We made it...just barely!

All I can say is, I NEVER want to make that trip again...unless it is to leave this island for good.

We started our adventure off Monday at 2 pm when we left Jaron's parents' house for the airport in Salt Lake. The drive was mellow - the boys watched a movie and Gracen pretty much just slept. We got to SLC at about 6 PM and dragged our many suitcases to the counter to check in. At this point, Gracen started getting really upset. It took us 1 WHOLE HOUR to check in while Gracen screamed. She was hungry but by the time I could feed her, she was too angry. This = NOT A HAPPY BABY and therefore, NOT A HAPPY MAMA! The whole hold up was that we had a one-way international ticket for Gracen but no proof of her residency abroad yet. They finally let us go, after a little luggage re-arranging when they insisted that Gracen's bag could only weigh 20 lbs since we didn't pay a full ticket for her.

Our first flight was only an hour, to Denver. Our next flight flew from Denver to Atlanta and left at 1 AM. That flight was non-eventful. Everyone slept and even I managed to get some shut-eye the last hour of the flight, until I got woken up by a neighboring passanger peeling Eli off the floor. He'd slid off the seat while I was asleep! Our third flight left at 11 AM and arrived in St. Maarten at local time 3:00. When we got to St. Maarten, we collected our 6 suitcases and hooked them all together. Jaron stayed to wait for the last two bags while I went to find us a taxi. Just think what that looked like! Enter train Brunson: a double stroller with two little blondie boys in it. Then comes Momma with a baby strapped to her chest. Next comes 6 suitcases in a long line, all connected one behind the other. Needless to say, we produced more than one or two laughs before we found our way to the taxi.

We got over to the boat with just enough time to spare for bathroom breaks. The first 2 minutes of the boat ride was awesome - Alden and Eli were having a ball. Then the waves got so big that we were getting soaked so we went down inside the boat where the boat's captain arranged the luggage so that the boys could sit on it. The waves were GINORMOUS and within seconds, I was so sick that I had to sit down. I took a little boy's seat and was so incredibly nauseaus that I was cold-sweating and weak. Pretty soon Alden started crying because his leg had fallen asleep from sitting in such an awkward position. So then Eli started crying. A sweet little girl gave them her seat but I was too weak to lift Eli into the seat next to me - the young girl had to! I was too weak to even pat Gracen's back so that she could fall asleep! I couldn't open my eyes and see the rocking boat so I kept calling to Jaron to come and help me with the kids. I was informed Jaron was in the bathroom vomitting. Jaron never emerged from the bathroom the entire trip. THANKFULLY, the kids didn't get sick and slept on and off throughout the ordeal. When Jaron and I got off, we concurred that the experience must be what hell is like and we agreed never to set foot on that boat again. YUCK.

Fortunately our great friends Heather and Rachel came down to the dock and took half our luggage to our house for us. We had planned on taking two trips but Jaron was in no shape to drive two trips! I can never be thankful enough for good people in our lives!

We moved into a new house in The Level. It's a two bedroom and a little cheaper. So far we love it! The house is cute and clean (well, it will be once all our stuff finds a place). There are 3 other student wives who live in The Level so it's nice to be within walking distance of them. The community garden is also just across the street, where I can go and buy vegetables for a little cheaper than in the store. One of our neighbors has 3 little boys and they have a yard with a trampoline and plenty of big trucks for our boys to borrow. Another one of our neighbors has a yard full of fruit trees - bananas, lemons, oranges, tangerines, tangeloes, grapefruit and several different mangoes. The lemon tree was laden with fruit so I asked for a few and he gave me a whole bag full! That's before I realized we have our own lemon tree!! And banana trees as well. Yippee!

Also, I found out that our old neighbors now run one of the hotels on the island. They've invited us to swim whenever we want! Double yippee because even though it's January, it's HOT here! Yesterday was overcast and I was thinking January would be pleasant but today is HOT again - bummer! I'll post pictures of our house as soon as I get caught up with everything here.

7 days into 2010 and life is NUTS already!