The cutest little chef's since Ratatouee

Yeah this Easter Bunny's freaky, but in 95 degree weather....he's also dedicated!

This is a "build your own boat" contest...this one's made of cardboard and duct tape...don't aske, that's just how we do things on Guam. Anyway this was held at Sumay Cove, just a few hundred yards down the hill from our home.

Shell doing Emma's hair and makeup to get ready for school

I took Jordan on our scout camp this last weekend. This was our shelter right on the beach on the east shore of the island. We camped here to claim this spot for the branch activity the following morning. It's a sunrise service held each year the day before Easter, talking about the Resurrection as the sun rises over the ocean. Pictured is Jordan and his friend Jacob

The back view of the same shelter. Most of the year camping on Guam means a night of hot, sticky humidity. But if you're on the east side of the island when the tradewinds come in during Feb-Apr, there's actually a cool breeze all night...wasn't bad at all.

The other cool thing about beach camping Easter weekend is the full moon, here Jordan, Jacob and I do some moonlight swimming/snorkeling. With the full moon it was actually alot lighter than the picture depicts.

Life goes on here. We have the Copeland boys living with us for a couple weeks while their parents are back in the states. The girls have just exploded in their reading ability in the last month. It's great cause they get so excited at their ability it's actually fun for them now.

Shell celebrated her XXst b-day yesterday, which was spent watching Jordan's soccer game, pretty much the Saturday routine this month and next. The word of the week is a tie between 2 words invented by the girls. Emma's "enorgous" and Andie's "hopperflop", describing "very large" and "a bug that hops from one flip-flop to the next", which happened on our walk tonight.

When Shell was cutting up pork the other day, Andie came in and asked if it was werewolf meat.

Other than that.........

Guam monkeys: cute...and clothed!

Emma loves climbing the tree in our front yard (as do the other kids). She and Andie already had the reputation of being monkeys in human form BEFORE Guam, but something about a tropical island just brings it out even more.
The next 2 pics are at old WWII Japanese cave defenses here on base at Dadi Beach.
Jordan practing away on his guitar. He has sore fingers, but is having alot of fun with it.

Finally, on Friday nighte Andie & Emma had a "girls night in" with Mom and Lanita doing hair, nails while watching Alien vs. Predator.....or maybe it was Barbie:swan princess, which worked for Jordan and Dad cause they went night spear fishing! There is a member of our branch here who lives on a bay in the south and goes out at night with an underwater flashlight and a spear to go fishing. He took Jordan and I and a couple other boys and Dads. It was incredible to be out there, the stars were the brightest I think we'd ever seen, and your 500 yards off shore in the pitch black 20 ft deep water wathching the flashlights below with a snorkel mask. As if Jordan wasn't already in heaven, we then took the fish and fried them up (talk about fresh seafood). We were eating fish at 1 am, and Jordan had about 3 or 4 of them himself. Our camera wasn't working but we'll try to get pictures of it from our friend. That's about it for this week.

Scootin' through another week.

We haven't posted in a while because it's been a little busier here lately. Shell is working full time for these last 2 weeks, will go down to half time starting next week as a teacher's assistant at a Catholic Elementary School in the area. James was called as YM prez and Asst Scoutmaster, and the kids are fully back in school after Christmas break, while Jordan started soccer and guitar lessons. The girls start dance in a couple weeks. They also like to take their scooters to the bus stop as you can see. Shell and James had their first Scuba class yesterday, held in the pool on base. Jordan will get to join in on the scuba action too his last year here, as 10 is the minimum age.
The second picure is Talofofo Bay, on the eastern side of the island near the waterfall hike we did Christmas eve. Picture 3 shows you why we're all suffering from lack of sleep-the kittens always crawl into our beds at night wanting to play. I think the girls were so tired they actually didn't notice, but they love to pounce Shell for some reason, so she takes the brunt of it.

Finally, a Christmas morning pic, with Jordan showing his enthusiasm for his new skateboard.

There's a great skateboard park just down the street on base here with a halfpipe and ramps for him. The girls take their bikes there too and have a blast. That's about it for now..(thank goodness).

Dreamin of a Wet Christmas??

No Parachute! Andie jumpin off #3 Waterfall

Jordan & Emma 18 feet down over #4 Waterfall

Jordan w/ 2 friends at Tarzan falls 2 weeks ago

View from top of # 3 Waterfall

Emma & Shell dryin off at the falls

Jordan and his friend Jacob in pool #3


Since we couldn't go sledding, or make a snow angel, we started a new Christmas tradition....jumping off waterfalls! Most of these pictures are from Waterfall Valley, a short hike we took Christmas eve morning to a dense jungle with a series of 4 falls, the 3rd and 4th of which fall into pools deep enough to jump in. It was a blast, but don't worry, it still doesn't beat a white Christmas.

Christmas was great too. The girls love their clip on earings, and Jordan is most excited about his skateboard and Guitar (starts lessons next week).

We hope your Christmas was outstanding. Happy new Year!

Our Humble Abode

Our first family 5K run!

Kitchen: slightly messy just to irk Shell

Dad's office: yeah right, there is no office, this is girl's room

Jordan's room.

Master Closet; yes the other wall is just out of the picture on the left

In living room looking into Dining area

In entry looking into Living Room


Welcome to our humble residence. It's small, it's government housing, it's 100% tile, but it's home for the next 32 months. We actually don't mind it. The neighborhood's great, there's a park in the backyard, tons of kids, new school going in across the street, and the ocean's 30 seconds away. Hopefully some of you can see it all in person.

Let's see, not a huge week of news....Emma cut one of our kitten's whiskers and hair, Andie had a nasty 24 hr bug, but is fine now, we did our first family 5K run! (the top picture) Jordan ran the whole way in 34 min. Mom stayed back with the girls and had to run with them on her back near the end. They hold races all the time here so i'm sure we'll do more. Also this week, we were able to see THE UTE'S BOWL WIN ON ESPN, even us Guamanians get cable and thus were able to see the big game! (oh yeah, BYU won too). The kids are ready for Christmas, but Santa's definately gotta ditch the red coat if he's coming here.