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.