I'm Back
10 years ago
I have been so bad about posting on here, but it's been really crazy the last several months. I've got a ton of photos to post, so I'm going to keep the words short. We have moved to Guam and in the midst of unpacking and getting ready for school and work again. We have also started a new blog that will be all about our life in Guam for the next three years. It's called Our Gu-american Life and I will be posting there from now on. It's using a new blog site so I'm learning it as I go. But I heard it was the direction that everyone was going in, so I figured why not. Enough talk, on to pictures!!!
Zoo with the Khan family
Melissa, Lucas, Zachary and Sophie riding the train.
The weather this day could not have been more perfect. Nicholas didn't have school and Burt took off work early so he could hang out with us. We packed a picnic and spent at least 4 hours just playing at the zoo. We only saw a few animals, but it didn't matter. The kids had a blast and so did the parents.
Christopher and Joshua on the train. I can't remember where Nicholas had gone. Probably just didn't want to be in a photo or is on the other side looking at something else.
Sophie feeding a bird at one of the newer exhibits. All the birds were hiding up on one side of the big cage. We were told they are usually all over the place.
Christopher lost a tooth while we were there. Actually, it had been "hanging out" for so long that Brandon and I told him that he couldn't ride on the sky lift unless he let us pull it. He finally caved.
Daddy and Sophie rode in front of Christopher and I....
And Joshua, Burt and Nicholas rode behind us. It was really fun getting to see the zoo from up high. Poor Melissa had to take Lucas and Zachary somewhere else because they weren't big enough.
Then we headed to the playground and spent the rest of the day here.
Zachary was getting really sleepy, so Brandon grabbed him and put him in his lap as he rode on the swing. It seems like forever since we had someone this little so it was cute to watch them swinging together. It looked like Zachary would slide right off Brandon's lap, but he positioned himself just right and hung on for dear life.
Christopher and Sophie playing.
Brandon and Burt kept playing on the swinging thingy. Not sure what you call it, but we would all get to laughing so hard every time they did it. I love watching those too when they get together.
Lake with Grammie & Pop
Christopher and Pop worked in the shop together. Christopher could spend every day in here. He LOVES to come up with things that he and Pop can build together and has actually started drawing up plans on how to do it. It's so cute!
This time it was a cargo boat. Christopher loves to watch videos on YouTube of boats that people build out of Legos and then they sink. He wanted this to sink too, but what he didn't realize was that it was made out of wood and that wasn't going to happen. Later he put it in the lake and filled it with rocks. I love this kid!!
Sophie wanted to plant flowers with Grammie. The last time we were at the lake she helped her do this and then told Grammie that she needed some pink flowers. Grammie was prepared for this visit and even let Sophie tell her where to plant them. That's the fun part of being a grandparent, letting the grandkids leave their mark and not caring if it was part of your plan. : )
Sophie and Brandon started digging for treasure on the beach.
Brandon took a few nice kayak rides. He really missed being able to do this while he was in Korea so I really glad that he got to do it here. He caught a bunch of fish too which made it even better. I love this man to death and watching him do what he loves makes me so happy.
Back in the shop again finishing up the boat.
I wanted to leave the top half of our china cabinet here because the unit is so large and we could use the bottom half as a tv stand. My parents were awesome and agreed to let me store it at their house. But I needed to paint the back of it to seal it up. Miss Priss wanted to help really bad, so Pop went and found one of his old scrub tops and taped it so that it fit her better. It was hilarious!
Sophie and Grammie doing puzzles and watching videos together.
My sister and her kids came to visit too, but somehow I didn't take a single picture.
Weekend with Mimi & Papa John...
plus cousins!!
Brandon's sister Ame was super awesome and bought the kids backpacks full of things to do and eat on the plane ride.
Campbell, Cameron and Sophie ready to go to the pumpkin patch.
(I promise Sophie has other clothes, but she really loved this one and I didn't care. It was washed between each wear in case anyone is grossed out.)
Trying to get a group photo. This was about as good as we got. My kids didn't want to face the camera or be seen by the camera and Camille was the only one who would sit and she even posed.
Christopher was all about riding on the tractors.
We did the corn maze scavenger hunt. It was super fun and the kids got a prize at the end if they turned in the answers.
Camille, Christopher, Cameron and Campbell riding on a massive tire swing.
Playing in the box 'o corn. I think I heard at least 6 parents that day that tried to figure out how they could put one of these in their backyard.
The original Hemphills.
I love them!
Sophie, Camille and Campbell riding in a tire swing. Papa John pushed and pushed them and I'm not sure how nobody got sick or threw up.
Brandon with the kids waiting patiently to go out to the pumpkin patch.
One more attempt at a group photo on the way out.
Christopher coloring his pumpkin.
Sophie coloring her pumpkin.
Christopher's pumpkin on the left, made to look like his smile (He lost another tooth since losing the one at the zoo) and Sophie's on the right with ears and curly hair added. : )
And the ghosts that they drew on the back. We gave a pumpkin to each set of grandparents before we left since we couldn't take them with us.
Finally, the night before we left, Melissa brought dinner over for us and we had fun visiting with them one more time. The kids ran around chasing each other since the house was now empty and it was so stinkn' loud, but we just sat there and watched them while laughing.
It was the perfect last week in the states and there isn't one thing I would change about it. The weather was amazing and God blessed our hearts so much with the time we had with our family and friends. He is good!!!
Right now we have just under 2 weeks before we leave for Guam. I know it's going to fly by, even though some days we just sit at home and I feel bored. I'm trying to enjoy the time to relax because once we move I know it will be a long time before I get bored again. I think. I honestly have no clue what to expect once we get there. I'm getting sidetracked.
When we got back from Ohio, the kids and I were here for about 1 1/2 weeks and then we loaded up with Brandon's parents and headed to Orange Beach, AL to meet Brandon for a long weekend. We had an amazing friend that let us rent their condo at the last minute and we had a gorgeous view of the water. I only took one photo. I know. I'm even worse than I used to be about taking photos. Now I only use my phone and I've decided that I'd rather spend time with my family than take pics of them. Thankfully Brandon loves to take photos. I just hate downloading them. And I don't have my little camera card downloading thingy to down load the photos with. So here's what you are getting from me:
After our trip to the beach, the mover (only took one guy) also came and packed up everything else in the house, so we are literally living out of suitcases and borrowed stuff now. Honestly, I really kind of enjoy having very little things in the house. I start to feel cramped and overwhelmed when we have too much stuff. The only down side is, there isn't anything left for the kids to play with so they get bored easily. We borrowed a few things from our grandparents to play with, so that definitely has helped.
I found the kids being creative one morning. Christopher told Sophie to stand with the coolest boogie board ever and he was going to draw it.... on a post-it note.
And here's the drawing. Pretty cute!
A week and a half after we got back from the beach,we loaded up again, this time with my parents, to head to Orlando and met Brandon there. Poor guy had spent the last 2 months in the states traveling all over the country for different kinds of training. I don't know how he did it. I would have gone crazy! But he's quite the rock star and hung in there, no matter how frustrating the situation. He was done and after 14 months of being apart he was FINALLY done and we were officially together as a family again. (We were very fortunate in that we were able to see each other for about 8 1/2 weeks totally during that time because most people in our situation only get 2 weeks to visit during 12 months, so I have nothing to complain about.) We had promised the kids that we would take them to Legoland when daddy was back from Korea, but at the time we thought we were moving back to FL so we would have plenty of time to go. Now that we are moving much farther away, we had to cram it into a quick trip. We figured we might as well go to Seaworld while we were down there. This trip I took a few more photos.
We made it!!!!!!!!!
Christopher and Brandon went on a ride and Sophie decided to ride this with Grammie. Sophie hated it. She doesn't like any ride that goes faster than turtle and ends up screaming "MAKE IT STOP!!!!" and yells at you for making her ride it.
She was much happier when she found a pink shield and sword.
And this cute little station made her SUPER happy! Mom and I thought it would be a great idea for a birthday party. You pick out your wand, ribbons(s) and glittery stickers to put on it. It was about $7 and she really wanted this. I caved and then the wand was lost less than 30 minutes later. It was stuck in my purse, pulled out to show daddy, then I was told she put it back in there, but it was gone.
This driving track was more her speed. She found great pleasure in passing at least 3 little boys and staring each of them down with a smile.
Then we found the building where you can make cars and race them or build towers and see if they can handle being shaken by the platform. We could have spend all morning in here. We were all surprised to see that Sophie enjoyed building as much as Christopher. Legos are now added to her Christmas/birthday list.
Sophie pretending she rode on this ride. Christopher however rode it 3 times. If he rode anything once, he rode it at least two more times. I was so proud of him and his daddy was in heaven!!
Miniland. It was amazing and we could have spent the rest of the day here, but it felt like 200 degrees with no shade or clouds or trees to stand under so we didn't. Christopher literally ran from one set to the other. See if you can find him in the picture above. : )
Sophie was the best little trooper and rode in the very back. There was only room for her little legs back there, but she never complained.
This was all I got at Seaworld. Well, and the photo below. This one is for my sister. It's of a beluga whale and I think of her every time I hear about baluga whales because she loved the song Baby Beluga when she was little. They were so cute!!
Since military get in for free, we figured we could splurge and let the kids do the extra things that parks usually offer. (We never let them do this b/c they either chicken out or we think it's ridiculous what people charge to feed/look at/pet an animal.) But they also had a special price on feeding the sea lions, sharks and sting rays this day so we did it. Sophie had no problem picking up dead fish and tossing it in the water. I still won't do it.
Kind of random, but the kids have recently discovered Full House reruns and they LOVE Michelle. We were trying to entertain the kids at dinner and it was taking FOREVER, so she wanted to write "You got it dude" on my phone. See if you can find it.
Here she is again in the "black hole" of the car on the way home. She traded with Christopher after about 6 hours. I'm so proud of the kids. They have become very good travelers!
I'm so glad that we were able to take these two trips with both sets of grandparents. I love traveling with other people. Everyone just seems to be happier for some reason, so I don't think I'm alone. I think because you aren't forced to be best friends with your only sibling and have someone else to hang out with when you need a break. Better run, I'm craving some cookies and I just helped Sophie go through about 45 work pages while posting this and my brain is fried! (not b/c the pages were hard but b/c she refuses to do that coloring that takes up actually minutes and wants to only do the tracing that takes seconds. Love her!)
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