Peru part 1--getting there was half the battle!

Long boring version of just the first part of our trip for documentation purposes.

Strolling at a Park in Lima. My mom, grandma, aunt on the left.

  So we made our trip the long anticipated trip to Peru and back just a week or so ago (it was just a week ago like when I first started writing this like at the beginning of this month..)  I felt this was a trip that needed to happen since I thought it would be good for Jess and I to get in touch with my roots, and I felt it was important for family to meet that little man of ours, since, after all, he is the first great grand child/nephew on both sides of my family. I figure his was our small window of opportunity to head out there while both Hyrum's great grandmas were still around, I was not pregnant or had a newborn, and we didn't have to buy a seat for Hyrum on the plane since he was under 2.
Anyway, so the trip was decided and truth be told I was a bit antsy about it considering a 13 hour flight with a toddler on my lap and taking my family to a place such as Peru...after all, it is uncommon for a traveler, especially from the US to escape Peru without some kind of crazy stomach sickness. But off we went with much prayer and faith that all things could work out.
There were some set backs along the way that made me feel like maybe it there was something trying to tell me not to go. For instance, I had Peruvian passport that needed to be renewed but when I went to take care of that earlier in the year I noticed that my DNI (id card) with which you use to renew your passport had a typo on my birthday, so unless I wanted my 10 yr passport and ID to have an incorrect birthday I would need to get a new DNI. But since it was during Peru's elections time, they did not handle getting new DNIs a broad at the time...so I would have to go to peru to handle all that with a temporary passport.
Another glitch was that I had purchases the tickets under my married name (even though I had filled out the passport info with my maiden name--which didn't even matter since they only check what is print on the paper ticket...), genius, right? Since we had brought our marriage certificate along, the Salt Lake airport let us board and go to L.A. and L.A to Houston.  Houston was a whole other story.  The landing plane had made Hyrum quite air sick and so that clean up delayed us getting off that plane.  Jess  headed straight to the gate to get our boarding passes and I straight the the bathroom with Hyrum to change our puke clothes. When we came out of the bathroom Jess was anxiously waiting to letting me know that they wouldn't let us on the plane because my passport didn't match (if you are flying internationally don't be such a 'genius' like me and not have those two match). So off we ran to the ticket counter to see if we could get a ticket name change before our plane left us.  Come to find out that they recently changed their policy and don't do those anymore. They told us that we would have to buy a set of new tickets with the correct name and fly another day.  "They've got to be kidding us..," I thought.  By then it was a full 24 hours without sleep and I just walked away quite stoic as tear rushed down my face. I really started thinking that perhaps this wasn't meant to be. Perhaps there is wisdom in not going to Peru, I mean, anything could happen to us down there. Anyway, call it sympathy from the nice flight attendant who noticed my tears, our little boy or crummy situation, or just the miracle it was, she postposed jess' flight for the next day, she did some illegitimate trickery and rebooked mine with my right name on my boarding pass for that following day and got us discounts at the Marriot Hotel for the night...So blessed indeed we were and we were headed to Peru after all!
The Hotel stay must have been a blessing in disguise. We got some much needed rest, we took it easy that morning, went swimming, ate a delicious breakfast, got ready and headed for the airport feeling much more refreshed.  The flight was delayed like 3 hours due to weather before we were able to get on the plane and once on the plane it was another 2 hours before we took off because of all the backup...so we arrive in Lima Peru at 3 am, my poor mom and brother that so patiently waited for us all night long.  But we made it!!