My First Real Hike on Guam, Okay, Really EVER~~~Part Two!

 Remember this is all down hill.

 And remember, we will have to come back out of here.

Children really are amazing, aren't they? Remember watching Swiss Family Robinson? Did you not wish to have that experience (albeit safely!).

So... yeah... who wants to sign up right now??? The angle of the camera here does not even show how steep this actually is.

This is the nearest I've ever come to repelling. Not that this is anything like that. But, seriously, I'm descending an incline that requires rope! Thankfully, Jake patiently stayed with me to catch me if needed.

 By the time we got to the bottom the children were already washed clean from playing in the water.

 This was so refreshing. Nice and cool, but not like Star Valley cold where you can't even stand it.

 This waterfall had to have been all of 40 feet tall.

Harris had a good sized bruise on his shin which he hit on a big rock. Kiki did the same thing. We learned to feel ahead of us in the water.

Carefully making my way to the waterfall.

 Okay, so, I didn't really "enjoy" standing under a waterfall. But still, I have now experienced it.

 There goes all but me and Rylee across the deep hole.

I had to really be firm with myself here. I knew I would regret not actually swimming. I'm glad I braved it. It was so amazing.

 You knew that eventually they were going to want to climb the rocks, right? And to jump off the rocks, right? Well, they were having a hard time making the leap.

 So, Big Papa got up there and everyone had to shimmy to let him to the right side for the deep water.

 And he did it. Trust me, I made sure that he measured the water with his height first.

This, I've never done. I really don't know if I ever will.

 Next was Morgan.

 You know, once your dad paves the way before you...

 ...it's a little less scary.

 Go Kiki!

 Booyah!

 It took Porter the longest to convince himself to jump off a cliff just because everyone else did it. Rylee took like 40 pictures of him trying to make himself do it.

 But he did. Then it was no biggie.

Can you figure out what they're doing here? Yeah. Looking at the higher places to jump from. Rylee didn't get any still shots of that, only video, but they jumped from quite a bit higher. They're so brave!

 Morgan is a rock skipping champion. There were no smooth flat rocks here but he was skipping sometimes five times.

 Sideline Rylee. That's okay. I totally understand.

 Isn't this interesting?

 So, here's something that I've seen OFTEN here on Guam. People will take the time and care to BAG up their trash and even to TIE up the bag. Then, they just leave it where ever. Something got hold of this bag and tore it.

I wondered to myself:
First, how did people bring cases of beer down here?
Second, how did they manage to get out of there after drinking all that beer?

 We were basically in a green bowl.

 This is the hikingest little 8 year old I know. Dad says "Let's.." and Harris says "Go".

My Macho Libre.




















We only had to course correct one time on the hike out, and it was still hot, with pockets of rain. We started the hike trying to avoid getting in the mud, it's a lot more fun once you let go of that.

 Have you ever been SOOOOOOOO physically exhausted you just don't want to move again for a week?

There was passing traffic as this group of white people emerged from the trees soaked with jungle water, island rain, and sweat; mucky with red earthy clay.

 After after, we all went to Yogurtland which felt so rewarding after that grueling hike.

Yes, I am one of those dorks who posts pictures of her food.

Tired puppies.



I feel really good about the fact that I did it. I made it. I had to use all my strength, flexibility, and brevity.

But, I did not die! *cue Kelly Clarkson*

"""""What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!"""""

My First Real Hike on Guam, Okay, Really EVER~~~Part One!

So, Jake induced the Forced Family Fun card and said let's go hike to Sigua Falls. I first had to run the three older kids to get some cheap shoes. We planned to grab a bucket of KFC but Jake passed the turn so it was burgers and "chicken" from McD's along with bottles of Gatorade and water.

It was a very warm day.

This was actually pretty neat for me, because my dad used to go off-roading here. I remember, as a little child, sliding down these clay hills with my friends on our little bums.

This is the jeep my dad used to climb all the places where the big jeeps went. This is the jeep in which I learned to drive a stick shift. That is actually me in that jeep. Me, in all my tom-boy glory.

I don't know what city that is back there, but we are in the "wild" over by the Leo Palace.

 We kept seeing shoes along the trail. Or sometimes the soles of shoes. Some seemed like perfectly fine pairs.

Other than it being really hot out, so far the hiking was just walking.

As usual, I'm the last guy in line, and everyone else made it to the "half way point" before me, which just happens to be this old tank.

Of course, the first one to climb it is Harris. That boy is a climbing fool.

We busted out our lunch and enjoyed this resting moment.

Did I mention that it was quite hot out?

Soon, I was rested enough that my curiosity about the tank got me up. Isn't this totally cool?

We discussed what this tank's last moments may have been like based on the bullet holes and obvious impact points in the metal.

I wonder if there's anyone out there who really knows?

While I was up there on the tank we heard a helicopter coming.

They came right over to us and made a complete circle above us. We could see the uniformed guys up there. Why didn't they wave back at me?

There's my family. Talking about important stuff.

That's the engine block.

This is looking down from the man-hole on the top. My foot is actually in the front window. Directly beneath my foot is a flat rectangle. That is a pedal. It's huge. I can't even imagine driving with that giant pedal.

Here, you can see how well the stainless steel welding has held up for all these decades even as the unprotected steel around it is eroding. See the pock marks? We aren't completely sure if that's from airborne gunfire or later vandalism.

Wheel hub. Is it called a wheel on a tank?

On we go! We, not even our fearless (and yes he is literally fearless) leader, knew not what we were getting ourselves into. Do you realize how these "steps" were created? I realized. And it made me afraid. Okay, I know I'm always afraid, but c'mon, this is hard proof that there's a reason those shoes were left laying out there.

Even after just an hour, I felt like I was forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other.

This is for all you geology buffs.

Isn't this so cool? And it feels like rubber. It feels just like my phone case.

Bacon strip! When I said this out loud one of my kids very much wished, at that moment, for actual bacon.

Finally, we reached the lookout, which was one of the few landmarks on the map that Jake found on some guy's blog.

There's the falls. We couldn't see the bottom. We couldn't see how to get down to the bottom because of all the foliage. There was a trail to the right and a trail to the left. The guy with the blog didn't mention that there would be two. He said there would be one to the left. So, left it was.

 Here at the lookout there were pairs of gloves laying on the ground. Something told me that a very thoughtful person left them there for whomever would be passing that point. As I picked up a pair to try on, some of the kids got grossed out. I had no qualms. My life may depend on them!

This was when it started to sprinkle. This was also when the down-hilling got ridiculous.






Go to part two!

We Have an Eleven Year Old Again

This is our first meal cooked in the new house. It was Morgan's birthday on the 3rd. 

I asked what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  He decided pancakes and bacon. Bacon here is WAY expensive so, they've really been having bacon withdrawals. 

The electronics kit we ordered him got here just in time for his birthday. 

Then, we went for a night time family swim. Blue lights! This was so much fun and I kept wishing for an underwater camera!

Freaky alien amphibians. 

Morgan made a special request for my Grandma Edmond's salad dressing cake. Yeah. That's what it's called. It's made with Miracle Whip. No eggs no salt. He loves it with no frosting. The kids named it cabbage cake because they think it tastes like it has something healthy in it. Well, I don't think Mayo is considered healthy. 

The birthday singing wasn't bad this time, JoAnn. It was kind of "Home on the Rangey". 

Happy birthday my Mookie-boy. It's been a great eleven years.