Our international jet-setting poocher

Well we parted with the pooper on Sunday. We packed her into her "box" as we affectionately call her crate and put her on a plane to Los Angeles. My parents still love us enough to have driven up to LAX at 5am to pick her up. My dad sent us this picture to assure us he did in fact pick Cheddar up and she's still in one piece. Apparently he had to wake her from her nap for this picture, can you tell she's pleased? =)

And so it begins...

Moving that is. I am currently sitting on the floor with my laptop and hubby "supervising" the packing. It's funny, everyone says "Oh they come and do it for you, you don't have to do anything!". Wrong! We've spent the last two days trying to figure out what we'll need for the next 2 months en route to Virginia. Once we siphoned off our bathroom with all the "Don't pack this!" stuff, exiled all of our yard sale stuff to the backyard this morning, we found out we had to sort through all the rest of our junk to remove liquids, food, flammables (spray paint I knew, duh. But nail polish??), batteries, light bulbs and candles. Because they won't do it. Given they arrived 1 1/2 hours late AND took two breaks before noon tells me it's going to be a LONG two days. I pitched the thought of running out to get food for them because it'd only give them another reason to take a break. Oh Guam!

Holy Cow Palau!

Well I’d say Colin and I kicked off our New Year’s with a bang. We hung out at home, ate pasta and watched Flight of the Intruder. Woo! I can’t say we’re the most adventurous couple when it comes to partying but we are when it comes to travel. We also spent that night packing and flew out the next day to Palau for the week. All of Colin’s travel paid off and earned us two first class seats and a visit to the President’s Lounge. I’d have to say traveling is 99% more enjoyable if you do it first class. Hands Down.

For the next three days we packed 8 dives in one of the most gorgeous places on Earth. Seriously this island is right out of National Geographic. We spent every day out on the boats cruising around many of the 343 islands that make up that tiny nation.  We spent over 7 hours underwater that week exploring EVERYTHING. The corals were so colorful and perfect, the turtles were so happy and friendly, even the sharks were friendly (I think). Considering our dive buddies came all the way from Europe & the States, we knew we had to be in a pretty good place! 

I’d say our most eventful dive was in the German Channel where we came in contact with Palau’s famous Manta Rays. They have some enormous rays that span from 6-9 feet wide! An 8 foot white ray seemed to have figured out Colin and I were the true rookies of our group and decided to have fun with us. That included a game of Chase the Newbie Divers, a game of which NEITHER of us were expecting (nor desiring). I wish they had told me about that BEFORE the dive to save our friends from such entertainment. That was also my shortest dive as I went through copious amounts of air during that encounter, grrr. I’m still pretty new at this so hopefully I’ll soon learn how to relax like all our dive buddies seemed to do.

A Black Manta Ray...very few of these exist in the world. It's like seeing a person with one blue eye and one brown eye. That rare. 

Me going "Whew!" after the Manta chase.

So pretty much every day consisted of us out on the boat or in the water. At the end of each day we hung out at the bar back at the dock to enjoy the sunset.  A gorgeous sunset I might add. Overall the trip was pretty fantastic, I don’t think any camera in the world can do that place justice but here’s my attempt to share a few of our experiences with you. 

 Almost every view included at least four shades of blue water. 

A blue clam, one of the sunken ships we visited had these encrusted all over her mast and beams. 

Thousands of fish would surround us.

Here's Colin and I giving the peace sign in Chandelier Caves. Apparently Japanese honeymooners insist on having their picture taken in this particular cave. Cheezu!

We also visited Jellyfish Lake. Essentially this is an ancient saltwater lake completely surrounded by land...hence the lake part. ;) Because they have no predators around them these jellyfish have lost their stinging capabilities. Therefore, you can play with them!

I thought I'd try out my underwater video skills. 

We kayaked the Black Tip Lake where Black Tip sharks live. (Again, they didn't warn me about this...eeek)

It was only until we found this unfortunate sight that we realized why we could not find any sharks. When a shark is killed or dies for some unknown reason, the others bail out for a few days. This was one of those few days. :(

Overall I think the trip was a success. When you can see things you only thought existed in books and magazines, you begin to realize there is so much more out there in the world. We hope to continue our adventures long into our marriage because theses experiences are truly unforgettable!

A Guamified Christmas!

Well I love to brag that I tend to be healthy as a horse but of course that only comes back to bite me in the bootie. And boy did it ever! Christmas outdid me this year as I've been down for the count the past four days with the flu. Fortunately it came after the holiday and not before!

We had a nice Christmas here in Guam. It was my first away from home but I'd say being surrounded by so many friends helped tremendously. So did cooking for 20. I took on my dad's Italian Christmas tradition and along with my fabulous husband, we cooked shrimp linguine for our friends on Christmas day. So delicious and easy to make!

 LCG Christmas Eve Service: Christmas at the Caves, complete with a manger scene! Although I wasn't aware there were carabao back in the day...

(yep that does say Bud Light Ct...OOG)

Dinner at the Chance Villa...Buon Natale!

 Given the strange angles of my house, I did my very best to get everyone in this picture:

We had tiramisu, cookies and pecan pie for dessert!

The kiddos!

We went diving with our friends the Fishers and Phillips' the day after Christmas. We dove a couple of great locations on Guam, everyone says they found a cool octopus. I did not. So either they're pulling my leg or the darn octo climbed back into his hole before I could swim over.

Overall, a great Christmas! We pack out in two weeks but not without a trip to Palau. More on that to come!

Adventures in Candyland!

Well one of my big projects of the year is now behind me. I was tasked with organizing the squadron Christmas party this year...again! Planning started in August and along with a few other ladies, we worked pretty hard to get this all together, epecially considering we live on Guam with it's "abundant" source of party resources! Let's just say we kept Oriental Trading afloat this quarter.

The theme this year was Candyland and what fun that was!! Seriously, who doesn't love candy? Or more importantly, what kid doesn't like candy? My friend Julie tasked herself with a mission to find enough candy for 100 children. Since she has a toddler and hungry labrador I had to keep all the candy in my guest room...disgustingly tempting for not only me but my poor dog who would go in there every day to sniff around. My guest room and soon my house was filled to the brim with decorations, craft supplies and of course candy! Poor Colin was a trooper!

So this past Friday 15 of us showed up after work to turn a very industrial space into an imaginary Candyland. I must say trying to decorate an aircraft hangar is one of the more challenging things I've done lately! With the help of some awesome sailors we set up countless tables, chairs, a bounce house, an obstacle course, Santa's corner, food table and of course, the candy buffet! We managed to get it all setup in 2 1/2 hours, of course pizza and drinks is always a great motivator. :)

The festivities began Saturday morning. One thing I really am happy about this year is that we were able to rope in a bunch of the single/childless pilots to help with the party. This way the wives can help with the pre-planning and then be able to be with their children during the party. 

The kids started arriving at 9:00am and eventually we had 100 kids and their parents taking part in crafts, games and the candy buffet around the hangar. At 9:30am the children had a big surprise fly in. Santa himself hitched a ride all the way from the North Pole to come visit the children.

 I would like to say they were a little bit excited:

Thanks to Steph for this pic, it's my favorite!!

The children each had a turn to come visit Santa, get their picture taken with him and of course, a toy! All I can say is our hero of the day is Jonny, one of the pilots who donned a velvet suit and beard in 90 degree weather.

A very serious picture of the North Pole flight crew

While they were waiting for their turn they took part in several crafts. They made frames for their Santa pictures, colored hot chocolate mugs and Christmas cards and made coconut reindeer. You mainlanders are probably envisioning something completely different from what this craft was. We brought in unopened coconuts and they attached eyes, a red nose, antlers and a scarf (in some cases it was a ninja scarf or bow tie)!

We originally came up with coconut snowmen but had some trouble getting hot glue to stick to spray paint. Unfortunately I discovered the problem was the green, unripe coconut we were using was too oily. It worked just fine on the brown ones so not wanting to waste supplies I made some as decorations and gifts for some of the key volunteers!

The children also kept busy with games. This year we had an obstacle course, a penny toss and a scavenger hunt in addition to the usual bounce house and bubble wrap run. The kids were to try and fill in answers to questions on the page and for the questions they couldn't answer, they'd have to go find a pilot or crewman to find it. The prizes were fantastic and it seemed to go really well!

The final "activity" if you will, of the morning was a pass by the "Candy Shoppe". Each child was given a "Golden Ticket" (Willy Wonka anyone??) to exchange for a candy bag. We converted Santa and Elf hats into handy candy bags. The funniest thing I found about the whole ordeal was the parents found the buffet to be more exciting than the children. And that's saying a lot. It was hilarious watching them "ask" the kids what they wanted to select. I suppose this may be a repeat in years to come, I guess the parents deserve some fun too, right?

Btw, aren't these photos awesome? My good friends Jeff, Andrea and Molly captured the day so well!

In the end I think the children had a fabulous time. We even got some great PR as some of the local papers published pictures from the event. I hope I have an opportunity to plan another party at a future command, if we could pull this off on Guam, the possibilities stateside are endless...