Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday, after trying unsuccessfully to get phone and cable set up for the new place, we decided to take the kids to Underwater World, an aquarium with a large tunnel through it. At one point it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world, but as these things tend to go it has since been beat and now ranks 4th. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Upside down" Jellyfish

Beyond the tunnel, there are separate tanks with more exhibits, a large touch tank, and a few restaurants (one even has a bar with fish swimming in it). We definitely would like to do a date night there at some point.

My one gripe was that they held off telling us that there were annual passes available until AFTER we were done going through, and they refused to apply the value of the passes we purchased towards an annual pass. I had searched for it before on the website, but they only have it for locals and military and don't advertise the pass publicly.

Sunday afternoon we headed out hoping to see the Asan Beach section of War in the Pacific National Park before the rain hit. Asan beach is the site of the initial landing of US troops in WWII in an effort to retake the island of Guam from the Japanese (full history of the site here). The impending  rainstorm and lack of hiking shoes kept us from fully exploring the site, but we were still able to see and learn quite a bit.

In honor of Memorial day there were flags set up representing the US military members who lost their lives due to the battle and the local Chamorro people who died during the Japanese occupation and battle. It was humbling looking up  at the surrounding mountains and hills imagining what it was like for the troops facing what they had to coming out of the mountain caves and fortifications, and knowing that had they not done it I literally would not be here on this island today.

This morning we got the kids up and took Adam to the airport to say goodbye. He is headed to meet his boat that is still homeported in Hawaii, and we have no idea when he'll be back. We dropped him off at 9 this morning and since he was booked on the island hopper flight and crossing the date line he will land in Hawaii at 330 am Memorial Day there (2330 local here-14.5 hours of flying).

Bye daddy!

It was very sad to see him go, but I try to remember that we've been blessed beyond belief with how much we've had him around the last few years. Going through 6 years of sea time before doesn't take away the pain of his leaving now, but it has taught me how to cope and deal with it better (as does remembering that my kids feed off of how I respond-the better I cope the better they do as well).

Week 2 observations

1. I know I mentioned that Google maps is worthless here last week, but I had no idea how messed up the address system was here until this week. When turning on utilities, companies require that you turn in a map of the area pinpointing your house.

2. The Exchange here will shut down for the day every time  the power goes out.

3. The base post office frequently closes as well.

just use part of the lid to pop
the marble down then drink!

4. If you don't care about brands, KMART is better than the Exchange here for many things, even here where things are so "expensive". Makes me wonder why if you drive by the Exchange it's always so full.

Bonus: with all the Japanese here, KMART holds quite a few of the fun food things we liked in Japan. The kids were stoked to find the drinks they bought off a street vendor in Narita. I have a feeling anytime we go there I'll be asked to buy them.




5. Check labels. Always. "Guam" beer is made in Korea and "Guam" coffee is only repackaged here on Guam. There are many local things that are amazing, but just because it says "Guam" doesn't mean it's from here.

6. I never thought I'd see Firefly Vodka (the original Sweet Tea Vodka made using 100% US tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation) in Guam. They sell  it at the local grocery store. They also Firefly Bourbon here (Sweet tea infused bourbon) that I guess Firefly came out with after I left SC.

7. There is a real interesting balance on this island. On one street there will be houses in dire need of repair, and on the next street there is a shopping complex with Rolex and Prada stores.

8. The amount of fresh fish available here is astounding. Being able to get fresh, local, tuna and marlin is the best thing ever.

Orote point hike

AKA The hike that showed me that medium hikes should not be attempted without 2 adults.

View of the cove from above

After being kept in a bit over the last few days, I was anxious to get out and hit the ocean again. Threw Adam the hiking guide and asked him to pick one. He chose Orote point, the westernmost point in the US. Reading the description, it said it was a 160 ft elevation change and a one mile hike, figured it couldn't be bad.

The beginning.....

Wellllll, it wasn't too bad (we obviously survived it) but were not prepared for the 160 ft to be as rapid as it was. Should have paid more attention to the description part where it called out ropes (left there by others) and a ladder I guess. It wasn't too bad, but I was nervous about the kids and the baby we were carrying. One adult was at the front at all times and the other was at the back. This was needed to help kids down (and then back up) and could not be done with only one of us.

Old bunker

The site itself has so much history to it. At the top there are ruins from both the American and Japanese during WWII. On the way down you hit sections of stairs put in when the Spaniards colonized the island and an old Spanish well archaeologists think was used supply water to the colonists. There is also evidence that the island has been inhabited since     3500 BC.

Spanish well

After the decent and trekking through the jungle a bit, we were richly rewarded for our efforts. It was so amazingly beautiful and quiet.

We quickly drank some water and jumped in the pools. It was so much fun exploring and swimming.

The only real hiccup of the afternoon was when the middle child gouged his foot on a rock. There was blood everywhere, but he was a trooper and calmly dealt with it and hiked back up without complaint after I dressed it. (lesson learned today #2-I really need to go buy water shoes). He did so well and made us very proud!




We're now relaxing as a family after showering and eating. I have a feeling we will all sleep well tonight!

In other news: we're progressing well towards move in. If all continues as planned we and all our household goods will move in on June 1! Here's hoping :)!

Change in plans

We got an interesting email from our Realtor today about one of the houses we saw Saturday. It was the first one we saw, and we fell in love, but the landlord and ourselves were off a bit on pricing. Today, the landlord had his Realtor call ours and offer us the terms we originally asked for. Since we hadn't actually formally done anything with the other house we were looking at (applications, contracts,etc), changing our minds isn't huge on that end, but it still took a lot of debate and back and forth time before making the decision. The house is further from Adam's work, but closer to the beach.....like walking distance close. It has a banana tree, is in a quiet area, and you can see the ocean from the porch.

I'm pretty sure it's the only time in our lives we'll be able to live this close to the beach, may as well take advantage! :)!

We were hoping to get to another beach today, but the baby is tired and crabby after being miserable with a fever from shots yesterday. So, we hung around the house. The kids did get to go to the playground though and  we got to meet Francia and her 5 children. She was very sweet, and the kids had fun playing with hers. She is originally from Saipan, and is giving me lots of pointers about visiting there in the future. Very sad that she and her family are moving back to the states just as we're getting here. I am glad to know that we're not the only crazy people in the military with a big family here though!

Busy few days

Saturday and today we went out with our Realtor (who for the record is amazing) and looked at rental homes in the area. (more on the house situation later) That night we went to a Guam food festival downtown. It was a beautiful evening, and gave us a chance to try some local island style BBQ (pork, chicken and squid) and sausage. It was delicious!

They also had a Whopper eating contest sponsered by Burger King, a best burger on island contest (didn't try it, too preoccupied with foods I can't get anywhere else), and a local fruit and vegetable stand. Finished up the night with calamansi juice and headed home.

Sunday we went to church and then took the kids to go see "The Lorax". It was a cute movie, and the kids appreciated the change of pace.

Since Sunday, storm clouds (that are now part of the newly formed tropical storm) have kept us from doing too much exploring outside.

our "view" of the Solar eclipse

We've had plenty to do otherwise though. Yesterday we registered the kids at medical. Medical here, I have to say, is much more customer service oriented than I've seen in a long time. It may be an old building (they are building a new one), but the care and concern among the staff for the patients is huge! I had a Commander stop us and give us a positive comment on the size of our family too (not the normal smart remarks I get). Bonus for the visit: The lady who set our records up is a local, and after talking she realized that I have a genuine interest in her island and the local food, and gave me a few pointers on places to go!

After medical we hit another Payless market, this time in the Agana Shopping Center. The center as a whole is a smallish mall, but has what appear to be cute little shops, and there's a "Tokyo Market" with quite a few of the food things I came to love while in Japan. The Payless there is a bit larger than the last one we went to, so of course we had to spend some time figuring out all the things they had there for sale.

Today it was back to medical for Levi's 6 month shots (I found out they require an MMR by 6 months here unlike12 months in the states) and an appointment for the younger girl before heading out to look at more houses with our Realtor.

We've seen quite a few homes over the last few days and finally selected and put a rental offer in on a house today. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an ocean view but we'll never find a place that has everything we want, even in the 3 bedroom range.The one place we found with the view we liked had no way to enjoy it (a porch or big windows that faced it) which made the view a bit pointless. Village choice and area is what won out, and given the 5 kids probably one of the more important factors. If we get it, there is more than enough room for guests, which is another big upcheck! Now, we just have to wait on the reply, get housing to approve the lease, etc. etc. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

1st week observations

1. Brown tree snakes-probably one of the things I heard the most about before getting here. It seems as if it's the first thing you find information about when doing a search about the island. Granted, I've only been here a week, but the only ones we've seen are in traps placed by the USDA. Talking to people who have been here a lot longer, I'm not really surprised as the population has come down considerably from its peak a few years back.

2. The heat-the 2nd most frequent thing I heard about before arriving. Thus far I have yet to find it any worse than Charleston. In fact, I find it nicer here than Charleston during the summer. Midday is really hot, but the breezes are wonderful and by 5 it's very comfortable outside.

To combat the sun base playgrounds have or are putting in shade covers over them. Brilliant! SC needs to get the memo on that one.

It also rains here daily, but it usually blows through and doesn't last long.

3. As much as I live in the US, I don't. I live in Asia. While Chamorro and English are spoken, about everything is printed in English and Japanese (and some Korean). The area really caters to Japanese tourists, which is understandable, because the tourists really bring money into the community.

Beyond that, the prevalence of Asian food items at local stores makes it quite clear how close to Asia we really are.

4. Eating local has it's advantages here as always, with a few surprises. I was expecting the mangoes and bananas, but not avocados and eggplants. (Avocados for $1 a pound? Yes please!)

5. This is a Catholic island. Very, very, very Catholic. It seems as if every village has its own thriving Catholic church, and the Catholic Saints are prevalent throughout the cemeteries. I can count on one hand the churches I've seen that aren't Catholic.

6. I'm blown away by the scenery. We picked up a Guam hiking guide yesterday, and I can't wait to put use to it!

I also can't wait to dive into the  history here. Magellan landed here, and shortly thereafter the Spanish colonized the island (explains the Catholic influence). It was then taken by the US during the Spanish American war. In Dec 1941 the Japanese invaded and took over the island, and then it was eventually retaken by a US Marine invasion in 1944 (they celebrate Liberation day here as a state holiday).

7. The locals I've gotten the chance to interact with are very sweet and helpful.

8. Google maps is worthless here, even the maps that come with rental cars are more useful (though half written in Japanese). We bought a real map yesterday, but most of what we've found we just found by driving around. I figure the worst that can happen is we get lost for a bit, it's not like this place is huge or anything.

Apartment hunting: take 2

After today, I feel a little better about the month to month possibilities than yesterday. The first place we saw only has 2 bedroom units, but has amazing views, sweet staff and was recently renovated. Since Adam heads back to Hawaii in a bit over a week, I can just sleep on the couch and let the kids split the rooms until we move into Navy housing. The next place we found on our own by just driving around. It's a bit of a hike from the Navy base so I'm not sure it would work long term, but they had very reasonable 3 and 4 bedroom units with wonderful views of the Pacific and more than enough room for us. If they were a bit closer, I'd probably consider signing a 3 year lease.

Beyond house hunting, we explored a bit (of course). On today's list was the Air Force Base at the northern end of the island. The first place we tried to find was Tarague beach, so we could have a picnic lunch with the kids. I had no idea how high the elevation was where we were at until we rounded a corner on the way to the beach and saw this:

It was breathtaking. After lunch we explored the beach a little bit. The kids loved searching the tide pools for sea life and climbing around on the rocks. They wanted to get in the water, but water entry is restricted to certain areas there because of current concerns....and I didn't bring their swimsuits (note to self: buy an extra set of swimsuits and keep them in the car).

Where the waves are breaking in the background
is where the reef is.

My one gripe about the base there is that unlike all the other AF bases I've been on, there's no clear signs showing how to get to the commissary and exchange (though the beach was clearly defined). We spent a lot of time trying to figure out where anything was. We did eventually find everything though, and realized that the commissary there is way bigger than the Navy one, but their housing isn't quite as nice as the Navy side (except for the O-4 and above housing. Holy cow the views there are AMAZING).

Tomorrow we start to look at houses. We'll see how it goes!

House hunting and exploring

Yesterday we finally got a rental van (woohoo!). It's amazing what a difference it has made. Unfortunately exchanging cars took the better part of the day, but we were still able to hit another beach (Dadi Beach) before sundown. It did not disappoint.

Not ony was it beautiful, but the kids had a blast seeing all the hermit crabs, sand crabs, and other sea creatures. They even caught a few!

This morning we started searching off base for a pace to live, either permanent or short term (whichever works out best). Base housing is full through August, and they won't let us stay in the on base temp lodging until then. They want us to get a month to month lease while we wait, but I'm exploring all my options.

The housing office gave us a list of companies they recommend for rentals with for month to month leases that "work". Their idea of working and mine are different I guess, as many of the locations on the list are, to put it mildly, crap. One place reeked of urine and mold (mind you, this is for $2500 per month in rent for a less than 1200 sq foot unit). I know it's just because the companies that do month to months are lazy knowing there's an endless revenue stream from the military, and they aren't all bad, but those that were kind of soured me on the month to month waiting for Navy housing stuff (though Navy housing does look pretty amazing and has some nice advantages).

It looks like there are some really nice places in our price range out in town, making putting up with a month to month like that even harder to do. We're meeting with a realtor Saturday to explore more permanent rentals, but in the mean time started driving around to explore the island and where we'd like to live if we decide to go out in town.

Of course along the way we stopped and explored a bit! We stopped and walked up an overlook with steep stairs:

and views that made the stairs worth the climb :)!

We then found this little cove:

with little fish playing in the tide pools. (and a bunch of Japanese tourists).

We also hit Jacks Pirate Cove for lunch. It's a restaurant with quite a bit of history, and is a bit of an icon on the island. While there we tried some kelaguen, a local dish made from marlin in this case. It was quite delicious (and I think I need to learn to make it).

All the sandwiches had this singed in them! :)!

We ended up today hitting the local Payless supermarket, getting some locally grown fruits (mmmmm mangoes) and coming back so I could experiment more with these green papayas. This time: green papaya salad. It was delicious!

A little slice of paradise

Yesterday our unaccompanied baggage (air shipment) arrived. It was only 400 lbs of stuff, but it's amazing how much a difference that 400 lbs can make. The bedsheets and such I left boxed, but having my knives, a few of my pans, the kids legos, and other things make a world of difference.

Yesterday we also started to get out and explore a bit, although it was limited because we don't have a car big enough for all of us (until later today, woohoo!). We walked up the hill behind the temporary lodging to see the view and we greeted with this stunning view:

After our walk, we went back, got changed, and headed to Gab Gab beach, one of 3 beaches on the Navy base. (getting there involved Adam using the rental Sentra as a shuttle) It's an amazing and quiet little beach tucked away on the harbor, and I am quite a fan already. If I see this

every day for the next 3 years I think I will be quite content. I'll admit, I sitting in our unit and going stir crazy was starting to make me question coming here, but  once we got to the beach it all went away. The kids had a blast playing. Even the baby was a fan.

Hope to get out and see more today after we get a bigger car!

Diving in

Sunday morning we got up early, ate breakfast and loaded on the bus for the plane. I think the kids were a bit wary about boarding a plane after the 12 hour flight to Japan, but were ok once they found out it was only a 3 hour flight.

When we arrived on the island, there was a duty van waiting to take us back to the Navy Inn, where we had a "villa" (2 bedroom townhouse)  waiting for us to stay in. After living on couches, floors and hotels for the last month, this place seems huge. We thankfully have a full kitchen and a washer/dryer set. I've already done 2 loads of laundry and cooked a few meals.

Our original plan was to walk around here until our van arrived, but we've had to change our thinking on that. The base is highly spread out, and it looks like since there's a 2 month wait for housing we have to move off base into a furnished apartment until housing is available, or just avoid the 2 move thing and rent a house off base (will be meeting with a realtor this week about the second part). We looked at buying a cheap car, but those seem to be in short supply here and everyone who is selling has a note they need paid off. Also, once our van gets here I'll have 2 cars, and since Adam is going back to Hawaii and will be going out to sea quite a bit we don't see the point to having 2 cars for any length of time. So, tomorrow we will be renting a van for about a month.

Once we get a van, we'll be going out and exploring more so I can get pictures of the island!

The commissary here has not only standard American fare, but a huge (as in, more that I've ever seen in a standard store) Asian section, and a decent local selection as well. Our first night here I went over to get stuff to cook dinner, and found local green papayas and little calamansi. Calamansi are little green citrus fruits that have a very distinct and delicious flavor that will do well in many applications, but right now are used to mix in our Gin and Tonics. I've already used the papaya to make a fresh salsa. Came out well, just need to tweak the recipe a little bit.

Papayas and calamansi

Calamansi size relative to my thumb. Aren't they darling?!

Yesterday I went back to the commissary for a bit more food (and to explore) and found a few things from a local bakery: Spanish rolls, bread and guguria. Guguria are little sweet, crunchy bites made from flour, coconut milk and sugar. I'm hooked on them already.

Given all the neat things I've found so far, I can't WAIT to get out in town to find more local goods!

Details

In the last few blogs, I've made a weak attempt to explain all that we learned and observed in Japan in only a few days. There's just so much to cover that it was hard to cover in a few blog posts, so I'd like to add in a few more details now.

It seems as if every person in every job that we interacted with in our time here did their job without complaint and to the best of their ability. From a customer perspective this is an amazing treat too often missed in the US.

Tourist Expenses- I heard many complain about how expensive everything in Japan is before we came. I suppose Tokyo is probably a bit worse than Narita, but Narita is about on par with LA from what I saw (except gas-but there are plenty of buses to get around that expense). I think one key is that everything is priced to include tax and tip, so there's no getting $50 in food, paying $5 in taxes, then tacking on another $10 in tip for a total of $65. $50 is $50. It can be shocking when you see your first 3600 yen bill for lunch, but if you account for the exchange rate that's $47 total: for 6 people, way better food than Applebees (which I'd probably spend the same on) and it includes a beer...... really not that bad at all.

And since we had to buy baby formula while there-even that was the same price as the US. It's not the brand we normally use, but it works well and the baby hasn't reacted to it at all. One of the few things on the can in English is that the company has been around since 1917. Figured that was a good sign of a good company.

Avoiding the real tourist spots can have it's advantages. The kids got to see tradesmen cleaning eel in Narita (a popular and common food in the city), see local markets, try random things along the way and interact with locals. There's so much to be learned and gained from that. Also, places that cater to locals and not tourists tend to cost much less. Of course, you have to be willing to try new things and eat what the locals eat, but there's a lot to be gained from that as well.

Preparing eel

Some drinks we bought off a street vendor. Tasted good,
and the kids loved the marbles that had to be popped down into the
bottle to open it.

Babies are a universal language. The baby was well loved on everywhere we went. Everyone we met was quite friendly and loved all the kids, but of course the baby was the star

He crawled right over to her. She was so excited to hold him

Just sitting and watching Japanese TV is a good time. There was one channel that gave calculus and computer programming lessons, which we thought was crazy, but watching their shows and commercials gave an interesting look into the culture.

Picture menus are great, and how we ordered everything we ate. They serve as a great way around language barriers.

Exploring Narita

Yesterday was yet another amazing day.

After breakfast we hung out in our hotel rooms and played uno with the kids. Afterwards we went out for a sushi, soup, salad, and roast beef lunch. It was delicious! (For the record wasabi goes well with roast beef).

After lunch we hit the free shuttle again, this time to Narita city for an all important lesson in making it up as you go along. Armed only with a map entirely in Japanese and a general knowledge of which direction was north, we set out to find the Naritisan Temple and Park (a 15-20 min walk from the bus station). We found the road that we figured was the correct one, and finally found a sign pointing to the temple to confirm it. It's a small street lined with numerous shops that has apparently been around for centuries selling wares to locals and visitors alike. It was fun looking around in all the shops and seeing what they were selling.

Main Gate

The temple complex was amazing. The buildings are mostly rebuilds from the 18th century or later, but the temple itself was founded in 940 AD.

Once through the main gate and up the main stairwell, you can smell the incense that burns continuously for the prayers of the people. At various locations throughout the temple we were able to observe a special Buddhist ceremony that had hundreds of Japanese women in identical Kimonos dancing in synch to music. It was amazing to watch them all.

I could have spent many more hours in the park behind the temple complex exploring. There were paths that twisted and turned it seemed everywhere, and there were only so many we could walk down in the time we had. What we did see was absolutely beautiful though. The kids got a kick out of feeding the fish and turtles in the ponds as well.

On our way back we stopped at a Ramen place that's apparently a favorite spot among the airline operators that come through. It was great food, and we were able to feed all of us for about $47USD (3600 Yen-all prices include tax and tip here).

Thank you Narita for a wonderful few days. Your people and your food are amazing, and we hope to be back again soon.

Journey to Japan

Wednesday we woke up, loaded our bags, ate breakfast and went to the airport. Then the fun part began. The skycaps saw us and turned the other way instead of helping so we had to go get a few smart carts before we could even enter the airport. Luckily the Delta agents were a bit more helpful inside, and quickly directed us to a counter to check in even though the international counters were still closed. 45 minutes later, all our bags were checked and we had tickets (I can't imagine how much worse it would have been had I not been organized). TSA, of course, was a hassle and freaked out about juice and baby food. Admittedly I had a bit of both, but we were about to get on a 12 hour flight to Japan and I wanted to ensure that my baby wasn't the one screaming the whole way.

Ready to go!

After getting through security we had some time to grab water (I got 6L) and a few sandwiches before boarding. They couldn't actually fit our plane at our gate, so after we checked in we had to board buses and go to some remote area at the other end of the runway with a few gates to actually board. We settled in for a long flight. The kids did well, with Annabelle quickly making friends with a young Asian woman and getting pseudo-adopted by her for a few hours of the flight. When we landed in Narita, Delta's staff were very helpful in getting us and all of our stuff onto our hotel bus.

Welcome to Japan!

The kids were so excited to get to Japan (as were we). Deciding to stay instead of continuing on direct to Guam was probably one of the best decisions we could have made. The Hilton Hotel Narita is a gem of a hotel, well worth the cost to us for the 2 rooms. The staff quickly got our bags up to our room, ensured we had interconnecting rooms (which had cribs waiting for us-yes, cribs, they put one in each room) and made sure we had everything available for a great stay. We all crashed pretty hard pretty early, and were all asleep by 8.

At the hotel

Yesterday most of us were up by 3 (remember we lost a day crossing the date line). We kept everyone calm and tried to get them to rest a bit more, but by 630 the kids were more than ready for breakfast. The breakfast was wonderful and offered American and Japanese options. I am determined to only eat Japanese here, but held off hitting the miso soup and Japanese pickle bar to avoid embarrassing myself until I found an old couple I could watch and follow through. It was well worth the wait.

Following breakfast we boarded the free shuttle the hotel offers to The Aeon Mall in Narita because we needed to get a few things for the baby and were told we could find it there. We did, and probably could have found anything else we wanted too. The place was huge. We ate lunch at the mall and fed all of us for under $30USD. We had Octopus dumplings (they were so good) , fried pork rice bowls and soup for lunch.

We came back, and went to the health club downstairs to take the kids swimming. I wish we could have used some of the facilities apart from the pool, the complex down there is impressive. The kids were a bit weirded out that they had to wear bathing caps to go swimming, but got over it quickly once they got in the pool.

As I type this, it's almost 6am local and 2 kids are already up. It's a marked improvement over yesterday, and the time we have to get up tomorrow for our flight so I'll take it. We hope to explore a bit more today.

If you've made it this far, thanks. Sorry it's so long, but so much has happened in the last few days and I honestly feel like I'm glossing over quite a bit. I hope you all are well, and we miss you all terribly. Thanks to all we saw before we left, I'm sorry to all those we missed. See you all soon!

23 states...

31 days, countless friends and family, 6 National Parks Service sites, 3 "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives" restaurants,  2 coasts, ......... and we made it.

These last few days have been rough for travel, but the only thing left now is to make it on our flight tomorrow.

We left Oklahoma Sunday morning, and headed to a friends house in New Mexico. We wanted the kids to be able to play there, so we did limit our stops a bit more than normal, but we did swing a stop for breakfast at a place called the "Rock Cafe" that was used as inspiration for the movie "Cars".

Had a wonderful night in New Mexico with friends, then got up very early to head out to LA. It's a 12 hour trip. yucka. I knew that the kids would NOT sit in the car for that long, so we sacrificed getting in early for a decent drive. We stopped in Petrified Forest National Park and a Rt 66 restaurant in Flagstaff. Both were great decisions.

The drive west was beautiful. I never thought I'd say that about the desert, but it was. I wish we had more time for that last portion of our trip.

We turned the car in today to be shipped, and we're now all resting and preparing for tomorrow and our flight to Japan.

Part 2-car trips

1) Snacks and food: I'll admit that occassionally we stop somewhere to eat, but for the most part I try to avoid this. I pack food for ourselves because it's cheaper and healthier. Fesh food and veggies don't have the negative behavior impacts that processed foods do, and prevent things like swelling from sitting for long periods of time.
2) TV: I rarely use it, unless it's a greater than 6 hour trip. Video games: absolutely not. The kids don't need to spend hours rotting their brains, and they have plenty of toys and such (and their imaginations)  to keep them entertained. The added bonus is that when I do finally turn it on, it's such a novelty that it actually keeps them interested.
3) I envy those whose kids sleep in the car. Mine never have, so, we only travel during the day. Since we enjoy stopping and seeing, it's not a big deal though.
4) We stop and explore. I find a 1 hour stop at a small museum or grocery store can do wonders for the kids. We don't stop frequently, but we make our stops count.
5) If we don't stay with families, we stay at suite hotels (preferably with a door between the living and sleeping areas). After a long day in the car, we all need room to spread out and separate ourselves. If we have a suite, we can talk, watch TV, or whatever without waking the kids or keeping them up.
6) Don't over pack, and limit the number of bags. The more things I have to keep track of, the more stress I have.

How do you do it?

Probably the question I get asked the most, with a few different variations, so I'll try to take some time over the next few days to address it.

Today's version: how do you care for 5 kids, especially with a husband in the Navy?

I'm always a bit taken back by this question, as it's nothing I ever really think about. It's just something I do, and I've adapted to as our family has grown. I've been called to this vocation as mother and wife, God has blessed us with 5 beautiful children, and I intend to fulfill my role to the best of my ability and I pray daily for wisdom and strength in how to handle things.

Along the way I've come to a few realizations that help immensely:

1) Discipline: I admit, I hate discipline. But discipline is there as a tool for us to grow and us much as I hate to admit it, it works. If I don't sit and force myself to do certain things, they'll never get done, so I come up with a schedule to ensure they do.
For example, I set aside Tuesday for laundry. I know this sounds odd, because I thought it did too before I started. I find if I spread laundry out, it never seems done and I end up with a pile of clothes that never goes away on the couch. If I set aside one day to focus on it, everything gets done and put away and I don't have to think about it for another week. As a bonus, if a kid pukes at 3am and I need to do an emergency load of laundry, there's no risk that there will be a load sitting in the washer that I have to mess with too.
Cloth diapers are the one exception to the Tuesday rule, for good reason, but since all the other laundry is already done it doesn't interfere with it (or vice versa)
2) Organization: I find this one closely tied to the above. It's a pain in many ways to sit and plan a weeks worth of meals and organize grocery shopping lists, but the benefit gained is well worth the time spent organizing it all.
To be clear: organization to me does not necessarily mean holding on to and putting loads of crap into neat little boxes. While that can help, the bigger help is getting rid of the stuff in the house. Kids don't need 50 outfits a piece, kids don't need thousands of toys, and I don't need tons of  stuff I don't use. Organizing the stuff means assessing needs as well. Since we move every few years, this is especially important. I'm not selling pieces of furniture right before I move to come in under our weight limit so my kids can keep 500 more pounds of toys that will end up driving me nuts on the other end as I fight to keep my house clean.
3) Knowing when to let go, and never underestimating what my children are capable of handling on their own.

That's really about it. Nothing too extraordinary I don't think.