11 04-05 14 - Moving to Peru  

Posted by Amber

The morning of the 4th, we had Henlie's 2nd year well-check appointment.  She is perfectly healthy.  Dr. Fullmer even gave her some new crayons.  We attempted finishing packing our house as best we could.  I felt bad that we left some packing and cleaning for Devan and Kayla, but c'est la vie.  That afternoon, Larry and Carrie loaded all of our bags and us and drove us to Salt Lake.  We made a quick stop at Matt's office for him to pick up some brochure or something, and then headed to the airport.  We picked up two luggage carts and managed to get all of us and our things inside and checked in.  We hung out for a little while and said our goodbyes.  Then it was time to go through security. 

 Matt scooted away to get out of the picture...but I wanted him in the picture. :)

 Grandma hugs :)

 Grandpa kisses :)

 Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa.


Standing in line to go through security, and we ended up next to Lima on the world map on the floor.

We got to our gate with plenty of time.  I was hungry, so we picked up some food.  It was meh.  And too spicy.  Oh well, at least I was able to eat some of it :)  Henlie set up camp while we waited.  On our first flight to LA, she did pretty well.  She did want to go sit by Dad. (2 seats on either side of the aisle, so it went: Window - Henlie, Me - aisle - Matt, random dude)  Lucky for her, Random Dude was flying with a puppy in cabin.  While you're supposed to leave them tucked under the seat securely in front of you.... he maybe pulled it out into his lap with a jacket over it.  It was a late-ish flight, so he just huddled over it and looked like he was sleeping.  He let Henlie see the puppy for a minute though while we were in flight :)  She was pretty upset when she had to get buckled in her car seat again in preparation for landing.  The couple in front of us (who were on their way to Cusco and Machu Picchu), asked if she needed some gum for the pressure change.  We became sort of friends since we were going to the same place.  I did give her some fruit snacks, and that helped.  

 Setting up camp at our gate in SLC.  So much stuff!

Relaxing for the wait to board with Piglet and fruit snacks.

We managed to get off the plane and to the international terminal of LAX.  Two rolling carry-ons, a diaper bag, Henlie's little backpack, Matt's work bag, a guitar case, and a car seat do not an easy trek make.  But we did it and got checked in with LAN.  Then it was another hike to our gate.  But not without going through security again :)  I forgot to empty my water bottle after the first flight, but they verified it was just water and we were good to go.  Thankfully, flying with a toddler gets you some perks, like being fast-tracked through security.  Oh, and our car seat is rather large since it is convertible, and they had to find someone to check it since it won't fit in the x-ray scanners.


This is where we had to wait to be fast-tracked through security.  I was amused :)

Our gate was seriously so far away, but we made it.  We opted not to grab another bite to eat since they were feeding us dinner on the plane.  Henlie totally fell asleep 20 minutes before boarding.  Another toddler flying perk - early boarding.  They took all of the people who needed wheelchairs, and then let us get on.  Since Henlie was sleeping, it was extra hard getting everything on the plane, but one lovely flight attendant took the car seat for us.  She went ahead of us and deposited it in between our seats. (We flew in the center on this flight, which had 3 seats together).  We said hey to our new friends as they passed us, and settled in for the 8.5 hour flight to Lima.  (The customer service on LAN was night and day compared to our first flight on American Airlines.  There, we got moved up a row because of the car seat.  She seemed a little annoyed that we had the car seat on the flight.  We were originally right in front of the exit row, so it was a little smaller.  It was nice of her to move us, but everyone on row 6 was confused.  Once we explained they were now sitting in row 7, it was fine.  LAN, on the other hand, was super helpful and nice.)

 20 minutes before boarding, and she's out.  I'm rather surprised she lasted as long as she did :)

And she stayed out, even when we buckled her into her car seat.

Dinner was served shortly after boarding.  Henlie slept.  I perused the movies and was excited to find they had Harry Potter 7 Part 2 available. (I never did finish watching the series...) So even though I was exhausted and it was late, I stayed up and watched the movie.  During the credits, Henlie woke up sad.  I pulled her out of her car seat and she went back to sleep in my lap.  She stayed there the rest of the flight until breakfast.  It was hot and uncomfortable.  Especially, because I couldn't figure out how to recline the seats until... you know, around breakfast haha

They served breakfast around an hour before the end of the flight.  Everyone gradually woke up, and we had some half decent food for breakfast.  Henlie really needed a change, but we had breakfast first, and then everyone needed to use the facilities because they'd just woken up.  So...poor girl sat in a nasty, stinky diaper until we got to a restroom in the airport. :/  She survived.  Not ideal, but I didn't have to deal with changing a diaper on a plane. :)

So we eventually got off the plane, made our pit stop, and then went to customs.  It was pretty simple.  Because Peru struggles, we are on tourist visas right now.  We have 90 days before we either need to have the work visa stuff figured out or we ask for an extension. (I think they can give you like 180 days total).  We got through customs, walked past the lovely security dogs (which were totally not intimidating breeds like we use in the US), and went to pick up our luggage.  Again, we used two carts to haul all our stuff.  We exchanged some money and then put the luggage through another scanner, and then re-loaded it onto our carts. (We had 9 bags for the three of us, plus the carry-ons, personal bags, and the car seat).  Fortunately, we didn't have too far to go before we met with Matt's salesguy, Ricardo.  He had a taxi van waiting, and she took my cart while Ricardo took Matt's (I think, I could be wrong on that fact :))

 I'm quite pleased with this shot I snapped from the window of our taxi.
Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima

 Henlie and me in the taxi.

 Matt and Henlie in the taxi.


Random snapshot of a random street during our taxi ride.

And so, we'd made it.  All the way from Utah to Peru.  The van took us to our apartment, where we, unfortunately, had to meet with the real estate agent and landlord.  I was so tired and just wanted to lay down.  But no, there was chatting, and then the longest inventory of the household items ever.  Okay, probably not ever, but seriously, the Peruvian people don't do anything quickly.  Everything drags on and never starts on time :)  And let's not talk about driving here.  It has been nearly 6 weeks, and the driving (while I tolerate most of it well) is still terrifying.

Eventually, we could relax and start to settle into our house for a bit before we had to walk to the grocery store for some food and water. (The tap water isn't potable here.  Although I've gotten over it for teeth brushing.  I HATE trying to clean my toothbrush with a bottle of water.  There is no water pressure there :))

And that is the beginning of our Peruvian adventure.  Naturally, there is more to come, because we're here for at least a year :)

Little Tidbits - Part 6  

Posted by Amber

Our ward Halloween party was on Halloween itself.  We had some yummy dinner and then the kids trick-or-treated.

We were maybe a little tired...

 Trick-or-treating from Julia.


Her haul :)

Saturday, Nov. 1st, was a busy day.  In the morning, we took Munchkin and Cinco to Joe and Susan's house to live before we moved.  After we dropped the kitties off, we dropped our house plants off at Matt's Grandma JeanAnn's.  Then, that afternoon, we went with Michelle through the temple.  After that and dropping some stuff off at Natalie and Dave's, we met with Tashina and Natalie, who are fostering Mocha for us.  Long day.  Sad to say bye to my furry babies, but we did have a lovely time in the temple.  And my parents were kind enough to come over in the morning while we were running errands to help us pack.  

They aren't fans of car rides.

Tuesday, Nov. 4th, we had Henlie's 2 year well-check appointment.  She is perfectly healthy.  We surprised Dr. Fullmer with news of our moving to Peru....that day.  He gave her a new pack of 24 crayons, and we were off for some lunch and to finish packing our house.  But the rest of the moving story is its own post.  This is just for tidbits. :)  Perhaps I'll end here so Peruvian tidbits don't come before the moving story :)


10 25 14 - Hadfield Halloween Party  

Posted by Amber

The day before Matt came home from Peru, it was the Hadfield Halloween party.  Henlie and I went and partied :)  

She was a convict this year.  Some people even caught the reference of her convict number :)

Grandma put together a little treasure hunt for the little kids with candy at each clue.  McKade did a geocaching treasure hunt for the older kids.  

 Reading the first clue.


Like all of our family parties, we had a good time eating yummy food and chatting with our favorite people.  Henlie also participated in the cake walk this year.  

Eating cake walk cookies :)

And then there was trick-or-treating.  Henlie didn't so much care, so we groomed her to pick out the good stuff.  At one point, she picked out an Almond Joy.  And then she stuck it in Ian's bucket.  I was okay with this because Almond Joy haha.  She kept going back to Grandpa to get the yummy stuff.  Candy Tax is a great thing, especially when you have a nearly two year old haha.

Trick-or-treating :)

 Kayla teaching Henlie the candies to get :)

Back and forth between Mom and Grandpa :)

10 22 14 - Henlie's 2nd Birthday Pictures  

Posted by Amber

Getting Henlie's pictures this year proved a little tricky.  I decided I wanted them done at Carrie's house since Henlie loves Grandma's house and she has some of her favorite things available there (like swings and a slide!).  We were originally going to do them on a Friday, but then Sarah's mom ended up in the hospital.  We moved them to Tuesday, the 21st, but it ended up being pretty cold and windy, so we pushed it to Wednesday, the 22nd.  Fortunately, it was pretty nice.  Grandpa even came home and was able to saddle Jewel for some pictures.  Below are some favorites :)

All pictures by Sarah Dixon Photography.







 She couldn't figure out how to hold up two fingers on one hand :)

 Picking up a BIG pumpkin!

 Grandpa and Grandma helping Henlie ride Jewel :)

 At one point, Jewel whinnied at a neighbor's horse. Henlie got right off at that! haha
But then she got back on, too :)

 Saying "Sister!"

 She was getting tired of taking pictures :)


Happy second birthday to my sweet little girl!

10 22 14 - Jaker's Jack-O-Lanterns  

Posted by Amber

Wednesday, Oct. 22nd, we met with Camile and the girls to go to Jaker's Jack-O-Lanterns in Springville. (Fun side note, Dec. 13th Henlie asked to see the pumpkin patch pictures...still)  We surprised Camile by bringing Kayla along.  This worked out super because there was an adult for each girl.

We got to the pumpkin patch and the first order of business was visiting the animals.  They had your typical farm animals, including a giant pig.  Like, giant.  There was also a kangaroo and some llamas...you know, typical farm animals :)  

 Henlie checking out the llamas.

 Charlie liked to chase this poor medium-sized pig back and forth.  Henlie likes to follow Charlie.  They had a grand time.

Aunt Kayla trying to get Henlie to pet the small pigs.

After the animals and a few photo ops, it was off to the mini hay maze. And then another photo op.  Camile pulled Henlie and Charlie for a minute in a wagon, which they loved.  Then they climbed a little hay pyramid.  Well, Charlie climbed it.  Henlie went in search of another wagon in hopes of another ride :)

 Charlie the sheep and Henlie the pig.

 Holding hands in front of the llama.


 Henlie the cow and Charlie the horse.

 Kayla has mad skills.  Charlie is propped on her knee, she's straddling Henlie, and still managing to poke her head through the hole :)

 Hay maze

 Picture with the Halloween car.

 Camile pulling the girls in a wagon.





The girls played in the corn pit for only a few minutes before getting enough of that.  We went through the haunted tunnel and headed to the slides.  Henlie loves slides.  She was a little less proficient than Charlie at climbing up to the top, but they both went down a couple of times and had a blast.  After that, we opted for the tractor ride.  There was no line, and since we had Kayla's help, all six of us were able to go.  (Also, I'm quite pleased I managed to get all of us in one selfie. I didn't think it would happen haha).  On the tractor ride, we saw horses and donkeys, along with the rest of the pumpkins still out in the patch.  


 Corn Box

 Charlie and Camile in the Haunted Tunnel

 Slides!




Look! We were all there, too!
Camile, Me, Kayla

 Me, Henlie, Kayla, Charlie, Danica, and Camile on the tractor ride.

 Tractor driver :)

 Horses

 Donkeys

 Pumpkin patch

After the tractor ride, I tried to get the standard pumpkin patch photo op with the pumpkins of Charlie and Henlie.  Henlie had a hard time looking at the camera :)  Then, Aunt Kayla took them back through the haunted tunnel on our way to the adult-sized hay pyramid.  Camile made the mistake of challenging me.  She said she'd climb it if I got to the top.  (In fairness, it didn't look very possible from the tractor ride side.  But there were smaller bales on the other side :))  So, naturally, I got to the top, and then she had to join me.  Kayla kindly stayed with the girls and took some pics of us from the bottom.

 Kayla and Charlie

 Charlie and Henlie with the pumpkins :)

 Henlie, Kayla, and Charlie in the Haunted Tunnel

Camile making her way up the hay pyramid :)


 Perspective selfie from the top!

They're so tiny at the bottom!

We made it!
Thanks for the pic, Kayla :)


Waving to people on the tractor ride.

Last on the agenda were the animals again.  They sure love animals.  I made friends with two of the goats and got to pet the kangaroo.  They are so soft :)  The giant pig also got up from his nap to eat a pumpkin.  It was fascinating to watch haha.  Then we said goodbye to Camile, Charlie, and Danica.  Kayla and I were both hungry and decided to stop and get some Cafe Rio.  Mmmmmmm :D (I miss Cafe Rio...and all Mexican food)  We had a grand time talking and looking through the pictures we took that afternoon.

 haha, I love this picture.  They were making silly faces for unknown reasons :)

 Baby Danica took a nap :)




 Pic courtesy of Kayla. (My phone maybe died, and she had to step up as family photog :))

 Me petting my little goat buddy.
Pic courtesy of Kayla :)

 Petting the kangaroo.
Pic courtesy of Kayla.

We maybe forced Henlie into petting some of the animals.
She wasn't too sure about petting the kangaroo...
Pic courtesy of Kayla.

Then it was time to go home and get Henlie bathed and pretty for her pictures!