Guam Part 2

When we hopped to Guam I realized that this would be our first trip out of Japan since we had moved here 15 months ago. Oh my where has the time gone. We took a short weekend trip to Tokyo in February but that was still Japan. Needless to say I was excited and couldn't wait to get a little taste of the States. So where did we go and what did we do? EAT!!! We hit TGI Friday's and got one of the best desserts. (I know it is tinted....this is all before I started to learn to use my camera)





We also his Cold Stone.



Hooters anyone? I know some people don't like it but I love their wings. Oh well!!



We ate at the hotel and got to see a show. Jackson was so excited to see the fire.





Nothing says fun like a fistful of straws. A man brought them all over to our table and told us to let him play with them. Oh what the heck?!



In the afternoons after nap we would come down to the lobby and have a snack.







We walked across the street to the gelato place to have a snack and so Mama could use the free wi-fi.





We ate a Brazilian BBQ. It make me think of Gouchos back in Little Rock. Oh how I loved that place. Even though our friend Trisha and her gang didn't make it down we ate some extra for them. :)





Per Steve's request we ate at California Pizza Kitchen. Dinner time was usually the only time that we saw Daddy. Jackson was so glad when he would come home. They were working a lot while we were there so we valued our time with him.





Mommy bribed with lollies for a picture taking session.



We ate at the wonderful buffet at one of the restaurants at the hotel. And oh the joy when the waitress came over and gave Jackson one of these.



So I think this about covers where we ate. Unfortunately I think that I took more pictures of us eating than doing anything else. I will have to do another post on the things that we did.

Beach

This week I finish up my Rock Your Camera 101 over at Clickinmoms.com. I am in LOVE!!! We had to use everything that we learned to take one final shot. This is what I got. It is SOOC camera. I am hoping for some editing software for Christmas and if I get it I will come back and see what this picture would look like with some post processing. I love this picture of Jackson and I will be framing this one in the near future.

This week I learned to love watching a boy and his plane. Come and see what others have learned over at Click It Up A Notch.

What I have learned

This week I have learned that my garage has some great light. It is amazing that I have been able to find any light in this house. It maybe "American" style but it does not have great window light. In my workshop that we were challenged to find some great light in out house. I headed out to the garage and pulled my purple chair that was in my classroom last year, bribed Jackson with skittles and this was the shot that I got.

Check out the amazing photos over at Click It Up A Notch this week!!



ISO 100, SS 400, f 2.2

Hippy Hop

I am going to start catching up on this poor little blog of mine.

I will start back at the beginning of September. A couple of weeks before Gavin was born we found out Steve was tasked to go Guam in September for four weeks to participate in an exercise. I wasn't really excited about the thought of having both kiddos by myself for a month. (You have to remember that my parents had been here to help out for 5 weeks. They left at the middle of July.) I was nervous, but knew that's life with the Air Force. Steve had mentioned maybe the boys and I come down to Guam for a week or so to spend sometime with him and check that island off my list of places to visit. After going back and forth about hopping down to Guam by myself with a 2 1/2 year old and a 2 month old I started to get excited about the trip.



This was going to be my first time to ever catch a hop. I knew I had to let go of any "plans" and ideas of how this plane ride was going to go. It was a good thing that I did because I started my day at 4:30 am, and it was going to be a long one... I wanted to get up earlier than the boys and close up the house and get the car loaded. We were hoping to get to the pax terminal at 6:00 am for an 8:00 roll call. I had the sense to call the terminal to see if the roll call was still the same. It wasn't! They had moved it to an earlier time so we missed that roll call. I was upset because I had been up so early and was ready to go to Guam. Oh well. Later that morning Steve called me to tell me there was another Typhoon headed towards us. I thought he was just calling to add insult to injury. He told me that this was good news for me because our squadron was going to be moving some of their planes out later that afternoon and headed to Guam. So we went back into action.



At noon we headed up to the terminal. Imagine if you will me pushing Gavin's stroller and pushing one of those trolley carts that you have to hold the handle down just so it will move. The trolley was loaded down with two suitcases, Jackson's car seat, Gavin's car seat base, and my carry on. YIKES!! So after I finally made it into the terminal we started our wait. We made it onto the first flight that was going out. I was excited because everything was going so smoothly...that is a sign that something is sure to go wrong. We are sweating our bootys off in the back of the plane...the air wasn't on yet...and we got to the end of the runway only to find out that one plane was broken and we had to turn around. We went back to the terminal and I ran into my friend Trisha. She and her kiddos were going to try and get on her husband, Ryan's, flight. I was excited to have a familiar face now to travel with.


On the bus headed to the plane. Do you think he is excited?

We are now attempting our second airplane and it is now getting dark. Jackson was driving me up the wall asking me when we were going to get to "galaum". I think that was the worst part. I couldn't leave that terminal to go back home or I would have a crying child on my hands. We got onto the second plane, and we are again sweating, only to find out that this plane is not going to be able to take off either. While our lovely crew tried to find us another flight, Ryan let Jackson up into the cockpit and let him sit in the seat. That made his day! The crew found us our last and final flight for the day(nice to have friends in the cockpit!). So at 9:00 pm that night we finally took off and were headed to Guam.


In our seat. Ready to go!!


Oh how he LOVED those ear plugs!

When we landed at about 1am Guam time, Steve was there waiting for us. We were excited to see him and anxious for bed and sleep. Mommy was TIRED!!!



Precious cargo!

More to come with photos of our time there!

I learned

I have been taking RYC 101 through Clickinmoms for the last couple of weeks. I am really learning to fill in some gaps with my photography. This week I learned that I really can and like capturing real life.

What I learned

This week I learned that I am going to LOVE my new photography class that I am taking over at Clickinmoms. I am so excited!!! I decided to try and get both the boys in the photo for an outdoors shot. This one was taken after Courtney so graciously came out to take our family Christmas picture. This picture sums the two of them up. Jackson screaming "I'm done!" and Gavin with a look. He is very expressive!

What I Learned

This week over at Click It Up A Notch we learned about food photography. I tried taking some picture of my food while it was a work in progress and it wasn't glamorous. I feel in love with my kitchen all over again. Not this actual kitchen that I have in the house because it is tiny. While I am baking I am dreaming of my dream kitchen. :) I love what I learned and hope to put it to some good use soon. Courtney a link up for things that people have learned during the week and then photographed it. This week has been a fun week because of the holiday we had Steve home on Thursday. We took advantage of him being home and checked out a new park.

Okay all this rambling to say that this week I let go of what people would think of me when they see me taking pictures and climbed under this climbing net. I let go of the fact that I was going to be covered in dirt and the fact that I was nervous about Jackson climbing the net. (I am still learning to be a mother of boys) :)

So lying flat on my back I was able to catch this. It may not be perfect but I love that I have stepped outside my comfort zone and caught a real moment of Jackson being Jackson.

This is SOOC, 55MM, ISO 100, SS 160, f 2.5. Let me know what you think!!

So Far Behind

Do you ever feel so behind that it is sometimes easier not to play catch up but to just continue on with life and hope the other stuff just get done? Well that is where I am with this blog....so far behind. I haven't written about our hop down to Guam to see Steve while he was there for a month. And boy was that an adventure! I haven't written about the funny things that Jackson says daily. That is just bad! Or the things that are changing with Gavin daily. Oh the smiles, laughing, and the rolling that is going on at our house. I haven't written about our great family vacation that we took. It was AWESOME!!! Halloween or just the things that I want the boys to remember about our day to day life and their mama and daddy. So there are just a few things that I need to get caught up on. It is going to be slow but I will get there.

CIUAN Week 3

Well like most things in life right now I can't get things done when I would like to. So even though picture share over on Click It Up A Notch was Friday and it is now Monday afternoon I am finally sharing. Some people might not know but my sister, Courtney, is the one behind click it up a notch. I am fortunate enough to be living in Okinawa with her so we hang out quite a bit. On Saturday she invited me out with one of our friends to take some pictures. I am learning to become more comfortable shooting on manual. I am really excited about the pictures that I was able to capture of both of the boys but I wanted to share one of my favorites of Jackson. Any Mother of an almost 3 year old knows how hard it is to capture a picture of a "true" smile and not a "cheeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssseeeeeee" smile.

This week was learning about the rule of thirds. If you want to better your picture taking skills, read helpful hints, or just check out others picture of the week head on over to Click It Up A Notch.

I ♥ Faces {Smirk}

CIUAN Week 2

These are a few of my favorite things!

55MM, ISO 3200, SS 200, f/1.8

Gavin turned three months old and pulled his pacifier out of his mouth and played with it. He loves his hands and I think he was surprised to have something in them. He held onto that paci tight. He loves his paci also. If he is having trouble falling asleep he loves to have his paci. His pacifier and his miracle blanket are his two favorites.

55 MM, ISO 400, SS 160, f/1.8

A boy and his dog. This is the closest that Jackson will get to having a dog. Ha Ha! Honey got him this dog and you can tell by the look of him he is well love. When we first moved to Okinawa I had to buy two more of these beanie babies so that I could wash him. :) He decided last week while we were in Guam that this dogs name is going to be Buster. Most of the time he just calls him Dawg. You have to imagine the most southern good ole boy calling his hound.

55MM, ISO 400, SS 160, f/1.8

Another favorite of Jackson's is his Honey blanket, or quilt that she made him. He wasn't feeling well yesterday so he brought his pillow and blanket down. I was able to catch him snuggled up with the quilt and his dog. My favorite thing about this picture are those little piggy toes. :)

A First

I have a few blog posts to catch up on but I wanted to make sure that I document this day. We started the day at the Rose Garden with Courtney and the gang. Their breakfast is so good and it has been a while since I have been there. I was so excited they called to ask us to come along.

After lunch we hit the BX to pick up a couple of things but mainly sidewalk chalk. Jackson's was all used up so he needed more and the neighborhood kids had been playing with it so you know he had to have some. Oh brother! We headed home for naps and Gavin (my sleeper) took a 3 and 1/2 hour nap. Oh the joy! Then there is Jackson who took a 45 minute nap. I sent him back to his room because as I told him "nap time isn't over". After tears and many times yelling down asking if nap time was over he made it another 45 minutes. We are still working on this. :) If Jackson slept like Gavin we would all be a bit more rested.

Since we ate brunch at 10:30 we decided to hit up a local restaurant, Yoshi Hashi, for an early dinner. This is where my extreme pride and accomplishment comes in. I haven't mentioned that Steve is gone on yet another TDY so I went to this restaurant alone with two kiddos. This restaurant also has tatami tables which can sometimes spell disaster because Jackson will just get up and walk around. However, with a little bribe of ice cream he sat still ate all of his yakitori and edameme.

As we were leaving the restaurant with a big smile on my face because I was so proud, no break downs, no crying, and no one running around, we noticed there was an eisa drum competition going on. YAY!!!! If you have been reading this blog for long you will know that Jackson is in LOVE with all things eisa. We stopped in to watch for a little bit. For the first time in about 2 weeks I forgot to bring my camera out. BOO!!! I love the joy on Jackson's face as he watch these other children play.

So what was a bit of a trying day during nap it ended great. I am so blessed that both boys would be so good out in public.

CIUAN Week 1

Hello All! Well I had these great intentions this week to have a fabulous picture with all of the practice that I have had. Thanks to the lovely hotel Internet being as slow as it is I won't be able to. It will just have to wait until we get back home. (Soon) Check back later to see the picture but I wanted to submit one for the week so I am going to post one that I have already shared with the world but if you are visiting for the first time you wouldn't have seen it. :)

50MM, ISO 100, SS 1250, f2.0

You can't beat a little shot of nature!

Tummy Time

We have been working a lot on tummy time with Gavin. He is really starting to enjoy his time on his belly. Jackson has even gotten in on the excitement. Jackson likes to tell him what a good job he is doing and tell him he is a big boy. Today while he was getting in his time I thought I would snap a few photos. Enjoy!!

Got to love the drool shot!