Phillipines girls trip

I work as a Kindergarten aid at the Elementary School on base; one of the kinder aids in our group of 5 is Phillipino and invited all the Aids to take a Vacation to the Phillipines! And being the spontaneous, crazy girls we are, we said yes! So, Niah, me, April, Leslie and Ghia had a Ladies weekend out. Here we are in the Guam airport.

After arriving in Manila, we hopped in Ghias sister's car and loaded all of our empty luggage on top of us (because alas, we came to SHOP!) and headed 2 hours away to a mountain bed & breakfast called Sonya's Secret Garden. Can we say Beautiful?!

They made us get our own very fresh, very organic eggs for breakfast. mmmmm

We stayed in 4 bedroom villa. Yep, I am spoiled! Someone please come and open the door for me... Oh and what time was my second massage again?

Our villa entrance..
Looks like a hotel right? Nope this whole thing is ours!

A volcano in Tagayte
Then on to Makati, near Manila, This was the view from our 5 star hotel room. Oh yeah, did I mention this is all SHOPPING?!
Buying Pearls at Greenhills.
The Makati Shangri-la hotel. Vicki, Ems, Ghia, April, Niah, Leslie, Michelle, Golnara
Thanks Girls for a wonderful trip and thanks Hubby for the vacation, watching the kids and not canceling my credit cards!

Gone fishin'

Happy March from Guam. Everyone's doing good. Here's the latest from us:
Jordan fishing near the Navy base. A lot of casting and tangled lines, not alot of fish...but they had fun.

The girls were so excited to get their hair cut

Andie

Emma

We went back to Haputo beach. No the girls are not in Jr Baywatch tryouts, they're just excited to get their bucket of sand to their castle.

Jordan & his buds hangin in the waves.

Sometimes in life you gotta take the bull by the horns.

And hug your mom.

We visited an old Spanish fort on the cliffs off the western shore.

The David girls hangin at the fort

Some Jedi wear black cloaks, some wear sparkly red slippers.

The girls love dragging out the old costumes

Guam was fortunate enough to get a visit from the Marine's Drum & Bugle Corp. They were awesome.

The official silent drill team were great too.

The beach you see is Asan, the site of the American landing to re-take the island from the Japanese in 1944...sort of the "Normandy of Guam".

Finally, James got to meet his new niece on his recent job hunting trip to Utah. Ruby flanked by proud parents Jeff (James' little bro) and his wife Rachel. Ruby is just one more little reason we are SO excited to be moving back to Utah this summer. Just over 3 months to go!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We know we're a little late, but better late than never. The first picture below is taken at a beach called Haputo, and is basically our postage-free version of sending you a Christmas card:

" Wishing you a warm holiday season...and we know warm!"

We just had to rub it in for our last winter here before we join you all in the frigidness. In all sincerity we do hope you had a great holiday season. Below are more pics:

Just before Christmas the girls made gingerbread houses.

Christmas morning. The girls were so excited for their bikes. Jordan was at the point where sleeping another hour or two might have sounded better..

The girls got new dresses, make up, and new bikes....and of course had to trial all 3 at once! Here Andie in her streamlined pose.

And Emma shows us "No hands"

Jordan playing Halo:Risk w/ friends David & Jacob

Finally, after months of anticipation, they finally got a Basketball league going here. Jordan was so excited to play....but when he heard his team was going to be the Lakers he about reconsidered. After realizing not every kid can be Jr Jazz, he embraced his inner Kobe and began

Shooting free throws to warm up before the game.

So far they have him playing point guard, which he likes alot.

The hike down to Haputo where we took the Christmas card photo.

The David girls

We found cool sea life that day; including a giant yellow puffer fish and this blue starfish that Andie's holding.

Jordan's main Christmas present this year was SCUBA certification. Dad was so excited to finally be able to dive with him. Here on his last training dive at San Luis beach here on base.
Small tank, but small lungs meant 45 min dive no problem.

Dad & Jord ready to go. You can see in the background where the water turns deep blue about 50 yards out. That's where the water goes from a few feet deep to over 100, called the dropoff. We went there but the deepest we dove was about 50ft)

Finally, though he doesn't show it Jordan was so excited to be able to go on a real boat dive w/ Dad & his 2 best friends. Here he and friend David get ready for Dive #2.

Finally, Andie and Emma ride off into the sunset on a Carabell.
Being towed by a tropical Santa!

That's it for now. We're so excited that it's 2010. We can't wait to move back home this summer and having you see us in person instead of this blog. But until then we'll keep 'em coming.

Another winter in Guam

We've been having a pretty good winter so far here. Actually we do miss the snow, the kids are so excited for next year, but no sense wasting our final months in the tropics, so here are some recent highlights of our little island life:


Jordan & his friends prepare for night spear fishing.....more on that later in the post, but first:

We're still not even close to exploring all the island, so we recently checked out this beach on the north tip of the island called Ritidian with our friends the Summers.

Guam may have warm water, but the coral shelfs mean no waves, or at least only rare, small ones. But there were this day and Emma bravely leads her friends to face the fierce wave action

Jordan: 5th grader, basketball junkie, and recently....Baywatch Jr lifeguard!!

Jordan and Emma hangin out w/ the Summers kids.

Andie soakin up the sun.

Recently we took the boy and cub scouts ocean kayaking. Jordan & Dad gear up.

More kayaking

We wrapped things up with a race. Jordan ready to take off.

Not exaclty a race for the speed junkie, but a good workout!


And just last nite Jord & Dad once again made it down the the Acfalle's, a family in our branch that live on the southern beaches of Guam, to go night spear fishing. It was awesome. Jordan and his friends were in pure heaven. Jordan caught 4 fish of his own this time, and ate twice that many!

Jordan & his friend David hold an eel his Dad speared. Bro Acfalle is on the right. He grew up doing this and is amazing at it. He caught the vast majority of the fish.

Jordan hold his very first spear-caught fish. Dad found the fish with the underwater flashlight (it's pitch black out there about 500 yards out to sea), while Jordan dove underwater with a sling style spear and got him about 6 feet down. He was so pumped.

The whole gang. It was basically a father & sons branch activity. Needless to say we at well that night.

Finally, we conclude our post with 3 "random" pics from our recent adventures.

Guam is known for it's large Rats. The kids were going nuts, so excited to discover and chase it...unlike our lazy cats. Twinkie (pictured here) and his Sis Daisy took a more....casual approach.

Better balance out the rat reputation with something positive, so Guam is also known for it's rainbows. We almost see these daily. Here is one in our housing unit as Shell was testing out her camera.

Finally, Andie & Emma sometimes struggle with the concept "go to bed". One night Mom & Dad heard them playing when they were supposed to be sleeping and caught them doing this, which apparently is "playing possum". I guess possums don't need as much sleep!

That's about it for now. We're looking forward to Christmas and will no doubt post holiday pics soon.