Talofofo Falls Resort park

Since Adam left, we've been cooped up in the house some more. First, yet another virus made its way through the house. Then, the baby developed a severe rash that ended up being a hyper-sensitivity reaction to .... something. We still have no idea what. He's finally starting to get over it, but it's been a miserable few weeks.

Luckily, we've gotten into the full swing of home-school again so the kids have been at least mentally challenged, but we've been going a bit stir crazy from being cooped up in the house for so long.

Today changed all that. For my birthday I decided I wanted to go to Talofofo Falls, a
"resort park" south of where I live that has both the tallest falls on the island and the historic cave that Yokoi lived in (more on him later). I took the opportunity to meet more people and asked a new boat wife that just arrived if she wanted to come along.

limo

After picking her up, we drove out to the site. The odd balance on the island I think was demonstrated quite clearly right in the parking lot, where we found both a limousine and a family of wild pigs.I found this probably a bit more amusing than I should have, but we paid for our tickets and headed inside.

and pigs

We were greeted by a Japanese man who spoke very broken English, who told us the story of Yokoi, a Japanese WWII soldier who hid in a small cave for 28 years following WWII and "didn't know" that the war was over and the surrender was ordered (not sure I buy that line, but that's how the story goes). He lived off of tropical plants and fish from the river until he was eventually found by a local in the 70's. Throughout the site they kept referring to Yokoi as a hero. Not exactly sure he fits my definition of a hero, but surviving that long in the jungle in a cave underground is pretty impressive.

kids in one car, adults in the other

After the short history lesson, we were pointed out towards the actual park which had a train, and a few amusement park style rides. We avoided these and headed straight to the cable cars for the voyage down to the bottom of the falls.

the falls are actually a series of many.
this is one, seen from the cable car

Once there, we walked around the base of the falls, over a very shaky suspension bridge (still not sure that the youngest girl was a fan of that part, though the older kids seemed to get quite a kick out of it) and up to the museum.

the base of the falls

The museum was very small with a few displays and wall paintings outlining the general history of the island from the initial island inhabitants up until current American holding of the Island following WWII.

After leaving the museum, I was very sad to see that the "monorail" was not working and we'd have to walk out to Yokoi's cave through the jungle path on foot. It wasn't a far walk by any means, but hey, wouldn't you want to ride on such a fine example of engineering greatness too? ;)!

yes, the white chair on the left is in fact a normal chair just tied in place

cave entrance

After completing the very buggy walk to the cave and back we followed the path to another section of the falls, across another suspension bridge and back to the cable cars for the ride out.

To cap off the day adventure we headed over to Jeff's Pirates Cove to eat and swim. I even treated myself to a birthday drink.  :)! All in all, another great Guam day!

Time flies.....

When you're having fun?

These last few weeks have been interesting to say the least, and really have been somewhat of a blur as well.

When we returned from Okinawa, the youngest girl came down with a stomach bug, and within 12 hours I did as well. Of course, it made its rounds through the whole house. This could have been a very low point  in my last few weeks (I mean, who wants to get sick right when they get home and have to catch up on 18 million things) but it ended up reminding me how very blessed I am to be here. The community is so close, that within a few hours of finding out that I was sick and having a hard time taking care of the kids, I had a friend driving over to my house with food for the kids to do what she's appropriately dubbed a "ding, dong, ditch" (put food on the doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run so you don't get sick yourself). The people here are so amazing, and I am absolutely grateful for it.

Just as we were getting over that, I got a "surprise" phone call from my husband stating he was about to get on a plane to come home for a visit. Surprise is in quotes for a few reasons, partly due to the sheer luck that arose from a Space A flight being available within hours of his going on leave to get home. AMAZING timing, that allowed for him to sleep on the plane and arrive here early the next morning adjusted and ready to go.

Unfortunately, Adam's arrival was tempered a bit. The baby developed an inflamed abscess under his chin that I had to bring him to the Dr for less than 2 hours after he landed. We spent the whole day in the Naval hospital (may I add I LOVE the Drs here and was thoroughly impressed by their professionalism and their level of concern) and in the end had it manually drained and the baby was put on antibiotics. 12 days later and the lump isn't completely gone yet, but we're hoping that another round of antibiotics will finish the job.

The rest of the time Adam spent here continued to fit the up-down theme. I still wouldn't trade his time here for the world, though, and am completely thankful to his command for allowing him the time off to come and visit us. It's weird though. I feel bad that so many things went wrong while he was here and we had to spend so much time dealing with life, but at the same time in a really selfish way I'm really glad I had him physically here to help me through all of it. An amazing, amazing blessing for the family as a whole.

We did manage to make it to the beach down the street once before he left :)

Despite flying Space A here, we booked him a flight on Delta back. They hooked him up with an amazing rate back, and since he has to be back off leave by a certain time it's really for the best that we bought a ticket.

Again, thank you to everyone who helped us in getting my husband home for the time that he was. The kids and I appreciate it more than I could ever put into words. It was still really hard to see him leave today, but having him here for the time we did was the greatest gift ever.

Okinawa-Week 2

As I stated in my last post, I ended up spending a whole extra week in Okinawa based on Space A availability. There were simply no flights to Guam. As a result, we got to spend some extra time sightseeing.

Our first stop this week was Okinawa World. Within the park there's a traditional Okinawan Village, shops, traditional Eisa dance (that unfortunately you can't take pictures of), a Habu (native viper) pavilion and show, a large garden with examples of plants grown on Okinawa, and a large cave to walk through.

front entrance

Our first stop was the dance show, complete with drums and gongs. The baby was so amazed and confused by it all, but everyone else loved it. 

Our next stop was the Habu show. Of course, it not only explored the Habu but other snakes like the cobra and water snake as well. The kids really enjoyed the water race between the mongoose and the water snake they did as a demonstration.

Next were the caves. 

underground waterfall

"Mom look! it's double dark!"

 Then the garden

pineapples!

 We didn't have too much time to explore beyond that as the place was closing. It was still a great afternoon.

A few days later we headed out to the Okinawa Ocean Expo Park and the Aquarium. The park itself was absolutely beautiful, though absolutely huge so there was no way to do all of it (and all of the other attractions) in one day.

At one time the aquarium was the largest in the world. It has since lost that title, but still comes in at an impressive 4th place. The amount of fish on display was astounding.

I always love watching the kids faces

1,2,3,4,5,6 walkers......yup! still have them all!

 The deepest part of the tank complex is an exhibit showcasing large Manta Rays and Whale Sharks. They are amazing creatures. I've read how large they are and seen them on TV, but it's hard to grasp their size until you see them in person. Absolutely beautiful, powerful, and majestic creatures.

After exploring the shark exhibit (complete with preserved shark parts on display), we headed back out into the park itself to watch the dolphin show and see the manatees and sea turtles.

On our way out of the park we indulged the kids in one last request. In the park there is a very large kids play area, that I can best describe as a series of well designed cargo nets. It's hard to explain even with pictures how neat it was and how vast of an area it covered, but the kids loved it and it served to get that last little burst of energy out before heading back to the apartment.

The next day we all packed up and headed back home. It was such an amazing 2 weeks, and we can't wait to head back up there again.

Trip to Okinawa-Week 1

I know I promised this a few days back, but after we got home illness struck the family. Luckily it was only a 24 hour bug, so it didn't last long, but it did put a halt on all things in the house for a bit.

As the title implies, I have decided to break my story of our trip up into 2 posts. There's too much to cover in one.

As I said previously, a little over 2 weeks ago we flew via the Space Available system to Okinawa, Japan to visit friends. This was our first time flying Space A, and definitely not our last. It requires a ton of flexibility and understanding, but it was a fun and different experience from flying commercial.

It was so great being able to so "easily" hop a flight to see friends we've known since our time in KS that are currently stationed in Okinawa. It's been over a year since we saw each other, but we all came together as if we were never apart (I love friends like that). Their boys are both in baseball, so we spent quite a bit of time both weeks at the field watching practices and games. We also spent a lot of downtime letting the kids play together, relaxing, and watching TV.

not sure what they're watching,
but it must be interesting

As you can tell, she hated it. ;)

Of course, we had to do some touristy stuff too!

On the food side, our first day there, we went to a very yummy noodle house for lunch. It was our first experience eating at a place where you have to take your shoes off and sit on the floor. We all loved the experience, and the food. Later on in the week we went to a great sushi house with the same sort of set up, but holes in the floor to put your feet in.

mmmmm sand

The first place we went was the beach complex at Torii Station (an Army base), mostly because our friend is a diver and he had some stuff to do at the dive shop there. All the kids loved exploring the beach, even the baby.

From there, we journeyed up to Bolo point, to explore the lighthouse and the surrounding park areas. It was beautiful and the kids loved playing and running in the park.

A few days later we took the kids to Kadena Marina beach to swim for a while. It was a tiny beach, but the water was beautiful (a bit cooler than in Guam)  as was the weather. The kids took turns being buried in the sand, swam out to a floating dock to jump off, and we all relaxed in the water. The baby, as always, made sure he got his daily mineral intake by trying to eat as much sand as he could sneak in.

main gate

On what we thought was going to be my last day there based on flight schedules, we took the kids up to Shuri Castle. The original castle was built in the 14th century and suffered major damage during the battle for Okinawa in WWII. Much of it has been restored and repaired in the last 20 years, with ongoing restoration projects still underway. It was a wonderful afternoon spent wandering,exploring, and we all learned quite a bit reading the signs (interesting to note that Commodore Perry visited the location in the 1850s). For most of the interior tour shoes were required to be off and no pictures were allowed. One thing I wish we could have done was have tea in the original tea rooms that the King used to receive guests in. We had no idea that was even an option when we went and were entirely unprepared for it, otherwise we would have. We will go back and do that in the future though.

partial view from surrounding park

As I mentioned above, we thought that was going to be my last day. As it turns out, the next morning we woke up at 430 to begin getting ready to leave only to check the flight and find out is had been moved back a day (luckily before we actually drove to the air terminal). It wasn't a bad thing. After we all woke up the second time we took our coffee and the kids and walked down the seawall near our friends apartment.

The next morning we again got up, this time actually making it to the terminal. As it turned out, there was no space available for my large family that day on the plane. With no flights on the 72 hour schedule back to Guam, we went back to our friends house for what would end up being another week in beautiful Okinawa with wonderful friends.

Our First Space A Adventure

The kids and I decided to journey to Okinawa to see friends last week. Instead of purchasing tickets, we flew under the Space Available system, which allows military members, dependents and others under varying category priority levels to take the remaining seats on missions the military is already flying. Actually getting on the flights requires patience and a ton of flexibility, but it's free (or near free in some cases) and that's for me. :)!

This flexibility and fluidness means that the kids and I are still in Okinawa for at least the next few days, we weren't a high enough category to make it on the flight home today and the flight schedule (which only goes out 72 hours) shows no flights to Guam. I can't say I'm complaining, we're staying with amazing friends and having a blast! As soon as I get home I'll put up a full post with pictures of all we've doing.

big families

I have 5 kids, and of all the things it comes with, the one that annoys me the most is the rude comments I get about the number of children I have. It's bad enough when the kids aren't there, but when they are it's so much worse (both in how many comments I get and how I have to control myself in my responses). One thing that has struck me since leaving the States is the number of comments I HAVEN'T gotten. It's been a great change.

It's not just the comments, but actions too. Even in Japan where big families are rare, I wasn't pushed to the side for having so many. It's been such a nice change. I get that there are a ton of little brats out there, and my kids have their days, but more often than not they're well behaved in public settings. I know that you've seen small families let their spoiled little brat run around between the tables in a restaurant, that doesn't mean my 5 will be 5 copies of that one kid. Quite the opposite. My kids know that their actions have consequences. The behavior of others' children also doesn't mean that the instant I walk in you need to walk away (I'm talking to you directly Mr Skycap at LAX). I tip well, and I don't go out without being prepared to thank those who take the time to do their jobs (again Mr Skycap)....go even the slightest bit beyond your job and it will totally be worth your while. 

Along this line, I've come up with a list of things NOT to say to a big family:

-You do know what causes this, right?

   If you say something like this, at least to me, be prepared for a smart and extremely off color remark (especially when my kids aren't in earshot). I can still speak like a sailor, and I will not hesitate to do it.

   I think what bothers me most about this comment is the implication that I should be doing all I can to prevent kids, and not having so many. I don't understand this at all under any format. If you are pro-life, then you should be celebrating life with me. If you are pro-choice, you should be celebrating my right to choose to  have more kids. Either way, I shouldn't hear this as a comment.

- You're _____ short of a _______ team

   "Oh crap! where did the last one go?" while I frantically look around is a popular response to this - thanks to our former sitter for that idea!

- Are all these yours? <while pointing back and forth between my husband and I>

 I get that we live in an age of "yours, mine, and ours", but, even if we did have kids from separate relationships and came together later they would still be ours (just in a much more complex format). My kids do all look alike and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they're all very closely related. 

  It's really tempting to respond in a really uncomfortable way to this, by pointing to each of my kids one at a time and saying, "Well, this one is ours, that next one is his, the one after that is ours again, that one, well, we're not exactly sure who the father is....."

I'm sure there are others, but these ones definitely get to me the most, and from talking to the other parents of many, them as well.

Connected again! and an update

I know it's been suite a while since I last posted, and I sincerely apologize. Our computer broke and I refused to buy an ultra gamer (read: expensive) one from the exchange and therefore ordered one and had to await it's arrival. When I say it's broke, it's not like a virus I can override by formatting the drive or something  (yes, I am a nerd). The hard drive is fried. Good times. Luckily I was able to rig it to my new one and get most of the files off before it completely went kaputz.

At the same time (almost the same day) Adam's phone died. I guess since we've had the phones for over 2 years I shouldn't complain too much, but it seriously threw a wrench in our ability to communicate with each other at all. Ah well, practice for when he submerges again right?

A silver lining is that I was now driven to figure out why the Wii hasn't connected to the internet in about 2 years so that I could use the "Internet Channel" to do some very basic tasks.

Other than that: here's a recap of what's gone on over the last few weeks:
1) The kids went to VBS at the base chapel and made a bunch of friends. I did as well :)! Only downside: the baby was lost without all the other kids and would crawl through the house crying looking for them.

2) Spent a good portion of a Saturday at Gab-Gab beach with new friends. AMAZING day, there were so many fish out and the kids even saw an octopus! I realized that day that I need to purchase a paddle board and a waterproof camera while we are here.

3) The kids went to swimming lessons and made more friends (again, as did I). However, I decided I need to hire a private swim instructor. I'm a bit picky after my time in RI at "the pond" as a kid over how they are taught.

4) I bought me first fresh, whole, tuna the other day at $4 a lb. It wasn't even gutted. After prepping it myself, I figured out that it was really a lot easier than I imagined it would be and I'll probably just stick to cleaning them myself from now on. In a related note: handing my oldest daughter a whole tuna in the car and telling her to hold it was priceless.

5) I've realized that I can't buy "reef fish" to eat. I'm too used to seeing them in pet stores for aquariums.

I also don't have the guts yet to try the jellyfish that's offered at a local restaurant.

I'm sure I'll get over both issues eventually. Just not yet.

6) The baby has decided that it is unacceptable for anyone else to feed him. He must feed himself. (I think this is related to him now having 3 teeth). This venture has led to me just deciding to pull him from his high chair and put him directly in the sink for a bath after dinner. It's much easier than dragging him all the way up the stairs.