Gracie pics:

This is what happens when she disappears into Kate's room for a couple of minutes:

little note in Kate's backpack:

I love it that Kate is so happy here. Guam was the right place at the right time for us, and I'm so happy to be here. :)


Back to add a couple of pics I just took of Gracie drawing a picture. Love this stage!

(she's usually in this dress--I'm having to wash it constantly, it's her favorite.)

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Geez---soon after I typed that up, Gracie took a blue expo marker to that dress, and I can't get it out. Any tips?

pics

Gracie LOVES her gingerbread friend.

Very excited about swim meets getting ready to start up. Breaststroke was Kate's weakness, but over the past few weeks, it's become one of her best strokes---lots of fun to watch. I'm so proud of her. Breaststroke is the hardest stroke to photograph, so I was thrilled to get this great pic.

Yesterday we saw at least 10 different rainbows throughout the day.

My friend Rachel and I have been doing so good with our running, that we've decided to train up for a half marathon next month. We have to increase mileage quickly, we usually go 4 miles. Very excited to get back into the running scene...dealing with the high humidity was hard at first. Today we ran in the rain.

So tired, so much going on. Off to bed.

middle of the night here....

Can't sleep. Ella's sick...she RARELY gets sick, so when she does get sick, she tends to be on the more dramatic side. Kate had the same illness a few days ago and missed 2 days of school, but thankfully this seems to be a quick virus-fever and sore throat. So I thought I'd hop on here and post a few pictures. Today I had a nice outdoor run (I've got to keep that up!!)--and Gracie and I collected coconuts for Halloween decorations.

Sunrise from our backyard, the temperature is perfect this time of day.

I'm also working on a Christmas project now that will actually take quite some time to finish. I have large gingerbread people cut out to represent our family. Gracie was thrilled to find the one that was her size, and she walked around holding hands with it for about 20 minutes.

Gracie is really good at her tricycle now-

Garden pic--I have no idea what kind of bush this is, but it's blooming these pretty flowers right now, I love it.

I guess that's all for now. I'm going to check on Ella and then hopefully fall back asleep.

sunset...

It was so gorgeous out tonight. I ran outside when I noticed that the light coming in the house was a soft, light orange--I knew it was going to be a pretty sunset.

TGIF! Today was a little rough.

Here are a couple of pics from the golf course yesterday. Grace and I meet Scott for lunch once a week, love that time.

snorkeling...

Great beach day with friends. We are so very tired now, just posting pics.

Every once in a while, I'd see Ella with her arm up- pointing or motioning for Kate and Kensleigh to follow her. Funny, of course they could not see that since they were also underwater.

Gracie was a little explorer today, so fun---but completely wore me out:

swim team (+update)

So...we've switched swim teams and I'm kind of heart-sick about it. We loved the Tsunami swim club, but it's the long drive that I dislike (45-50 min. each way). AAFB just started up a team---and the pool is right down the street from our house. We can walk there. AAFB let us try them out for 2 weeks w/no commitment, so we did---and it's fine. The pool is larger, the coaches are good. I think we can deal with the growing pains of a brand new team. I'm designing the team logo tonight--I'm happy to help out with anything I can. Last week after we told Tsunami swim club that we would not be there anymore, Kate was crying---I had no idea it would be so hard to switch. Swimming is such a big part of their lives. Meets start up in November....I cannot wait. Both Kate and Ella talk about how much they love it---I'm so happy to have them in the same sport, and they are doing so good with all of their strokes. :) I love it that all of our practices and meets are at outdoor pools---something we never had in WA. Okay friends, so here's where you chime in & say "Oh yes Amy, you made the right choice."---because I'm still not sure that we should have switched. :/

10/4--just back here to add that swimming was cancelled today and yesterday---and likely all week due do a pool malfunction. There are a lot of problems with the base pool. I don't know if I should take this a sign that we just need to take things at a slower pace as a family, or that I made the wrong choice. Anxious to see how it goes. Change is hard. Going to relax now and go watch DVR'd shows with Scott. The nice thing about not having swim is that the kids go to bed much earlier. We love watching the Next Food Network Star, Property Virgins, Design Star (Kate is a future design star---she LOVES that show.), Top Shot, Great Food Truck Race, Pawn Stars, & Hoarders. :)

just adding a few more pics from the promotion ceremony....

I just copied a few of the pics off of the UOG ROTC facebook page...

Off to bed. I'll blog again soon.