First Impressions

The drive to our homes was pretty eye opening. The houses most natives live in are pretty third world. I didn’t realize how many people still live in traditional Fales (open houses with thatched roofs). There are lots of pigs, chickens and wild dogs roaming around. Children are out playing in the yards, there’s laundry hung on lines in everyone’s yard and a few people still sleeping on the wooden floors of the fales. The ocean is beautiful though and so is the island. We definitely live in a rainforest. The vegetation is so thick. There are all kinds of fruit trees everywhere and huge snails, lizards, geckos, and lots of other things I have yet to identify.

Traveling

We left Utah last Tuesday evening at about 5:00. Nathan, Andy’s friend from the MSW program who’s also a therapist at Coral Reef, flew over with us and had to leave his wife, Suzie and son Kye behind for 4 weeks before they’ll join us here. I wished that they were coming too but I was also so glad to have Nathan because he’s been such a big help throughout the whole process. We flew from Salt Lake to L.A. first.

After we collected all 6 of our bags (not including Nathan’s and the car seat and stroller) from the baggage claim we met Rodney, a Coral Reef owner, by the Air New Zealand check in. We had a 5 hour layover there in L.A. so Rodney took us to a restaurant at the Marriot nearby. It was my birthday so it was nice to have some small celebration. By about 10:00 at night we made our way up to the VIP room and Tyler promptly fell asleep and pretty much stayed asleep until about 2 hours before the flight landed. As we boarded the air plane I think I had my first “We’re not in Kansas anymore” feeling. After walking past most of the New Zealanders in first class and back into the coach cabin I realized the feeling of being a minority and how soon this would become the norm. The plane was landing in Upolu and was then on to Tonga and then New Zealand so the coach cabin was filled with islanders of all kinds. We had a pretty nice set up though because Andy and I had a seat in between us and then there was a fold down basinet for Tyler to sleep in. This helped all of us get some better sleep on the flight. It made the time go by faster as well.

We arrived around 5 in the morning local time in Upolu. Coming off of the plane the humidity hit us like a fog. Its so thick here. I prefer the heat over the cold but it can still be suffocating sometimes here. The whole rest of the day I really think was a dream, partly because it all seemed so surreal and partly because I was half asleep. The airport was extremely tiny and had no air conditioning. Just fans. The company picked us up and drove us to the houses we’re staying in temporarily until they move the boys out of our homes.

The house we stayed in for 3 weeks before moving into our house now. Not bad eh?

We're here!

So I'm writing this blog almost a month since we actually left. For those thats haven't received our emails - no we did not fall off the face of the earth although some days I look around and wonder what planet I'm on.
Internet has been a little difficult to come by and now, 3 weeks after arriving, we were finally able to move into our house and unpack. We now have high speed internet in our house and will have a car on Wednesday. I'm going to try to catch up from the past several weeks with some blog entries for people who I didn't have your email address to send info that way. Then I'll try to put blog entries up at least a couple times a week.

Saying Goodbye

So here we are - the night before leaving for Samoa. Andy and I both commented tonight that we feel like we've just been in "Go" mode for the past several weeks haven't really let the emotions of the change hit us fully yet. We've said good-bye to lots of friends and relatives over the past week. We feel so blessed to have made the great friends we did while living in Spanish Fork. We will never forget how humble and generous everyone was that we were able to build relationships with. Especially over the past several weeks we've been so blessed by others service there. I have a sad feeling in my heart realizing now how many of our friends are also "moving on" during the next few months with new jobs or opportunities that will take them away from the neighborhood. I've always felt that certain people are put into our lives for a reason to teach us something and I'm so grateful for all we learned from you.
The past several days have been spent saying goodbye to family. It has a different kind of sadness I think. In a lot of ways we think - they're our family, we'll always be in touch and we'll always make a way to see you. But it has been nice to be so close to Andy's family and to always be able to rely on you for so much. I will miss the birthday parties with the little kids, tennis on Saturdays at BYU (not that I played), and Girls nights. Its the little things we won't be around to be a part of on a regular basis. On the other hand I feel like this experience will bring us closer in a lot of ways too as we're able to share it with everyone. Sometimes I think that when you have to make more of an effort in the relationship it can make it deeper. I hope this happens with all of our family during this time. Keep checking the blog though and we'll be able to share all of our great adventures with everyone.
These pictures are a few of last night and tonight. (Above) Tyler took a bath with his cousin Caroline. He loves to play with Caroline and they had a blast splashing each other with water. They soaked everything, including me.
The bottom pictures are of Tyler and our friends the Gleason's daughter Ruthie. We kind of hope Tyler and Ruthie will be married some day. These would be some great shots for their wedding album!

15 Month Update

In the midst of all of the chaos of moving I realized we hadn't done a Tyler update in awhile. He'll be 15 months old on June 6th so I thought I'd let everyone know what his "skill set" is right now. Unfortunately I can't add walking to the top of this list yet. Its very psychological for him. He walks great holding onto our hands and has occasionally taken steps and stood on his own, but if I try to make him do it on his own he throws a big fit and drops down to his knees. I'm sure at some point in the not too distant future I'll be wishing for the days when he wanted me to hold his hand still.
Anyway, although he isn't walking yet he is climbing into and onto lots of things (especially moving boxes) and can occasionally get himself into some difficult situations. His best skill right now though is talking! He actually says or at least attempts to say a lot of words for a 15 month old. Every day he tries to repeat new words. His best words are Dad, Mom, Shoe, Out, and Dog. Bottle and Ball are hard to tell the difference between along with Baby and Binky (he says this one Beebee) Bone is Phone, and Teeth are Teeeeeef. Knock, Cheese, Bread, Bath and Box have also been attempted. Unfortunately his favorite word lately is a very clear NO! And I've discovered that Mine has also crept into his vocabulary. We're working on Please which usually comes out as Peas, but he won't usually say it when I want him to.
He loves to pretend he's talking on the "bone" I think because he's seen Mom and Dad on it a lot lately. He'll use anything as a phone: remotes, small toys etc. When he gets to talk to Nana and Pop on the phone he likes to hold it up to ear and say "Yeah" repeatedly and will usually say "Bye!" in the middle of their response and try to hang up the phone.
He loves an audience and will smile at anyone who will look at him and give him the time of day. He recently had the attention of the entire line of people waiting to go through security at BWI airport through all of his flirtatious smiles and laughs.
This past week has been tough on him I think with all of the changes. But I think little kids are tough when it really comes down to it. He adapts fairly well and I think he'll love the water in Samoa. He will definitely miss his cousins though and some of his other friends from the neighborhood. We'll keep you updated as he grows!

Going Brown

So a few weeks ago I decided that coloring my hair in Samoa may be difficult and that having blonde hair I'd probably stick out more than I already will being an American. So after 6 years of highlighting my hair I decided to die it back to its natural color (sort of). I'm pretty sure my natural color is lighter than whats seen in this picture and it will be lightened by the sun too, but it will be all natural in a few months I'm sure. It was a little difficult for me to get used to at first but now I like it. When I wear it curly I think I look more like my sister, Sarah, she has the same hair color and has wavier hair than I do.
*This picture is also showing off Andy's great new camera lens that does an incredible job for being taken indoors and with no flash!

Visit to Maryland

We were able to visit my parents in Maryland the middle of May before taking off for Samoa. It was a nice break from the chaos of getting ready to move. Its always fun to have Tyler see his grandparents too. We were able to walk around Baker Park one day and see some ducks and visit my dad's friend's dairy farm so Tyler could see some cows. We're standing in a straight line in that picture to avoid being in kicking range. We will definitely miss "Nana and Pop" (what Tyler calls my parents) but hopefully the time will go by quickly before Christmas...

Visualizing Samoa

Thus far, I've been a little worried about where exactly we would be living in Samoa and hoping our house had walls, let alone screens (the traditional Samoan houses called fales don't have any walls, its just a big open hut). But luckily Andy came home from a training last week with these pictures of the two houses they have reserved for us and the other family thats going over with us. I was thrilled to see that they're nice houses. Probably a little nicer and more spacious than where we're living now. They're about 10-15 minutes from the city and 5 minutes from the temple. I had to comment though that throughout this process I've made a lot of jokes to my family that we're going to go live on the island that the t.v. show "LOST" takes place on (they say its close to Fiji). I imagined the terrain to be similar. But I couldn't help but notice that these houses to do look strangely familiar to the homes the "others" live in on the island. My dad asked if the company Andy's working for is called "The Darma Initiative." (If you're not a LOST fan, sorry for the digression)

Packing

My mom was in town last week and was a huge help in getting a big chunk of our packing done. Everything is being sorted into one of 4 piles: Samoa, storage, DI, or trash. Tyler of course has been a huge help during this process. (I hope you can sense the sarcasm) He does love all of the boxes lying around and wants to pull everything out of them that we just packed. I was going through his room on Saturday and he couldn't understand why Mom didnt' want to bring ALL of his books and toys to Samoa. And yes, that is an infant digital thermometer in his mouth that he found during the process.

The Zoo

A few weeks back I sent out an email to the family saying I'd wanted to take Tyler to the zoo and wondering if anyone would want to join me. 30 emails were then sent back and forth over the next 4-5 days and in the end everyone in the family wanted to come! Unfortunately at the last minute Andy's brother Brad wasn't able to come because he was sick, but otherwise everyone else came. It was a lot of fun having all of the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma and grandpa there. Tyler was fascinated by all of the animals. He's point and yell something we didn't understand. It was one of those moments where I wish I knew what was going on in his head.