What Is This Blinding Light?

Could it be THE SUN?! No, I don't believe it, it's actually SUNNY! Shelby took Colin to karate and I dashed around the house getting everything ready for the beach as fast as humanly possible, before mother nature had the chance to change her mind and make it rain again. I got myself dressed and then Caleb ready and then went to the garage to get some ice for the cooler and the beach stuff gathered. When I came back inside a few minutes later I discovered this..

 Apparently he is now strong and tall enough to open Colin's art drawer in the living room cabinet and remove markers. What a milestone!
Look Mom! I'm a natural Picasso!

Wait, why don't you look as happy about this as I am? 

I better turn on the charm before I get sent to time out!

I couldn't even make him clean it up as punishment because as soon as he saw the wash rag come out his eyes got all wide with excitement that I was going to let him clean something. I had to wash the couch off myself. Since I had already done his sunscreen I just left the marker on his skin alone, no sense in washing it off and having to hold him down to reapply sunscreen again...that is only punishment for mama. So yes, he went to the beach with blue marker all over his body.

We tried out a new beach today called Gun Beach. I'm assuming this is how it got its name...

Nestled right up in the side of the mountain is an old WWII gun.

The water was so clear and the snorkeling out from here and around the side of this mountain sticking out is supposed to be great.

The waves were huge today though and the water way too rough to swim out more than a few feet from shore. Riptides are very bad here and many people die each year from being sucked out. Looking around the beach today you didn't see many locals in the water at all, only tourists, which is a pretty good sign that you should stick close to the shore and be aware of your surroundings.

 The pictures don't do the waves justice at all, some had to be at least 10 feet tall!

 The big waves would crash on the reef farther out and then make choppy little waves that would crash into the beach and shoreline. It was fun for the kids because most beaches here don't have waves because the reef blocks them from washing all the way in, they got to jump the waves and play in them some today.

Oh look, It's Raining!

This morning was a tease and when I woke up the skies were overcast but it wasn't raining! Shelby and Colin had gone off to the chiropractor so Caleb and I took Cooper on a walk while we had the chance. Good thing we did it when we did because the rain returned shortly after we got home. Shelby put another coat of paint on the door when he got back and we let Caleb take a short nap before taking Colin to the batting cages. Colin spent a good hour getting in some batting practice, he hit until the blisters on his hands kept him from swinging any more. 

After batting practice we delivered some camping gear to the Cub Scouts and then had dinner at another one of our favorite places here. They have the most amazing and delicious burgers you have ever tasted. Shelby's favorite is the Chorizo burger. I always say I am going to try something new and then can never bring myself to actually do it, so I end up with the spinach, mushroom and blue cheese burger, which is literally award winning. They also make these delicious flavored teas and it's always a random creation and you never know what kind they will have that day, but you must always order it. We went home stuffed again for the second night in a row. 

Enough With the Rain!

Today it poured rain all day. AGAIN. Today we were bums because the rain is just making us all so lazy. Well Shelby and I at least, nothing makes these kids lazy, unfortunately. Shelby put the first coat of paint on the front door, hallelujah! We hung around the house in the morning and then went to base to run some errands in the afternoon. That evening we had our babysitter come watch the kids so we could have a date night. We went to one of our favorite places to eat, Papa's, and stuffed ourselves silly with some of the best steak you'll ever eat. Then we wandered the tourist shops on the Tumon strip for a bit. Nothing too exciting to blog about, but I will tell you I was excited and dreaming about that steak all day long!

Another Day of Rain

We have entered "the rainy season" here on Guam. Last year we arrived during the rainy season and we had a few days of all day rain. For the most part though it just meant that instead of having a shower or two in between sunshine all day we would get 4 or 5 showers in between sunshine all day. It has rained ALL day EVERY day for the last five days now. Pretty much as soon as Shelby's leave started, so did the rain. It's limited us greatly as to what we can do and I'm starting to go a little stir crazy. Most of the things to do on the island revolve around being outside, so indoor activities are hard to find. Today we took the kids to an indoor playground to let them run off some energy. It was our first visit to this place and we had heard it was small, but they were not kidding! Normally inflatable jump centers are set up in a warehouse with lots of room. Not this one, it was squeezed into a tiny strip mall suite and they had maxed out their floor space to the best of their ability. The employee working even joked with us that they were the smallest bounce house in the world. I believe it! That didn't stop the kids from having a ball though. They jumped and ran and went wild right up until we hauled them out the door to go have dinner.
Caleb, being Caleb, first had to tidy up the place (which was already immaculate, seriously the cleanest inflatable place I've ever seen!) before he jumped around. He found a toy vacuum cleaner (which has already been ordered from Amazon now) and fell in love.

 Here are a few pictures of Caleb jumping and sliding. I didn't get any of Colin, he found some older kids his age to play hide and seek/tag with and we hardly saw him except for the occasional blur of him running or bouncing by.

Underwater World

Today we bought annual passes and took the kids to Underwater World. I remember Colin loved the aquarium at this age, so we figured an annual pass so Caleb can go often was probably a good idea. We didn't get there in time for the shark feeding, but that's ok...we can go back any time now! It's not a bad little aquarium for Guam, lots of sharks and rays and other cool things to see. The kids were very excited about seeing the fish.

Caleb was enjoying the views and the fish. There was a lot of squealing!

 Colin's favorite thing was all the sharks. He names off all the types he saw and made up names for the ones he didn't know. Pretty sure there were no lemon sharks in this tank but according to Colin he  saw a few.

Here are lots more pictures of some of the cool things we saw at the aquarium.

Underwater World

 

Monday Monday

Today we had some appointments and business to attend to before we could move on to more fun stuff. Caleb started his first day of full time daycare. Up until now he's been going on a drop in basis, but end of last month he had moved up the wait list enough to be offered a full time spot. Which is good and bad you see. Good because now when I get a job I don't have to worry about what I will do with Caleb. Good because he LOVES going to daycare and playing with his friends and gets so excited when we start walking down his hallway. But it also puts the pressure on to get hired somewhere, because if I don't have a job within 90 days he can lose his spot and I fall back to the bottom of the wait list again. Bad because I now have a full time daycare bill without a full time paycheck. It's a good thing though, he loves going and it worked out at a perfect time because this week and next we have several appointments and I have some trainings and events I cannot take Caleb to, so paying by the hour and hoping they had room for him could have been tricky.

This morning we had to drop Caleb off early so we could take Colin down to the Naval Hospital for another doctor appointment. We are having him evaluated for ADHD as we've seen it for a long time, along with his teachers, but now I fear it is holding him back academically and I want him on a level playing field to start his second grade year. This is an important year for his reading and literacy development and he must end the year on grade level. Lots of meetings and assessments with this wonderful doctor before she leaves the island and is likely not replaced. Of the joys of military medicine. After Colin's appointment we had some lunch and then took him to see the new Minions movie while Caleb was still at daycare. It worked perfectly because Caleb is a terror at the theater. No interest in TV or movies at all with that one!

Today wasn't a very exciting day but it was productive. Making plans for more exciting fun the rest of this week, hopefully the weather can cooperate. It's been raining almost all day every day so far. That is unusual for Guam, usually we get a good downpour a couple times a day and it moves on as fast as it comes in. The rain doesn't usually hang around long like it has been, but we are entering the so called rainy season again.

Around and around we go

Today we had planned to take the kids to Underwater World aquarium after we did some running around. Then we discovered that the place where we can buy discounted family passes was closed that day. So we had to change up our plans a bit. Instead we headed down to the Naval base for some shopping and then drove down to the very southern tip of the island looking for a pier that Shelby could take Colin fishing on. The pier turned out to be not worth the drive down there, but we did end up driving around the perimeter of three quarters of the island instead. We stopped at several scenic spots and overlooks to check out the views.

View of Umatac bay below Fort Soledad at very low tide.

 At Fort Soledad

 Information about Fort Soledad

 Caleb woke up from his nap and decided to throw rocks over the wall.

 He enjoyed the views as well.

View back up towards village of Umatac. You can see the Magellan Monument bridges in this picture.

 Another scenic stop to see Bear Rock in Inarajan. This guy watches over the Agfayan Bay.

Grown up fun

Today was Shelby's first official day of leave. He took the whole week off so we could do some fun family stuff before Colin starts back to school. We didn't do anything really special today. We ran some errands, and went to Home Depot for some new blinds for the front window and paint for the front door. You know, your typical adult fun day! I am ecstatic about both these purchases actually and though they may not be exciting to read about, they are definitely exciting for our house. The tired front door has been faded since we moved in and it drives me nuts. The blinds, well we started out with those horrible vertical blinds that fall down if you look at them wrong. We replaced them with nice dark wooden blinds that are easier to use and more functional with kids and pets. The cats love them, apparently they are multipurpose and the strings double as cat toys. I don't have any exciting pictures of blinds or the paint, which is not on the door yet.

Master Builder

Colin loves to build. He usually plays with his legos, but today he got out the Wedgits blocks and was building with those. He made several creations from the idea cards that were really cool. Here he is with one of them.

Boring

Today was a lazy day and I really don't have anything interesting to share, but I've committed to 30 days of posts so you shall get the boring details of today. I was in my PJs util about 4 PM when I finally left the house to walk the dog. Shelby worked all day yesterday, came home at 5 PM and then went back to work again at 1 AM and was there until about 11 AM today. So he was tired and the kids and I just bummed around most of the day.

I read with Caleb. I'd like to say we read all these books, but really he's only interested in Brown Bear Brown Bear at the moment. We just read that one 100 times but all the other books must still be sitting on the couch with us. If even one falls down he has a fit. I am under this pile somewhere, it wasn't comfortable I can tell you that!

While Caleb napped I cleaned out my coupon binder and sorted others to add in. Pax was insistent upon helping. Or maybe he just knew he was being a jerk rolling around in the piles I just sorted out. He's a cat...who knows what he's thinking.

Park Visit

Today after a trip to the grocery store I took the boys to the park on base to play. It was super hot and even though the playgrounds are all fitted with frames to hang a canopy cover over the playground, they don't actually put the canopies up. It's unfortunate because the equipment gets so hot, even though it's plastic, that the kids can barely use it. My kids chose to play in the trees instead after a few minutes on the hot playground. They had a blast climbing and playing in the shade though.

Skater Caleb

Caleb found a tiny skateboard toy and spent a good 15 minutes trying to skate on it. It is only a couple inches long and looks like it's for an action figure, but Caleb was determined to make it work!

Growing up

Today Colin had a dental appointment that took up our morning. It was a routine cleaning that I have been waiting for. He fights brushing his teeth all the time and we constantly remind him what a filling is and what will happen if he doesn't brush his teeth well. I go in and brush for him once or twice a week to get them good and clean, but he is a very lazy brusher when we have made it beyond easy for him. He has a kids sonicare, which he has been told time and time again he must TURN ON when using, AND to brush with the beeps and not finish until the long beep at the end. He still frequently gets caught with the toothbrush not even turned on while in his mouth. Then he has mouthwash that he may as well just pour down the drain because the 2.5 seconds it is actually inside his mouth probably does no good at all. So I was very curious to see if he was going to skate by with another clean check up or if a cavity had popped up. Well much to Colin's dismay he has not one, but THREE small cavities in the back. Thankfully they are in baby teeth that will eventually fall out, but I so hope this has helped him learn his lesson. He doesn't get them filled until the end of August, so I don't expect his attitude towards brushing will improve much until he actually experiences the filling process. He is terrified of shots, so one look at the Novocaine needle and it's entirely possible the whole building will think someone is being murdered. I've requested Shelby take the day off, because I can't handle that kind of humiliation on my own.

After his dentist visit I took him to get some new play shoes. His old play shoes have holes straight through the bottom from him dragging his feet on his scooter. Mean mom that I am I have made him wear the holy play shoes for a good long while despite his complaints. I am still making him wear the shoes with the holes when he rides his scooter, he can't drag his feet on it with holes in his soles so it helps teach him not to do it. But he did need a pair of respectable play shoes for wearing to the youth center and out to play when scooters are not involved. He has been begging me for Jordans. When did this kid grow up and why does he even know about shoe fashion? I took him to Foot Locker and showed him the price tag on Jordan shoes ($80+) and explained those are clearly not play shoes. Then we went to Ross and I gave him a $20 limit. He chose a pair of Sketchers basketball shoes that he was so excited over he could hardly stand himself. Oh dear Lord it has started! I am not ready for him to not want me dressing him and him being so concerned with what he is wearing. Here he is with his (hideous) new shoes...

Lazy Sunday

This morning we got up and took Cooper on a good walk, then came home and let the kids play in the pool for a bit. They had fun for a while until Caleb "contaminated" the water and we had to shower everyone off outside and wash the pool.

 Then they came inside and dogpiled on Daddy for a while.

 I went to the store and came home to find the boys with new hair dos. Caleb was quite proud of his mohawk.

Party like a local

Several weeks ago we were down at Gab Gab beach when a family of locals who were set up at the pavilion near us came over and invited us to eat with them. We chatted and ate with them and visited for a while before our kids were ready to go back to our spot and play in the water. Off and on during the day we chatted and before we all left for the evening they asked us to exchange phone numbers so they could invite us over to their home any time they had a big family gathering or party. It isn't unusual here for a local family to "adopt" a military family to share in their family parties and such. This family is also retired military, so they love sharing their culture with other military people here.  Last week they called to invite us to a big party they were throwing for two of their grand children, one who was turning three and the other who was graduating high school. 

They live way down on the complete opposite end of the island than us, so it's a bit of a drive down there, but it's very pretty and less populated than our northern area. Their home is beautiful and sits on a fabulous piece of property atop a hill overlooking the jungle and mountains to one direction, a waterfall in another direction, and the ocean from yet another direction. Here are some pictures of their view. In the first one the waterfall is hidden out there in the jungle. You can see it in person but my iphone isn't good enough to see it in the photo.

 Out there you can see the ocean off in the distance.

We had no idea how serious a party this was, they went all out! There were at least ten tables set up just for food, then tents and chairs and tables for guests. There was a wall with a huge vinyl poster they had printed with the birthday boy's picture on it along with the Transformers logo and a happy birthday message. Underneath that was no less than two dozen new in the box Transformers toys that I assume were his presents from family. I'm pretty sure that three year old now has a complete set of Transformers! Next to that was a much larger vinyl poster they had made with the graduate's senior picture on it, his school logo and class year, along with some childhood photos of him printed on it. His graduation gown hung next to that as well. It was quite the set up. 

While we waited to eat the kids had a blast running around outside and playing. Caleb loves the outdoors and to have such a huge new area to explore he was in heaven! 

We learned that much like Portugal, some homes here have two kitchens as well. The "pretty kitchen" inside that no one really uses, and the outdoor kitchen where the cooking and mess really happens. People were all over the place helping and cooking. I just stood back and took it all in, hoping to learn a thing or two! They kept offering me bites of what they were cooking, which was sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad depending on if I liked it or not. When it was all done and set up I ran and snapped some pictures of the food before they gave the blessing and people started dishing up. There were a couple tables I didn't get pictures of and I missed the two dessert tables, yes I said TWO dessert tables! They had all kinds of typical local dishes, as well as some less common local foods as well. 

Here is one of the pigs roasting in the oven, they showed me before they took it out.

 The back left dish is made with local eels from the river near their home. The front center is chicken cooked in coconut milk and made with pumpkin leaves.

 All kinds of crabs!

 Fish on the right and my favorite finadene sauce in the pink bowl.

 The pig all ready to cut in to.

 So many types of kelaguan. Chicken, crab, blue crab, local deer, and shrimp kelaugen here, shrimp is delicious and reminds me of ceviche in a way. All kelaguen is "cooked" using an acidic lemon powder sold all over the island. So the meat is cooked in the acidic juices, instead of being heated.

 Shrimp fritters.

 Ham and pancit.

We put some red rice and titiyas (like a soft, puffy sweet bread tortilla of sorts) on a plate for Caleb and since Shelby ran out of room on his plate he threw two lumpia on Caleb's plate. Caleb went straight for the lumpia when we set the plate down and I didn't expect he would like them so much after tasting them. I was wrong. He tore them up! He literally ate the majority of BOTH lumpia and Shelby didn't get any! 

As we ate the sun started to set in the west, over the mountains and looked like this...

Which also lit up the sky to the east over the ocean to look like this...

Both directions it was a beautiful scene as we stuffed ourselves silly. Shelby had to work a mid shift that night and it was close to an hour drive back home, so we had to eat and run so he could get back to change and prep for work in time. It was a great opportunity and wonderful experience, there really are some awesome and generous people on this island.