An insane week one….

Denver – LAX – Nadi (Fiji) – Suva (Fiji)

After an emotional and wonderful 3 weeks of good byes, the family Erikson – Boettcher took off from Denver with 7 checked bags and 6-8 carry-ons (by the time we arrived in Suva, I completely lost track and just hoped to god that they were in the van) for Suva, Fiji.

On the way to DIA (notice the smile that is masking a deep deep fear of the next 24 hours )

Needless to say, the flight from LA to Fiji was epic……we had a full middle row and a block of time between 2am-5am somewhere over the Pacific where all hell broke loose (we even got yelled at by someone….at that point, it was like, sure..why not, yell at us, that should help), but we held it together and the kids somehow got back to sleep allowing us to land in Nadi, Fiji………..still married.  Amazing.

From there, we had to find all of our bags and then someone to help haul everything over to the domestic terminal which was a few city blocks away and resembling a small auto shop:

Domestic Terminal at Nadi International Airport

Our ride to Suva (from Nadi).

From Nadi, we took 30 minute flight across the island to Suva.  Again, everyone hit their mark, bags arrived and we found ourselves in a van on the way to our new house at 14 Vui Vui Road.

14 Vui Vui Road

Back in late September, we signed a lease on the house sight unseen (with a few random pics and some testimonials from some of Abby’s colleagues).  The alternative being upwards of 3-5 months in temporary housing till a place came up for rent.

For some reason, there was more excitement than fear and it turned out to be the right emotion as the house was beyond belief amazing.

Front of the house:

Tree House / Playground in front yard (to left of house)

Will in Tree House:

Lucy being super adorable in her new sunnies:

Back of the house (The tiki hut could double as an office for any of you ‘remote’ workers…just sayin’):

Kids getting ready for first dip in pool (safety first)!

Lucy Pool Jump Video!  Check out this 5 second video of Lucy’s first pool jump!

Lucy Pool Jump

Back of the house 2:

Our landlord are an amazing Fijian couple named Tanya and Peni who took us under their wing and showed us absolutly everything we needed to know.  They couldn’t possibly be more generous as Tanya literally took my hand and showed me almost every super market, market, coffee shop, hardware store, spice store, another super market (where they had the best trash bags…..apparently, the Chinese know how to get good trash bags for cheap), another for good cheap kids stuff….you get the picture.  She also took me to get set up with water delivery, propane delivery, internet service….etc.

Thank god, because by Monday morning (mind you we arrived on Friday) Abby was off to work and the kids were off to school.

First day of school – Kid’s First Fiji

Needless to say, we were nervous about dropping the kiddos off at school 3 days after landing.  We initially planned on only sending Lucy, but after seeing how Will adjusted (he is a madman), we decided to keep them together and bring them both to school Monday morning.

Honestly, this is how we entered school on day one (pretty sure the sunnies gave them confidence as it all went down from here….until I left of course….a sweaty shell of a man):

After some serious clinging, they released me and the kids became kids again and had a great time (says Clancey to himself).  Anyways, the school is small, professional, lots of sweet women teachers, kids from all over and it is close to home.  Not to different from Lucy’s last school in Platt Park.

After dropping off the kids, I walked to blocks to the water, waited for 30 minutes for a panic call to come back and walked home along the water (there is a great bike path that follows the sea wall) all the way home.

 

Visit from The First Lady (Oct 28)

Abby and I were enjoying our first lunch together when I received a call from Tanya asking if I could be at the house in 15 minutes as she was with the First Lady and wanted to come by to see the house and meet the family (they had been at lunch with Tanya’s mother who is a big deal politically).  Not to dissimilar to the reactions to much that has happened the past two months, we kind of giggled and said, “I/you gotta go”.  So, I hopped in a taxi and arrived at home minutes ahead of the First Lady’s rig.

Tanya and Lucy gave her a tour of the house and then we sat on the 4 chairs we have in the house and talked about the house, our move, local politics and then she was off, but not before some pics and hugs from Lucy

Here is Lucy in mid tour giving Adi Koila Nailatikau a big hug:

Here is a few more on the back porch:

….and bare feet was totally kosher.