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.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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.

Make a Smilebox photobook

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!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Little Christmas Cheer

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