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 Rachael:

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 her she was being recorded. :)

And this from Melanie Royal:

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.

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

Try either one, cause they live together you know! So 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'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

Tiffanie here - Just wanted to post the last photos I was able to take of Jacob and Rachael 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 Rachael and Jacob! 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.


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.... (with a little vanilla stevia, thanks to Kristi Approved for introducing that into my life. Very glad I brought that from the US, although I don't think it will last me through our stint in Chile...)

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!