Moving to Guam: First Impressions...

1.  Hot!  Muggy, stifling, insufferably hot.  Weird, because the mornings are often very much worse than the afternoons, because the afternoons are often breezy.  Unexpected, because I had been watching the Guam weather reports since January.  Every day- every single day- the high has always been 89 or 90, low 77 or 76.  Doesn't sound so bad, right?  It is.

2.  Tropical!  Zone 13?  ?????  House plants aren't houseplants!  Mangos, bananas, papayas, avocados, breadfruit all grow on trees, and fall to the ground.  The ground is littered with tropical food.  Crazy.  It will never frost!  Not only will it never frost, it will never get lower than 70 degrees!  Crazy.  There is no end to the growing season.  Totally weird.  What happens to annuals?  Tomatoes?  Squash plants?  Why is this island not overrun with vegetables?  If you can't tell, I'm from zone 4a (see the USDA hardiness zone map) and I'm having a hard time adjusting...  While driving or walking around, you see the plants that grow in the Climatron, just out and about, in the, like, air.  Crazy.  It's beautiful.  Crazy.  But beautiful.

3.  (How shall I put this...)  Sketchy?  One of the things that first strikes you about Guam is the pervasive feel that there is a high probability of massive impending typhoons.  The concrete power poles are approximately the size of sequoias.  Most structures, including our house, are basically concrete bunkers.  This, combined with the boonie dogs,

boonie chickens, giant African land snails,

(which I have seen, by the way...) multitude of little beer-ad-plastered convenience stores, and high level or litter add up to a certain level of... sketchiness.  B, who grew up on an Indian reservation, calls the look of Guam "Tropical Rez."  It sums it up nicely.

4.  Shopping.  This one has taken me completely by surprise.  It is intensely frustrating to find things to buy on this island.  I didn't think I was a picky person, who has to have certain things to be satisfied, but, I guess I kind of am...  Just little things like favorite brands of dishwasher detergent, hand soap, raisins, macaroni...  On and on.  Just not available.  Twin mattresses- not available.  And most online places won't ship here!  Walmart, to it's credit, will.  Target, no way.  Amazon, only if it's a certain type of item not including any electronics, metal, batteries, plastic, or paper.  Basically.  It is very frustrating.  So, my advice to anyone moving here?  Bring everything with you!  Everything.  Anything you may want to have sometime or maybe consider buying during the duration of your stay on Guam- just bring it with you!

5.  Laidback.  Way back.  There seem to be very few dress standards for Guam.  My normal attire of cutoff jeans, baggy tshirt, and chacos is just fine!  In fact, my chaco lines are becoming permanently tatooed into my skin.  I like it.  And I have worn makeup a total of twice in the almost four months I've been here.  Nylons, NO!  (Not that I would wear them anyway...)

6.  Safe.  I looooovvee living on a military base.  The house is great, bigger than I thought, and nicely arranged.  Everything is walking distance- the gym, school, stores, trails, library.  Playgrounds everywhere.  Friends next door, and down the street, and around the corner.  And, best of all, I turn the girls out to run with the pack, and don't have to worry too very much about them.  It's how I grew up, in small-town Utah.  Turned out by my Mom after breakfast, and allowed in when it got dark, right before supper.  I can't think of another place, nowadays, that I would dare turn a five-year-old and a three-year-old loose like that- except here.  I love it!

7.  Breathtaking.  When I look around, I think in exclamation points...  Look!  Can you believe the clouds!

(The sky here is truly unbelievable.  I have never seen such amazing clouds.  In fact, Miss A (5) often says "Mom, you need to stop being in love with the clouds.")  Oh, is that?  I think it is, the Southern Cross!  (It has always been a goal of mine to see the Southern Cross, and here it is, out my front door.)  The water!  The crystal clear, tropical turquoise perfectly warm water!

And oh, the ocean!  The big, blue Pacific, that this island is just such a tiny speck in.  It astounds me that I live here in the middle of the ocean.  The Ocean, that all other oceans together couldn't add up to! 

I love the waves, I love the reefs, the tide pools, the creatures, the currents, the freaking Marianas Trench just there to the east!  I love it!

So yeah, to sum up, I'm glad we moved to Guam.

The Tide Pools...

One of our favorite places here in Guam is a stretch of beach we call the Tide Pools.  High tide or low, the place is amazing!

Yesterday the tide was high.  Huge waves were breaking out towards the horizon, at the reef edge, then smaller waves broke out around those big rocks.  Up closer to the beach there is a maze of jagged lava rock, with perfect sandy-bottom pools wandering between.  They are just the right size and depth for small children to play!  Which leaves a Mama time to wander around taking pictures...

We went with my friend, who has four boys.  

My girls had their snorkels, of course.  They love to snorkel.  Who doesn't?  Even I, who have intense facial claustrophobia, love to snorkel here.  (As long as I can keep my face down in the water...  As soon as I surface I tend to hyperventilate...)  Everywhere you look there are amazing fish!

It is impossible to tell from this photo, but the pools are full of bright blue/turquoise tiny fish.  Also small butterfly fish, big parrot fish, and so many more that I don't know the names!  Also eels, but I try to pretend those aren't there...

The girls have the best time swimming, jumping off the rocks, trying to catch fish...

I wander around taking pictures of whatever catches my eye.

This big orange guy was dead (I think...) so I had no compunction in getting a close up.

Pretty, isn't it?

Little N and Miss A were perfecting their "dolphin jumps".

Miss M occupied herself for an astoundingly long time with pouring sea water on these rocks.  She said she was watering the plants.  Whatever.  I vowed to always bring an empty water bottle to the beach!

Then Miss A and Little N decided they needed to build a fort against a giant wave  that was supposedly coming our way.  It got pretty intense!  Involving this rope they found, vines from the forest, sticks, and much sand.

 I stalked hermit crabs.

This isn't exactly hard...  They are everywhere on this beach!  If you stand still, the sand at your feet literally begins to crawl with little shells.  Some are bigger...

This guy was quite big.  Which, I figure, is why he wasn't keen on posing for the camera lens hovering a couple inches away.  Crabs don't get this big by being dumb!

I did steal a shot of the amazing way his shells close off his opening.

Most of the crabs are super tiny!  Littler even that this.  So cute...

I love them!

A Small Party for a Small Girl...

Our little Miss R turned one!  We decided to have some of her favorite people over for a party.  The girls helped me make some invitations out of scrap paper, we threw some blue crepe paper and balloons over everything, and I attempted to make a cake with two fishes, one for each baby...

Little L from next door had his birthday the day before!  We are looking forward to a couple years of good baby friends...  There he is with his Mom, and our wonderful babysitter has Miss R.

 Our babysitter made a very artistic and intricate model, showing the two babes on a little island in the sea, with a coconut tree and the sun.  Cute, huh?  I especially love the coconuts...

We decorated with some of our ocean-dwelling stuffed animals.  You can see that some of Miss R's friends didn't quite obey my no-present-request... 

There's our friends Miss I and Little I and their parents, and Miss A, then Miss J, who lives a couple doors down and absolutely loves Miss R, Miss M, our babysitter's Dad, and our Daddy.  We ate chili and hotdogs (two of Miss R's favorites) and our friends brought some amazing corn souffle and strawberry shortcakes.  We had way  too much food!  I think growing up as the youngest of seven, combined with having a mother who worked as a caterer makes me always worry that there will be a shortage of food...

The babies opened presents.  Our babysitter got Miss R a little basketball set, some cute sandal things, and some hair clips.  Miss I and Little I gave her a book, some bubbles, and lollipops for her and her sisters.  We got her a little mermaid toy and some books.  Great presents! 

Isn't our babysitter gorgeous?  And Little L is super cute too...

And then it was time for the cake...  This is not, traditionally, my favorite part of a baby birthday.  Being an inherently lazy person, I usually don't allow babies to make messes, so that I do not have to clean them up!  Miss M, in fact, was so unsure of my reaction that she refused to eat her first birthday cupcake.  So I was determined to be less uptight with Miss R...

She tested the frosting...

Thought about it...

And went in for more.

Full fisted.

It was pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Good enough for a round of applause!

 And I stayed up until midnight cleaning and washing her high chair...

The other kids also enjoyed it...

 

Miss I, who is always so sweet and nice to Miss R...

Miss A, and J, our babysitter's little brother.  He just turned 10, and spent the evening being chased and tormented by a pack of small girls saying "Let me hold your hand J!" and dogpiling him.  I kept telling him that this type of behavior won't be that bad in six years, but he wasn't buying it.  He is probably contemplating escape.

And Miss M, of course, loves anything sugary, just like her Mama...

Happy Birthday!