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Our trip went very smoothly……..almost, but I’ll share more of that later.  Our 17 pieces of luggage got checked magnificently.  We only had to pay $400 for the 7 extra pieces of luggage, instead of $700.  What a treat!  My family was a huge help getting us to the airport. We decided to keep our van for when we return to the states before Argentina.  So we had our last trek in it to the airport, hopefully it still works for us when we return.  Our flight to FL went really well.  We all napped except Malachi.  He was captivated the whole time by the movie Ratitioulle(or however you spell it).  There was no sound, but he didn’t seem to mind.  We met up with the Elledges in Miami and ended up waiting for our flight, I don’t even remember when we boarded, maybe an hour and a half after it’s original departure time.  We finally boarded and started our little adventure to CR.  The flight went well, all the kids did well—-all of them napped.  I even got to flip through a magazine from the back pocket, my arms and body enjoyed the relaxing time with no lap baby.  Once we started our descent to land in San Jose, the captain announced we wouldn’t be landing because of a security breach at the airport.  He said we’d be circling until we could land, and we had enough fuel to return to Miami if we had to.  So we circled for about an hour and then we were told we may need to refuel up the coast at another airport in CR.  After some tense moments of uncertainty we were finally able to land.  We went through immigration and customs beautifully.  Customs asked us a few questions and waved us(the G’s and the E’s) through and our four huge carts of luggage.  Lots of people were staring at us!  We saw the guy who was picking us up and he took us to the bus he had waiting for us…..it had been waiting several hours.  Oh yeah, I think the security breach was luggage that someone left unattended, they had it checked for explosives.  I think that was the story.  So the skycap guys loaded our luggage on this rack on top of the bus, wow, that was amazing(check out Jil’s pictures).  Then another family arrived and was ready to load.  There wasn’t much room left, but we started shifting some of the things inside around.  They didn’t end up joining, it was a good thing.  We had that bus loaded down!  So the driver tries to get out of the parking garage and soon realizes the luggage on top is not going to clear.  We backed up and tried several different paths in the garage, some ceilings were a little taller than others.  We are almost out and he realizes there is no way we can get out, so Rich and Brian have to take down some of the luggage from the top.  They found a sign from the garage on top of the luggage while unloading some of it.  Very funny.  Rich leaned the sign against a cement wall, maybe we should have taken this token for a good laugh.  So we got out of the airport about three hours after we were expected.   The driver takes us to our apartment first.  We get all unloaded and meet a couple who live in our building and go to the same language school.  Sherri took me to the grocery store, which is right around the corner.  I got some things to hold us over for a few days.  I got back and made PBJ for dinner—the boys ate and it was time for bed.  Brian and I started to unpack.  We went to bed at 11, so no partying for us.  There was lots of partying going on around us—lots and lots and lots of fireworks.  I heard them all the way until 5 this morning.  I’m hoping tonight might be a better sleep—-no fireworks and I know how to close the windows.  Last night it was so cold (50s) with the windows open and we hadn’t found our top sheet for bed—just the quilt.  I was so cold all night.  Two of the boys were up at 6am—yuck!  We got up and I was so overwhelmed, no soap to wash dishes, our place wasn’t clean and lots of other little things overwhelmed me and I kept crying all morning.  I’m much better tonight.  We have two bins left to unpack.  We have huge closets in the room—lots of storage space!  The third bedroom is really, really tiny.  So we will only use it for Chi to nap in and for some storage.  I cooked dinner tonight, spaghetti.  It turned out okay.  We’ve rearranged furniture and cleaned up some.  I have more cleaning to do, but I’m so tired.  I’m ready for some really good sleep tonight.  Our neighbors have been so helpful, showing us around.  We also met the other people who live here.  The three other apartments are Ticos who are all related.  They were all so friendly and spoke some English too.  I had a pleasant surprise this morning, we have cable and we get HGTV and they had coverage of the Rose Parade.   I got to see some of it while I unpacked.  That was a great little piece of home……my mom always watched this and made quiche on New Year’s Day.  She grew up in Southern CA, so the Rose Parade was always a big deal.  I’m glad I got to see a little piece of home.   Rich and Jil came over today for a little while, we haven’t seen their place yet, hopefully tomorrow.  They’re really close—a five minute walk.  Time for bed…….Thanks for all your prayers.  You all are so wonderful.  I’ll take some pictures of our place tomorrow.