Almost Finished With Guam

We have began a countdown until the day we leave Guam.  We will be leaving about 3 weeks before Glenn so we will be able to spend more time on the west coast without him using up all of his leave time.  The ticket requests have been submitted and we're just waiting to see what they come up with.  May 20th is the day we're shooting for so we'll see.  I'm not sure if I'd prefer to fly through Japan or Hawaii honestly.  Japan at least has a McDonald's at their airport.  Hawaii has a Quiznos....Hmmmmm.  

Yesterday Christopher had a scouts camping trip but we ended up not camping overnight.  I'm happy about that because it ended up pouring last night!  We did however stay the whole day, and when I say whole day, I mean 10:00 am until 7:00 pm, at the campsite.  Glenn had his golf league in the morning and the plan was for me to take the kids there in the morning and swap out with Glenn at around 2 when he was done and I could take the other kids home.  Well plans change, he came there and we were both wiped out from being in the sun all morning but I hadn't been doing anything physical like he had so I volunteered to stay the rest of the afternoon.  Glenn hung out and did the activities with Christopher and then him and Alexander headed out.  Within 5 minutes, Alexander was asleep in the car.  Madison decided to stay because 2 of her friends were there.  

We went fishing with cane poles and had to scrounge up some bait.  First we tried to hit up the snails that are all over the place but they have this hard bottom layer that they slide over the "door" and we were not making any progress there.  I told them we should use the hermit crab, Madison was not having that...yet.  We tried to crush the snail shell but the rock crumbled and that was a no go.  Then we found a crab that was half smashed by a rock but still moving and decided he was a goner anyways.  We hooked him up and Christopher had some bait and was on his way.  We ended up walking around the little edge of the small island we were on and found some hermit crabs...Madison was to the point now that she wanted some bait and the hermit crab seemed like the only option.  We made this little guy so mad that he ended up jumping out of his shell, I'm not joking.  He just gave up on life, so we hooked him up and she was on her way.  Neither one of them caught a fish but they did eat up an hour just fishing.  Christopher wanted to slip and slide so we headed down that way and they were closing it down.  I was of course blamed for this because he wanted to go 5 minutes ago.  I let them decide whether or not they wanted to slip and slide first or fish...they chose fish.  They had a long day and so did I.  We hung around and ate some food and headed out at 7:00.  

I think last night was the first night I've gone to bed and haven't laid there waiting to fall asleep.  I was out the minute I put my head on my pillow and slept 12 hours.  I didn't realize how wiped out I actually was.  

I of course left my good camera at home because I didn't want to carry it around all day (yes, it's heavy) but I decided to go with my baby Canon...we got there and it was dead.  My phone was the only option I had left, thank goodness it takes some alright pictures or I would have been mad, at myself for choosing to leave my good one behind.  

The fire had been lit and the smoke was rolling, can't you tell?

Both boys had to cook their own lunch for a change.  I think they appreciated it a little more after sitting next to a blazing fire while the temperature outside was around 95 degrees.

Being instructed on how to shoot the bb gun he was about to get his hands on.

Waiting for Christopher to get those instructions and head back to the breezy side of the trees because it was just plain old hot.

Picking up the bb gun the way he was taught.

Line it up buddy.  I think he hit the target but those things were so small that I couldn't tell.

Happy that Daddy arrived mid instructions and gave him some shade under that nice visor.

Making his survival bracelet with Daddy.

Finding out that the spark that blew his way actually burnt him and put a nice little hole in his shirt.  No, he wasn't pouting, he was trying to look down at his burn.

Bracelet weaving with Daddy.

The second snail we tried to hook as bait.  He looks mad!!  Those little "eyebrows" actually moved around and it looked like he was shouting at us.

Christopher fishing with his baby crab on the hook.

Madison hooking up the hermit crab that so kindly gave up his life so we could catch a lot of nothing.

That's it for now, I'm not so good at remembering everything that has been going on.  I suck at blogging constantly although I have my moments.  Have a great day everyone!

Wow wow wow.....

August 12th, the last day I blogged.  I didn't realize it'd been 3 months but hey, I've been busy.  I'm not sure what that "busy" part consists of but it does involve 3 children, a lawn that's overgrown most of the time because of the weather here in Guam, a house that needs cleaning constantly and a family that needs to eat.  I've been busy taking pictures and loving that part.  As of now we have about 6 months until we are heading back out to the United States, the real United States, not a "territory" of it.  Somewhere with a Walmart, a REAL Outback Steakhouse and people that think that know what "Open at 9:00" means (that doesn't mean open at 9:23).

The kids are growing like crazy and so are their attitudes.  At least I know their brains are up to par with their bodies and that they are advancing like they should.  It's hot here, yes, still, and it only rains every once in a while.  I am so excited for Thanksgiving to get here that I can't stand it.  I am ready for this holiday season because once it's done, it's the new year, then after that it's only a few more months until we leave and then we get to spend some time in Idaho and Montana before Glenn leaves Guam to meet us up there.  I'm ready to get some family pictures and spend some time with everyone that I haven't had the chance to in a while.

Alexander just said he "a little bit" wants one of the Tom Bergeron bobble head dolls that he's giving away on America's Funniest Videos...that's my boy.  I really don't have anything much to say right now so I'm going to watch AFV with the family and get ready to edit more pictures. :)

Tarzan Falls...

So here we are as we began our trek to Tarzan Falls.  The kids had been excited to go on this hike because they wanted to swim in the pool at the bottom of the falls. 

 Still heading down, as you can see there were trails, but some of them weren't the nicest trails you've ever seen.

 Some were pretty darn steep, but that just gave the kids an opportunity to slide down on their bums.

In addition to the sliding, they decided to run down....almost biffed it, but didn't.  Phew!

 Madison wanted to give it another go, so she went back up and came back down again.

 Christopher decided to mosie on down after making it past the tough part as Madison tried to surf down.

 Not sure if this was the half way point or not, probably not, we weren't very far, it just looked like a nice place to take a picture. :)

 She picked out this nice rock to pose on for me. :)

 On the way...

 What in the world???  We were jumping on rocks to make it to the other side of the stream.

 WE MADE IT!!!  That's Tarzan Falls.

 I'm not even sure what he was saying at this point, he was probably saying how cold the water was.

 Daddy was relieved we were there too, there was so much slippery mud and so many opportunities to bust your back down the mud slides, I was glad we were finally there for a rest too.

 The left side of the pool.

 Madison walking towards the falls on the side of the wall, the rocks didn't take her all the way there though.

 Christopher decided to follow anyways, he can swim now. :)

 Alexander decided to play it safe for a while,

 Good job keeping your mouth closed buddy, we don't know what's in this water...right now anyways.

 Thank you for taking the picture Madison. :)

 She wanted to take her shoes off...for the bazillionth time Madison, nope.

 That waterfall was pretty darn chilly, it still felt pretty good though.

 Yep, still cold.

 Getting a free shoe wash!  They needed it much more after the second round.

 She had ventured to the other side of the falls and found some rocks to sit on.

 Swimming back to eat some lunch.

 He opted out of the under the falls picture but decided to sit on the rock right next to it and get his picture taken instead.

 Dear Madison, this is why we didn't take our shoes off....See that little orange thing?  That's a flaming hot cheeto, see those claws hanging onto it with dear life???  That's a shrimp, there were tons of them in there that we noticed after throwing in more cheetos, some bread and some hot dog...and that's not all we saw.

 See that black thing in there that looks like a dark leaf?  That's an eel, yeah, he came out after we did and I don't think any of us got back in the water after that discovery.

 The rock on the other side of the fall, we decided to head that way on the way out.

 I think Madison was taking pictures for me now.  I love my Christopher.

 Yep, definitely Madison taking pictures, I don't think I could have done this. ;)

 Just a look at the second part of the hike, I thought we were lost in the jungle for a little bit.

 I told you our shoes needed the shoe wash more later didn't I??  These are Alexander's and this is what everyone's shoes looked like.

 So we washed them again.

 Then we made it back to the top, well, semi-top.

 Here's one of the pretty flowers along the way.

 It was a little tougher going up than it was going down.

 Just when you think you've climbed your last hill, there's a GIANT one ahead of you.

 But we made it, and I had enough energy to get in front of the pack to take a finishing up picture.

 They felt very triumphant that they had accomplished that hike.

 He looks pretty happy and pretty tired.

 They were comparing their wrinkled up feet.  Here's Alexander's...

 Here's Madison's...

 And here's Christopher's.

 Afterwards Glenn had the best idea ever and decided to get everyone an ice cream sundae to finish off the hike.  We all earned them. :)  Madison was loving it...no pun intended with the whole McDonalds song.

 He really enjoyed that sundae.

 Yep, so did he.

So that's my story for today even though it's from a week ago.  That's how I roll, you know that by now.

Things are going pretty good around here.  We still don't know where we're going next, I now dislike quite a few people from his ship, the lawn is finally mowed again and I was able to use the weed eater without breaking it again, Blondie's potential home is in the works, school's about to start which then leads to my weight loss/running starting back up again because this is ridiculous and there are no excuses for the weight I have gained in the past 3 1/2 months and I can't wait to see how the new sneaks feel. :)

We hope everyone is doing great and enjoying their summers.  Have a nice day.