Christmas 2016

We made it back from Guam just in time for Santa.  We got back to our house around noon and quickly unpacked and got settled for Christmas Eve fun.  We had been invited to dinner at a friend's house that night and we enjoyed a variety of soups and great company.  Later that night the boys decorated some cookies for Santa, opened a couple gifts, and watched the Polar Express.  We had been up most of the night before so it was pretty easy to get the boys to bed that night.  Santa had everything prepared before our trip to Guam so it was a pretty easy night for us.  Hayden was not allowed to come out of his room until 7:00am.  Lincoln slept until 9:30am so it was a long wait.  He had not slept well in Guam so he needed it!  We let Hayden open his stocking and one gift he could play with while he waited.  Once Lincoln was up the boys took turns opening their gifts from Santa and family back home.  We surprised them about an hour after they had finished opening gifts with one last big gift from Mommy and Daddy.  Lincoln went downhill later in the day and was sick for almost two weeks but we were grateful he made it through our trip and Christmas before spending the rest of his break on the couch.  Everyone is finally healthy again and we are looking forward to what 2017 brings.  It can't be any crazier than 2016!  Here are some pics from our Christmas in Japan...

Christmas Eve gifts....tsum tsum stuffed animals (a Japan thing), t-shirts from Guam, and blankets from Nana & Papu

Hayden putting out the cookies for Santa...

and milk and big Japanese carrots for the reindeer...that table is full of gifts from Grammy & Pops

We had many gifts from family back home already under the tree but Santa quickly added a few more

Ready for my stocking!

Linc is finally up and liked his Happy Japan bus

A new addition for family game night

Clothes for school

What did I get?

Santa brought this big lego city boat to add to Hayden's ever expanding lego collection

I framed Eric's residency diplomas as a surprise.  Thanks to Eric's parents for our matching monogrammed pajamas...he is from Georgia after all.

One last surprise from Mommy and Daddy

Wii U!!

Lincoln crashed and burned that afternoon.  This is where we spent many days after Christmas.

The boys were both sick New Year's Eve so we had a quiet night in.  Cheers and Happy New Year!

Adventures in Guam

The week before Christmas we decided to plan our first big trip since arriving in Japan.  We decided on Guam since we really just wanted warm weather where we could swim in the ocean and pool....or in my case mostly relax by both.  :)  The flight to Guam was about 3 hours each way so the trip was not bad at all.  We flew into Guam on a Monday afternoon and our rental car company picked us up at the airport.  It was a little rainy on arrival but it stopped for just long enough for us to check out the hotel and surroundings on the first night before dark.  We had four full days in Guam and the weather turned out to be great.  We would get a quick shower now and then but you pretty much stayed outside since there was never any thunder or lightning.  We were so happy at the resort we stayed at that we didn't have much reason to leave.  We went to Outback and Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and ordered food in a couple nights for dinner.  Our big night out was doing a sunset BBQ on the beach that our hotel put on.  We really enjoyed the show and atmosphere despite me and the boys not eating much of the grill your own meat.  Lincoln always tends to prefer the pool while Hayden enjoyed the ocean and had his first experience snorkeling with Eric.  I gave Eric a Go Pro camera early for Christmas so they had fun taking videos of the underwater creatures they saw....and of themselves on the big water slide our hotel had.  The hotel provided breakfast daily and we ate at the pool bar for lunch most days.  Another great part of our trip was they upgraded our room on arrival so we had a Junior Suite which actually had a bigger living area than our house in Japan!  It also had a large outdoor terrace Eric and I enjoyed relaxing on when the boys needed a rest in the afternoon.  Our flight back to Japan was early Christmas Eve morning.  We got into to Japan 9:30am local time and had a driver hired to get us back to base so the boys napped most of the way back.  Here are lots of pics and some videos from our trip....

The hotel entrance.  They had Christmas decorations everywhere and played Christmas music in the halls.

View from hotel balcony and video below

Hayden's first swim in the Pacific Ocean

The ocean floor was a little rough.  We had swim shoes but Lincoln was still a little hesitant.

Me and the boys!  The water was pretty warm and you could walk out really far without it being too deep.

The boys coming in from a swim

Loved the lights on the palm trees at night

Breakfast room at the hotel had beautiful views

A rainbow on our first full day

I love the beach!

Hayden the snorkeler

The boys playing together in the sand.

While we watched from the hammock

Lincoln fell asleep like this one afternoon.  The big boys took lots of silly photos.

Beer thirty on the terrace while the boys nap

Beautiful sunset

Me and E on the overlook near the hotel.  It was windy!

My boys and the beach

There was a short beach hike a little ways down from our hotel

The boys enjoyed the trek by the water

Family selfie at the end

After the hike we rented one of the cabana's at the hotel.

Hayden napped while Lincoln played in the sand for almost an hour

In the zone

The pool was a little chilly for me but I enjoyed watching the boys play with daddy

Showing off for mommy.  :)

And back to the ocean

Lunch at the hotel pool bar and then back to the slide....see video below.

Sunset BBQ

That is a lot of meat!

We all enjoyed the fire show

Handsome boys

Family photo

Last day so we rented the cabana one more time to relax

And nap

While the big boys enjoyed a couple hours of snorkeling

Flying back into Japan on Christmas Eve.  We could see Mt. Fuji in the distance.