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!