So we have been busy. We are having tropical storms like crazy, we went for a few weeks in a row where the power was out almost everyday. This does not make me happy. But all in all things are fun, crazy and enjoyable. We had a break in the storms on Monday, Columbus Day, and so we went to the beach. First, we had breakfast with friends and then grabbed some friends from the Utah Guard who were "deployed" here and headed down to the Navy base for some fun. This beach is called Gab Gab. (It's on the South end of the island. We live on the North end.)
The last base and this one have this tradition of being "Boo'd". You leave a goodie bag on the doorstep of someone with a note that tells them to give it to 2 others. My kids got fun stuff including these glasses. Mackelmore would be jealous.
This is Tyson, Jason, and Jeremy before they go Scuba Diving.
This is Ryan and Brett, our deployer friends from the Utah Guard.
This is Luke and Lorin.They are our deployer friends from Barksdale.
This is Hurley (Tyson's son) lathering up Luke.
This is Cody Hunter (Tyson's daughter) and Kaitlynn. We built a sandcastle taller than Hunter. I actually helped with this. Now I am off the hook for 5 more years.
This is MaKenzie (Jason's daughter) holding Hunslyn (Tyson's daughter).
These are a bunch of our friends - and Tyson's wife Angela on the right. I am pretty sure that she stole her 4 kids because she is too tiny to have had them all.
The boys after their dive. It has been pretty stormy so the dive wasn't great but they had a good time.
This is Cody, Jeremy and Kaitlynn diving off the side of Gab Gab.
My babies!
This is Cody's favorite place. He begs me to swim with him every time we come here. Today, I agreed to do it. I was going to jump in with him (there is a 5 foot drop) but when I got to the side, I decided to sit down first and slide in. Lame, I know. He was still happy that we got to swim together.
This was a happy day. Later, we went to our friend Kasie and Jeremy Boldts house and played on the slip and slide, made out of a tarp. (Well I didn't do this but my kids and husband did.) We also ate yummy food.
Jeremy and I had to cut out early because of my calling. There was a lady in our ward who needed help moving. She has a son and husband but the husband is in jail because he beat the wife so badly. Their house was a tiny apartment that had large cockroaches. They would crawl out of the garbage bags her clothes were in too. There was also a spider the size of your hand in the corner of her hallway. Jeremy put on a brave face but I'm pretty sure he pooped his pants a little. (He REALLY hates spiders.)
This is Darmarie. She is our "adopted" daughter. An update on our other adopted daughter... (The one who was out of school for 4 years) We went to court twice and she now has her aunt as her legal guardian which allows her to get some healthcare, a passport, a SSN, and the immunizations that she needs. Her grades are suffering and we approached her aunt about taking custody of her so that she can get tutors, and dental care and all that stuff but her aunt was not happy about that and has been keeping her from us a little. This makes me sad but we hope that things will turn around eventually. It is my fault for pushing when I didn't really feel like now was the right time to ask. Sometimes I am a little impatient.
These are all the Officers Wives in Jeremy's squadron (and one mom). We held a small baby shower for Kristin (on the middle). She is having her third child and first girl.
Cody went to a birthday party for his friend Davy. He got this cool headband thing. He thought it was pretty cool.
Jeremy and I had a free day when both our kids were at a birthday party so Jeremy tried to go diving with Jason. All that happened for them was that they got smashed by the waves (you see them behind us) and Jason lost his goggles and fin. It was the shortest "dive" ever.
Um, this is my favorite cake. They sell it at Crown Bakery, my favorite bakery. It was 50% off and it was all mine.
Jeremy and I went to eat lunch with Cody. He's a cutie.
Kaitlynn's first day of second grade.
Cody riding a Carabou. This was part of our summer fun with Jen and Josh and Simon.
Jeremy's commander wants to nominate me for Spouse of the Quarter and Year. I've got to fill out this silly packet of all the stuff I helped with this year. I hate that. Why do I have to fill out a paper that acknowledges service things that I got to be a part of? Plus, who has time to write down all the service they do? There are so many amazing people who do great things. It was very nice of him to want to nominate me, though.
Jeremy is stuck being in charge of the Combined Federal Campaign, which is a huge fundraiser that the military does for tons of charities. He has to get out pledge forms to everyone on base. Luckily they aren't looking to meet a certain dollar amount because there are a lot of civilians that are being paid iou's from the government right now as well as an article that just came out saying that if they don't raise the debt ceiling then no one in the military is going to get paid.
They all still have to show up to work or go to prison, though. Needless to say, people aren't going to have the ability to be generous right now. Which is totally fine and understandable, it just looks bad on his review when last year they raised one hundred thousand and this year they will raise maybe $20,000.
Since there is no money coming in, the fleet (their heavy construction machines) is running out of fuel so there won't be any work to do anyway.
So that is it for now. We are happy and wet on our little island in our Endless Summer.
