Birthday Mania '08!

Triple birthday '08 was a big success! For those who may not know, all 3 of the kids have a birthday in the same week in early July. So between that and the 4th, there's a whole lot of celebrating to do! We decided just to throw one big party for all 3 of them. It was complete pandemonium, but Mom & Dad breathed a huge sigh of relief the next day knowing we got all the birthday parties done for the year in one day! Since the kids were turning 6 and 9, we just sort of shoved a 9/upside down 6 on there. We just hope they're not wishing for another party!

Emma's just a little excited to get to that moment of moments....the opening of the presents!

Exreme slip and slide racing.... we just set everything up in the back yard

We rented this huge inflatable slide. You can get tons of stuff like this from MWR (Morale, Welfare & Recreation, an organization that specializes in entertainment for military families)

Gettin ready for pinata. This is taken from our backyard, you can see the new playground they

installed in the center of sort of a large, shared back yard. It's nice cause they have a playground for about every 10 or 15 houses throughout the complex.

Feel the pinata.......BE the pinata.

Forget Mom & Dad, all this partying just wore Twinkie out! The poor guy recovers

with a little comfort from Andie. Well, it was crazy hosting 8 million kids and you'd think we had a typhoon hit from the massive cleanup underaking, but it was a blast and we can't believe we now have a 9 yr old & two 6 yr olds! That plus our 10th anniversary next month and we're startin to feel.....not as young. That's all right, we're havin' a blast watchin our kids grow up!

Utah trip '08!

Guam doesn't have a monopoly on fun in the sun, the kids were happy to put on the swimsuits in Utah for a change, with cousin Jaden at the Gateway in Salt Lake.

Our trip to Utah was outstanding for many reasons, the best of course was spending time with family. Here we are with James' fam at Wolf Creek. Pictured w/ Shell are James' parents, his sis Court, and nephew Brandon

We got to spend time with almost all of Shell's fam too (her little bro is in grad school in Ohio and couldn't make it), but everyone else was reunited. Here we are at the entrance of Timp cave.

James' Dad celebrated a birthday up at Wolf Creek. All his kids are pictured: left to right: Mike, Court, Jeff, and James (youngest to oldest).

Shell was way excited to meet her 2 new nephews, who live in Utah but

were born after we moved to Guam. Shell's mom Kathy holds Landon and Memphis

Jordan and uncle Mike up at Gram & Gramp David's in Holladay

Shell's little sister Christy w/ hubby Sterling and Shell's older brother Aaron in the background

The girls with cousin Audrey

Shell w/ James' sister Michelle.

After family, the next best thing about Utah is the mountains! We couldn't get enough, but we tried to go on many different hikes up several canyons around Salt Lake.

Here is Emma up Milcreek canyon.

Mount Olympus is always a great sight to see when we come home. James and his fam grew up at the foothills of this mountain as the Davids have lived here (w/ Jordan pictured here in the front yard), at this home in Holladay for almost 35 years.

On the Timp Cave hike in American Fork Canyon

More of the Timp hike

Andie riding a horse in American Fork. This was at the parent's place of some good friends of ours from Ohio State, Jeremy & Erin Lamb. It was great to see them and many other friends on our trip.

Finally, what's a Utah trip without Lagoon?

Well we can't say enough how amazing our trip back home was. This summer marks half way through our Navy obligation, and after 4 years of grad school in Ohio and 2 of our 4 Navy years in the bag now, it's exciting for us to think that we may be returning to Utah (or at least a neighboring state) for good in just 2 short years. Until then, it'll just have to remain our favorite vacation spot!

Yellowstone / Tetons

Emma sadly learns what Jessica Simpson still hasn't, that Buffaloes do not have wings...but she still want's em for lunch...with BBQ sauce.

Grandma and Grandpa Patty with most of their grandkids, and some type of wildlife in the background

One of the many rotten-egg smelling steam pots.

Old faithful, strangley reminding us of gas prices.

Michelle K Patty, daughter of Bob & Kathy, is pleased (most of the time) to announce her almost 10 years of marriage to James R David, son of James & Helen David. Reception will be held any night we can get a babysitter, and we would be registered at Target, but since that doesn't exist on Guam, you can just send us cash.

Andie, on her first summit..without oxygen!

Jenny lake, Teton Nat'l Park. We took a boat across the lake, then hiked

a couple miles into the Teton Forest, it was cold, but beautiful.

These pictures are a summary of our Wyoming trip with most of Shell's family. The kids had a blast in Yellowstone. We could've spent a week there but only had one day. We then stayed in Jackson hole and hiked the Tetons. It was a great trip as part of our vacation back home. We're so glad we got to spend so much time with family and it was great Bob got to come up from Houston for this trip.

You can't handle the tooth!

She lost it and didn't even know it! While swimming yesterday, Andie was showing us how long she could hold her breath under water. She popped up out of the water, smiled and we noticed right away...her tooth that had been loose for days was gone! She and Emma then immediately commenced an underwater search and rescue mission diving to the bottom of the pool over and over to look for it, afraid the tooth fairy wouldn't pay up without the tooth. Well, she paid.

Another Sunday morning ready for church! Actually General conference, which is 1 week delayed from Conference in the states so we can watch it recorded at the usual times. 6 pm priesthood/10am general session etc. The kids are slowly starting to pay a little attention....

It's gonna be on a poster somewhere it's so action packed!

That kid in the purple isn't running for the ball....he's running away

he's so intimidated!

# of goals the other team scored............zero.

# of attempts the other team took at the goal..................zero.

Jordan was a little dissappointed at the lack of action this game,

but he did stop 3 goals a few weeks ago. This was his second run at goalie this year. They rotate the position to every kid on the team.

The famous crossed-leg defensive stance...the other team will never expect it!

Finally, click on the link below to see Andie & Emma in their first dance recital held at kids day yesterday. The video lost some of it's quality on Youtube, but the girls are far left.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4c8wuwMlog

Work, Church, School, Play......

The new elementary school being completed this summer.
This is taken from our street 3 houses down from our house.

Morning assembly at Mt. Carmel, the Catholic Elementary

where Shell teaches. She often subs many different grades, but

usually works as a teacher's assistant to a Kindergarten class.

Shell's kindergartners. She loves them, but worries too as this and all local schools here are way behind the states. I guess if they're all equally behind and never move off island....

James clinic/office. It's small, but gets the job done.

They finally got the A/C working again after 2 months,

so that makes the day go a little smoother...and the patients a little happier.

Same room, different angle.

Clinic from the outside. The branch clinic is home to

about 3 family physicians, 1 optometrist, a small lab,

x-ray room, pharmacy, and immunizations clinic.

The best part.....it's half mile from our house.

Talisay Branch. This is a beautiful building. It's great

except during a hard rainstorm...it's so loud on the metal

roof you can't hear the sacrament talks......then again.....

Talisay chapel again...it sits up on a hill, there's

a great ocean view and mountain view, and is made up of

several detached small buildings with open hallways inbetween.

Jotrdan's science experiment: He collected water samples from 1)ocean

2) the bay, and 3) an inlet/pond area. We then baked the water jars for

hours and hours until it evaporated, and we measured the salt in each

jar by comparing their weight to the weight of an empty jar.

The inlet water was dirty (center), but you can see the salt in each jar.

Mccool elementary. This was old barracks converted to a school. We're excited for

the new school which is alot nicer....and will be a 30 second walk from home, whereas this is about a 5 minute drive off base, actually just down the street from our church building.

James was able to take the kids to school the other day cause he spent the day there

screening the kids. He's been there several times with a few eye clinic corpsmen seen here, but today was Kindergarten day! About 100 5 year old's is enough for 1 day...but it was fun

But there's always time for play! The kids wanted to make a super-bed for the cats to sleep in.

Surprisingly they loved it as you can see....I guess heat doesn't bother a guam cat!