You know really hope that I got the name of that second mountain correct. Your host has asked me to put this posting together and tell you just a bit about my last boonie stomp on Guam (yep, I'm the husband). I went with two friends, Chris and Tom, to the highest point on Guam --Mt. Lam Lam. Actually Mt. Lam Lam is the highest point in the world if you consider the Marianas Trench that sits just off our coast, but few people will give that distinction. Our trek to the top of Lam Lam was a fairly challenging. As we got just more than half way to the summit we had to nearly make our own trail through the badly overgrown jungle and saw grass. The strangest part was not being sure of our next step. With none of us over 5'8" it was almost like wading through a river and thinking that with your next step you may go under. It was absolutely beautiful though, a very lush undergrowth and wonderful double and at times triple canopy. However once we reached the summit it was well worth the work of getting there.
As we descended, Tom found one of those holes. Actually he slipped off the trail (the one we were blazing) and fell into a ravine parallel to our trail. All in all he fell about 9'! That was a little scary --good thing we had good cell coverage. After a rescue and a little rest we continued on and went to the top of Jumalong, immediately adjacent to Lam Lam. To get to the top of Jumalong was a simple fifteen minute walk basically on a very well marked and traveled trail. At the top of Jumalong is a very large cross and several smaller crosses. These crosses were placed to mark the tricentennial of villages on Guam in 1980. The views from there are stunning. Cocos Island is beautiful from there, as well as the interior mountains. The hike to the top of each with time to enjoy the views took us about two and a half hours in all. This turned out to be a very nice hike (boonie stomp) with two of my best friends on Guam. I hope you enjoy the pictures in the picasa web album titled Mt. Lam Lam.
Lee and his girlies
Let me just start by saying Happy Fathers Day! Lee and I had a bit of an emotional Fathers Day. It started off with the girls giving him his gifts. He got a fun coffee dyed T-shirt and a pair of matching plaid shorts. He'll be stylin' now! Since it was Sunday we got ready and went to chapel. Our last Sunday at chapel. Gifts were given, kind words were exchanged, lots and hugs and tears were shared and goodbyes were said. Lee preached a bit on the huge job of being a Dad and about giving a blessing to your children.
In honor of the Dads I know personally who have and are doing the best they can for their kiddos I applaud you!
To my own Dad~ I love you and miss you! You are a great Papa!
To Lee's Dad~ Thanks for raising Lee to be the man that he is and for being a good grand-daddy to our girls.
To Lee~ words cannot express how much I appreciate your love and faithfulness to me and our girls. You are an awesome Dad!!
The Brown girls LOVE going to the salon! Everyone was in need of a trim, so we loaded up and went to the salon. Abbie had the most drastic change. She is partial to shorter hair, so she got a cute and sassy little style. Everyone else just got trimmed. If you are ever in Guam and will be looking for a hairdresser we can highly recommend Salon Paradis above Old Hagatna Grill. The ladies here have taken excellent care of us for almost 3 years now. Rosie and Gina are our favorites! After our hair appointments we picked Daddy up from work for a lunch date at The Curry Kebob. We had to get our Chicken Masala fix before leaving Guam. All of the days pictures can be seen on our Picasa web albums.
Our neighborhood bible study group with all of the kiddos. This was our last meeting together to say goodbye. Four families in this picture are leaving Guam this summer.
One of the things that we will miss the most about Guam when we leave is the natural beauty that surrounds us. We daily get to enjoy and take in Gods handiwork at its finest. Every time we take a ride in the car we see the enormous, beautiful ocean that literally surrounds us. We see the gorgeous blue colors inside the reef and watch the colorful sunsets on the horizon. I'm told that people pay big money to see what we get to see daily. The flowers and trees that surround us make the warm tropical breezes smell heavenly. When we first moved to Guam our family made a pact that we would try our best to never take our beautiful surroundings for granted no matter how commonplace they became. I can honestly say that each time we ride down the only highway on the island which runs immediately beside the shore I am in awe. For three years we have looked out into the vastness of that ocean and contemplated what a Wondrous God we serve who would create such an enormous, amazing, beautiful and ever changing thing. It is a difficult thing to put into words. In honor of Guam's beauty we spent the afternoon wandering our neighborhood taking pictures of all the lovely things we wanted to remember. These photos were all taken right in our own yard or in our neighborhood. If we walk up the street about two blocks we get an amazing view of the harbor and the sunsets. We have stood on that hill and watched the storms blow in across the ocean, viewed a full double rainbow, watched ships pull in and sail out or looked up into the crystal clear night sky. We have been blessed to live in such an amazing place. The photos can be viewed on our Picasa web album labeled Guam's Beauty. Enjoy!
Our last boonie stomp! We went last Saturday morning with another family out to a popular spot for hiking on Guam. It starts out with a long walk down many hills and through quite a bit of mud. When you reached the falls we decided to hike downstream to anther set of falls and pools and then even further down to one more swimming hole and falls. All of this going downhill was just dandy until we turned to go back up! This momma was hard pressed to reach the starting point again. Afterwards we went home to wash off our layers of mud, drink a gallon of water and collapse on the couch for a few minutes. Later after we were all cooled off and smelling better we met a Naps for lunch. Naps is the closest thing we have on Guam to good ol' southern BBQ. The pictures of the whole journey are on Picasa. They were all taken with Caitlin's new camera that she bought for herself for her birthday.
Gracie's mangoes in my kitchen sink
My poor baby girl has what our doctor friends call a "textbook case" of Fifths disease. You cannot really tell from the picture but her little cheeks are bright red and swollen. She is feeling pretty crummy. Fifths is a typical childhood illness in the line with measles and roseola. It is a virus so there is not much we can do for it except let it run its course. Gracie told me today that she would be very glad when the rash goes away so that her cheeks would not be so fluffy anymore. When she first broke out with the rash we all thought it might be an allergic reaction from the huge number of mangoes she has consumed lately. This would have been truly tragic. Gracie LOVES Mangoes! The trees grow in our yard and all over the neighborhood and they have produced a bumper crop this year! Gracie goes out daily and comes home with a sack full of mangoes for our collection. The neighbors have even started paying her to pick them up for them! I think Gracie is the only mango fan in the house, though she keeps trying to get the rest of us on board with her. They are yummy but hard to eat, they don't keep well and its very difficult cut enough of them up for use in recipes. Therefore I throw away about 6 a day because they are too ripe. I am kind enough to toss them while she is not nearby, she's very fond of her mangoes. Moments later she walks through the door with more~no need to worry about a mango shortage here!! Mangoes anyone?
Last Saturday Caitlin swam in the Admirals Cup swim meet. Each year the different commands on the island form teams and compete against each other in different sporting events. Caitlin was asked to be the designated Butterfly swimmer on the Navy Hospital team. The team was made up of doctors, nurses and corpsmen and family members. Together they swam their way to a first place trophy! Actually they won hands down but we're not bragging or anything :).
