Beach Day Fun

Our friend invited us to celebrate her birthday with her at her other friend's beach house. We had a great time! This beach actually had good sand that we could build sandcastles with! Usually it's full of coral. And the water was so shallow for what seemed like a fourth mile. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the water is really light and then turns really blue way far back. That's where the waves broke. So we didn't have to worry about waves taking Rian out or anything. It was so fun to just sit down in the warm (and I mean warm!) water and have Rian play all around me! I have a feeling we will be back to this beach in the near future :)

Happy 4th of July

I think the Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays (although Thanksgiving still ranks number one)! I just love it! It's all about warm weather, the beach, BBQ's, friends, family, summertime, good food, fireworks...I mean who wouldn't love it!

Our festivities began on Thursday when my friend, Lynleigh, invited us to the Air Force Base for the Freedom Festival. I decked Rian out in one of her four "4th of July outfits", this particular one courtesy of Bama Wendy, and off we went. When we first got there they were just starting the 'military police dog show'. We enthusiastically watched as the dogs continued time and time again to tackle the 'bad guy'. Then we enjoyed some free grub! I tried to take Rian to the bounce house, but there were too many older kids and she climbed out just as quickly as she climbed in! After the bounce house was a no-go, I tried to get her to stand in line for the clown, so she could get a balloon animal and her face painted. That was a no-go also :) Rian finally agreed to try another astro jump obstacle course thing, so we walked over to the line for that. This is where the picture was taken. She met a really nice girl in line, they even had their arms around each other at one point...too cute!! But seconds after I took this picture, the torrential downpour started and we ran for cover! The rain was coming down hard and our car was too far away, so we just waited it out (for a long time). Eventually it stopped, but it was too late, they were taking down the astro jumps. But even with all the rain, and Rian not really wanted to do any of the fun stuff, we still had a great time!

Matt had the day off on Friday, so we made some plans with our friends to head to the beach! We haven't been to the beach since we arrived back on the island, so Rian and I were very excited for this. We packed a picnic lunch and all our beach gear and headed out the door. I took this picture in the car on the way down. But as we drove further south, the sky turned dark and the downpour began again. However, Guam is known to have rainstorms one minute and blue skies the next, so we decided to continue on. It was still raining when we got to the beach so we backed our jeep up to our friend's SUV, and everyone hung out in the back of the two cars, which was actually kind of fun! We ate lunch and chit-chatted until the rain eventually stopped. Rian and I enjoyed the warm water while Daddy took a nap on the beach. Then, as promised, Daddy built sandcastles with Rian. Soon after they started though, the rain clouds returned and we packed up and left just in the knick of time! We were only able to hang out at the beach for probably two hours due to the rain and half of that time was spent in the car. But regardless of how long we were there, we still had a great time! We came home, showered, and cleaned up nicely so we could join a few friends for dinner at Proa. It was delicious! Good friends and good food, how could you go wrong?

On Saturday, I decked Rian out in another 'outfit' (this one courtesy of Bama Lois) and we had some friends over during the day for a BBQ, games, and Root Beer Floats and Red, White, and Blue Sundaes. We had a lot of fun, once again! Then we decided to take our chances and meet some other friends to watch the fireworks. Of course the downpour started once again as soon as we got into the car. The torrential downpour lasted about an hour so we waited it out in our car once again. When it finally let up, we had about an hour before the fireworks started. Luckily, we stayed dry the rest of the night!

I number the photo collage: 1-Our family waiting for the fireworks to begin.

2-Rian blowing her Fourth of July pinwheel. Bama Lois sent it out here and Rian loved it!

3-Rian jumping around.

4-Rian using her red, white, and blue wand (aka glowstick) to cast spells on everyone :)

5-Rian swinging her glowstick around in circles as the adults chat.

6-Rian smiling for the camera. Bama Lois (my mom) sent Rian some 4th of July jewelry along with the glowsticks and light up necklaces. Rian was all decked out!

7-Rian and Seth swinging the glowsticks! What fun!

8-The girls!

Santa Barbara

Way back in April, while Matt was doing training in Ventura County, we decided to head up to Santa Barbara one weekend. We started our morning by eating at this really cute restaurant Summerland Beach Cafe. It's a really old 3 story house that has been converted into a little cafe. Then we rented a surrey bike and rode up and down the beach. We had a really fun time!

Beach Day

My sister couldn't come to San Diego for spring break without hitting the beach. Even though I thought it was cold, coming from the snow covered mountains of Idaho, Nancee and her kids were soaking it up! It was such a fun day!

Missing Our Little Girl...

It just made sense to leave Rian down in San Diego for the week after we returned from Utah. Although we really didn't need a babysitter until Saturday, Matt's mom, dad and sister, Lauren, watched her during the week and my parents from Friday night on. Although we missed her tremendously, we figured that we will be living out of the country for the next 3 years and it would be good for all of them to spend some quality time with Rian before we move in 2 months.

So how did I spend the week while Matt was at work and I was home, alone, with no little girl to keep me busy......well, I tried to stay as busy as possible!

Tuesday afternoon-drove up from SD by myself. It was so weird not having Rian in the backseat! Gym with Matt. Made and ate a nice dinner together...weird again not getting Rian's food ready before mine :)

Wednesday-recruited some of the other wives to drive to the cliffs of Malibu and dolphin watch! We saw some...see pics below!!! Then we ate at the most yummy frozen yogurt place in Malibu (I'm still dreaming of it)! Went bowling with Matt's Command (co-workers). Went grocery shopping and made some of the best street tacos I have ever had!!



Thursday-the sun was out that day, so another wife and I went to the beaches of Malibu again. This time we saw a sea lion...see pics below!!! Then went out to dinner with a group of friends.



Friday-went with some of the ladies to the nail salon! Something I never get to do when I have Rian with me. Then Matt got off work early so we went to an early movie and then to a nice dinner!

Saturday-got all dolled up for the Ball!!!!!! Had a blast at the Seabee Ball.....post to come ;)

Sunday-spent morning blogging. And now just anxiously waiting for my mom and Rian to drive up here!

I'm not going to lie, it was nice to have some alone time just Matt and I, but gosh, we missed our little girl so so much! 5 days is a loooong time! But we talked to her everyday, several times a day on the phone and she has no idea how many hugs and kisses are coming her way once she gets here!!! Thanks to everyone who helped watch her for the week, we really appreciate your help!

beach day

We tried out a new beach on Saturday. Even though the water was a little rough, Matt and Rian still had a great time building sandcastles and searching for shells, while I relaxed and read Twilight :) Matt and Rian found some amazing shells. We started a collection and I'll post pics when we get some more.

We thought Rian looked so cute in her little baseball hat, so I went a little picture happy. I think I may have found our spot next year's xmas cards. This place was beautiful!

5 years

we celebrated our five year anniversary on saturday! i can't believe how fast that went by!
matt planned an awesome date for us and we had such an amazing time.

we went to gab gab beach to try snorkeling for the first time here on guam. we did try it once before with eric and andrea on catalina island, but that couldn't even compare to the snorkeling here. it was absolutely beautiful and i wish the pictures could truly show the beauty we saw. they don't, but at least we have some pictures anyways.

the water was so warm which really made the experience 100 times better than the first time. and we saw a barracuda which was crazy looking. i seriously thought it was a little shark at first. all i could focus on were those sharp little teeth. but once i got over the first initial scare, i realized what it really was. we can't wait to snorkel again!

after snorkeling, we enjoyed a nice afternoon snack on the beach. we brought some martinelli's and cheese and enjoyed some quality time together.

then we showered and tried to get dressed in the front seat of the jeep. it was quite hilarious. we covered the windows with towels and such, so we had privacy, but there was not much space to begin with! and have you ever tried to do your make-up with the sunsetting and only the little dome lights in the car...not easy, but i did it none-the-less!

then we headed to roy's steakhouse for dinner in the hilton resort. it was all decorated for christmas. it was so pretty and festive.



roy's was so delicious. i thoroughly enjoyed my fish (`ôpakapaka aka pink snapper flown in from hawaii). so much so that i am still thinking about it days later! matt had seared ahi, which he enjoyed also, but my dish was better so i shared!

then dessert came. yum! they made this cute little happy anniversary plate for us. i loved it and it made the day that much more special. but, of course, we had to end the night with some chocolate lava cake. delectable!



we had such a nice and relaxing time together. i felt awesome to not have a worry in the world and know that rian was being well taken of. thanks for planning this anniversary, babe! i had an amazing time! and i love you so much!

Tumon Beach

We ventured out on Saturday and explored some of the island. Mainly in the area of Tumon, the more touristy part of Guam. It was so pretty. I could just sit and stare out into the water forever. The pictures hardly do it justice. There are so many shades of beautiful greens and blues, it's just amazing.

Remember you can click on the collages to make them bigger!

The beach has a long strip of sand that we walked up and down. We collected sea shells, and watched some hermit crabs. I was completely fascinated by all the rocks covered in this green mossy stuff. We had an awesome time besides of the 90 degree plus high humidity weather. What were we thinking not wearing our bathing suits???

Two Lovers Point

After a nice ride in our air conditioned car, we enjoyed the beautiful views from Two Lovers Point. It's a lookout located high on the cliffs above the water. Legend has it that two forbidden lovers jumped off the cliff to proclaim their love for each other many moons ago.

We went too late in the day though. The sun was reflecting off the water, so you can't really see the true beauty of the water...at least in the first collage. It was still an amazing view, just next time we'll go in the am.

Two Lovers Point at Sunset

We came back to Two Lovers Point to watch the sunset. I took some pictures while Rian made some friends.....but I'll post about that another time :)

It was kind of hazy that night and there was a marine layer. It wasn't the best night for a sunset, but it was still pretty. After the sunset, we went out for a nice, yet expensive dinner. You know when the kids meal alone is $9 you're in trouble, but we still had a great time and Rian got a balloon out of it!

Finally...a place to call HOME!!!

We finally moved out of temporary housing and into the place we get to call HOME for the next few years! We are super excited to be in our own home--WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT--but will be even more excited when we get to fill it with our own furniture!

Here are the views from our place. Can you believe this is what we see when we look out our windows??? AMAZING!! I am still in total shock! The top right was taken while I was sitting on our couch looking out onto the balcony. The bottom left is looking down at the pool and playground (where we will be spending many-a-days!).

We can see the other end of the island when we look out the front-water and all! But I am yet to be satisfied with any of those pics, stay tuned for those.

Click on the pics to make them bigger and better for viewing!


We drove around the south-end of the island over the weekend. Here are some pictures from our road trip. The land is such a deep green and the water so crystal clear blue. This is basically what the island looks like! Luscious land and turquoise waters-heaven:)


Ahh, rainy season.
It rains about everyday during our rainy season, so not the best time to visit.
It's still super hot, but you have about 5 seconds to make it to cover before the rain comes pouring-and I mean pouring-down. Luckily we have learned quickly what to expect before the downpour.
It rained during our trip and this is what the river, I mean road, looked like afterwards. I thought our little rental car was going to get stuck for sure, but we didn't!

Natural Swimming Pool.
Absolutely Beautiful! There were about 4 or 5 different pools that you could swim in.
A definite MUST when you come to visit! When are you coming again???



There are tons of livestock/wildlife on the island.
We probably saw like 70+ chickens/roosters (I couldn't tell the difference between the two) on our drive.
And like 30 dogs, just roaming the streets.
We've also seen: Goats (pictured below). Cows. Tons of birds and butterflies. Geckos galore. Mini ants. etc, etc.
We even saw a water buffalo on the side of the road yesterday morning. Pretty cool!


We also explored the Micronesia Mall. They have a mini amusement park inside.
She was so excited to ride on the carousel! Can you tell by her face in the second picture?

Rumor has it that our Jeep has arrived on the island! Yippee! I have yet to receive a phone call to confirm that, but hopefully we will have our car by this weekend!

No more rental!

Unfortunately, our household goods won't be here for another 3 weeks :( Can't wait for those!

Welcome To Paradise AKA Our New Home

We're here! We made it in late last night and ventured out today to see just 2 of the tons of amazing beaches here. Check them out! And, yes, I did take these myself :)

Our travel day started at 320am San Diego time (345am for Rian) on Friday morning the 10th. We took the first plane out of the San Diego airport to LAX at 630am after a very tearful goodbye, of course :( We had about a 2 hour layover where we meant a really nice couple from Guam...I like to call them our new 'local' friends...that's right, they gave me their phone number and bought us a breakfast sandwich...so that makes them our new friends, right??

We loaded onto the plane and got Rian all strapped in her car seat. We were all settled when....they announced they had a problem with the air conditioning unit. Yep, we sat there for 2 hours. Poor Rian, they wouldn't even let her walk around while we waited on board. So our 5.5 hour flight turned into a 7.5 flight. And Rian only napped for 30 minutes while we were still on the tarmac. Lucky us! Well, I should say lucky me since Matt took care of her most of the flight!

We arrived in Honolulu at 140pm local time (1040am SD time) just in time to run to the other gate to make our connecting flight. Rian had absolutely no time to run around-she was back on another plane strapped into her car seat. This was another 7.5 hour flight. I am so amazed how good Rian was. She definitely had her moments :) but considering the fact she was strapped into her car seat for practically 15 hours straight, she was pretty amazing. We had dinner on the flight and then Rian went to sleep around 730pm SD time, which is pretty close to her normal bedtime. She woke up at midnight SD time on her own. And I entertained her for the rest of the flight, so we could start the time adjustment process.

We arrived in Guam at 545pm on Saturday the 12th (1245am SD time). Which is totally crazy because first off we totally missed all of Saturday. And by the time we got our luggage, were cleared through customs, and checked into our home here, we had been up for practically 24 hours. Crazy, especially with a 2 year old!

Matt's Command (the people he'll be working with) greeted us at the airport. I was a little overwhelmed with all the people there. I thought there was going to be one or two people, but instead there were like 15 of them. And they even had a little welcome basket for us, which was really sweet! So we met many people, most whom we don't even remember their name :)

They are putting us up in a temporary home until we find housing here. It is pretty similar to our place in Logan. Two stories, two bedrooms, 1.5 bath, laundry room, garage, cable in every room, internet (the best part!) and housekeeping. It is pretty nice, so I'm pretty happy. We played with Rian and made her stay up until 830pm local time (330am San Diego time) to try to get her used to the time difference. Matt and I woke up about 445am local time Sunday morning (1145am Saturday morning in SD) and Rian slept until about 630am local time. I think she is just about adjusted.....yep in one day.....amazing, huh!!??

The sun was set by the time we got through customs last night, so we didn't see much of the island yesterday. Today we went to two of the beaches here on base. They are amazing. We'll definitely be taking tons and tons of pictures. We are going to watch the sunset right now!!

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to document our trip out here! Now off to see the beautiful sunset!

Wish You Were Here?

Wish you were here....we know you do!!! We took a little day trip down to La Jolla for the day. We mostly hung out by La Jolla Cove and the Children's Pool (better known as where the seals have called home). It was a beautiful day and the ocean was such a pretty color blue.

I missed the beach so much while we were in Utah!


Mommy and Rian looking at the waves.

Daddy and Rian. What a beautiful backdrop!

I totally took growing up in San Diego for granted...it wasn't until we moved that I realized how lucky we are to have grown up here!

Here's the Children's Pool. For those of you who don't know, it actually used to be a children's pool. Matt remembers swimming here before the seals arrived. Now it belongs to the seals, they took it over so they would have a safe haven from the sharks. When we were here, most of them were sunbathing, but a few were riding the waves and playing in the water (we couldn't get a good pic of that). There is a huge controversy over whether the city should let the seals continue to call the beach home or if they should give it back to the children. I say there a tons of beaches here in SD for the kids to play at, so why not let the seals stay. Besides the fact that they smell awful, it's always fun to see them.