Island Life....

For all of you poor people stuck in the snow, I hope these pictures don't make you hate us too bad :o

While the kids were in their first week of school, Robby had the week off work for house hunting. So of course we decided to go exploring. We accidentally found this beach. As we approached the road to go on we passed a sign that said...
"WARNING.... people have drowned here!" I must admit I was a bit nervous. And of course the one day we had to explore with out the children it was a down pour ALL day. But we quickly learned that if you wait to do something when it stops raining you will never do anything. This is the road we ventured down looking for the beach...




So we finally found a place to park and headed out to the beach. It was gorgeous! Even in the down poor we had a great time. We spent the time looking for shells and found some really pretty ones. After about an hour we had to head back to get the kids. This is us dripping wet and having a blast...




There is a tradition here on Guam that on every Wednesday night the Chamorro village has a big Siesta at the Chamorro Village. We ventured out for the night. Unfortunately it was a school night and our little Gage was exhausted from being at school for a full day. The Chamorro's cooking is amazing and they are known for their different ways of cooking chicken. We LOVED it! Well, everyone but Gage...




























































One thing we have found that we are definately not in short of are lizards... Maddie has died and gone to heaven. We two different kinds on the island, Gekkos and Skinks. Apparently when they get scared their tails fall off, needless to say every lizard around our house is missing a tail. Maddie and her friends constantly catching them...





We have lots more to share with all of you. I will post what I can as soon as possible. Love you all!!

Wow, I don't even know where to begin...

I have been putting off getting the blog going because there would be just too much catch up to do. So I then decided some is better than none, right? I'm not going to start where I left off back in December, obviously you are all disappointed, but it's just not going to happen. I am just going to through in some pictures to get you caught up to the present. It also doesn't help that they've changed things since the last time I was on this. Bare with me here we go......

A real quick run through...
Moved in with Hollie and Kids and mom while Robby worked in Boise. Joined the Navy, then Robby left for Officer Training in Rhode Island. He was gone for 2 1/2 months, but he graduated with flying colors and is officially an Officer of the United States Navy! We then packed up everything we own and shipped it to Guam. Thank goodness the military does that for you. We made it to Guam on October 17ish.(honestly I don't remember) The flight was long but the kids did great, or so I'm told. I took some "calming" drugs because of my fear of flying over the ocean, crashing and if I survived getting eaten by sharks. Anyway, I took those and then woke up in Japan, 10hours later. The kids claim I colored with them and played with them, but I honestly don't remember one thing about that flight. We then continued to Guam, it was about another 3 hour flight.

Once in Guam our sponsor, LT Commander Roger Bunch picked us up from the airport. It took two trips to the hotel for them to get all our luggage there. It was beautiful!! We staid at a resort called The PIC (Pacific Island Club) we loved it there. The kids had a great time because there is a water park right on the beach. So needless to say the kids and I spent the next week playing while Robby started figuring out his new duty.




























We celebrated Halloween while we were living at the PIC. This was pretty interesting because the PIC is the top vacation spot for Japanese. Guam is to the Japanese like Hawaii is to us. So needless to say there are A LOT of tourists here. Anyway, so the kids got all dressed up and we headed out to the base to do some trick-or-treating. As we left the Japanese tourists absolutely loved seeing the kids. They were all saying stuff like... ga;skfrj;ewhdshjnfs, they are so sweet. No, but really they are a very kind culture.

























After living in the hotel for two weeks we were finally able to move into a house on Big Navy. Its a four bedroom but the rooms are only 9x9. Pretty small, but we are all together! (sounds cheesy, but I mean it)



The kids quickly found a way to have fun in our new home. We don't have carpet anywhere due to the high humidity and flooding from typhoons. So we get to walk on hard tiles 24/7. But as you can see the kids really enjoy it.

This is our dinning room standing at the front room







Our living room standing in the same place as the dinning room




Our kitchen is actually not too bad. It looks really small but we have lots of cupboard space.



Laundry Room

The kids started school during our last week at the PIC. Gage is in ALL DAY Kindergarten, Maddie in 3rd and Lizzy in 4th. They are all doing great as little Sea Hawks here at the McCool School.

HELLOOOO Everybody! Wow, we are really, really behind on our blog...wow! Sorry. Life has slipped by with little time to blog. In any case, hopefully we can get you up to date with our happenings. I joined the Navy in July, was sent to training in Newport, RI in August, then training in Norfolk, VA in September, then we all are going to Guam in October. Em and the kids have been with her family in Logan, UT. Em, my precious, lovely, devoted, and not crazy wife has done all of the hard work...getting all of our stuff shipped, including our car, to Guam; in addition to dealing with the insane amount of paperwork and bureaucracy of the government and moving overseas!!! All the while tending to the extremely demanding needs of our three lovely (although she might argue this point! ;) children, Lizzy, Maddie, and Gage! If you call her and she doesn't answer, don't worry, she still loves and cares about you, she is just probably doing one of the things listed above...or she could be crying wishing this was all over soon! Which it will be in the next week or so. We then will be sending our warm wishes and doing better at keeping everybody up to date from Guam. So until then...

Yes, we are still alive...

I know, I know, many of you think we have up and fallen off the face of the earth. Well....although at times it feels like that would be nice, we are still here. :) Since I have obviously gotten EXTREMELY behind in my blog I'm going to try and fly through our little adventures that have been keeping us so busy.

So on New Years Day, my kiddos all headed to Utah with Aunt Hollie and Gma Carolyn. They were getting a headstart so the girls could start school at the first of the year. I was staying behind to pack up the house. As you can plainly see the kids were heart broken about leaving with out me...



So for 17 days I did nothing much other than packing up a very large house...

Robby flew in on the 15th to make the move with me. We rented a 26ft truck and thought we may have room to spare...We ended up packed extremely tight. We also towed the Montana, the poor thing never would have made it

We are sure going to miss this house, our friends and the beautiful state of Colorado...
















Entering into Cache Valley brought back A LOT of emotions. I had forgotten just how beautiful and peaceful this valley is. This is the view from the front of Hollies house. Every morning I love to just go watch as the sunrise turns these gorgeous mountains into a sight that just brings an at home feeling.
This is the view out the back of the house. As you can see it is heaven. Maddie spends the majority of her time out talking to and petting the horses. She has found her passion. Hollie is going to start giving her riding lessons every Sat. Needless to say Maddie's dream has come true.
>

We were soooo... blessed this Christmas. I am so thankful to all those of you who helped to make this Christmas so amazing. This season was a true testimony to us as to what Christmas is all about. We love all of you and thanks again.

Daddy created a Fort with all the boxes for the kids...They loved it!


We LOVE and MISS you Daddy!


We were blessed to have our dear friends the Andersons join us for a Christmas Eve Dinner. We are carrying on the Summers' Family Tradition of Soup in a Bread Bowl on Christmas Eve.






Im not so sure Trace liked the soup...













Our little Cali Cakes...she's our little eater :) Boy I'm going to miss those sweet little cheeks








Oh Sam, those little tears will be missed...
Poor Rian had her tonsils out for Christmas Break...She was a sad little sight.














Cali and her Bears Hat


Lizzy & Maddie in their Christmas PJs


Gage in his Christmas PJ's and a Heating Blanket from Gma Cassie and Gpa Craig. When he opened the blanket he said..."A Heating Blanket, My Dream Come True!" That little boy sure knows how to bring a smile to my face.

Thank you Gma Cassie and Gpa Craig...


Thank you Gma Carolyn, Aunt Hollie and the Crew :)

























Thank you Kristen, Erick and Ellie...

Thank you Aunt Jill, Uncle Eric, Katelyn and Gracie :)