2 days, 3 countries, 4 planes later.....

We made it safely to Trinidad. Praise God for that. What a crazy time it was getting to our final destination to see Burt's family. There is so much I could say about these two days, but for now I will try to just give you a brief synopsis of the trip here.

Wed morning-

-3am we picked the boys up from their slumber and transfered them to the van. Nicholas was in and out of sleep the whole way to Atlanta. It took Joshua 45 minutes to go back to sleep.

-6am we arrive in Atlanta, the boys are awake now.

-8:30am we board our flight and head to Miami. Burt and Nicholas fall asleep while I tend to the active Joshua. He finally falls asleep when we are almost there. Of course that would happen.

-11:00 We eat lunch at the airport and wait for our next flight to San Juan. It is delayed, but we can still make our connection.


-2:10 pm we board the flight and are ready to go. Then we end up sitting on the plane for 45 minutes with no explanation and then they tell us there is maintanence problems- wet carpet to dry- what!!!! Now we will miss our connection, there are no more flights to Trinidad, but if we get off there is one from Miami at 7pm. Two problems, our bags won't get there til Thur night and they won't get our carseat and stroller off the plane. Great, now we have to go to San Juan.

-Get to San Juan around 7pm, have to stay in hotel, buy diapers and wipes. Crazy lady at the airline customer service desk wondered why we got on the plane knowing we would miss our connection. Hello, we weren't going to miss it until we got stuck sitting on the plane. You think we knowingly would have done that.

Thursday-
6:30 am- boys wake up, eat breakfast, quick shower, repack.


10am- head back to airport where the lady there says we need to pay for our baggage. I don't think so considering we didn't have to yesterday and this was there fault for having us stay overnight. She finally figured out what happened and checked us in without any problems.

11:30- board flight back to Miami, yes that's right, back to Miami.

3:00pm- get to Miami, hang out until our next flight

4:30pm- get on plane to Trinidad, had to drag Nicholas on kicking and screaming saying no plane, no plane. I don't blame the poor kid. He settled down once we got him in his seat and ready to watch a video. He also hadn't taken a nap so you can only imagine.

8pm- arrive in Trinidad, thank you Lord. Stand in line for immigration clearance. Nicholas consequently has had enough of traveling and proceeds to loose it with one constant tantrum. Tired Immigration officer, seeing the mayhem in our line lets us go through the diplomat line where there were only 2 people. This was great considering there were five other flights that arrived at the same time so we would have been there forever. We then gather our bags and stand in another line forever. Joshua falls asleep and then Nicholas finally gives it up and falls asleep. We pack up the cars and head to his brother's house.

11pm- get to the house. Nicholas transfers great, but Joshua eats again to fall asleep. We talk for a little bit with his family and then pass out ourselves.

Wow, and that is the short version. At least we all made it in one piece. I will follow-up with our trip in the next post.

Our second big little boy!

Just way too fast. He is at least 2 months ahead of Nicholas with his coordination and balance. He's totally skipping crawling, but who could blame him, he has to keep up with big brother and big Yion!

Our "Pets" around the house

Our Pet Frog because Nicholas loves to hop:)

Because we are the spiritual folks we are, definitely need the Praying Mantis:)

And, who doesn't like a sting every now and then:) These little critters, as they always do, caught us by surprise and Nicholas usually plays right where I found it. It is a miracle we didn't have a bunch of stings yet. These favorite pets of ours were "humanely" put down for our environmentally and eco friendly friends:)

Date Night Swap

Our friends, the Shaffer's, were in town last week, down from Georgia. We all had dinner together on Tuesday night and then we each had a date night later that week. They went out on Thursday and we were able to watch their beautiful daughter Sonora Jane, better known as SJ to Nicholas, for the evening. It was so much fun watching her play with Joshua and try to chase after Nicholas. She also kept trying to give Joshua hugs and kisses, although one of the pics looks like Joshua is trying, but I think he was using her to pull up on. Not sure about that, but it was too cute either way. She was just the sweetest little thing. No trouble what so ever. We had it pretty easy and enjoyed the time we were able to play with her. Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Friday night Burt and I took our turn, but the evening probably wasn't as smooth for Jon and Lisa. Nicholas of course had to cry for a few seconds when we left, but then was okay and Joshua cried when Lisa tried to put him to bed. He has been going through a mama phase right now so I figured that might happen. She got him to sleep by walking outside with him, but as soon as he hit the crib he started to cry again. He also wouldn't take his sippy cup of milk, but did eat his food like a champ. Makes it a little harder to navigate me getting out of the house, but at least he wasn't starving since he eats food now too. But, I digress. Burt and I were able to get out for dinner and walk around some stores that we never get to go to and actually had some good conversations without the kids around. It was nice to get out for a couple of hours and reconnect.

Thanks Lisa and Jon for thinking of this plan and hanging out with our boys. We look forward to seeing you again next month and maybe doing this again. And any of you here in Montgomery that might want to do the same let me know. A great way to save a little money once in awhile for a date night as long as you are willing to go through a little drama with our boys. They are very sweet though and fun to play with. Could be I am just a little bias, but I think others would agree.......

It was one of those weeks....

that you want to pull your hair out, but then you walk in to see this sweet, chilled out, sleeping child or laugh at the craziness of your son....

God is good even amongst the trials of child-rearing. I just need to remind myself of that, continue to see all the blessings He provides everyday and pray that this week goes much better. Monday was a good day.

Is it that time already???

So, Joshua has started to get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. Plus he just started scooting forward, pulling himself up on large toys or my knees and can now get in the sitting position on his own. Crazy. It seems like time is just flying by. I can't believe he is already seven months and doing all these new things. It seems so much faster than with Nicholas. He will be on the move sooner than I can imagine which will be good and bad. He definitely likes to get around, especially to see what his big brother is up to. I also think he might be cutting a tooth as his sleeping habits have not been so good lately. I am praying that is it at least so I can get some sleep one of these days, ha, that's funny isn't it.