New Experiences Every Day!

Hey everyone!! Hope all is well with all of you, we love you all and miss you very much! It is hard to be so far away from family when it is Christmastime! Merry Christmas to you and a Happy New Year, Feliz Navidad y Feliz Ano! I have my first Spanish lesson tonight with Gisele, she is a very sweet Sister in our Branch here who has offered to teach me Spanish and I am so excited! I am finally starting to feel like I am getting somewhere with the language, my vocabulary is increasing and I think I am going to be able to learn to speak quickly as I study more and dedicate myself to consistant, everyday study. So, things are going pretty well, we have our ups and downs but mostly ups, so that is good. We feel the Lord is with us and we are so thankful for all of the blessing we receive every day. We are all learning to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding, in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will and is directing our paths. We feel the strong need to lean on His knowledge every day and to be willing and ready to follow the quite promptings we receive. It has really been so awe inspiring to see the Lord answer so many prayers and to do so many times directly after prayer or fasting. I feel the need to tell all of you how much I love Him and Honor Him, I feel like singing praises to Him night and day. Sometimes those songs are full of just love and gratitude and other times full of longing to be with Him again one day and to have the power of His Spirit with me now. I am so thankful for all of you and your great support and love! Thank you for all of your prayers and all of the great generosity and blessings that you have sent our way.
So, now for the juicy details of our crazy lives....
Christmas was a wonderful day! Thank You to our dear and eternal friend Tiffanie who posted a little tid bit for all of you and for encouraging calls! We would love to hear from any and all of you! The part she posted about Christmas morning taking awhile was heard backwards, we actually didn't have any presents to unwrap so we had a very peaceful and relatively quite Christmas morning. We went out to the pool and had a beautiful Christmas Day Devotional. We sang, read scriptures and stories about love and testimony, then we all took turns "giving our gifts to Jesus" It was really wonderful! We did a similar devotional Christmas Eve Morning and then did the Nativity and such that evening. It was really a Spiritual Christmas this year and I so thankful for it. I truly love my Savior and this time of the year we have to reflect even more on his merciful birth and life. For all of those who sent packages to us for Christmas we want to tell you how thankful we are and that we hope to be able to resolve the issues we are having with JetBox in being able to pick up those packages. So, if you could help us by praying for an affordable solution to the problem and if you wouldn't mind continuing your prayers in our behalf for the many other challenges we are tackling right now, we would be most grateful!!! We love you all so much, Thank You!
Anyway, we went to the beach, as Tiffanie said on Christmas Day and it was great. Dannan, Joey, Jacob, James, and I all got stung by some pretty large Jelly Fish. Mine was really bad and is still there. It has turned into a very itchy rash, but it is getting better now. So, things having be going pretty smooth. We are getting a little more work every week and I hope soon it will be busy. We are still here in Nicoya, all living together in our Swiss Family Robinson House and we are doing well. It is, at times, hard and the kids need a break every now and then from each other but we feel blessed to be together for this time and to be able to practice being extra patient, selfless, and forgiving. The kids still love playing in the pool but they have tamed down quite a bit from when we first got here. We were able to ride the horses that are on the property for the first time 2 weeks ago and have ridden them a couple of times since. It has been fun and we hope to make it a regular activity. Riding around in the jungle is really fun and beautiful. Their horses are very sure footed and will go just about anywhere. Savannah and Mary especially love it and I think it has really helped Savannah to feel a little comfort from her loss from selling our own horses.
It is the dry season now and it hardly ever rains anymore. The weather is warm but usually pleasant and the nights are really nice!!! I like the dry season! The grasses and some of the trees are turning brown but it is still pretty green, by the end of the "summer" (April) everything will be very brown and then the rains will begin again.
Last Thursday the Royal Family loaded up in our van headed up to the mountains! We went exploring and found and saw all kinds of beauty and awe inspiring creations. Probably my favorite thing was playing in the Blue River. It really was blue as the sky but completely see through. The rocks were beautiful, smooth cobblestones in many colors and the temperature of the water was perfect for playing!! We felt so blessed to be able to see such beauty! I can't begin to really give this river justice with my description of it but I will just say that it is the most beautiful river I have ever seen! I can't wait to go back! So, my favorite part about Costa Rica so far, is the amazing beauty and the loving people!
Joey is finally going to be ordained to the Aronic Priesthood this Sunday! I am very excited for him and he is very excited and anxious as well. He has waited a long time for this and I am grateful we finally get to do it!
Toona is a favorite here! Everywhere we go people just can't get enough of him! We think he's a keeper too! It's pretty cute how amazed Ticos are when it comes to blonde hair. The other day we were walking across the border (more on that later) and we walked past a family of Ticos and Savannah looks up at me a little upset and says, hey! That lady just pulled my hair! I just smiled and told her she didn't "pull" your hair, she just couldn't resist touching it as we walked by! It happens quite a bit wherever we go, they just have to touch that hair! It is pretty cute!
So, we had to cross the border into Nicaragua on Tuesday to renew our visas. Online it says that you have to leave the country for 3 days and then come back but we prayed about what to do (we didn't have the money or time to leave for 3 days) and felt like we should leave prepared to stay if worse came to worse but go and try to just cross over and then cross back. Well, we got to the border parked our vehicles (we didn't drive them across because it takes a lot of money to do that) and got out and said another pray about weather or not to take all the stuff with us that we brought for over night stays, well, we felt like we should just bring lunch and go, so we did. Well, it worked out just right! We were able to cross over into Nicaragua and stay for 2 hours and then come back! It was a very cultural experience reminding me of childhood days in Italy! But we did get to use a real toilet, not a hole in the ground, and the toilet was free, we only had to flush it manually with the bucket of water sitting next to the toilet! The resturant we went to was very dirty but the food tasted pretty good! And no one got sick so I guess we did okay! We are still working on getting the license on our vehicles renewed so please pray for us on that one!! It is never the same as what the law says around here, so we get to play the game! Anyway, I have a good feeling that all will work out.
I am loving....
clean, dry laundry from the line
beautiful weather every day
peaceful personal devotionals on our little hill
yummy treats made by me!!
the beach
my wonderful selfless children who were still jumping and beaming with excitement on Christmas morning even when all they had was a stocking and one unwrapped present!!! They are such good kids, I love them!!!
living with my best friend and "sister" who teaches me so much and who loves me and praises me even now after 3 months of having to live with me every day and come to know me intimately!! Thank You Rachael, I love you!!

Love all of You!!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Went to the Beach for Christmas

Hi all, Tiffanie here. :)

I just gave a quick phone call on skype to Jacob's mobile phone. My connection here is having issues, cause my computer's outlet cord has a short and it keeps losing power, But I was able to get in 7 minutes of talking by calling 7 times, 3 times I got through, enough to have this brief transcription from Melanie:

We were nervous for the kids about Christmas but when they woke up this morning they were all excited about their presents and it was great. It took a long time to open presents cause everyone had to take their turn.

That was all I caught, hope I got it right! My audio went bad.

And this from Rachael Meyers:

For Christmas we had our friend over last night and had a dinner and had the nativity and today we just did really simple and went to the beach, Carillo, with four people from our ward. It was overcast so it wasn't sunny but it was great!

I didn't tell them they were being recorded. :)

I never went to Playa Carillo, but here's a link to where it's at and a photo from online.

The RMs live about 5 kilometers southeast of Nicoya. See here.

I wasn't able to get back through after that call - but wanted to tell all of you how you can call them! First, make sure you have audio and a mic on your computer or buy a headset. On the internet download Skype - it's free to download. Set up an account. Once you do that, go to "Add a Contact" and enter the Costa Rica flag, and it will put in their country code of +506. Then add the rest of the numbers -

For the Royal's cell phone - 88088761
For the Meyers' cell phone - 89876261

Try either one, cause since they live together you'll usually be able to get through to who you want to chit-chat with.

You'll have to buy some skype credits to call a cell phone from your computer, but it's pretty cheap - land lines are 2 cents a minute, my call to their mobile in CR was 9 cents a minute.

So go and give them a call! They'll be so surprised and would love to hear from you!!!!

Merry Christmas to all the family and friends of the RMs!

From Jacob Meyer's Facebook

15 December 2010

My friends we are living with in Costa Rica pulled a parasite/worm out of there 2 years old rear end. As in a mosquito laid an egg or planted a maggot in his right bum cheek and started the worm began to 'feast' in it new warm environment. All kinds of fun happening down here.

As some of you have seen from our blog we live out in a beautiful home in the jungle. The down side to that has been some of the insect issues. Right now is mosquito season and we happen to be the nearest easy blood for miles around. We wok...e up one morning to find at least 30 siquito bites on each of the kids. We tried various deet free bug sprays, a natural vanilla formula but without much success. We then tried a 5% deet formula but it was almost useless. After pulling the parasite worm out of one Jame's rear end we stopped fooling around. We bought a bug zapper, got mosiquito netting, plug in Raid repellent for each room, and purchased a can of Off Deep Woods Formula (25% Deet. After all we are in the deep woods). We had so many bugs inside at this point that we would get swarmed just turning on a light after dusk. So contrary to instructions we set up the bug zapper in the kitchen and a marvelous time cheering as each little blood sucker got zapped and burned. The netting was somewhat successful (if the kids don't roll out of it in there sleep) and with the Deep Woods Off they each have fewer than 5 or 6 new bug bites in the morning. After 3 days of leaving the zapper inside we killed most of them so the zapper is now outside. We can now use the lights at night without a problem. We are still examining the children each day for unnatural bumps in their skin that would indicate a maggot nest.

The week before the dog had to go to the vet. He pulled 15 worms out of her. Can't let your pets sleep outside during 'siquito season. So my wife, all the kids, and the Royal family watched and lear...ned. When it came time to do it for one of the children it was my 8 year old daughter Mary who remember the step by step procedure or that the vet said to put Vaseline over the hole so the parasite can't breath. Amazing what children can recall. So our wives followed Mary's instructions and it worked!

(Tiffanie here - want to see more parasitic flies? Two videos on YouTube - Here and Here - apologies that they swear some in the second video.)

Angels in Costa Rica

Just wanted to post the last photos I was able to take of Dannan and Melanie in Costa Rica - as they helped us get to the airport...


The RMs, as the Royals and Meyers have come to be know on my blog, have been a big time blessing in my life in so many ways. On Thursday they blessed us by taking me and the kids to the airport. Jacob and Dannan let the kids abuse them (see Wes in the above photo? He's got Jacob's legs) Rachael changed Lily's diaper, Melanie and Rachael helped me fill out 8 boarding pass papers with our Chile address and everyone's passport #s. My hands were totally shaking during that - I think I was now feeling the stress, but they pulled me through the toughest part of checking in luggage and walked us to security.

We said goodbye and then as we were taking off our shoes and checking in then Ethan looked at me with an expression of panic on his face... he started to cry "MAX!!!!" He left his webkinz cocker spaniel stuffed dog, lovingly named Max, in the van. The RMs were still there making sure I got through security, I yell over "Ethan left a stuffed dog in your car!!!" and off they go running to our rescue again. I pace for a few minutes, not knowing how long it will take. Hmm, I'm thinking we can't wait... "Eth, I think they had to park far away! I don't think we can wait... Max will be safe with them, we'll have them send him in the mail, we gotta go!" I go to tell Melanie to just keep him and we'll get him later, but she says "They got it right here!" and here they are back lickity split and Max was returned. Ethan gave him a big hug. A small miracle for Ethan, I look at him amazed and said "You said a prayer, didn't you!!" We smile, finish going through security, and are on our way to Chile.

Bye Costa Rica and all the friends we've met here. We will always remember our time here. Para siempre Dios este con voz. Feel free to continue to read up on us when you have a chance at our Blog - Our Life With 7 Kids

Hasta Luego Costa Rica! Vamos a Chile! It will be a grand adventure. Miss you already Dannan and Melanie! Take Care, keep in touch, and we will see you again!

Praying for Miracles, and it works!

I think I'll let Rachael and Melanie post the details about this little story. If they are too slow and you're dying to know the story, feel free to send them threatening emails.

(Rachael and Melanie, here are your instructions: Go to the posting tab, click "edit posts", click on the word edit by the post titled "Praying for Miracles and it works" which should bring up this window for you to edit the text and photos. :)

As we were getting ready to leave the Samara beach...


And then....


Tiffanie was quite amused that there were 5 horses grazing on the town soccer field...




We called the guys....


We are so thankful for answered prayers!!

A Sunny Beach Day!!!

On Tuesday on our way back from Samara, the RMs and I decided we should get together again this week and have a girls night out for the Moms. We thought it would be best to do it in Villareal at our place. And, if they are gonna drive all the way out here anyway, anyway, that we might as well all just go to a beach too? So it was arranged. Playa Flamingo, and let's get all our American friends - the Martinsens and the Heathman's to come too. So it was. We got there around 1 and stayed until sunset (5:30). With our big group it looked/sounded like Raging Waters - water splashing, kids squeeling. It was great.


Couldn't have asked for a better beach day than Friday - it was a BEAUTIFUL DAY!!!! It was sunny! There were hardly any clouds in the sky.

Melanie and Dannan and kids had so much fun - they were out in the water most all the time so these are about as good of pictures as I got of them. It was fun to watch their family all play together - Tuna stayed with the Nursery group on the sand... The Santa Cruz Branch President, Pres Lopez, played there with the babies digging and patting sand. He was so cute with them!


Making sure they get sand everywhere they can!!

The kids worked the last hour or so on some sand forts for a mudball fight. Here's Michael's fort.

When the mom's said it's time to go at 5, they hurried and had their war. We're doing the best we can to not miss out entirely on all the winter activities...

Abi found a hermit crab - she's so proud of herself!

Sunset was beautiful!!!!

Pics of Samara

Boys Bangin' Coconuts

The boys love getting down coconuts and cutting them open. It's cute. And all the rest of the kids love to stand around and watch the process.

You can see Joey enjoying the show. Michael working up a sweat - can you see it dripping down his face?


Michael kept one and Joe took another one home, worked on it for an hour...


and I was then treated to a delicious tropical smoothie this morning: Papaya, coconut water, bananas, and pineapple! Mmmm....

Samara - The Drive Down

Hi there, Tiffanie here with a post from our beach day on Tuesday.

Leaving the home in Nicoya -

Ready to leave. Everything looks normal here, Officer (right?) Just don't anyone say "Hey kids!" to the crowd in the back or it'll totally blow our cover.


Woah, woah! How many kids you have in there? There are 14, Mr. Officer, sir. Those children two years and under are secured in car seats on the van benches. The rest will have to fend for themselves as they are all in a pile in the back. What are ya gonna do? We gotta get to the beach somehow, and we can't leave them or make them walk, right?

First, gotta fill'er up. Then to the Maxi Bodega (CR version of Walmart) for 4 loaves of bread for sandwiches and lots of Pozuelo cookies. The kids were jammin' to Ace of Base while we ran in for food. Made us Mom's laugh. They are having fun, we love it.

Driving through the city of Nicoya - this is the main road through town

It's about an hour drive from Nicoya to Samara. It is a beautiful drive, similar to going up a canyon in Utah in that you're winding your way around the corners and streams. Different in that in Utah you're going up or down the mountain. Here on the drive to Samara, you are going up and down the whole time, like a roller coaster, going up the hill and then down the hill and up the little mountain and down over the bridge, I almost felt dizzy on some of the really curvy parts.

I also was quite distracted by the scenery - I'm too much like my Dad that way. I was in my car following the RMs, and they were frequently out of sight cause I was looking around and (tisk tisk) trying to take pictures. Listen, it's not my fault... there's no space on these roads to pull over for a quick stop, nor is their any shoulder to squeeze onto for a moment to snap a photo, so I did the best I could snapping with one hand holding the camera and the other hand on the steering wheel. I really wish I could have stopped, it was beautiful. Like a fairytale. Maybe like a tropical version of the rolling hills of England, cows grazing, beautiful slopes and hills, small cottages t

They have small trees that double as their fence posts, so that's what the blurry images getting in the way of these gorgeous hills are. Look close, can you see the hill behind? It was so pretty. I wish I could go again and walk and take pictures with a really good camera. Maybe I can find some online quickly...

I also thought someday I'd love to come here at night, take a blanket, and lay down on one of the hills and just stare at the stars. I'm sure they've got to have a lot of stars visible here, there are hardly any houses or lights. It was beautiful. Could be my promised land if I was a Pilgrim looking for a place to freely live my life and worship God. But I'm married to a Puritan, so I'm a Puritan also. Do you know what the difference is between Pilgrims and Puritans? Corey will tell you, or I can too. Listen to Michael Medved's Thanksgiving Lecture. Corey is a Puritan, and thus so am I, that's why we're off on another adventure next week!

Samara Beach

Today we went to Samara Beach - wanna know what makes for a great day at the beach?

3 Mom's from Utah

Bread, PB&J, 8 packages of Pozuelo Cremas cookies, diapers, wipes, folding chairs, um, what else did we pack?

Oh yeah, 19 kids.
It looked like a school class field trip! Love it.

Kids eating dirt (mostly that was just kids under 2 years old)


Kids having a mud-ball fight, since there's no snow.


James playing hop scotch!


...and kids just getting dirty! Yeah!

I took lots of pictures, wanted to get some uploaded before I go to bed. I'll post more tomorrow!