House hunting...again!

Today we went house hunting again. I think we've finally decided on a house in Adarsh Vista. Our kids walked through it with us and they each picked out which room is theirs. It doesn't have much of a yard, but it is 4 bedrooms and the clubhouse isn't too far of a walk.  When we walked around the clubhouse the kids just wanted to swim. I told them if they were good for the rest of the day we would swim when we got back to the hotel. They were really good kids. Thank you Grandma for the DS's. Ethan was so excited to show our driver, Rama, how his DS worked. While we walked through one of the houses, he sat in the car and played the DS with him. I'm pretty sure Rama wants one for his birthday.
This is Annie's new trick that she did while we were at the pool tonight. She crawled over to the chair and pulled herself up.
The kids love having the pool. Tonight Ellie has now decided that instead of Fun City she wants to go swimming and to the Spa for her birthday. It's only 4 days away as she keeps reminding me. I'm not sure what to do.

Everywhere that we go, people are obsessed with Annie. When we go to eat, all of the waiters stop and talk to her, and if I'm holding her they take her from me and walk around the restaurant with her. Yesterday when we went swimming this lady (I'm not sure what her name is, but I'm sure she works at the hotel) was down there and took Annie over to the pool. Annie cried and cried so when we went swimming tonight she tried to take her again. Annie liked it this time and made the lady really happy.  Ellie and Maddie have also made friends with a girl that lives near the hotel. Their family has a membership at the club here and come swimming everyday. We now have arranged to meet them for swimming tomorrow at 4:00.

We tried so hard to keep them awake tonight. They crashed at 7:00. Hopefully they will sleep longer than they did last night.

WE'RE HERE...now what?

So yesterday was our real first day here where we had the chance to be awake all day. Our time schedule has really been messed up. Anyway, today we ventured out. We went to breakfast at the hotel, and Maddie had a waffle and it tasted like a real waffle! HURRAY!! Ellie tried a Dosa. It looks like a  crepe, but without any filling, and tastes more like rice. Then we had a call saying our car was waiting for us. Alan went out to tell him that we would be probably another hour before we were ready to leave, and when he talked to him he saw the car that we were supposed to go in. The brand is a TaTa and it has 4 seats. It kind of looks like Jake's Civic. He mentioned to the driver that there are 4 children and 2 adults that were going and he said I know. Needless to say Alan got on the phone and we ended up with a Toyota Innova. (India's type of Minivan.)  We took some laundry out to get washed. It will be ready on Thursday, Alan will have to be back to work by then so I guess it's up to me to figure out how to pick it up. I'm not sure I'll have a driver.

After we got our laundry taken care of, we went to the Oasis which is a sort of mall. On the first floor there are perfumes and womens clothing, on the 2nd floor is the childrens clothing and shoes, I can't remember what is on the 3rd floor, but the 4th floor is a grocery store and on the 5th floor is:

I took these pictures, and after I took them, I got told there are no cameras allowed. So I had to quit.

The kids had a blast. Ellie has decided that she wants to come here for her birthday.

After Fun City we hit the grocery store. That was an adventure in itself. I knew there are many types of rice, but I had no idea how many types of flour there can be. The closest thing I could find that looked like normal flour was corn flour or rice flour.  I did see a lot of wheat, that could be ground up, but I don't have a grinder. Maybe I'll be able to find one, or maybe I can find 2 rocks :)

By the time we got done shopping we had a cart full. We couldn't remember what level our driver was on and we couldn't take the shopping cart on the elevator to find him. Finally we figured it must be level 1 that the driver was on so we got on the elevator and the grocery worker took our cart and walked down the levels to level one with our groceries.

We got back to our hotel at about 3:00 and the kids were starting it hit a wall. We really wanted to keep them awake so Alan took them down to the pool while I unpacked our food. They swam until 5:00 and then I made us some dinner and we tried to keep their eyes open until at least 7:00. At 7 they were out and by 3:00 this morning they were running around. Maybe we can make it until 8 tonight. :) 

And we're off!!!

 June 25th we flew out to India. We loaded all of our luggage into my parents Expedition, and we all rode in the minivan, one last time, to the airport. 
 This is Maddie helping carry luggage out to the car.
 SLC airport with all of our luggage. 12 checked bags and 6 carryons.
When we got to the airport and started checking our luggage in, they weighed it all to make sure it didn't go over 50 lbs/bag.  Ethan was very interested in the scale so he decided to start weighing himself.
 Then Maddie and Ellie had to try. Then they started weighing each other together, with and without their backpacks on, etc.
My dad was trying to entertain while we checked the bags.  He also gave grandma a ride on the cart.
Once we got through security we had a 1/2 hour to wait until we boarded.  The kids found the play area and were completely entertained.

We flew from SLC to LA and then onto Singapore.  Maddie had problems with her ears on the flight from SLC to LA. She cried a little bit when we first took off, but was able to stick her finger in her ear and pull it out fast to make it pop. About 20 minutes left in that flight they started to hurt again. She started to cry and cry and CRY. Pretty soon I could see everyone on the plane start looking at their watches. I'm sure they were glad to see that flight end.  When we landed in LA we gave her some Motrin for her pain. We decided that we should get something to eat for our last meal in the US. Because we were flying Business Class, they have a lounge you can go to and get food. 
Our next flight was on Singapore Air. It was a GREAT FLIGHT!!! The next few pictures are from that flight. Annie fell asleep during take-off, so I was able to make her a bed in the seat next to me. We layed it down into the bed and lined the edges with pillows. I told Alan I was going to go to sleep while she was so that when she woke up I would be able to stay up with her. She slept for 7 hours, and so did I.

Our kids thoroughly enjoyed all of the Business Class perks! This is Ethan trying to put on the slippers while watching "Monsters Vs. Aliens". I think he watched it 3-4 times by the time we got to Bangalore.
This is Maddie eating her watermelon and watching the movie too. Her ears didn't hurt near as bad on this flight, but she did get a pretty bad bloody nose. Maybe Maddie wasn't ment to fly.
Ellie loved the setup and mentioned that this is how she wants her bedroom to be.

Ethan decided that he wanted to watch a movie with Alan. He also enjoyed one in my seat along with Annie after we woke up.
Everytime Annie fussed, or acted like she was getting board, the stewardess would take her and walk around the plane with her. They all would take her from each other. This is one of them and she wouldn't let me carry her off the plane. 
Once we got to Singapore, we found a Burger King for lunch/dinner/breakfast. By this time our timing was all mixed up. It was 5:00 a.m. Singapore time, but around 3:00 p.m. SL time. It's a good thing Burger King serves hamburgers 24 hours a day.

After this we went and got a hotel room in the Singapore Airport. They only would let 3 people be to a room, so we had to get 2 rooms. Ellie and Maddie stayed in a room that had 2 twin sized beds. Me, Alan, Ethan and Annie stayed in the other room. We slept until about 4 hours before our next flight. Our original plans were to tour Singapore while we waited for our flight, but we were too exhausted and we overslept. After wandering around Singapore Airport, we found a place to have dinner. Alan and Ethan had Sushi and the girls and I had Burger King once again.  After we got done eating, Ellie had the quote of the trip. "Wow, they sure do serve alot of fish here. Do you think there is a pond near by?" to which I replied, "Yes, it's called the ocean."

We got on our last flight and the kids were pretty excited to get to India.

Once we finally got to our hotel, it was 11:45 p.m. on the 27th. We started to unload a few bags and realized that the powder gatorade and the powder baby formula we had bought had been squished and exploded all over the bag.  I had snuck some Dr. Pepper into the bag and as we unloaded it I handed it to Alan with a "Happy Anniversary".

Boondocks

On Wednesday the 24th Alan's office had a Summer Family Party at Boondocks. The kids had a blast. They played on the bumper boats, the race cars, mini golfed, and played arcade games.  I forgot to bring my camera, but I took some pictures on my phone. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get them off the phone and onto the computer.

Birthday Party

We had a really cute family move into our ward not too long ago. Their son Ethan has the same exact birthday as Maddie.  As we were getting ready to move Ethan's mom came to me and asked what I was doing for Maddie for her birthday. I told her that I wanted to do a party, but that I was running out of time, and we would probably end up not having one.  She came to me and told me that she hadn't planned on doing a big party for Ethan, but wondered if Maddie would like to have combined party with him.  Maddie was really excited.
 They got together and made birthday cards and then delivered them all on the day of our storage shipment. Thank you so much Emily for making such a fun party!
Maddie had a fun birthday with many wonderful gifts from so many great friends.
We ate pizza and shaved ice, played duck duck goose and red rover

Here is Maddie with her good friends Elizabeth and Andrea
All of the kids who came to the party!

Storage Day

On June 16th and 17th we had our Storage Shipment packed and taken off. Once again we had the big truck parked in front of our house to fill it up. The first day they sent out a crew to pack it all into boxes, and the second day a crew to carry it all out to the truck.  The sides of the truck came off and inside it had crates that they put all the stuff in.
Once again, it took only 1 man to move the monster of a desk that it took 6 men to put in.
He was pretty proud of his maneuvers and posed for a picture. Then he asked me to take a picture on his phone so he could show his GRANDSON.
 I once again made the movers pose for a picture.

Bye Bye. We'll see our storage in 2 years!!

Dinner with friends

Tonight we got together with our friends from the neighborhood. We have got such great friends here and we will really miss them. Thank you guys for all that you have done for us the past 5 years that we have been here, and for being willing to help out the past few months. We are going to miss the summer trips and the Valentines party for sure! You'll have to let us Skype into the parties!!

Another Busy day!

Now that we have finished our shipment, we needed to finish up with our other preparations. Today was our last shots. The kids have all been getting Rabies shots because of the monkeys and stray dogs that are all over Bangalore. I decided to take my (Ellie's) camera to let the kids be able to remember all the shots that they had to get to go. I took before and during pictures of all of them. They were all (for the most part) really brave.
 Ellie went first and was pretty brave. She did ask for Alan to give her a hug while she got the shot, but she was really proud of herself for not crying.

 Maddie was like stone. If you know her personality, she is always trying to one up her sister. She was great. She didn't even want Alan to hold her hand.

Ethan did pretty well too. He was really nervous about getting the shot, and I'm sure was thinking all day long how he was going to get out of it. He kept telling me that he didn't want to go, and I had to drag him in the car. He was pretty sad once they gave him the shot and he just kept telling me, "Mom, that needle really hurts." I'm sorry bud!

Poor Annie had no clue what was going on. She sat down on Alan's lap and was fine until she got pricked. I took the picture a half a second too soon. She still looks like she doesn't know what's happening in this picture. I think she was pretty offended. She would cry at me, and then be ok for 1 second and she'd look back at the nurse and start to scream again. She looked at me and cried like she was telling me all about it.

After the kids had all of their shots Alan had to get one too for Hepatitis. He was pretty brave too.

Shipping day

After packing up all day on Tuesday, they came back on Wednesday to put it all into trucks to send off.

 This is our Sea Container. We were alotted a 40' container, but we only have enough "stuff" in our house to fill a 20' one.
 They packed it all out into our garage so that they could inventory it all and so that they could weigh our air shipment. We only had so many pounds that we could take air. They would carry out a box and put it on a scale.  After we had all that we could not live without for a month or so, we started putting in bikes and a few extras. The air shipment will hopefully be waiting for us when we get there. They say the sea shipment could take until mid-August.

This is Ellie's electric scooter and Alan's golf club carrier. This is what I image Alan's idea of Spray-on wrapping paper looking like.
 This is some of the movers that came to help us. I made them pose for a picture. I'm sure they loved me. ha ha

 Our kids were wonderful during the whole thing. Ellie and Maddie tended for me for 2 whole days. They played with Ethan and Annie the whole time. I was so glad to have them.

 We rewarded them for their hard work by taking them to 7-11 and letting them pick out any treat they wanted.  Thank you guys for being such great kids!!

At the last minute we decided that we wanted to take the hutch out of Alan's office with us.  There is a story behind Alan's office furniture. When we put it in, we had to take out the window in the office and put it in through the window because of a few reasons. It is so dang heavy and because the desk that is with it was too wide to fit down the hall. It took a lot of people to put it in. I think we had Alan, my dad, my brother Jake, my Uncle Ross, cousin Rossy, Uncle Jim  and Cousin James all lifting it and putting it through the window.

 The movers were able to easily take the top of the hutch up, as we did in putting it in, but the bottom is a beast!!

 I had to put this video on for anyone who helped put it in. They will not believe how they got it out.  UP THE STAIRS for one and it took ONE TONGAN TO LIFT AND 3 GUYS TO GUIDE IT.

 

After they were done moving it out to the garage, I told Fred, the Tongan, that I couldn't believe how strong he was. He said "I was really strong when I was 22, but now that I am 63, not that strong."