the dreaded flight home

oh my goodness. our flight home.

 22 hours. 5 different airplane. 2 different airlines.

1 super happy angel baby. 2 super grateful and amazed parents.

he got his very own seatbelt

we were a little nervous for this trip for a couple of reasons.

1. we had a three month old and with him comes a car seat/base, a stroller, a diaper bag, a baby carrier, a c pillow, and the possibility of spit up and pooplosions. 

2. 3 out of our 4 layovers were 50 minutes or less. Not much time to get off one plane and on the other. 

Luckily our longest layover was when we were in Miami, which was a huge blessing because we had to go through customs and pick up all of our luggage and drop it off at our other airline.

it seriously was a miracle day. Fletcher was happy all day long. didn't cry. didn't poop. didn't throw up. and he smiled and laughed at all the right people. we also made every single one of our flights. most of our flights we got of the plane and walked right onto the next one. it was amazing. if any one of them was even a little bit delayed we would have missed all of our other flights. 

One of the airline workers made me take a picture because he was being such a perfect baby.

Also--we didn't end up paying for any of our bags. the caribbean airline lets you check 2 bags free each and they checked them all the way to Portland! we had to pick up our bags in Miami when we changed airlines, but we just dropped them off and didn't have to pay for anything. so awesome.

one advantage of flying with kids though is that you get to skip all lines. that is what saved us several times. We wouldn't have made some of our flights if we weren't bumped to the front of the security, customs, and boarding lines. 

I could't believe we actually made it and all of our flights were on time. Heavenly Father loves us.

good bye Bonaire!

Last weeks in Bonaire

Hello Hello!

Its been a while since I put anything up. Life, as it always does, got super busy and crazy!

my last couple of weeks of work actually went by super fast. thank goodness. I couldn't wait to get back to my little guy. My last week of work though I got super sick. Super high fever, aches, chills, headache, the works. I even had to miss work one day. Brandon got super sick too. I went to the doctor and the said that it was probably Dengue Fever from the mosquitoes here. not fun. 

 I didn't have to work the last week of April, which was great because it gave me time to pack and clean and get ready for us to move. Move. once again. that makes the 9th or 10th time that I had to pack up everything that we own in suitcases. I'm becoming quite an expert at packing though. I don't even need a scale anymore to weigh our bags. I can get them to 49.5lbs pretty much in my sleep.

Fletch and I had a couple of doctor appointments the last week we were there. First was Fletcher's ultrasound on his hips. Since he was breech he had a greater risk of developing congenital hip displacement so we had to get his hips checked out at three months. 

almost time for the ultrasound

They were perfect. 

Yay!

The next appointment was at the baby clinic. I understood that the appointment was to just pick up photo copies of his records so that I could take them with me to the States and to Curacao, but the ended up giving him his second rounds of shots. Ouchie! he only had his first round 3 weeks earlier and they are supposed to be 6 weeks apart, but since we were leaving and not coming back and all that jazz and because it was vaccination weeks they gave it to him anyway. the saddest part was that I wasn't prepared and I didn't have any medicine for him and we had a dinner appointment and some other stuff came up and so he didn't get any until night time. he was so miserable. I felt terrible. terrible for him, terrible for the Smiths that invited us for dinner and had to have a crying unhappy baby interrupting...

 he is a tough kid though. 

The other stuff that came up was that we got pulled over! that never happens in Bonaire but we did and it turns out the car we were borrowing (we sold our truck at the beginning of April) wasn't registered and all this stuff. we got it all worked out, but it was nerve racking because it happened 4 days before we were leaving the island and we have seen people get pulled off of planes for unpaid parking tickets. we for sure didn't want that to happen to us. 

what else... the car we were borrowing also gave us lots of grief. it died ALL of the time and then wouldn't start. Brandon and I got really good at the old push-start-pop-the-clutch trick. we even got so good we could do it when we were just by ourselves. luckily it was a small enough car that I could run behind it and get it going fast enough that I could just in an pop it. It was pretty stressful, but looking back it is kind of hilarious....crazy americans....

Brandon had his first real patient. our really good friends have 3 kids and the middle one, Don, fell and spilt his head open when brandon and i were there and brandon got to doctor him up. i'm so excited for him to be a real doctor. he really is a natural.

Donny all bandages up

Our last saturday we of course went to the beach. we almost didn't make it because of the car, but we persevered and had an awesome time.

Brandon and the young men

Our last sunday was pretty emotional for me. I got to give a talk and I pretty much cried the whole time. I love the people there so much and was super sad to leave them.

-oh yeah, we also had a branch party/going away party that was really sweet, but Brandon was feeling super sick so he couldn't make it. They made a slide show of our time there and sang us a song. We are going to miss our little branch so much.

we loved our time in bonaire.

one day at a time

last week was rough. I had to go back to work and it was torture to be away from my sweet baby! plus I didn't get to eat lunch with Brandon at school either. For the past two months brandon and I would walk to Brandon's school and bring him his lunch and eat with him and I really missed that family time! Luckily though I only have 7 working days left! 

What makes me feel better about leaving Fletcher is that he is with a super awesome family. There is an amazing medical school family with 3 kids in our branch that is from Idaho. The kids are 5, 3, and 1 and they LOVE Fletcher. Marielle, the mom, is super cool. We actually have a ton in common and I feel very comfortable leaving Fletch with her. 

Fletcher had his two month check up and shots last week. My little man is 60cm (23.75in) and 6kg (13lbs 4oz)! He is up more than 6lbs and 4.5ins! He is growing fast! He took his shots pretty well. He was pretty angry when he got poked. I've never seen him so mad. His face got all scrunched and red and he gave us all the stink eye. He ended up getting a small fever and did a lot of whimpering (which is one of the saddest sounds I've ever heard). Thank goodness for baby tylenol!

funniest story ever--so there is this pretty old lady hispanic lady in our branch that only speaks spanish and is super funny. She has been in columbia for the last couple of weeks for surgery on her "lady parts" She was back for the first time this past sunday and she told brandon to come to her house on tuesday at 5pm. I jokingly told brandon that she probably wanted to show him her uterus or something like that. Not a joke! she actually had brandon come in and she went to her fridge and pulled out a jar that had her ovaries in it! for reals. i'm like a psychic or something. so funny. also she gave him a belt that she got while she was in columbia. she is such a sweet lady.

I haven't taken very many pictures this week, so since it's thursday, here are a few throwbacks of baby fletch...

also--I just barely put fletcher down to sleep for the night (which by the way he has been sleeping 7-8 hours straight every night for the past week!) and I just heard a lot of "wet" flatulence. yep. he just did a HUGE poop. ugh little stinker. I don't want to wake him up, but I can't stand the smell!! the joys of motherhood :)

also-also---I found a scorpion in my kitchen the other day! what the crap?

Pasku in the Caribbean

First off--on Saturday Fletcher turned 2 months old! woohoo! Love my little man!

We celebrated Easter with the Branch on Saturday morning by hiking up a giant hill, having a spiritual message, eating a delicious breakfast, and an having an Easter egg hunt! 

We of course also celebrated by going to the beach. no way we were going to break our Saturday tradition.

Easter Sunday was fantastic. The messages that were shared really touched my heart and I had the opportunity to teach the primary children about the first Easter and why we celebrate it. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, the Sacrifice he made, and the gift that we can all be resurrected. 

He is risen!

Happy Easter!

Big news.

Lots of stuff been going on.

I'm going to start off with the bad news....my maternity leave is over. I'm super bummed. But I only have to go back to work for a couple more weeks because.......

Brandon is transferring schools. We are leaving Bonaire as soon as the semester ends. We have been thinking about transferring schools since November of last year and finally made the decision to do it a couple of weeks ago. The school is called Saint Martinus University and is on the next island over called Curacao. We are moving there in July. We checked out the school and Brandon sat through a couple of classes when we went to Curacao to get Fletch his proof of birth abroad and passport. (Which we got in the mail the other day! It's official! We got a legal American baby!) 

Brandon's classes at St. James end on April 26th, SO we have a two month break before his classes start again, SO we are going back to the states!! We are going back to Washington and working for the two months that we are there and enjoying the little things like hot water and warm showers, carpet, and a nice big bowl of cold cereal with REAL milk. 

So far I have been hired for four different jobs. I got hired at the Nike Employee store on the Nike campus in Beaverton, OR, two online tutoring jobs, and as a mommy stroller fitness/running instructor. I decided to turn the Nike job down and take the tutoring jobs and the fitness instructor job. I am so excited because I get to stay home with Fletch and my awesome mother and sister-in-laws and still work and make money. HUGE blessing. And since they are online tutoring jobs, I can keep the tutoring jobs when we move back to the Caribbean so like I said, I can be a stay at home mom and still earn money. WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN!

Also- I got a new calling. I'm the second counsellor in the Primary and I LOVE, love, Love it. So much fun.

We are excited for the new opportunities Saint Martinus offers us, but we are sad to leave Bonaire, especially the Branch. Good thing for Facebook!

Krouties

It was so awesome having Grammie and Papa K here for an entire week! Besides hugging and kissing and holding and playing with Fletcher every chance they got…

We:

ate gelato at Gio’s everyday,

went to the beach almost everyday,

went to the Dutch Bakery more than once,

took a tour of down town Kralendijk and Rincon,

saw more donkeys than they had ever seen in their life,

had a very, very scary encounter with not one, but two fearless iguanas,

went out to eat and jumped of the pier, (Grammie K with her clothes on!)

watched movies and talked about sports,

went to Brandon’s soccer game,

laid out by the pool,

went for a run,

and napped.

We love Grammie and Papa K

Blessing Day

First the basic facts:

Fletcher’s was blessed on March 3, 2013 in the Bonaire Branch in Kralendijk, Bonaire by his father, Brandon.

Those in the Circle: Brandon, Papa Krout, Elder Wayne Smith, President Brian Albus, Brother Hensley Palm, and Brother Daniel Solarin.

Fletcher was dressed in pants, vest, bow tie, and shoes made lovingly by Granna.

The vest barely snapped up!
He is growing so fast.

He was wrapped in a white blanket crocheted by Grammie K

Fletcher cried/whined the whole time he was being blessed. We knew it would happen though. I always feed him right before church and he usually falls asleep and at least makes it all the way through sacrament meeting, but of course he didn’t fall asleep. He was too excited to have his grandparents there!

By the way, I’m so glad that Grammie and Papa K were able to be there. It was so neat to be able to be with them as their first-born son blessed his first-born son. What a legacy! I tried to imagine how they were feeling and how I will feel when Fletcher blesses his children and I felt so overwhelmed with the Spirit and with happiness. How wonderful is this gospel? It truly brings joy.

The blessing was beautiful. Brandon did such a great job. It was a very neat experience to imagine how Fletcher will turn out and what kind of life he will live while his father is giving him a blessing to help him through it all.

I recorded and typed the blessing, so if you want to read it comment or send me an email and I’ll be happy to pass it on.

We were so thankful that Fletcher’s Aunties from school were able to make it. We love Auntie Abbey, Janelle, Kelsey, and Kenisha!

After church we had a small luncheon at the Smith’s house. We had a taco bar and it was so delicious! We were lucky everything turned out though. When we put the chicken in the crockpot in the morning it was frozen and the lid didn’t quite fit on so we just balanced it thinking that as the chicken thawed the lid would fall into place, but instead of doing that it just fell right off, so when we got home the chicken wasn’t all the way cooked! So we had to improvise and hurry and try to cook it and shred it in a frying pan, which worked out just fine. Whew.

After the luncheon we spent the rest of the day napping and loving and playing with Fletcher.

Super Great Day.