Holiday Pictures

Here Jack is acting silly with the girls at Tirague beach. No we didn't get any snow this year!
Below is a picture of a sweet little girl living in the village we brought gifts to. Below that are some pictures from the Christmas walk up at Anderson Air Force Base.






A Christmas Feast Chamorro Style

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Guam! We've had a wonderful few days and the kids are anxiously awaiting Christmas Day. This time of year we miss friends and family back home, yet our Guam family has brought us much comfort and joy this season! It's hard to believe that we'll be heading home in under 6 months. We anticipate a move to Newport, though we won't know for sure until Tom gets orders. Say a prayer for us!

We want to share a few pictures and a video from our recent holiday activities. This year I organized the 2nd annual Holiday Blessings Outreach. For weeks we collected clothing, toys, stuffed animals (new and gently used), and wrapping supplies from members of the Oakleaf Club, neighbors and friends. On Friday many people donated their time to sort and bundle clothing, wrap gifts, and prepare for the delivery. It was a tiring but great day. Cole was a good sport through all of the preparations. On Thursday evening he helped bring presents across the street to my neighbors garage (on his Healys of course). Jack was completely confused and kept asking when he was getting his presents. When all was ready we loaded 8 cars with gifts and on Saturday afternoon we drove up north to a impoverished village and distributed the gifts. Kids were involved with all aspects of this outreach and I think that made it extra special.

From there we went with friends to Bamboo Willies, which is a restaurant on the water close to Anderson Air Force Base. The kids had a blast playing on the playground and in the sand. They got nice and dirty so luckily we had a change of clothes for everyone as we were heading next to the Christmas walk up at the Air Force Base. There is a neighborhood there that is decorated to the max for Christmas and families walk up and down the street enjoying the sites and festivities. The kids stood in a snow shower (bubbles blown from a huge fan), collected goodies, saw at least 2 santas (how confusing is that?!), and so much more. We lost Jack for about 10 minutes in the huge crowd and boy was that scary. Apparently he saw a plane down the street that was rigged up to fly across the street dropping candy (watch the video!). When we turned our heads he bee lined to the plane. He eventually realized that we weren't there and got scared and thankfully walked back up the street in our direction. When I picked him up he started sobbing and I shed a few tears of joy.

Yesterday we were invited to the church Christmas celebration at the school that the boys attend. We all had a wonderful time and I will have to post a picture of the food table to give you a sense of what "fiestas" in Guam are like. Earlier in the day Cole had some friends over, including two boys that live in a shelter up north. Sernes is 8 and attended Southern Christian Academy with Cole after his family was discovered homeless at Chammoro Village. (On a side note, Cole sang for the homeless at Chammoro village last Tuesday night, and boy was that memorable). Sernes is such a sweet boy. His family now lives in a shelter and both boys attend school. His parents are trying to break free of drugs and alcohol. When we left last night AJ (Sernes' older brother), asked if he could "come with us tomorrow". My heart broke.

Today we plan to hike with our close friends and then make Christmas cookies and get ready for Christmas. Sorry this blog was so long but I have a lot to say this year! We wish you and your family a wonderful holiday and we can't wait to see you in 2008! I will post video here, and then pictures separately in the next entry.

Thanksgiving and address change

We hope you had a nice thanksgiving. This year we had some friends on our street come to our house. They have a little daughter that is close to Haven's age. The boys were excited because they brought their Wii over. Believe it or not we actually decorated our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving Day. Only in Guam! We got our tree once they arrived at the Navy Exchange because we wanted to get it while it was "fresh" and get it into water. Once it was up Cole was so excited to decorate it that we went ahead and got the ornaments out in the morning. This apparently confused Jack, who woke up the following morning thinking it was Christmas and wanted to rush downstairs to see the presents.

Here are some recent pictures of the kids. We are all doing great and looking forward to a three week stretch with Tom not on call. His partner has been off island and Tom carried the beeper for the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. By the new year we're hoping to have a better idea as to our next duty station.

For those of you that don't have it, we have a new address. It's 23 Plumeria Street Santa Rita, Guam 96915. Happy Holidays!

Halloween 2008

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I last updated our blog. Unfortunately I dropped my camera on halloween night and haven't had any phone calls from the person that picked it up :( I'm still hoping someone will respond to my newspaper ad! I do have some recent pictures from Tom's camera that I am posting here. Though we have no photos of the kids in costume or from the underwater pumpking carving contest that Tom and I did we were fortunate that Tom ended up on the front page of the local newspaper. It was VERY difficult to get our pumpkin to the bottom (we carved at about 15 feet) and Tom had to find a cement block to put on his legs to keep him down. He says he'll never forget the moment when he got the top off the pumpkin and the bubbles rushed out of the pumpkin and rose to the surface. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Here is a photo of our finished product. While we dove, the kids participated in a pumpkin/orange hunt and had a great time.

Ko'ko fun run

I had to post some pictures from the Ko'ko fun run the kids did today. The ko'ko bird is one of the few birds left on this island. The run was a one mile loop for Cole, and a shorter one for Jack. They both did great and the weather was beautiful. Cole came in second for his age group. Jack ran some and then decided to walk. However, when he saw Tom cheering for him at the finish line he ran so fast with such a big grin on his face. It was priceless! Haven enjoyed playing in the sand before the race and seeing a ko'ko bird for the first time.

Fall

The other day I got an Email from our friend and old neighbor Sandy. She talked about the Red Sox and how they spend their afternoons watching it outside with their outdoor fire going. It brings me right back to fall and old times with friends. It's strange living in a place like Guam where there is no real change to mark the seasons (our seasons are typhoon, rainy, and dry and right now it's just sticky and rainy). I get homesick this time of year, especially with two new cousins Molly and Lauren that I don't get to hug. Just know that we are thinking about you all even if we don't get a chance to call you. Tom remarked yesterday that when we move stateside it'll be hard to get used to the fact that we don't have to calculate time difference. I'll just be excited that you are awake when we are! Here are a few pictures of our Orton Street friends from this summer. We're wishing we could enjoy your fires with you this year!

Our visit to New York

We also had a chance to visit with the Varney clan in Upstate New York this summer and we had such a great time. Our favorite time spent was with family, but we were also able to enjoy Great Escape, Natural Stone Bridge and Caves, and of course our favorite ice cream place (multiple times).

Cape Cod 2007

I wish I could post the hundreds of pictures we took this summer. We have so many wonderful memories. Here are a few group pictures and family pictures that we treasure

Cole's 7th birthday

On Cole's actual birthday we had a party at school for Cole and his friend/classmate Bianca. After school we took him on a birthday adventure. His new friend Eamon came along. We went first to Assan park to run around and let Cole try his new remote control airplane. Then we went to his choice of restaurant - McDonalds, and finally to the Nikko hotel where we have a membership. We arrived at sunset and the kids had a blast swimming. Haven enjoyed watching the firedancer show from the baby pool area. As we were leaving Cole and Eamon got to pose with two of the performers. It was a great day!

Birthday Bash

Last weekend we had Cole and Jack's birthday party. We held it at Polaris Point, which is a Navy facility with a nice beach. We woke to thunder and lightning and waited for skies to brighten. They did for a short period but when we arrived at Polaris to set up, we stood under drenching rain and it was quite windy. We were trying to decide whether or not to move the party indoors when I realized that my car battery was dead and we were there to stay. As our guests (about 25 kids and their parents) arrived at 4 PM the skies cleared and the weather was perfect. Kids played in the sand, climbed on the iceberg, swam, ran in the parking lot chasing balloons and had a wonderful time. And to top it all off, we were able to watch the most incredible sunset before heading home. We were blessed in so many ways with this day and, most importantly, the boys had a birthday party they will never forget!

Our New House

It's been a long time since we last wrote. After a wonderful summer spent in New York and Cape Cod, we have returned home and are settling into our school year routine. However, the home we are in now is not the one we left at the beginning of the summer. Our old house flooded twice as a result of a broken pipe, and while we were making our way back to Guam poor Tom (who was also on call all summer) had to deal with moving our entire house to a new home in a different Navy housing development. When we arrived home the furniture was in place, beds were made, and so much more. Here is a picture of our new house. My caravan is parked in front of the unit that is ours. We live on a long street. We don't really have a yard for the kids to run around in, but we like the house and the neighbors we've met. We're thankful that we did not lose much in the flood and that there was no major damage. Well, now that we are settled here we are waiting to hear about where we will be in June of 2008. At this point in time we are waiting to hear whether or not there is an open billet in Newport, RI. If so, there is a chance that we will be coming back to New England, but Tom would likely deploy from there for 6+ months. Our other option at this time is to extend in Guam for another year. Here in Guam deployment is unlikely though not guaranteed. We'll keep you posted.

Kids and pets

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures. Haven is having her first haircut, and the other picture of her is at Cocos Island. Jack is riding a horse at a small ranch in the northern part of the island. Cole is pictured with his friend Reyna and his new guinea pig Stripey. We adopted Stripey from some friends who just left island and he is a great pet.

Spanish Steps

Here are a few pictures from the Spanish Steps. This snorkle spot had been closed for 18 months due to ships being in the area so when we heard it was open we made a point to get there before it closed again. There is a short, steep hike down to it. The tide was low but we still saw some beautiful fish. We didn't see sharks there that day but our friends did just a few days before. On the walk back through the water we found old Japanese bullets and some other WWII artifacts.