Art Night

Colin's school had an art show night where the students all had a special piece they had made on display. Here is Colin and his masterpiece...

Here is the art from Colin's first grade class. Pretty good! 

Dinner Time Antics

This is the entertainment we get nightly with dinner. I don't know why Caleb gets so wild and crazy at this hour, but it makes for fun dinner times!

Spring Break Day 5 - Spanish Steps

For the final day of our spring break we planned to go to another secluded and incredibly beautiful beach, Spanish Steps. When people talk about the prettiest beaches on the island, Spanish Steps and Haputo are the two that always come up. Spanish Steps is like Haputo, a short but steep climb down a mountain through the jungle. This one required a little more use of ropes, but was doable for the kids with a little caution. Caleb was a champ in his back pack despite Shelby having to duck under and climb over a few tree branches along the way. The beach there is small and entirely crushed coral, no sand, but the snorkeling is phenomenal! 

This was the view awaiting us at the end of the trail...

Beneath these waters was an incredible reef with brightly colored orange, green and yellow corals. There were anemones throughout that were filled with huge clown fish bobbing in and out to peek at us. I saw more types of fish than I've ever seen. Several huge variety of puffer fish, many different angel fish and loads of others. Absolutely incredible! There are some go pro videos of the underwater views that I will add when we get them uploaded.

Spring Break Day 4 - Onward Water Park

Today was water park day, probably the one the kids were looking most forward to. The adults were looking forward to a day of relaxing too, at least this adult was! The highlight of the day for Caleb was the baby slide and lazy river. Colin was in heaven in the wave pool on the surf board.

Spring Break Day 3

Today we had planned to hike Mt. Lam Lam, the tallest mountain in the world. Yes, you read that right, it's even taller than Mt. Kilimanjaro! I'll save the details on that for when we actually hike the mountain, because today was not that day. When we got to the mountain it was raining and nasty, which gave us two good reasons to find something else to do. One being that part of the reason you climb the mountain is for the fabulous view, which we wouldn't be seeing through all the clouds and rain. Two, it's muddy and slick when wet and after Monday's muddy trek I was not about to sign up for another one just yet. So instead we decided to do several touristy island things we drive past all the time but never take the time to stop and see.
First stop was the T. Stell Newman Visitor Center for the National Parks on Guam. It is a great little museum that tells all about the WWII history on Guam when the Japanese invaded and took control for a brief time before the USA arrived to liberate them. It started off with a short informative film that explained a little about the events and what it was like for the people here. Then there were several great interactive exhibits that kept even the kids engaged in learning about the history of Guam.

Next stop was the Piti Guns site. Here the Japanese forced the Chamorro people to build massive guns and haul them up to a strategic location. The guns were never actually used as the US invaded before they could be functional. They have a 10 mile range! 

After Piti Guns we made our way to Asan Beach Park, where they have a WWII memorial and where the US landed to take back Guam from Japan. 

Then we headed to the Governor's Complex in Hagatna to go up in the giant latte stone tower to see the view. 

And finally off to Two Lover's Point. You can read all about the Chamorro legend of the two lovers here.

That wrapped up our tour day. We saw lots of stuff we'd always meant to get out and see and just never made the time. It was a fun day with lots of learning too. 

Here are more pictures of our day:

Island Tour Day

 

Spring Break Day 2 - Haputo Beach

Tuesday's adventure was a short, half mile hike taking us down a steep hill to an almost deserted beach. Haputo is an ecological preserve and the hike is a quick 300 foot elevation change. Going down is steep and slow, but not that difficult. Climbing back up, well, let's just say my butt was on fire! LOL

We saw some pretty cool critters on our hike...

The hike down was a lot of steps and jungle.

But this amazing beach at the bottom made it totally worth it!

We snorkeled around, swam, had lunch and watched the kids play. Then we hiked into the jungle on the beach to try to find ruins of an old latte stone village. The ruins are said to have both historical and spiritual significance here on the island. You can read more about the history of Haputo here. We were only told that near the far end of the beach you hike inland through the jungle, past and through a field of taro plants and there you will find the latte stones. So inland we went and we didn't see much. I was leading the pack and finally we saw a large field of taro plants. They were about as tall as me, much taller than the kids, with huge leaves the size of Colin. I continued to lead the way, pushing leaves aside and crawling through them until we finally came to a single latte stone. 

Then, just a few feet from that latte stone, deep in the jungle and far from the beach, we saw this GIGANTIC huntsman spider resting on a taro leaf. This thing was enormous! I mean look at the size of that spider in reference to the size of the leaf, and keep in mind that leaf is the size of Colin!

I immediately thought back to the million and one taro leaves I had just touched as I lead us to the middle of the jungle, how many giant mutant spiders did I almost touch on the way here?! Then I looked around and realized the million and one leaves I would have to crawl through to get back out of the jungle and to the beach. Shit. We made it out of the jungle and back to the beach in half the time it took to us to get back in there. I hope I never see another huntsman spider as long as I live! 

Back on the beach we walked around some while the tide was low. I found a blue starfish, which are all over the beaches here. I love seeing them, they are so pretty!

Finally it was time to hike back up the hill before it got dark. On our way up we came across a monitor lizard basking in the sun. We almost got the full Guam wildlife experience today! We saw wild chickens and a wild pig on the road leading to the beach. Hiking down we saw coconut crabs and lizards, on the beach we saw the popular black butterflies and banana spiders, a blue starfish in the water, a huntsman spider in the woods and then topped it off with a monitor lizard. Only thing we missed were geckos (HATE them, SO glad we didn't see any, I think that spider was less evil than a gecko, in my mind anyway!) and a brown tree snake. 

The rest of the Haputo Beach pictures are here:

Haputo Beach

Spring Break 2015 - Day 1

We looked at plane tickets to get off the island for spring break. It was a little last minute, but still within the 14 day advance booking window before airline tickets get insanely expensive. However, you surely wouldn't know that by looking at these prices! So we decided Shelby would just take leave and we would do island adventures every day. Our friend Ray took leave too, so Lisa and I sat down and planned a big adventurous week full of stuff we haven't seen or done on Guam yet. First day was hiking to Tarzan Falls. Lisa has the hiking on Guam book with all the trail information, difficulty, what to expect and how to get to the trail heads from roadways. We followed the directions and found the trail head, marked by the muddy shoes hanging on the wires, just like the book described.

We started hiking and quickly learned that hiking in Guam's rainy season makes even an "easy" level hike seem like a tough mudder challenge. The dirt here thick, red clay that is worse than Georgia clay. I felt like I had shoes on top of my shoes from the amount of mud caked on the bottom of them. Now I understand the shoes on the wire at the trail head!

We carefully selected this trail for a couple of reasons. First off it was one with rewarding views, second it wasn't too long and or too difficult for all the kids to do but still felt like a good hike. Lastly, it was supposed to be one of the best marked and easiest trails to follow here in Guam. They have fantastic hiking here, but trails are very often poorly marked and hard to follow, so we went with what was supposed to be the easiest to break us in and acquaint us with hiking in Guam.  I did not sunscreen us up prior to the hike because the guide book said the trail was mostly tree covered and shaded. We hiked and hiked and I kept wondering where this shade was going to begin! Not wanting to stop and lotion everyone up, because certainly the shade had to be right around the corner, I finally covered Caleb with an umbrella to shade him. We hiked and hiked and finally came to the lovely Tarzan swimming hole. We happily dove in to cool off because it was HOT. At this point we put sunscreen on everyone (too little too late, ouch!) and took advantage of the cold water and rope swing. 

After we cooled off and ate some lunch we decided we needed to head back the way we came instead of trying to head deeper into the jungle. We were pretty sure we had gotten off the trail to the falls at some point. So much for easiest trail to follow. We had a former Boy Scout, a former Girl Scout leader a guide book and we still got lost on "Guam's easiest trail to follow." Perhaps hiking in Guam is not our thing? LOL At any rate we saw some beautiful scenery and got a good workout getting to somewhere completely unexpected. 

Here are more pictures from our hike: 

Tarzan Swim Hole Hike

This is what the falls are supposed to look like, courtesy of someone who has actually been there...

After the hike we headed to a village called Inarajan to go to the tide pools there. The village is located on the south eastern side of the island and has some great tide pools with different snorkeling that you find elsewhere on the island. The kids loved playing in the calm pools and the views were amazing. Check out our photos from Inarajan Pools...

Inarajan Pools

One last stop we made was to try to find Gadao's Cave in Inarajan, since it was on the way. Here are the directions to Gadao's Cave. These are taken from 360 Guam, but you find these same directions on many websites and hiking guides. Doesn't sound like a place we are supposed to hike to, but apparently it is ok... After getting to this point the directions are pretty simple...

• When you start entering a slightly more populated area, slow down and look out for the sign to your left (usually covered by trees, which says “Gadao’s Cave” and turn left here. This is a long, narrow road that skirts the left edge of Inarajan Bay. If you start the curve to the left around Inarajan Bay where the statue of Gadao in half a canoe, the church ruins, and ancient chamorro village is, you have gone too far.

• Take a right turn on the first gravel road that you see.

• Soon you will see private property and “Keep Out” signs. You will park on the side of the road before driving through where there are two polls on either side used to string a wire cable across a private driveway, marking the end of the public road. Oftentimes this driveway is left open to allow the residents to drive through. To your right is a chain denying vehicle access with metal cables fencing in a forested area.

• This chain, possibly with a “Keep Out” sign attached, is what you will be hopping in order to start this short hike.

After getting to this point the directions are pretty simple..."After you cross the chain, keep straight through the weeds towards the beach for 3 – 5 minutes. Soon the trail will veer to the left along the water. The first cave-like structure you may see looking through the trees is not Gådao’s cave. Keep walking straight until you see a reddish rock structure, with a ridge along the middle with a clearly etched level to walk along. Climb up to this ridge with just a couple of rocks to step up, and walk along the rock wall on this middle level. The opening to your left is the mouth of the cave, and the pictographs of the two stick figures are to your left as you enter." Again, sounds simple...we couldn't find it! LOL If the day's success was measured by following directions we failed miserably! Good thing we still had fun and enjoyed the misguided trails we did find! I'll post the story and pictures of Gadao's Cave another time, you know, the one where we actually find it! 

Happy Easter!

Pictures from our Easter festivities. We took it easy this year and didn't go all out on egg hunts and fun as usual. The kids were none the wiser and still enjoyed it.


 Colin checking out his basket.

Hold it right there kids...we must QA check these baskets for your safety and security! 

XOXO Pax & Payne

Caleb discovering his basket.

Oooh now I get it, there is food in there! Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!

Time to hunt the eggs!

Colin found his fair share too.

The boys were spoiled at our friend's house with more goodies.

Caleb's Easter outfit was the cutest!

Family picture in The Worley's backyard, it's an Easter tradition! 

Lisa caught this of us trying to do a family photo balancing on the slack line. As soon as she snapped it we all fell forward off the line.

Payne would like to request Easter baskets be left out all year, they make mighty fine sleeping quarters.

Look who's walking!

Caleb has finally decided he likes to get around on two feet. He's so proud of himself and I had completely forgotten how adorable they are as the toddle around trying not to fall.

Baseball Season 2015

Baseball 2015 is in the books! Colin started off on a T-ball team because of his age. This makes his third year playing T ball. Here they group the kids together by age, 5-6, 7-9, 10-13. New rules say the 5-6 year olds cannot have formal games, must all be on the same team and the sport will be about skill building instead of competition. And at the end they will all get a medal and a T shirt and everyone will be happy because no one kept score. Don't even get me started. Additionally, 5-6 year olds cannot play on Saturday either, so they will practice two nights a week and then on Friday night they will hold a pseudo scrimmage (that they can't call a scrimmage) by splitting the kids into two groups (heaven forbid we use the word team!). His first practice was a disaster. Only 3 of the 12 kids had ever played before, it was such a set back for his skills and fundamentals. The kid is a natural born athlete and it stinks that they have to go by age instead of ability. Right away coaches from the 7-9 year old team noticed Colin's ability and asked the youth sports director why Colin was on the Tball team. They were told the same thing we were, rules and requiring grouping by age.

After a couple weeks of Colin's morale going way down, he didn't even want to go to practice anymore because it wasn't any fun for him, and the coach using Colin to help teach the other kids how to play the director stepped up and gave us a break. He could see Colin wasn't enjoying himself and wasn't where he needed to be. Poor Colin was afraid to even throw the ball overhand to the kids on his team because he knew they couldn't catch it, so he would stop himself mid play and toss it underhand to them so he wouldn't hurt them. While I adore his thoughtfulness, he should not be put in that situation. So the decision was made to move him to the 7-9 year old team where he would be with kids more on his ability level. He was elated. He worked hard and had so much fun. He was the little guy on the team, but with his competitiveness he had something to prove and he was a star. He did fantastic and all he talks about now is baseball. He's checking out baseball books from the library and watching The Sandlot for his TV free time. Football season is now upon us and I'm so thankful the director is going to group him on his ability for this sport as well. They will assess his skills and the skills of the kids on both the 5-6 and 7-8 year old teams and determine the best fit for him. It will be interesting to see where he falls, but the kid has natural athletic talent in just about everything he does. Shelby and I were both athletic to some degree, but I don't know where this kid gets it!