Saying our Goodbyes..

We finally got everything loaded up.. good thing we had a 15 passenger van to use. We had all of our luggage as well as a bunch of things we would be storing at Nana and Papas.. we filled that van up! We then headed over to say goodbye to Autumn and her children after which we headed to Portland where we would be eating dinner with Grandma Barb and Aunt Katie and then staying for 2 days at Nana's before flying out to BZ from PDX

 

 

Oh, it was so hard to say goodbye to my precious sister in Jesus!

There were many tears, hugs and laughter

 

Sweet friends

 

The morning of our flight, we arrived to the airport at 3:45 am which was 2 hrs and 15 minutes before our departure time. I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to check 10 bags, show all of our paperwork for our service dog and permission forms from Grady to fly out of the country with the girls. Turns out we really should have left ourselves about 1/2 hr more time.. after passing through security which took forever, we had to hike to the other side of the airport to catch our plane. They had already been boarding for about 10 minutes before we got to the gate!

 

My mother helped push the luggage carts full of bags up to the check in counter while the Rubins, who had come to help took the carseats out of the van and helped carry in the carry ons.

 

 

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Papa comforts Sadie who is about to take her first flight. ( she did so well!)

 

Our precious friends the Rubins literally pulled up right behind us at the curb of the airport. They could not have timed their arrival any better! Thank you Lord! I needed everyone's help for sure. We ended up having 10 checked bags, a stroller, 2 checked carseats, 8 carry on items, 2 little girls and a service dog. I like to call it controlled chaos.. without the help of my mother, Ben, my big girls and the Rubin family it would have been pure chaos! LOL

Of course saying goodbye to Nana is always the hardest of all. We miss you so much Nana! WE LOVE YOU!

 

At the gate of our first flight, the flight attendant offered to check some of our heavier carry ons. I quickly agreed but regretted it later when I remembered all of Laura's clothes had been in one of the carry ones that I let them check. The poor girl was in these pj's all day until we got to our rental in Belize! We ended up being at the Belizean airport in customs for over 2 hours and she was so HOT! :-) Poor baby!

Sadie was such a good girl! She just slept on Ashley's feet on both flights. United was kind enough to put both Ashley and Grace (with Sadie) in the economy plus area for free so that she would have more room to lie down.

 

After a loooong day of travel, it was so fun to see the first glimpses of Belize again! Yay, we were finally back! AND we were going to see our guys after 2 long weeks and 2 days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holdin' Down the Fort

After Grady and the boys left, we ladies still had so much to do! Finish all of the packing, getting all of our luggage to 50 lbs.. sorting through all our stuff to determine what to take and what to store. Cleaning and getting rid of stuff...It was such a fun and busy 2 weeks. We were blessed with lots of help from friends which helped tremendously!

Hmmm... What to do with all the trash? thankfully, our friends the Rubins came to make a dump run for us. That was a great relief since all of the seats were in the 15 passenger van and really had no idea how to manhandle them out of there!

 

 Ashley tackles the orange shower!

 

I think we may be able to fit just ONE more thing in there! LOL

Trying to get to the 'magic' 50 lbs!

We had so many things that we wanted to bring that we decided to bring the allotted 5 checked bags as well as check an additional 5 bags! 500 lbs of stuff! :-0

Getting the house all clean for our rental inspection.. we had so much help from friends too! A special young man came to wash our windows for us, a dump run... still another person so kindly let us borrow sleeping bags and their carpet shampoo-ers. We are so blessed to have such special helpful friends!

My ladies and I camped out on our bedroom floor for the last few nights. We had given Ashley and Amanda's bed back to the Kings, sent along the little girls' beds with the guys in the trailer.. and I finally put our bed for free on Craigslist.. that was a hard thing to do. I LOVED that bed! :-)

Happy 6th Birthday Gracie!

In the midst of all the packing and preparations, we celebrated Miss Grace Elizabeth's 6th birthday! Yes, she is eating her birthday cake in her pajamas.. :-) We celebrated by having cake and ice cream for breakfast after singing Happy Birthday to her.

We LOVE you Gracie! May the Lord bless you richly in this coming year and may you grow to be a girl who loves and serves our Lord Jesus!

Saying Goodbye to Daddy and the Boys

Grady decided that the best way to get our things to Belize, including our vehicle was to drive all the way from WA State, thru the US and thru Mexico! Seemed like an awful long drive but Grady was looking forward to the adventure. The boys were looking forward to it also but were a bit hesitant about driving through MX which can be dangerous. It was so hard to say goodbye to the boys, knowing that we would most likely not see them for 2 weeks when we ladies would fly down to join them in sunny Belize...

 

Our 6 sweet children

Gracie had the hardest time by far.. she was going to miss her boys so much! To her 2 weeks seemed like an eternity

 

 

 

 

Goodbye guys! God be with you till we meet again! It was sooo hard to see them drive off.. but exciting to think of our return to Belize! We will see you there guys! Lord Willing!

An Ice Cream Goodbye Party

The few weeks of being in Washington were so sweet.. we got to see many friends to say our goodbyes. We even got to take a trip down to Halsey which as always was a blessing.. In addition the Page ladies came up for the day to say goodbye.

 

Ashley, Amanda and Grace with a few of the Page girls.. saying their goodbyes

 

 

Our WA friends threw a going away party for us. We all enjoyed our special time together..

 

 

 

They came up with a very cute goodbye card for us, made using words from candy bars.. it was so creative and sweet!

 

So many fun and happy memories!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New Year

One of the greatest things we will miss after moving to Belize will be the fellowship we have been able to have with these 2 families.. they make everything a celebration and special. We have learned so much from them and look forward to their continued friendship through the years. This past year with them has been such a blessing. Rumor has it, they all may be coming to visit us while in Belize (right guys? :-) )

 

The McDonalds in the Big City

The day after Christmas we were able to meet Grady's mom in Tacoma where she treated us to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. We got to the place early and so decided to take a walk in the big city.  Daddy took the children over to see an ice skating rink which fascinated them. Dinner was yummy and it was such a blessing to spend time with Grandma. The dog that Ashley is training for therapy was with us also. Its was fun to expose Sadie to new things such as train tracks, loud ice skating rinks and immense amounts of traffic.