James' Farewell

Jaycee and Aunt Andrea.

Girlies with their grandma

Aunt Beth

The Nore family

The whole Collins Clan that made it to the farewell. We're so glad we got to be a part of it.

On the way home we had a one day and two night layover in Hawaii.  We had an enjoyable time.  We kept it very low key but enjoyed ourselves. 

Here are the girls on the plane ride home.  Unfortunately this was after we had already landed.  They both fell asleep during the decent of the 8 hour flight. They really did well though.

2nd half of CA

We went to a cute little pumpkin patch with Brent's sister and kids, another sister and brother-in-law and my sister and kids.  It was low key but the kids had a fun time playing and riding the train.

 We got to be there for Brent's brother James' first trip to the temple. It was great to be there with him and his family for that. We were grateful to be able to visit the temple after a 9 month hiatus while on Guam.

 Since the temple was in Sacramento and we couldn't take any kids, Brent and I decided to stay the night down there.  We got a hotel and shopped a little the next morning while my sister kept my kiddos.  That morning, my sister brought her kids and mine down to Sacramento and we all met up at the zoo. Not a huge zoo but the kids had a great time.

Notice the large tiger in the window.

Jaycee and Lexi being Kangaroos.

Morgan being the momma

Morgan, Jaycee and Bode riding the dump truck

Yes, I think Dylan is actually smiling.  Lexi was a great help with Jaycee.

Airplane

After the zoo, we went back to the mall and Brent watch the kids in play area while Haylee and I shopped. We had to his the Merry-Go-Round on the way out.

Thanks again Haylee for keeping out kids over night and bringing them down the next day.  It's always fun to get away as a couple!

Lassen National Park

For those of you who know Brent, know we had to do some hiking while we were in the states.  Lassen is pretty close so we headed up there. We went with Brent's dad, my mom and my sister and her kids.  Everyone did great and we had a fun time.

We did the hike to Bumpass Hell. There was a lot of steam, cool colored, bubbling pools, and stinky smells.

I'm not sure if the 4.5 miles was sufficient for Brent to get his hiking fix but I think it was better than nothing. 

Halloween Stuff

For the one weekend we were all together, we decided to have some Halloween fun.  My mom has boxes of costumes and the kids tried on and tried on.  They had a blast.

My two sisters and I were all cheerleaders for Manteca High.  Here are our children in our uniforms.  My mom even taught them a cheer to perform for us.  It was pretty cute.

Here is Marcae as a cute little puppy with her Aunt Brandie.

 Jaycee as a pirate witch and a clown.  Darling if I do say so myself.

Morgan as a princess and a princess.  What a surprise!

 Then we had a family pumpkin carving contest.  Morgan and I decided to paint a little more than carve with our Nemo pumpkin.

You'll never guess who did the eyeball pumpkin.

All the pumpkins lined up for the judge

                                        

We did got to a Halloween party at my mom's church but she took the pictures on her camera. We unfortunately missed Halloween day. We left Hawaii Halloween morning and arrived in Guam on the evening of Nov. 1st. That darn time change.  The girls didn't get to trick or treat but were fine with it and ended up with plenty of candy. 

First half of trip to CA

Brent had a conference in AZ so I decided it was a good excuse for a trip back to the states. I told my family and they all planned accordingly. I planned to use a military flight but after 16 days of not getting off the island, I bought one way tickets to CA. My sister Kalli drove for 16 hours from AZ with her 5 children by herself to spend the week with us.  My other sister Haylee drove from UT 11 hours by herself with 3 kids to spend the next week with us.  My brother and his wife flew up from San Diego to spend the weekend with us.  And the rest of my family was local.  We had a wonderful time full of making memories.My little and angels during our 18 hours of travel. We took 3 separate flights and they really did pretty good. It was just long.

 The day after I arrived, Brent's niece Alexis got married.  I got to attend the wedding.  Here are grandma and grandpa Collins with baby Juliet.

 The father of the bride and his first grandbaby.

 One evening we went on a picture scavenger hunt with the theme of Awkward Family photos.  So we had different things we had to get in the picture around town and then had to make the picture awkward.  With my family, not hard to do.  This is my group. We didn't win, but we had a great time.

 Morgan loved painting with grandma

 And coloring with grandpa and Kasen

Jaycee loved loved the cows and being outside.  She would search all day for anyone to take her outside and then scream when they wanted to take her in. She was grandpa's little girl.

Cute little cousins in their matching shirts made by Aunt Kalli.  Morgan loved all the attention and playing with her cousins.

Visit from the Tanners

Be nice to people because you never know when they may cross your path again. :-)

When we lived in Southaven, MS, we were friends with the Tanner family.  They moved to Alaska and then to Siapan and now back to Alaska.  Siapan is a close neighbor to Guam and they came here on vacation before they moved back to Alaska. We had a wonderful time showing them the island and spending time together. Fei used to babysit Morgan while I was in school.  Morgan was 18 months old at the time. They were fast friends during the visit.

We went to Leo Palace where they were staying and enjoyed the pools and waterslide.

Here is Dirk with the kids.  They were much more brave than my children.

Morgan did go down by herself once with a float.

We hiked just behind our house to a Japaneese WW2 plane that crashed in the Jungle.

Had a fun time at the beach

The girls loved playing Dress Up.

Jaycee had to get in on the dressing up action too.

A cool lion fish we saw while snorkeling. 

Fun times at Chuck-E-Cheese.

A group shot.  

For those of you who know the Tanners, the oldest girl pictured is not theirs.  They brought her with them for the weekend though.

Guests are always welcome!