I Love My Seabee

I absolutely LOVE this uniform!! Matt was issued it earlier this week and it has been the uniform of the day since. Don't you just love it too???

When I was taking his picture this afternoon, Rian asked to be in the picture too. I swear we did not pose her! She wanted to stand there just like Daddy :)

300 Square Feet

Matt has begun his training in Cali and luckily Rian and I are able to join him this time. The Navy is putting us up in the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters), in the 'family suite'....if you even dare to call it that! It is TINY, but at least we are here with him, that's what that counts!!!

I swear I am not complaining. I'm just saying that I could never live in NY or anywhere where the apartments are as tiny as this. Welcome to our 'living room/Rian's bedroom'. It is a itty-bitty room filled to the brim with all this furniture. I asked if they could remove some of it, but they told me no. There is no door to the bedroom, so it looks like Matt and I will be going to bed a 8pm too ;)

Welcome to the kitchen and bedroom! Yes, this is our kitchen for the next 3 months. How in the world am I suppose to cook in this thing? Do you see the mini fridge? And the zero counter tops? It is seriously like 4 feet by 4 feet. Looks like Rian and I will be taking a daily trip to the grocery store :) Thanks heavens this is only temporary!

This is our bed-room. Even though there is not a door to the room, so I wouldn't really call it a room. It is so small that it can only fit a bed and a dresser that is blocking half the closet! Nice, huh?!

Lucky for us...we are a tight-nit family! So these living arrangements might just work...for a few months at least!

Our Little Monkey

I was unpacking our bags last night in our 'bedroom', when I heard a big THUMP. I peek my head around the corner to see Rian in her pack-n-play. That's weird, I thought, she was just in here helping me. So I pull her out of there and ask her to show mommy how she got in there. Sure enough, this is what she did!

This was the video I was originally trying to upload last post. Sorry about all the video posts :)

Rian's Workouts

Thanks to our new Wii Fit and my new Jillian video (thanks Kim for that suggestion!), Rian has been really taking an interest to working out too. Here she is doing push-ups with Daddy.....and just fyi, no, this is not his usual form :)

Now she is doing sit-ups!

I actually meant to upload a different video, but I accidentally uploaded this one and so I decided to post it anyways!

so much for child safety lids

since we are visiting my parent's for a few weeks, we are basically living out of our suitcases. so of course, her gummy vites are in her suitcase...like everything else. after giving rian a bath last night, i got her all ready for bed and walked out of her room so i could hang her towel up in the bathroom.

i never thought twice about it because there is a child safety lid on her vitamins. but when i walked back into her room (after being gone for like 30 seconds), she already had the cap off and was eating one. i put the cap back on and gave it back to her. i wanted to see if she really opened it, or if i accidentally didn't close it all the way the night before.

so much for child safety lids, huh! i'll be putting these vitamins up high from now on. i am seriously amazed at how quickly my little girl is growing up!!!

Our 1st Space A Experience

Warning: This is a long post!

We found out on Sunday, Jan 3rd, that there was a flight from Guam to Hawaii to San Diego! I was so excited, but I knew I needed to contain myself until I actually boarded the aircraft, since we all know we could be turned away and what an disappointment that would be.

When we checked in we found out that we would be flying on a C-17 Globemaster III, which is a gigantic cargo plane....see pics below! I don't even know if these pics do the plane justice. I mean it was so big, it was carrying two military helicopters. Yes, I am dead, serious. We flew home on an airplane with two helicopters strapped down next to us. It was just crazy!

Do you see how tiny the stairs and door look in the first picture? And that is like 13 or so stairs we had to climb up. This aircraft was gigantic. In the next picture, I wanted to show how big the back door is so the cargo can be loaded. The third picture shows how tall this aircraft is. Those are people standing inside of it...do you see them? And last is a picture of the plane taking off. It was just so big, it was incredible!

Since this is a cargo plane, the seats are lined up along the sides of the aircraft. I opted not to bring Rian's carseat onboard because I knew majority of the time she would be allowed to run around. She looked so tiny in the seats. I bought a boxed lunch on both legs for only $4.25 each and they included a sandwich and bunch of goodies and drinks. Not to mention they had free all-you-can-eat/drink soda, bottled water, and cookies once we boarded the plane. So here is a picture of Rian digging through the box of goodies!

Since our seats were lined up against the walls of the aircraft, one would think that your view would be the other passengers on the opposite side of the plane, right? Um, no! Instead this was our view: a gigantic medical helicopter! If you click on the picture, you can see some stairs to the right of the front of the helicopter. Those stairs lead up to the cockpit. That's how tall this plane is!

The first picture is another view from our seats, but this time towards the back of the plane. This contraption was holding the propellers in place while we were flying, so they didn't bounce around. Can you see the second helicopter too? The second picture was taken while I was standing next to the second helicopter in the back of the aircraft facing the first helicopter.

Here is a picture of the back of the aircraft. I was trying to show how tall it is.

Our flight left at 5 pm island time, so it was nice that we were flying mostly throughout the night. But of course, I still had to entertain my little girl for many, many hours. They only had the fasten seat belt sign on for takeoff and landings, so we were allowed to walk around the plane. In fact they handed out blankets (because it was absolutely freezing) and pillows for everyone too.

A generous passenger offered his foam mat to us so Rian could use it while laying on the floor of the aircraft. I love these pictures because it shows how close we are to these helicopters. Rian also made a friend on the flight, who nicely shared her Nintendo DS with Rian. Even though Rian had no clue how to play it, I liked this picture because here she is on our layover in Hawaii chillin in her chair, legs crossed, looking like she knows exactly what she is doing!

Overall, we were traveling probably 18-20 hours. We only had a few hour layover in Hawaii, but we got to see the sunrise there, so that was cool. I am very grateful that this trip back to California worked out so nicely. Instead of spending $3000 and flying on a commerical plane, we spend $8.50 and had the most incredible experience on a military aircraft. Seriously, I will remember this forever!!!

Sea World with Nik and Sofie

We went to Sea World with one of my bestfriends', Nik, and the little girl she watches, Sofie. We had such an awesome time. I was really cold, but that didn't stop us from having a blast!

Click on collage to enlarge

The killer whales were so active and the little girls loved watching them through the glass. We also spent quite a bit of time at the Sesame Street Bay of Play. Auntie Nikki and Rian had fun on the rides there and Rian was tall enough to finally go down the slide there too! Yay Rian!! We had such a great time! I love spending time with Nik and Rian loved being around other kids :)

Christmas

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to post about Christmas this year. Rian was so much fun :) She now loves Santa since he brought her all those toys and even thanks Heavenly Father for him every night when we say our bedtime prayers.....how cute is that!! Although she should be thanking Grandma Lois for the presents instead :)

We started a little family tradition this year. I decided that we would let Rian open two presents from us on Christmas Eve; a pair of jammies and a Christmas book. She absolutely loved the book because it was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Christmas book and she loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so it was perfect! But her reaction the the jammies were the best. They were actually hand-me-downs from my sister and Rian has worn them several times before I decided to wrap them for this new tradition. But she was still so happy to receive them as a gift, so funny!

We baked some cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. But we didn't have any carrots so we left out green peppers for his reindeer instead. As you can see, the goodies were gone in the morning! We video taped the gift opening Christmas morning, so we don't have any pics of that. But she loves all her gifts , and we had a wonderful day, just the three of us.

It's a Miracle

Rian and I got onto that flight I wrote about in the last post!!! I am so grateful for the power of prayer and I wanted to thank those who remembered us in your prayers :)

I was allowed to take some pictures of the HUGE aircraft we flew on. It was such a crazy experience. But a really good one too! I will upload some of the pics I took when I have more time. We are now off to my in-laws :)

Could This Really Work Out So Perfectly?!

All I can say is I sure hope so!!! There is a possibility that Rian and I can get on a flight leaving Guam on Monday and landing in Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Then only after a 3 hour layover, catching another flight straight to San Diego. This would be an absolute miracle if we can get on it. And I am so praying we do.

It would relieve so many stress: Not having to worry about staying overnight in Hawaii, not having to get a shuttle from Travis Air Force Base, Northern California to the Oakland Airport, and not having to add a third leg to our already loooong and exhausting trip.

If you feel the need to remember us in our prayers or even to just cross your fingers for us, I would be forever grateful! We'll keep you updated!!!