Christmas

(Sorry I'm late again, more technical difficulties with our computer.)

Like Thanksgiving, our first Christmas on Guam was not as hard as I was afraid it would be. We kept pretty busy & tried to surround ourselves with friends. Christmas morning was all about Howie, & he really enjoyed himself opening & playing with all his presents. In between opening presents we enjoyed a morning snack of rice krispie stars. We broke out some icing tubes & let Howie decorate his tasty little treats. Now Howie keeps asking to decorate, & it has become a daily occurrence! For lunch, we went to the brunch buffet at the Hyatt in Tumon. We met up with 4 other families there, for a total of 22 people! Later, we had some of the guys from Nick's ship over for dinner. Howie had a ball keeping them entertained & stayed up till 10! Overall, a wonderful island Christmas! Hope you enjoy the Smilebox & the video. The song that's playing for the Smilebox is Howie's favorite Christmas song. Every time it came on, a huge grin would brighten his face, & he would start dancing! 

Make a Smilebox slideshow

8 Things Tag

Rules:

1. Post rules on your blog.

2. Answer the 6 "8" items.

3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment. 

8 Favorite Shows

   1. The Office

   2. Scrubs

   3. Seinfeld

   4. The Golden Girls

   5. Everybody Loves Raymond

   6. Lost

   7. Bones

   8. Cold Case

8 Things I Did Yesterday

   1. Cooked grits

   2. Went grocery shopping

   3. Cleaned the refrigerator 

   4. Talked to my brothers on Skype

   5. Walked Clarence

   6. Played outside with Howie

   7. Gave Howie a bath

   8. Ate a big bowl of Cocoa Pebbles

8 Things I Look Forward To

   1. Christmas!

   2. Seeing my family again

   3. Seeing my kitties again

   4. Being stationed at a shore unit

   5. Having a baby brother or sister for Howie

   6. Driving my Jeep again

   7. More traveling

   8. Starting my Yoga routine back up

8 Favorite Restaurants - this one's tough because of newly discovered food issues

   1. McCall's (NC)

   2. Bojangle's (NC)

   3. good Thai (currently Marianas Trench)

   4. Jamaican Grille

   5.  El Korita (NC)

   6. good Mexican (haven't explored this yet on Guam)

   7. Flaming Amy's Burrito Barn (NC)

   8. California Tortilla

8 Things on my Wish List

   1. Healthy family

   2. All our family members to know the Lord as their personal saviour

   3. To be out of debt (again!)

   4. Howie to sleep all night

   5. Run a 5K

   6. New living room furniture

   7. Go to Australia/New Zealand

   8. Better recycling on Guam

8 People to Tag - only know 6 people with blogs, & 3 have already been tagged, so I guess it's my cousins!

   1. Aubrey

   2. Bridget

   3. Morgan

Hong Kong Day 5

Day 5 was our last day in Hong Kong. Our flight didn't leave until 6 pm, so we made the most of the day. We had a few last photo ops at Disney, then it was off to see the Big Buddha. We took the Disney Line train for part of the trip, & it didn't disappoint! Then we took the Ngong Ping cable car up to see the Tian Tan Buddha, which is the world's largest outdoor seated buddha. There were a lot of stairs to climb! But it was nothing compared to the people who climbed the mountain up to see the buddha instead of taking the cable car. Hope you enjoyed coming along for a taste of our Hong Kong trip. There are tons more pictures in our web album. You can also check out Amy & Dot's blogs.

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Hong Kong Day 4 - Disneyland!

The fourth day was our Disneyland Day. It was a lot of fun, & it would have been nice to have had an extra day to go back. We rode some rides, saw a couple of shows, & watched the Christmas parade. The Christmas decorations were beautiful, & they had glasses you could look through & see angels in the lights & fireworks. I held them up to the camera, so you can see the angels in the pictures & the video. After the parade, it started "snowing." It was actually soap. And we ended the night with an awesome fireworks show!

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Hong Kong Day 3

The third day of our vacation was mostly spent shopping in the Ladies Market. We found lots of fun souvenirs & haggled for prices. It was pretty funny, & Dale even got hit by one of the ladies! Later that evening, Dot helped me buy a new digital SLR camera with more price negotiating. Then we moved over to Disney's Hollywood Hotel for our next 2 nights.

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Hong Kong Day 2

On the second day of our trip, we took a half day bus tour of Hong Kong Island. Our first stop was Victoria Peak, which is the highest point in Hong Kong. From there you can see Victoria Harbor & Kowloon (where our hotel is located). After that we went to the Aberdeen Fishing Village & took a sampan ride. Then we went to Stanley Market for some shopping. Unfortunately we only had 45 minutes here, but still enough time for me to spend some $$! We did only a half day tour so we could get back in time for naps. When Howie woke up, we went to the Hong Kong Science Museum. There was lots of hands-on stuff for Howie to try, but he was too young for most of it. Later we had a girls night out for some shopping, but the battery on my camera was dead. =( We saw some lovely Christmas decorations at the Harbour City shopping center, but it was extremely crowded! We also walked down the Avenue of Stars & saw Bruce Lee & Jackie Chan's stars!

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Hong Kong - Day 1

We left for our trip to Hong Kong bright & early (3 am!) Saturday morning with a sick baby boy. Thankfully, he got better quickly. Most of the first day was spent in transit. We had 2 flights with a short layover in Manila. When we arrived, we took the Airport Express train to Hong Kong & the free shuttle bus to the YMCA hotel where we stayed the first 2 nights. All the kids did really well with the travel. We did venture out for an interesting dinner at a food court. Nick's beef balls were pretty much raw, & his chicken wasn't cooked through. I was glad I avoided meat that meal! The Y is right on Victoria Harbor, & we had a decent view of the skyline all decorated for Christmas. Every night they have a Symphony of Lights, the world's largest permanent light & sound show. We were able to see the light show from our room & listen to the music on the radio.

Make a Smilebox photobook

PRAYER REQUEST!!!

A close friend of ours who is in her second trimester of pregnancy has received some possibly devastating news about her baby. Please keep them in your thoughts & prayers as they continue further testing.

A Feathered Visitor

I was standing in Howie's room one afternoon last week & heard the sound of an animal squeaking. I freaked out thinking that a shrew had gotten into the house! Then I heard tapping on the window, so I peeked through the blinds & saw this bird, which I think is a bittern. Howie & I ran outside to go get a better look at it. It was pretty funny, because it wouldn't let me get a side view of it. It just kept stretching it's neck out & following to face me whenever I moved. I finally did get a better view, but only because it was distracted by Howie & Clarence. It's been living in the bushes outside of our house & our neighbor Meredith's house. I've seen it a couple of times on our front porch.

Our Busy Thanksgiving Weekend

I know I'm a little late with this, but I need to get caught up before our trip to Hong Kong next week.

The day after Thanksgiving, Nick & I ran the Turkey Trot 5K. I was so proud of myself for running the whole thing with only a very short 30 sec. walking break. But come to find out, the course was half a mile short, so my balloon was busted! Later that night, we went to the Pleasure Island Dance Festival in Tumon. There were dancers from Guam, Japan, & other parts of the world. We didn't stay all that long, but it was a lot of fun anyway.

Howie on one of the Carabaos on Vacation

Dancers from Guam

More dancers from Guam

Dancers from Japan

Of course it started to rain

Howie watching from above

This same night was the first night of the lighting of the Christmas lanterns.

On Saturday afternoon, we gave Howie a much needed haircut. He did really well & sat still pretty much the whole time. Of course it helped that his favorite movie Madagascar was playing.


Later that day we went to the Japan Autumn Festival. It's basically a celebration of the Japanese culture put on by the Japan Club of Guam. It was really crowded & parking was a mess! But it was still a good time.

We ran into the Morrison & Ramirez families there.

There were Japanese dancers. . .

yummy corn on the cob. . .

fresh (huge!) tuna being cut into sashimi. . .

and a shrine being carried by a bunch of Japanese people.

We only stayed for a couple of hours, then it was off to the Annual Christmas Festival at Skinner Plaza. We saw some beautiful Christmas lights and more island dancing, including fire dancers! Santa was there, too, but we didn't take the time to visit cause there were much more important things to do:

Riding the carabao!!!

Fire dancers!

Sunday was a little more relaxed. After church, we came home & decorated the Christmas tree.

Now I Know My ABC's. . .

Flashback Friday

I'll pick up where I left off before Thanksgiving with our busy summer. After our visit in Florida, we took the train back to NC. My dad picked us up, & we left that same day for Carolina Beach, NC. We spent a wonderful week there with my parents & 2 brothers. We rented an awesome house right on the beach, so that's where we spent most of our time. Howie is a little beach bum, & every morning he would run to the door & then down the walkway saying "Go bye bye." He loved the waves splashing on him & wasn't scared one bit. We definitely had to keep hands on him! We went to the aquarium one day, & it was pretty nice. Howie watched the fish every once in a while, but mostly wanted to run around. We went down to the boardwalk one night, but we were too late for the fireworks. So we just hung out at the arcade for a little while. We also rode the carousel at the mall one day. It may not have been the most exciting vacation, but it was a fabulous way to spend time with our family before we left for Guam!

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A Little Christmas Cheer

I was going to blog about our weekend, but when Howie did this, I just had to put it up!

Howie's 2nd birthday

Sorry I'm so late posting about Howie's birthday. We had some technical difficulties.

His birthday was on Tuesday, Nov. 11th. We started of the day with a junk food breakfast of hashbrowns from McDonald's.  Then we let Howie have his big presents: a trampoline from Mama & Daddy & a tractor from Grancy. He loved them both! He immediately knew what the trampoline was for (he's always been a big jumper). And he even wore the hard hat that came with the tractor. Later that morning we had a playdate with Ryland, Jojo, & Isabelle. The trampoline was a big hit! We also had Howie's ride-on Thomas out. Then we went out to lunch at a Thai restaurant. Howie digs spring rolls & noodles! We spent the afternoon at Gab Gab beach, which is here on base. Howie has always been a water bug! He's a little too brave for mama sometimes. After that, we went out to the playground for the evening, which is a regular thing around here. We usually run into our neighbors out there. 

On the Saturday after his birthday, we had a pool party here at the house. It was small & relaxed, but lots of fun! We had two pools out, so the kids liked running back & forth jumping into them both. Howie preferred the inflatable one with the slide cause it was low enough for him to jump into. It's nice having the playground right in the backyard, & all the kids ended up there eventually. And, as you'll see in the video, plastic slides & wet swim trunks make a fun mix (although maybe not the safest). Then we had a good old fashioned barbeque & tractor cake for dessert! The cake looked more like a jeep to me, but all the kids knew what it was. Howie opened a couple of his gifts that night (with some help), but we saved most of them for the next day so he wouldn't get too overwhelmed. 

We missed all our family & friends, but I'm pretty sure Howie still had a wonderful birthday.

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Flashback Friday

For Thanksgiving week we're going back to Howie's first Thanksgiving 2 years ago. Howie was only 12 days old, & we'd only been home from the hospital a little over a week. My parents, grandparents, & brother came up to visit. And to keep all the stress off of the new parents, they even brought all the food! We had a nice relaxing day just spending time together. 

Howie & Great Granddaddy Nelson

Howie & Great Grandma Mavis

Howie & Granddaddy Reed

Howie & Grandma Vicki

Uncle Micheal with Vixie & Gus

Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving without family was not nearly as hard as I was afraid it would be. We got together with two other families for a fabulous feast & lots of laughs. The Ramirez family were wonderful hosts! Everyone ate too much, as it should be, & then played Rockband on Xbox 360. Howie was too busy to eat & only wanted to play with his buddies Mia & Ryland. He even helped Mama & Daddy play the drums. We have a video of that, but it's rotated so we have to try to edit it. We had such a great time, & we can't wait for our Hong Kong trip with this same group!

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Our First Boonie Stomp - Haputo Beach

Sorry I've been slacking on the blog. We've had some computer issues, but they're all straightened out now.

We finally made some time to get out & explore the island. Haputo is a small, secluded beach on one of the Navy bases, so access is limited. You have to hike down a fairly steep set of steps to get down to the beach, but it's well worth it. The water was a little cooler here than the beach we usually go to, but it was refreshing. We saw a coconut crab for the first time in it's natural habitat, although it was a small one. Coconut crabs are the largestland arthropod, & are actually a type of hermit crab. The young ones usually have a snail shell, like the one we saw. Older ones adapt so that they don't need a shell. We also saw lots of "regular" hermit crabs, which really entertained Howie. He kept reaching out & saying "Come here crab" & "I'm gonna get you crab!" Then he wanted us to catch them, but he got freaked out when they came out of their shell while we were holding them. We had to escape into the forest when a big rainstorm came over right before we were ready to leave, but it didn't last very long. On the drive back out, we saw a deer on the side of the road, but it darted off before we could get a picture. We had a great time & can't wait to go back. There's also an ancient Chamorro village nearby, but we weren't sure exactly where, so we're going to try to find it next time. Enjoy the video & the smilebox!

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Flashback Friday

For our second edition of Flashback Friday, we'll cover our trip to Florida to visit Nick's family in July. This is where our journey to Guam really begins, because it was important to spend some quality time with family before we moved so far away.

We spent most of our time just hanging out. We took a day to go tubing down the Itchitucknee River with Grandpa Van. Grammy Michele couldn't come because of her cast. Howie had fun, but the water was freezing, so he mostly wanted to snuggle with Mama. We also took a Jungle Cruise on the Wacissa River with Grancy & Pappy Scott. Unfortunately we forgot our camera that day. Howie seemed to enjoy the cruise, & he could even see the fish under the water & the mullet jumping. We spent a little time on the beach there, and the freezing cold water didn't seem to bother Howie as much this time. But we had to drag him away when his lips turned blue. On our last day there, Grancy & Pappy took us to a local farm where they get eggs to see the chickens, goats, & other animals. Howie was most interested in the family cat. But the baby chicks were cute, too. We took the train back up to NC, which was lots of fun, except for the 4 hour delay that left us departing at 2 am. Now you'll understand the last picture in the smilebox.

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Flashback Friday

I was planning to start with our trip over from the states, but since Howie's birthday is coming up next week, I'm gonna flashback to his first birthday instead.

Nick was underway for Howie's first birthday, so Howie & I were in NC with my parents. The 4 of us had a small birthday party breakfast, complete with chocolate chip pancakes & birthday cake. He was pretty surprised when we let him dig into the cake, but he made the most of it. We went back home to VA pretty soon after the celebration so we could be there to meet Nick the next day. We had his actual party the following Saturday. My parents, maternal grandparents, & brother Spencer came up for the party. We let him go on the cake again, & he almost choked cramming a chocolate cupcake in his mouth. He really seemed to have a good time. I hope this year will be even better!

Giddy up!

cupcake cake

the decorations

Party favors with Granddaddy Reed . . .

and Great Granddaddy Nelson.

Those adorable early steps!

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