Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Can you even believe that it's this week?! I know I can't.

Even living in San Antonio, you knew it was fall/winter. It would be cold in the mornings and come winter, you would have to turn on the heat. I don't even know if I have a furnace here..........weird. The weather is exactly the same as it was on the day we arrived here in July. The thought of putting up Christmas stuff in the next couple of weeks blows my mind!

Well enough of that -- let's get down to business.............

Sorry it's been so long since the last blog. I kept putting it off thinking I didn't have that much to share. Now that I look at the pictures we've taken, I don't know where to begin. I realize now that we really haven't exactly been laying around doing nothing.

Of course we have spent lots of time at the beach and believe me, we still appreciate it as much as when we arrived.Last month we went to the Military Ball........... and have a lovely evening with some new friends/neighbors......We also went to an annual event they have on the island called "Pastries in Paradise" -- YUMMY!!!! Which had an obvious Halloween theme......... AH HA, another new friend............... just kidding!

Then we decided to check out a new beach..............

GAB GAB Beach is on the Navy base on the opposite end of the island. It's about a 30-45 minute drive from home. You're probably thinking "who knew you could drive 30-45 minutes on an island that small". Believe me, I thought the same thing, but when you're here it's very easy to forget that the island is as small as it is.

We've also realized that we knew absolutely nothing about the history of the island and have come across several interesting facts.......

(you should be able to click on the picture to be able to read the sign)

I think we've found our new favorite beach so far. There are many, many more we still have to see, but this one is a beauty! We also realized that having an underwater digital camera was a MUST! Just wait till you see those pics!

We also went on our first "official" hike -- or should I say "Boonie Stomp". Boonie is a word that's used to describe just about everything here..........
Boonie Stomp = Hike
Boonie Dog = Wild dog
Boonie car = "junker"
We even have a Boonie Bee -- believe me this is not your average bee. They come at you like little torpedoes and they hurt like *&$%. I've gotten stung several times while doing yard work and I've been told that the more you get stung, the more severe your reaction will be, so I have the Benedryl ready to go. There were about 20 of us that went and our boonie stomp was to Fonte Dam........

"Constructed in 1910 by the Navy, Fonte Dam used to be the primary water source for Hagatna (Agana). William Howard Taft was President of the United States, and the U.S. had only owned Guam for 12 years at this time. The dam was built with an interesting red brick spillway. Today the Fonte River no longer supplies Agana's fresh water, and the dam is an abandoned relic"
hey, that looks like fun........................

yeah, I don't think so...........I like my front teeth. This is as far as I go.

In addition to hanging out at Fonte Dam, we did some more hiking up the hills. Now it's hard to say that they were "hills" exactly, but calling them "mountains" is a stretch even for me. Besides, if she can do it so can I..........(she was 7 by the way)

We learned that a plane crashed in these hills back in August of 1997 -- sad, but true.

"(CNN) -- A Korean Air passenger jet with at least 231 people aboard crashed and burned in a hilly area of Guam early Wednesday as it approached for landing on the Pacific Ocean island, police said. They said about 30 people survived the crash, which occurred during rainy weather."

It was quite an adventure despite the fact that my husband almost took a nose dive over the edge of those hills..............just another day with the Paprock's!

We also had our first earthquake that day! It was a 5.1 earthquake that happened when we were on our way back from our hike. Now I don't know about you, but a 5.1 sounds pretty severe to me. However, no one on the hike even noticed it except Marty.

Well that about covers October. November has been pretty great too! We got to see a Smash Mouth concert............... Who says nothing ever happens here?! Evidently, they had done a concert on a Navy ship that was headed this way, so they hung out in Guam for a few days and did a FREE concert.

So we met up with a couple of friends and had a great time!

Marty got his "music fix" which was great but it's going to be quite an adjustment going to a concert back in the states. Here everyone comes out and has a great time -- no fights, no out of control drunks, and everyone is friendly. It's like going to a family picnic..............except there are no fights, no out of control drunks, and everyone is friendly (hee, hee)

For Marty's birthday, we took another trip to Gab Gab Beach and this time we had our new underwater digital camera.............






The first time we ever went snorkeling was 4 years ago on Marty's birthday and we had to pay big $$$ to go on a cruise and were exhausted by the time we got home. I have to say, this was much better! We had a beautiful day..............
Last weekend we went on a boat trip with some people Marty works with and their families.

We stopped at 2 different locations outside the harbor. We fed some fish............

ok, LOTS of fish.............
and did some snorkeling..............
while others went scuba diving...............
we had lunch on the boat..............
and then more snorkeling..............
We wish you all could be here.................
it was another beautiful day............. ...........and evening................
Well I guess that about covers everything and it looks like December will be quite an adventure too.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It looks like we'll be spending it on the beach (sorry to everyone that's freezing their butts off).

Love and miss you all!