Running

A new family moved into our ward and I quickly became friends with the mom/wife.  We work together in primary and our kids are the same age.  She is a runner.  She has run 7 marathons.  Like a for real runner.  I am not, and have never been into running since track in the 7th grade. I've always thought it would be cool but have never had anyone to motivate me.  So I asked my new friend Jennifer if I could run with her.  We began running several days a week after the kids were in bed.  We did a 5k and then a few weeks later, a 5 mile run.  That's the farthest I've ever ran.  It was on the beach at 6am and beautiful.  I really enjoyed it. Then I left for CA and haven't really run since.  She is trying to convince me to train for a half marathon in February but I am currently not too motivated.  We'll see.  Here we are at the 5 mile run on Gun Beach. It was a USA/military themed race so you could dress up if you want.  Jennifer is lady liberty and won the costume contest.

Okay, It's time to blog again. Random

 Morgan's went to a Monster High birthday party for one of her friends.  We were totally unaware of what Monster High was at the time but had a great time anyway.

My friend Marjie went all out with the food and decorations and it was fabulous.

Here are all the girlies dressed to the hilt.

Morgan and Ella (the birthday girl) strutting their stuff!

Anytime I try to do laundry, I find Jaycee hiding out in here.  She seriously loves it in there.

 Morgan and Daddy playing hid and go seek with Mommy.  They were in the linen closet if it's hard to tell.

Just hanging out one the evening.

                                     

We had a great Labor Day weekend.  Friday night we stayed home and watched Mirror Mirror as a family.  On Saturday I went on a hike with the Boy Scout troop in our ward.  It was just over 5 miles long.  This is the first real hike we have taken the boys on since I started working with the troop about 6 months ago.  We had 24 boys from our troop attend.  For many of the boys a few valuable lessons were learned:

1.  Eating breakfast before going on a hike is a good idea.

2.  Bringing only 16 ounces of water to drink is a bad idea.

3.  Guam, a tropical island, is surrounded by water (yes, while standing on a ridge where you can see water almost completely surrounding the island an11 year old scout who has lived on Guam his entire life sincerely asked "are we surrounded by water?")

In spite of some poor preparations, all of the boys had a good time.  We hiked down to these beautiful falls and cooled off in the water.  Many of the boys proved their manhood by climbing midway up the falls and jumping out from behind the falls.

 Saturday night Paij and I went diving with two other couples.  We went at dusk and the visibility was pretty poor.  We were pleasantly surprised when we came across a rather large ray.  It was the first ray that Paij or I had ever come across.  A video our friend got of it is posted on my facebook timeline if interested.  

On Sunday we relaxed, TOOK NAPS!!! and hung out as a family.  We watched family slideshows of the girls since they were both born and then had chocolate fondue.  It was a lot of fun.  Morgan struggles to understand that the baby in the slideshows is her.  In spite of multiple reminders, she continues to refer to herself in the third person when she sees pictures of herself as a baby.  The girls both love watching the slideshows and even start to dance a little to the music we have put to them.  It really is a fun family activity and Paij and I love to reflect back on all the memories our little family has been blessed with thus far.

 Today (Monday) we went on a hike with some friends to a beautiful isolated beach.  After seeing a puffer fish in the water Morgan finally built up enough motivation to actually use her mask and snorkel and put her face in the water.  Granted that only lasted four seconds, but that is huge progress for our daredevil Morgan.  Hopefully soon we will have her enjoying more of what these waters hold.

Here are Morgan and Paij celebrating Morgan's first snorkeling experience.  

  To get outside the reef we had to snorkel over coral in some very shallow water. If you look close in this picture you may be able to see the aftermath of Paij's first close encounter with the coral.

Jaycee, our adventurous one, having fun on the beach. 

We found a couple puffer fish while snorkeling and brought them in close to shore so the kids could check them out.  They really are fun fish to play with.  

Came across this pretty little black and white fish.  I have never seen one like it before so it caught my attention.

It has been a great weekend.  Next weekend we celebrate Paij turning 30!!  

Spanish Steps

This is a short hike about 2 miles from our house.  Brent and I had done it before and decided we could take the girls on the .8mile round trip hike. They did awesome.  Brent had Jaycee in the chest carrier and she was mostly happy and Morgan hiked 95% of the way.  We had to lift her up and down a few spots but otherwise, she did great. I think she even had fun doing it.

On the way down, the trail splits and one side goes to the sandy beach, and the other side to a snorkeling spot. We took the kids to the beach and as you can see, were alone.

Morgan and daddy went on a little adventure out to the island and she even jumped off the little rock. 

So brave!

It is not always fun to take our kids adventuring but this time, it was a great experience.

4th of July

Yeah so I'm a little behind.  Just found a memory card we hadn't looked at in a while. There was a big fair on base so we just went down during the day.  It was super hot.  Then we went to a party at the church and hung out with our neighbors in the evening.  It was a busy day but sadly, no fireworks.

This thing is called a Caraboa and the dog riding the caraboa is kind of a thing around here. You'll see the caraboa walking down the main highway with one or two dogs on it's back. Just for fun.

She wanted her face painted but instead they did her arm.  She dealt with it well.

 Playing in the fire truck.

I know what you're thinking, "Does she really have on socks with flip flops?" The answer is yes. Sometimes that girl has a mind of her own and can not be reasoned with. 

Jaycee was sad because Morgan was too scared to go on the cars and she was dying to go but was too little to go alone. She settled for just sitting in it for a minute.

Just some new pics of the girlies

These are mostly for my mom.  Jaycee is super fun and everyone loves her but she is hard to get good pictures of.  Morgan has become a total ham and loves to get her picture taken these days.   Morgan was especially excited when I let her put on her first day of school outfit. Here are some fun ones from today. In no particular order.

 Yes, she is wearing a little mask that she made.

Have I mentioned I love having girls? :)

Sea Turtles

Paij and I had a great dive this morning and were lucky enough to come across some sea turtles.  Paij snuck up on one of them and interrupted its nap.  They are such beautiful creatures and always a joy to cross paths with.