After last week this weeks been pretty slow. 

…

If I were to tell the truth it’s disaster central around here-meltdown city-then teasing on top of it. So frustrating. And I shouldn’t yell-but I do. Then the kids do-and I get mad. Communication breakdowns everywhere between everyone and flaring attitudes and personalities. 

Yikes 

Love at home right? 

Something like that. 

But the blog is supposed to be the place for happy memories so let me just get back to my version of sugar coated Isonville. 

I started out saying it was slow. Thank Heaven! I guess I feel like every day is busy—there’s lots to do. I bought a few things, something for Tanners birthday, a new big slip’n slide tarp the Easter Bunny had shipped here, a new printer…maybe 2 but I’m only accountable for what’s showed up so far right? The second one is a little crafting project…we’ll see. But ups and fedex have been busy messing up our muddy driveway pretty good. I might have taken a little break in Puerto Rico (Isaac didn’t) but it’s good my credit card still works too. Ha! I’m just kidding. 

Saturday I watched a lot of basketball-Cannon and I really enjoy it the other kids are like “hey that’s not fair Cannon gets way more screen time”  I said fine have your tablet this is a great game-but I also can walk away from it when other things need to be done. Cann…not so much. 

Tanner ended up sick Saturday night with the pukes so that made church a little tricky. Isaac went early then Seth and I ran the big boys in then I went with Seth so I could do singing time in nursery, and Isaac came home so Tan wouldn’t be alone. Then the boys and I came home and he went back. Just a lot of run around. Then the missionaries came over to watch their Facebook thing with us since we don’t FB anymore. It was better than last time. Then they came back Tues and shared a quick message like they always do. 

Anyway. 

Seth and I planted some “Forget me not” flowers at Rizzy’s grave. I hope they come up! 

And the bulbs Sister Gillette and I planted are starting to come up. 😊 But until they are all the way here I’m leaving his fake birthday flowers.

Probably the biggest thing is week is we’ve been taking care of Sister Johnsons animals while she’s out of town. 

The boys love it…I am not much of an animal person, but I wrote down the list and I make sure they do everything (and hopefully right) One of them (Can’t remember which one) told me they wanted to still go there after school even when Sister Johnson is back…vs me, I’m counting down 2 more days!!

It’s not bad, it’s just…you get it! 

So that’s kept us busy. 

The boys had children and youth this week-they love it and come home beaming. 

And these are the only other pics on my phone! 

Touching the drone. 

And a picture of Cannon’s class, he’s in yellow-back left corner. I swear school is a party for that kid although today he had to come home cuz he was sick. Might have a delayed version of Tanners plague? But we also heard another boy that was at children and youth tossed his cookies so…probably two kids down two to go for me. 

Anyway. 

Soccers been canceled all week cuz of all the rain and therefore wet fields but I’ve just been enjoying less run around and not having to have dinner figured out quite so early. 👍🏻

I think that’s about it. 

Puerto Rico part 2

Here we go again! 

Saturday we had to wait out a little rain storm before going to the beach…

But we made it! 



I was trying to get a picture of the kids playing in the sand with the dive bomb fishing pelicans in the background but Isaacs a little smarter than me and just took a video

https://youtu.be/RGTYTXCHYyo

These 3 went hiking to some waterfalls, they tried to go where Isaac and Colt had gone the day before but apparently they got lucky (classic Isaac) the day before and they were supposed to have had permits to hike in El Yunque. Oh well they found someplace close to there. 





After they were going to stop for a treat and Isaac said it was their idea but he left them in the truck while he went in. Just some sketch parking lot in Puerto Rico/ I freaked! And text him to forget about the treats and the groceries and just get back to our kids…no response…until 20 min later he was like “oh sorry I missed you text I was just trying to be fast, I’m back they’re fine” 

So alls we’ll that ends well but sheesh-give a mom a heart attack. I mean I confess I do it sometimes at Aldi but I think our town little town where everything is familiar is a little different…I dunno. 

Sunday we drove into San Juan to the metropolitan ward because it was English speaking! The boys were horrified we went to church in these clothes but…we each took a backpack-no more-there was no way I could pack church clothes. There were some fits-Tanner 😩- but we survived! After church we drove over to check out the temple. It’s still under construction but pretty cool. And we met some people at church who were also staying over in Loiza in the little gated community right next to ours. They also went to check out the temple so there was someone to take our picture! 

They also invited us to dinner Monday night. So nice! If the truth be told-Isaac would have rathered hit the beach one more time, he told me he was going wear his swimming suit but he didn’t. But we had a great time visiting with them they are super nice and we’re so excited to cook us “chicken of the sea” …shrimp. Along with normal chicken and rice. I tried to get my kids to do one bite to be polite and truthfully—that was all I could do…and barely 🤢 Yikes! 

Colt is the kid Isaac could  always get to adventure with him (kinda surprising) but he’d get up early to go boogie boarding or the first morning they went exploring the area and came back with authentic donuts.

Monday was mostly a pool day Seth liked the “beach with no sand” 🤣 and Tanner hated having to wash the sand off in the ocean-really Seth too but they sure love playing in it. 

https://youtu.be/cyQTz8JHYOs

The best day of vacation for me is the day we head for home! But I was so worked up about traveling I didn’t sleep at all the night before so that sucked and made for a really long day! 

And we had to squeeze as much fun as possible into that last morning! -especially since we missed the beach the night before! 

He found some coconuts he could reach with the help of a wall so it was round two with the machete! 

And I love watching these boys at the beach! 

But some of the time watching  Seth and just the joy of the sand made be think of Tanner when we went to the beach in San Diego when he was just over 1…that was tough. 

It will always be tough!  

I always thought Riz’s little body looked most like Tan when he was born. So maybe it’s glut’n for punishment-ok it totally was but of course looked it up! 

Hopefully there are beaches in heaven to play at little buddy! 

Anyway-back to Tuesday morning Cannon was our photographer-Isaac wanted the palm tree in it, I’d rather see faces. So a grainy over crop it is! 

Good times! 


Tan (…and I) waited until the last possible chance to try boogie boarding. 



But I was glad we didn’t let the opportunity pass 😉

We had to stop back by the beach with no sand on the way bank to the apt. 

Then we frantically packed up, headed to the BBQ place Cannons primary teacher had recommended, and then to the airport. For a really long travel day! 

Adios Puerto Rico! 

But these boys let us sit together on one of the flights 👍🏻

We got back home about 2…but with the time change that was 3 😳. I sent pop tarts in the boys lunches 🤣 cuz we had minimal groceries but Seth and I got everyone off to school and started the laundry and such and hit the grocery store and I guess we’re back to “normal”…maybe we’re still recovering! 

Oh and watching a little March madness just for fun too. We filled out brackets while Isaac was at YW. 

Until next week! 

Family Vacation 2022…Puerto Rico…

Saturday we started of spring break with a trip to the temple. I mean with a little planning the kids maybe could have gone to a friends or something but as it was it was 4 hours of sitting in the car. We kindof sold as hey it’s Saturday that means they stampede the horses it will be awesome to see that again…but I guess they only do that when there’s actually grass. Whoops! And the Family Living Center was closed. Last time we were there the Fudge Shoppe was closed so I wasn’t very hopeful but they convinced me to drive by and it was open so we at least got a treat! And headed for the park, only it started raining-at first we hid under a tree and munched on our delicious treats but it didn’t take long to realize we weren’t going to be able to ride it out so we headed for the van. Pretty boring for the boys. When we got home Colt said “I just sat in the car for 4 hours for two caramels!” I shrugged and said “yeah pretty much.” It was good to go to the temple we just swapped on initatories quick so I told Colt I just drove 4 hours for a 1/2 hour in the temple and a pretty delicious turtle. 

Sunday we had the missionaries over for dinner we were afraid we would lose Sis Nelson to transfers but she was staying! …then that night they found out the APs had sent the wrong text and we really did lose her. It snowed about 5 inches that night so we met them down at the church for a quick pic Monday morning before we left town. The other day I realized these pics with the missionaries are the bulk of the family pictures that we have! I thought hmm maybe every time we do this I should have the missionaries snap one of just us too. It’s not a bad idea…

Monday we bailed on that snow and headed for St Louis. We barely made the zoo-well we had about and hour but we basically ran around that dang place and barely saw any animals, it was lame!!! But we found out that at 4:30 (it closes at 5) they give the animals inside and outside access and since it was so cold the animals had pretty much all chose inside-I don’t blame them! After that we found a place to eat and then headed to the hotel-dead set on swimming (even if it meant I had to dry suits in the coin laundry afterward) 

Well…no need…

The hotel had a pool alright-but it was an outdoor pool and it was 26 degrees outside. No thanks! 

So then we get up to the room-1 king bed. Ug. And fights galore over what we watched on TV. Great. 

Whatever we were on the shuttle to the airport by 4:00am (but that was too early-whoops) so we played at the play area and then finally flew to Orlando. 

Where we had a 7 hour layover!! So we jumped on a public transportation bus and we’re headed for the mall to eat and wander around when Isaac spotted a Denny’s, we thought everyone would eat that so we hopped off the bus and walked across the street. 

The corner we got off on was  kindof a park so I thought we’d just eat go check things out at the park then ride back to the airport on the bus—Mr Adventure had different ideas, while we were waiting (forever) to be seated he headed across the street to the Holiday Inn to see if we could swim in their pool. (Outdoor was fine in Orlando) so after breakfast, we did (well not me and at first not Cannon either) Cannon was so freaked out he made himself physically ill and didn’t eat a bite of his breakfast, but they had outside access and outside bathroom and Mr Charm ended up with a key to them so it really wasn’t a big deal. They chased lizards after we got out…and got into the fire ants-darn it! 

When it was time to go we totally jumped on their shuttle and rode back to the airport. And we waited a full 30-40 min in that security line. So! Many! People! Ug! Once we got through it they liked the little tram thing and seeing all the airplanes. And of course still more waiting-there was a fair amount of horsing around! 

And if you wonder what we look like…pretty much this-me trying to push the stragglers along. 

Nobody wanting to carry their backpack…except little Mr independent of course. 

Anyway. 

We got busted on Sethy not having a Covid test within 24 hours of us traveling (crud though! We tried! Walgreens test was only the 2-3 day one and no where  else in KV did them if people were asymptotic) so we were just like whatever-we’ve got one from a week ago (when I had him in for the ear infection) it should be fine. But the government didn’t accept that so I guess we have a fine (but they gave us 48 hours to show a negative  test from here to get the fine removed but…same problem we could get him tested the next day -cuz it was night when we got here-but those take 2-3 days) oh and the other dumb thing was that we got here Tuesday but Thursday all the restriction were lifting…so we waited until Thursday to call cuz it would be a none issue right? Wrong. They still wanted a test. Ug. So here’s the evidence I up loaded to their dumb site

Hopefully it counts. If not the lady told us we could appeal the fine but…who knows…

Anyway 

On to the good stuff. The Airbnb…it’s ok…

There’s no table-and there’s a little kitchen but nowhere to really put any food. We ran the AC in the living room the first night and woke up to a flood. Whatever though 

Look at these smiles! 

We’re right on the beach and these guys are happy. 

It’s a little rural but yesterday we went into San Juan to the army fort and all those people Ug it just felt like Vegas with Hawaii weather to me. I’m glad we’re where we are. At first Isaac wasn’t very happy with how it was represented because there was a retaining wall that a hurricane damaged but it really made the beach pretty dangerous but then we found another gate out to another beach and it’s perfect. We just walk right to it-we have the place to ourselves-so much better than when we drove by all those people at the beach yesterday!! But it’s been really fun. (I mean aside from the fact I’ve wondered a hundred times who came up with the idea of a family vacation anyway? Let’s put these four brothers who fight all the time anyway-in closer than normal quarters and expect them to magically get along???? Yeah right! 😩) 

But anyway we’re making memories-hopefully not of the fights-

When we went to the Famcoop grocery store the power went out 3 times while we were there! 😳 that same adventure out we saw this Puerto Rican Cattle truck!  It’s just nuts! 

Isaac is pretty darn fun on vacation though at the grocery store the boys were like “Dad! Ice cream!” And he was like “Yeah, let’s get one!” I’m wondering who is this guy? And he bribed them to take a power nap one day with a Walmart trip and he let Cannon buy laser guns (which they’ve had a blast with) but the other boys got goggles and such but Tanners were too big so they went back and got more laser guns. 

And he bought himself a $6 machete so he could cut open a coconut 🤣

Good thing he found one on the ground because he found out he’s older than he thought when he tried to climb and get one! 🤣

He got Cann and Colt to boogie board but…we’re down another wedding ring-darn! 

https://youtube.com/shorts/z_YQxqe5XyQ?feature=share

And these boys love the sand! 



Did I mention these guys all love the machete…they want to take it home. Nope. Sorry! 

Trying to think of what I’ve missed…

Oh the pic from the fort 

I played in the pool with the boys last night but I can’t document such events when I’m in the middle of a splash war. But today Tanner wanted to go back there instead of the beach. Ummm I’m not swimming with that thing! 

They have loved chasing and trying to catch lizards-I asked him why not that one and he said “too spikey!” 

We did end up at the beach with everyone else eventually.

And there were these pelicans diving into the ocean-it was pretty impressive! 

Although I’m not sure my pics do it justice. 

And last but not least the pics from Isaacs phone. 

El Moro yesterday 

And he and Colt went on a hike in the rainforest today! 

(Tanner just wanted to go swimming again-Cannon just wanted to watch TV and all I cared was that Seth and I got a power nap! So everyone laid low until Seth fell asleep, then they turned the tv on -and woke me up- and then Isaac and Colt took off and when Seth woke up I was the swim mom.) He got pics-my one request-so good enough! 

I think that’s it! 

But we have a few more days so—more next week :)