Riditian Caves

Emmaline's friend, Elaina, had her 6th birthday party yesterday.  He mom arranged a tour of some caves on Ritidian Beach, to which we've never been.  Not for lack of trying :)

We only stuck around for the cave tour and skedaddled when it came time to swim, we had other things we needed to get done and it was HOT outside! But I think I (well, Matt actually) got some fun, cute pictures.

Our baby girl sporting a straw hat.  My oh my...so cute!

 Lottie is in the little green sundress and Emmaline is in the striped shirt right ahead of her.  Lottie was so brave the entire time, marching along over the roots and rocks.  She had no fear of the caves and even kept pulling us further in when it was pitch black!

Emmaline, on the other hand, was terrified of the caves.  Actually, I think it was the spiders.  She saw a lot of spiders on this hike.  She refused to go into this cave although Lottie aparently wanted to live there. 

Matt got this picture, which I think is pretty amazing.  Its just pretty.  I'm so lucky to live in Guam where most of our adventures look like this :)

This is the second cave we went into.  You can see Gabriella's rosy cheeks- she was so warm but she loved bouncing around and kept throwing her head back to look up at the trees.  Matt finally grabbed Emmaline and forced her to go into this cave.  She was screaming "You can't make me! Don't force me!"  The thing about Emmaline is that she is usually terrified about anything new and once we push her to do it, she is so excited that she got to experience it.  She clung to Matt like butter on bread but talked about the cave like she had no problems with it on the way home. 

This last picture doesn't have anything to do with the caves but it was the only picture from our last trip out that I liked a lot. We went to FishEye Marine Park where you can go deep down into the water and watch the fish in the coral. I love the color of the water, the green trees, and especially Lottie and Matt!

We've been trying to get out and experience more of the island lately.  Hopefully we'll keep getting some good pictures!

Updates

I feel like such a slacker lately!  Much has happened but all that kind of stuff that is much better told within a short time after experiencing it.  I'll try to summarize here:
We bought an SUV.  It took us about a week and a half to find it and get it purchased.  I'm in a love/hate relationship with it.  Its pretty, it drives nicely and it fits all our kids.  But it is a gas hog!!  My dad said thats the price of having so many kids...lol.

Matt is testing for his next rank in a week and a half.  I was nervous for him until he informed me that most people don't even study for this, or they'll review some things the day before the test.  And I happen to have heard from someone else that most people pull out with above a 60%, which is pretty much all you need in order to rank up.  So the fact that Matt IS studying and the fact that he's brilliant at keeping random information in his head for long periods of time, I've decided to stop worrying.  Now I'm just wondering when our paycheck will get bigger ;)

Emmaline dropped the table bench on her toe.  Poor kid.  Its been about two weeks since she did that and the nail finally fell off.  It looks terrible.  Matt said he thinks the entire nail bed died, judging by the look of the nail when it came off.  I'm hoping that it'll grow back.  I'm already feeling sorry for my teenage daughter who refuses to wear flipflops or take off her socks around friends because she has no toe nail... 

Lottie went to a speech therapy appointment last week.  I was told in her receptive hearing she is scoring at about 30-33 months (so 6-9 months ahead) and in her verbal skills she is about 20-24 months (she's currently 23 months old).  So slightly behind in that area.  I was surprised that everyone was making a big deal about her 'speech delay' when the formal evaluation showed that she is barely behind at all.  But maybe thats because she has been improving in leaps and bounds these last few months?  I love hearing her say "Ella" all the time and "Mom".  The most annoying word is "Sleep" because she'll say it and I HAVE to respond to her or she'll get mad.  When she says it, she is telling me that she is going to go to sleep and she lays her head down.  Its pretty cute but she does it over and over and over... 

Gabriella is crawling like craaaaazy!  I remember that Lottie would refuse to crawl down the hallway.  For some reason, if she couldn't see someone, she'd scream until we came to her.  Gabriella will go off on a hunt for people and even follow us around the house, up and down the hall, around the kitchen, as we work during the day.  She isn't afraid of moving around!  She has already taken the plunge and started walking along furniture.  She was doing that within days of starting to crawl.  I'm okay with her slowing down a bit!!

I am hanging in.  I have a calling as the primary second counselor, which you'd think would be difficult but it isn't.  Its easier than being a teacher actually.  I prepare lessons every other week and attend meetings every other week.  Last month I prepared the "Its Great to Be 8" baptism preview program.  It went well and I think people liked it.  I'm struggling to get my degree taken care of.  For some reason there keep being glitches.  First a class didn't qualify and then there was a problem with where I got my credits and now there is a bill I have to pay.  Its a pain when I can't call and sort it out and have to deal with it all over email.  I'm begining to think I won't get my official certificate until Summer semester!  But alls well and good.  The classes are done, its just a matter of getting paperwork to prove I'm as educated as I am.

Our family is slowly but surely plodding along.  We keep trying to get out and do fun things.  One of my favorite family things lately has been to go to the beach in the evening.  The breeze is amazing, the water so relaxing.  The girls will dig around in the sand and Matt and I will look for pretty shells.  We are looking forward to doing a short river boat cruise in a week or so as well as a dinner theater, a water park and maybe some short hikes. Hopefully now that we have more vacation time and no reason to have to go back to the states we can start enjoying some of what Guam has to offer!