Trips 4 and 5.

I was so happy to have Jennifer come stay two weeks with me. It was the best two weeks out of the last 4 months. Only 3 more months to go; over half way there!

I have had the opportunity to go on a few short trips with my crew since deploying. Three of those trips have been to Guam. I posted from my first trip, here's from my last two. One of the three was for a typhoon evacuation. One thing is for sure, while here it seems I spend a lot more time at work than I would prefer. I guess I would prefer not to work when I have such a beautiful ocean around me.

This Hotel was the Leo Palace. It was out in the middle of the island, and our directions to get there were terrible. It was kind of like..."If at the intersection there is a Mobile station on your left and a Shell station on your right you are on the correct road, keep going straight. At the second light turn left, then take the second left, down the road a ways the road will Y, take the right Y. You will know you are on the correct road because you will see a school on the left..."

After getting lost a few times we finally flagged down a guy and paid him to lead the way to the hotel. It was about 2:00 am when we finally got in.

Here was what the lobby area looked like the next morning.


Here's a view from my most recent hotel. A view from my room on the 5th floor.

Here's the hotel from the beach side.

Walked the beach and found this old gun mounted next to a cliff.

I was walking out in tidal area, about mid-calf deep water and came across some cool things. Here's the starfish.

I saw this shark. It was only about 18 inches long.

About a mile down the beach is this cliff, Two Lovers Point. It is named after a Romeo and Juliet style story. Legend has it a Chamorran (Guam native) chief promised the hand of his daughter in marriage to a Spanish general. She, however, was in love with a brave Chamorran warrior. The two left together and were pursued by the Spanish army. At the top of the cliff, they tied their long hair together and as the army approached, hand in hand jumped from the top of the cliff to their death.
I thought the farthest outcropping of rock looked like an apes face, so I cropped it. What do you think?

You know the crazy thing about all this...even with all the places I get to travel and all the things I get to see I would rather give it all up to be home with my wife and kids.

Feeling a little overwhelmed

So I finally made it back from Japan. (after 3 weeks, which was only supposed to be 10 days. Not that I minded be there with only Scott and no kids. I actually missed the little buggers after about a week. It was an eventful trip trying to get back. I was trying to fly Space A (on a military flight that doesn't cost too much...$15-$30) Well the first time I tried, the plane was broken, so I tried again the next day. (Sunday) It had 75 open seats, and I was #76 on the list. Needless to say I was disappointed. Well lucky enough for me I had a reservation for a commercial flight set for Monday. I was supposed to leave at 1:45 pm. I got up Monday morning packed all my stuff and went to go pick up my ticket. When I got to the ticket agency, they said my reservation was canceled, and that the next flight I could get would leave the next day, Tuesday.
Scott ended up having to leave the island on Monday because a Typhoon was coming our way. Set to hit on Tuesday night. I got to the airport early Tuesday, my flight was due to leave at 11:50 and they canceled all the flights after 10:00. I was stranded. I ended up catching an expensive taxi back to the base where Scott's room was, and walking from the gate all the way to the room with all my luggage. (good thing I pack light) It had started to rain at this point, and I was wondering if it could get any worse. Good thing it wasn't that long of a walk. I was able to stay in the room and the typoon made it in around 4:30 in the afternoon. Only a little water come into the room, and then I went and took some sand bags to help the rest of the evening.

I was finally able to get out on Thursday. I left from Okinawa and got to Tokyo. From there to L.A, to San Francisco, to Salt Lake City. I arrived in Salt Lake around 9 at night and then drove all night and finally arrived home at 11:00 am Friday morning. It was so nice to be home. My Aunt picked me up from the airport and said "OK my bags are packed and in the back I am going with you." I guess everyone was worried that I would be too tired to drive. I ended up driving all night just to have my Aunt steal the keys from me when we stopped for breakfast 3 hours from my house. I was able to finally get some sleep around 11:00 that night. I just could not go to sleep.

Saturday, I took my Aunt to catch the shuttle and pick up my luggage, (the airline had lost it, and I didn't get it back for 2 days..note to self don't ever fly United Airlines again!) Scott's brother Kent had also shown up on Friday, and our good friend Chiko was home for a few days from his deployment. So I had a great time visiting and spending time with friends and family. (This is probably getting long, but blogging is like my Journal you really don't have to read on. :))

Sunday was back to the grind, going to Church and being in the nursery. I can't say that I missed nursery. I got peed on. So Gross. I also got to see my friend Augustina. It was so nice to visit with her and catch up. Thanks for spending some time with me Augustina!

Labor day was spent trying to catch up on the housework. It was never ending laundry, I finally finished it all at 11:00 last night. I also had some friends over for dinner, and ended up taking a trip to Everett to drop Chiko off. I was really sad to see him go. He really is a great friend and we all will miss him. He will be gone for around 6-7 months. That is the one thing that really sucks about the military. Deployments.

So now for the overwhelming part. I still haven't noticed to much jet lag, probably because I have been so busy with everything and everybody since I have been back. The kids start back to school tomorrow, and all 4 of them will be in school. I should be doing the happy dance, but I am not. I was nice and said that I would watch my friend's kids for a week while she goes to see her husband. Her kids are 4 and 2. No sleeping in for me, and I get to change diapers again. Don't get me wrong I really don't mind doing it at all, I just really want my scheduled life back. Who knew that I would like having a schedule life. In two weeks I should have it back, but until then I am just surviving, in what I feel is a messy disorganized house that is driving me crazy. It is time for some Fall cleaning. I keep telling myself in 2 weeks it will get done, I just have to stick it out until then.

I still need to finish school shopping and getting all the crazy stuff for school supplies packed into the kids backpacks, I should also find out who my kids have for teachers considering they start tomorrow. So check back in a few day to see the kids first day of school pictures.

The visit

So, as a lot of you know, Jennifer came out to visit me! Here are some pictures of our time together and the things we saw. She really is my best friend (sorry if you thought it was you). It was nice to be together, but I sure miss the kids too.

Look, no stache!
Tried our feet in a doctor fish tank...it tickled, a lot!

It seems plant statues are popular here:
These are Shisha dogs, to keep good spirits and ward off evil ones
These are turtles, dolphins and an angel fish at the aquarium

A view at the aquarium park. We managed to be in a building every time it rained.

Traditional houses for the island on display at the aquarium.

An underground waterfall. The limestone cave was amazing.

A papaya tree

Dragon fruit and star fruit.

A couple insects to check out.
Sorry it is out of focus. The banana spider in comparison to my hand.


Hiked to a waterfall in the jungle.

Spent a night at a resort.

Summer Posts

So since my husband keep pestering me, I guess I can give you a summer update. I will say that here in Washington, it has not been the best summer weather. I think we had 2 weeks where it actually felt like summer. Where to begin. School got out here on the 18th of June. The next week we headed over to Northern Idaho where it was nice and warm, saw lots of friends, spent time with family, and got a tan by the pool.

We returned from Idaho, and I almost turned back after coming over the mountains. The temperature had dropped 15-20 degrees, and it was gray and nasty out.

At the end of June, Kaleb had his 10th birthday. He was very excited to turn 10, I was very sad. My kids really are growing up so fast! He wanted to spend the day with friends at Chucky Cheese. We had a great time, and everyone got lots of tickets!



So another couple stories about Kaleb. He is the most creative kid, and is always making me laugh, or wanting to pull my hair out. One day he wanted to go shot his BB gun, and couldn't find his eye glasses that he uses for eye protection, so he got out the next best thing, goggles. Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard when I saw him out there. Crazy, smart kid!

So like I mentioned earlier, he also makes me want to pull my hair out. So on one particular day, we were not getting along very well, so as punishment for whatever it was we were fighting about, he had to mow the lawn. Before Scott left, the lawnmower was giving us problems, and he was able to fix it. Since then though, it feels as if you are running behind the mower. Needless to say the lawn gets done really fast. Anyways back to the story, Kaleb was mowing the lawn and running behind it, again super funny to watch. The pictures just don't do it justice.



After Kaleb's birthday we had 2 weeks before all of our visitors started to arrive. We spent time with friends, picked strawberries, made lots of jam and spent a lot of time at the park. I think this season the kids and I picked berries about 3 times. Yum!


Next came my birthday. I drove down to Seattle to pick up my Aunt Dani. Scott sent me a package with a birthday present. It was a great day. Dani barbecued for me. (Those who know, I can cook, but not very well on the grill. The last time I tried to make steak, it didn't turn out.) I even had my favorite ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.

So I have the most awesome friends and family ever. Part of my birthday present from Scott was a day of pampering. My friend Patti came and watched the kids for me, while Dani and I went out. It started off with a mani/pedi, then it was off to lunch at a great Mexican place, some shopping, and then an hour massage. It was wonderful! I really didn't think Scott was going to do anything for my birthday, so I bought myself a patio set. The kids and I love it, and when it is nice out we eat dinner outside.


While Dani was here, we went to the beach. Don't let the pictures fool you, it was cold out!



While Dani was here, my bother, mom and grandmother also flew out to visit. It was a full house, but I think we all had a great time. We were super busy, and did a lot of fun things. One was that we went up to Vancouver B.C. to attend the Temple there. It was an adventure to get there though. After bad directions and drive the wrong way for 45 minutes, we missed our scheduled session, and made the next one with only 5 minutes. I was sure grateful that we were able to make it in. We had wanted to explore Vancouver itself, but after all the wrong way driving, we just wanted to make it home. It was a adventurous 11 hours.



We decided to take Grandma to the beach, where we were able to get a four generation picture. How cool is that! (Again another chilly day, at least the sun was out though!)


We have all sorts of cute little towns around here, and we went to visit one of them. As we were walking we waved down this biker. He was the nicest guy ever, and took my grandma and I on a little tour. It was way fun!


Lets see, we also spent a day in Seattle going to the Crab Pot for lunch, fought with a crazy lady over a lost little girl, went to pike place market and then off to the airport to drop Dani off to go back home.

Then it was off to Idaho to visit my sister. I don't have pictures, because I always forget my camera. But it was beautiful over there, and we had a great time. We talked her into driving over here so that we could spend more time with her. Still a full home, but defiantly a fun one. We all laughed so much during our visit. My cousin Courtney also showed up. She came to watch my kids while I was away at girls camp.

Everyone except Courtney had left on the day Emmi and I headed out to girls camp. This was her first year, and was very nervous. I wasn't her camp mom, which was probably a good idea. She went with her group, and I rarely saw her after that. She had a great time, and I was so exhausted afterwords. I am still a little tired, but am feeling way better, a week later.



After girls camp, Courtney the kids and I all went to Seattle again. This time we went up to the top of the space needle. Kaleb really didn't want to go. He was so nervous, but he did it. (Ok I made him)

We then let Courtney explore the city and we went to the Pacific Science Center. After it closed we met up with Courtney to head home, but our car was blocked in the parking lot and we couldn't get out. Every year in Seattle they have what called "Seafair" where the blue angles come, and the have all the hydroplane boats race. Well Seattle was preparing for the Seafair parade so the streets were blocked, and the hydroplane boats were blocking our way out. So we were able to stay for the parade. It was really fun. Again no pictures.

Courtney left the next day. We were sad to see the last of our visitors go, but it is nice to get in to a routine again.

Emmi had her 12th birthday. She is a Young Woman now. She had a great birthday. We had friends over for lunch, had a girls shopping trip, and their favorite friend Jude came over for dinner and cake. (who made her blow out candles twice because she didn't make a wish the first time)


I think I am caught up for the last few months. Hopefully it won't be as long before the next time I blog.

Another trip

OK, so you need to get on Jennifer's case about posting on the blog. There have been three birthdays now, a couple trips to Moscow, and numerous visitors to the house. I know she is a single mom with four kids for the next few months, so she needs some leeway, but with a little encouragement you might get some good pictures from her.

So, I ended up going on another trip. This one took me back to my first duty station, Guam.

Here's the view from my room. Camera fogged up a little from the humid air.

Saw this the second night I was there. Great view on the beach.

Here's the view from above of Tumon Bay.

We came across this atoll out in the middle of the ocean. It is completely submerged, but barely. The waves were crashing along the edges of the reef.

Here are two boats, side by side, run aground on the atoll. It looks like they've been there for a very long time.