out of the last house X² had flyered towards an unmarked police car.  I jumped out of the van and ran up to them--the panic trying to escape as a million different scenarios as to why they were at that house come into my mind; what could the occupants be like, are they criminals? Do they prey on little children?  What type of Mother am I to allow my little 8 year old boys to walk down the street alone, even if it is only for a minute.  That's all it takes for something horrible to happen.

The officers listened to my plea, took down my information and left to join in the search.  As I turned the car on to head back to drive one more time through the route we'd walked,  my phone rang.  My ten minutes of horror were finally over.  The Mexicans had found him.  I weaved through the streets--much further than we had even walked that day--to where he was waiting.

Speech was impossible as the terror came pouring out through tears as X² and I hugged so tight we couldn't breathe.  When tears were exhausted I asked,

"Weren't you scared of those guys bald guys with all the tattoos?"
"No!  They knew my name!" was his innocent reply.

He had kept walking because he was cold and that was the only way he knew to keep warm.  But he'd gone way farther than he'd planned and by the time he realized he was lost, he couldn't find his way back.

I thought of this experience often over the next several days.  It prompted us to go over the 'what to do when you're lost' rules in preparation for our trip with all the kids and I figured this had been a good experience for the reminder that it was.

Then it was fast Sunday.  For those of you who aren't members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the first Sunday of each month is set aside for members to abstain from eating or drinking for 24 hours and to devote themselves to praying for whatever it is they're in need of at the time.  During our worship services, we are welcome to go to the pulpit and share our testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the other members of the congregation.  This Sunday, X² asked if I'd go up with him so he could bare his testimony.  Here, to the best of my recollection, is what he said.

"I'd like to share my testimony with you.  When I was at work at my job this week--I'm a flyer runner for Next Generation Pest Control and I get paid $10/hour--I got lost.  I was really scared and nervous because I couldn't find Mama.  After a long time, I remembered that I should pray so I knelt down on the sidewalk at a corner and prayed that Mama could find me.  When I stood up, a car pulled over and the man asked, 'Are you X²?' and I knew that Heavenly Father had answered my prayer.  So I hope you all remember that if you're ever lost, all you have to do is pray and ask Heavenly Father to help someone find you and the will.  They will probably even know your name."

Out of the mouths of babes come some of life's best lessons.  

 Flyers waiting to be taped.

The street we were flyering.