Our Guam January 2009 trip (part 2)

Another day, we decided to go to the buffet at the hotel for breakfast! My first plate was an omelet, bacon, potatoes, bread, and hot coffee on the side. This was my 2nd plate of breakfast. Blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and some fresh fruit. My last serving was a small dish of some delicious bread pudding with my final cup of coffee and a yogurt. We all ate really well this trip! :D

Noah had a cheese omelet (made to order mine had veggies and cheese in mine) and he also had rice and a small plate of cheese since he loves cheese like crazy! And for the end, he ended it with some mini frosted wheats and a yogurt. Branden had 2 plates of pancakes and tons of bacon and orange juice and milk.

See this pic? Well, I wasn't going to mention it. But, the Minnesota Viking cheerleaders were staying at the Hilton when we were staying, they left a day before us though. We saw them at the pool and we also had buffet breakfast when they were eating too. Honestly they were the sweetest nicest and most down to earth bunch of ladies. No horrible diva attitude just a bunch of nice sweet girls. I thought they were so nice. And coming from the mainland US originally, I thought it was so cool to be staying where they were staying. HOWEVER, as most of the people at the Hilton, were about 90% Japanese tourists and about 8% Korean tourists and the other were Americans. but not too many Americans at the hotel eating or pool side at all. So while we swam for instance nobody knew who they were at all! Even when we were eating at the buffet and their jackets said....MINNESOTA VIKINGS CHEERLEADER on the back, nobody knew. I overheard a couple talking in front of me waiting in the omelet line. 2 Japanese tourists who just woke up you could tell. They said to another..."who are they do you know?" nope don't know and they shrugged. And it was no big deal to anyone. I meanwhile thought it was so cool!.....Anyway.....

I had a normal yogurt to finish breakfast and the boy's had themselves a GoGurt. A yogurt on the go, ha ha ha. :D

We swam every day. The day we went to the buffet, we swam for only 2 full hours. And then we went and did some shopping. Cost U Less. It's like Costco, except smaller and you do not need a membership. There's a few of them in Guam. I also like Payless grocery store.

No trip to Guam would be complete without hitting the Kmart! The clouds always looked so cool!

Yup they had lot's of the Valentine's stuff out! Attention Kmart shoppers!!!! We are currently having a blue light special.....no I am just kidding! :D I do prefer Target that's my favorite store in the US probably. But, sometimes living overseas you have to take what you can get. And so....Kmart isn't so bad! : ) Nope, not at all! : )

I had the veggie and cheese Subway sandwich. We always love eating at the food court because everyone can pick and choose whatever they want. Want pizza? That's fine. Want KFC? That's fine too. Tacos Del Mar like they have in California they got that too! They have everything. This way, nobody's forced to eat something they wouldn't have wished to eat. And we all sit and relax eating our variety of stuff we all picked! It's fun! : )

Noah's shell was cracked when he opened it and so was mine. Ah well, better luck to us, for next time! : ) But he was a real trooper and ate it anyways, but he did have to adjust the shell a few times though, ha ha ha! :) And yup he sure is crazy for those nachos right? : )

Hi there cutie pie! : )

Tacos for hubby! : )

And yup, chickens should run in terror when they see Branden! Ha ha ha! He loves to eat chicken so much! Ha ha ha. :D Yup he chose KFC again. I mentioned trying something else, but....it was vacation and he did eat every bite, so I didn't push it too much. Plus he did have a taco as is pictured, so no worries! :D

Noboru's favorite place to browse is Home Depot. I much prefer Kmart, grocery store or Macy's, but he went with me shopping and never complained not even once. So, I smiled down every aisle of Home Depot. Ohhh a wrench woweee! Oh nuts and bolts, fascinating. Ha ha ha! *wink wink*

This cart is so huge, it's nearly impossible to maneuver. I thought I almost was going to wipe out a person or two on accident. But I didn't, phew. The cart must have weighed a bazillion pounds. And it didn't turn corners for anything! BUT it kept the kids totally silent while daddy got his Home Depot fix out of the way! Meanwhile I worked up a sweat trying to maneuver that beast of a cart!!! Ha ha ha! : )

Now this is what I call a beautiful serving and amount of food! Finally we went and had Noboru's belated birthday supper! We went to the Tony Roma's near the Long John Silver's. The one not near any tourist traps. The portions were huge even too much food we thought, but it was so nice especially after us getting that puny portion at the Outback a few days before. This was my meal, the half slab of original baby back ribs, a butter and cheese potato and hot buttered corn. Good grief that was a lot of food!

Noah had the kids grilled cheese at Tony Romas.

Branden had the cheeseburger kids meal. Drinks came with and so did the fries. They also got free dessert. These were really filling meals!

Noboru had the half slab too, but he had rice pilaf and southern style beans. He loved the beans, lol. He actually made me try a bite and they were indeed really good. : )

The boy's each got a "dirt cup" a frozen chocolate mousse with choco sprinkles that looked like dirt on top and a gummy worm. I thought they were very cute!

We had a coupon for the adults free ice cream and brownie. Noboru and I enjoyed this and shared it. Our dinner came to $62.00 US that was definitely more like it. A lot more reasonable. An acceptable price for a meal we rarely eat in normal every day life. The amount of food we got, the quality and the end price was totally worth it! We will definitely go back to this Tony Roma's. We have been there quite a few times with my dad too. We like this particular Tony Romas a lot.

Pulling the worm from his dirt cup! : )

Noah munching his own worm. : )

One of the shows I loved catching up on was Desperate Housewives. I was a little shocked by a few things on there. Someone got divorced and don't worry, I won't say who. So, I'm not doing a spoiler or anything. But wow, a few shocks came for me, when I watched this as I sat on our bed in the hotel room! : )

I caught up on a lot of shows while there. I really did. : )

There's always just so much to see.

Another lunch and yup, B eating KFC again. Ha ha ha. And you see that lady in the background, she was having her boyfriend taking some pics of her wearing the Burger King hat! How cute! : )

Noah, you're a taco eating pro already! And yup there's your nachos. You eat as many nachos as your brother eats KFC. Ha ha ha. Just wait to we get back to Japan and it's home cooking city for you guys again! Ha ha ha. : )

I had Korean BBQ this day, delicious chicken and rice and tons of yummy kimchi!!! Oh, I have another story for you. We were walking on the first floor. I had just bought a pair of Converse low tops. And we were all sorta just strolling. Waiting for the movie to start. Anyway, there was a little Japanese boy crying and walking down the corridor of the mall all alone. So many people noticed him but nobody did anything, I think they all wanted to though. We have kids and as a parent we know how we'd feel if we ever lost one of ours on accident though knock on wood, it hasn't happened to us yet, however my dad lost me when I was baby for a few minutes, before so we know it happens to the best of us sometimes. So we had to help! We walked after him and stopped him and took him to the information counter. He was crying hysterically and rightfully so. Boogers out of his nose, he was so afraid. Some lady came up to him. Tried to talk to him in English and he freaked out. Started crying harder. We, Noboru and I started speaking to him in Japanese right away. And yes he was lost from his family on accident. We asked him do you know your name so we can page your mommy? Do you remember what store you were at, not like name of store but were you buying shoes? Or books? The security guard came. Big guy, island guy very nice. He said...can you guys stay with me until we find his parents? He said..."I think he would be afraid going with just me." I told him, yes of course we will stay with the little boy until his parents are found. I said let's walk him to the center of the mall that's the direction he came from anyway and his mom is probably there! Sure enough, I was right and his mom was crying and so was his grandmother, the mother screamed his name when she saw him, the grandmother ran. She spoke to Noboru and I in Japanese and we did wiht her and she was so relieved. As were Noboru and I. We did a good thing that day. And it did our hearts good for jumping in and helping like that. I'm just glad we found his mom and grandma. And he was only 3 years old.: ( This was nobodies fault, sometimes stuff like this just happens. Anyway I am just glad it all ended well.

Feeling quite happy about the little boy being returned safe and sound we went upstairs and watched our movie. We went and saw, Mall Cop!!! Oh man, it was hilarious!

We caught the first show of the day. Kids were quiet through the whole film. And we all enjoyed the movie. We had 2 large drinks and a large popcorn. And I snuck in some Kit Kat's. Shhhh. : )

After Mall Cop, we went for a very long drive. We went to Coco Palm Garden beach but would you believe it closed at 6pm? And we were there at 6:15 pm? Yup closed and locked, oh well! : ) It was a nice long scenic drive. We got back to the regualr side of the island around 7pm and we went and had some Pizza Hut. We had a medium pepperoni and mushroom pan pizza, breadsticks and buffalo wings.

Yup we were stuffed yet again! But we stopped off at the conbini for some hotel snacks, like carrot cake and chips. And had a blanket picnic in our hotel room, watching good TV shows again! : )

5 days out of 5 we spent in the water whether it be the hot tub, pool or ocean. Sometimes for as little as 2-3 hours and most days, 5 plus hours. We enjoyed the heck out of our trip very much! This picture was taken the last day. The day we left. Those toys, you see were the toys given at KFC with the kids meals. As you can imagine we ended up with a ton of them. : ) Ha ha ha. What are they? Well, what could be funner then a barrel of monkeys! How about many barrels of monkeys, ha ha ha. : )

Bye our favorite hotel in Guam we'll miss you! : )

One last time....we wanted the kids to get good and full before we headed to the airport. Noah as usual had his 1 taco and 1 nachos. And Branden went for......

A cheeseburger kids meal from Burger King! Yup, he KFC'ed himself out! God bless him! But it was a good run while it lasted! : )

Noboru had himself a whopper as his last meal.

Funny...I had my last meal exactly what I had my first meal, go figure, didn't plan it that way. A perfect ending and closing, I'd say. 1 taco supreme and 2 bean burritos.

The flight back was relaxing. And believe me, we too have flown with wee little babies before and have done all the hard stuff before. So, I honestly can appreciate actually being able to relax on flights now. I feel like...yay about time! Ha ha ha. : ) We cleared customs in no time at all. And we always stop and eat somewhere after a flight, most of the time we have Chinese. But this time we had Saizeriya, nice cheap Italian food. Yumm! I had a salad and pasta.

I enjoyed my pasta a lot.

Each of the boy's had their own mini cheese pizza. Hubby had gratin and mini foccacia.

Noah enjoying his pizza as well. It was a really good vacation, it did us all a world of good. I came back to Japan, relaxed, waxed and massaged (LOL but literally) and ready to get back to our daily life stuff again! : )

Oh yeah.....I did have 1 last story to share and I debated like heck, if I should share it or not. But at Narita airport after arriving. We were downstairs getting those carts about to walk to our carousel to get our 8 pieces of checked luggage! Anyway. 8-9 men dressed in black suits with badges swarmed 1 Japanese lady in her mid to late 20's. They told her to please come with them. As soon as they approcached her and said that, she busted out crying. Noboru whispered to me, by looking at their badges it could be nothing else but drugs. It happened so unbelievably effecient though, she was whisked away before anyone really knew what happened, I think only a few of us actually saw it. It was very very sad. : ( Anyway sorry to end on that note. :D But we did enjoy our trip very much!

The goodies we brought back from vacation!!! : )

This is most of the stuff we lugged back, but the fridge and freezer stuff was not in this group shot. And neither was all of Noboru's Home Depot guy stuff he lugged back. We brought back 7 suitcases packed to the gills and 1 car seat we use as our traveling car seat, it's been everywhere. : ) Tons of stuff was lugged back this time. It's hard to tell what's what. So, I'll try to break it down better in some posts down below.

Underwear for both the boys. Size 8 for Branden. He got Star Wars, lol! Not sure why but the Star Wars underwear just crack me up! Batman, says the Dark Knight on the booty, lol! And the striped rugby kind for B. Noah is younger so he went for younger themes like his pal Micky and Donald ones. And Cars! He's such a skinny minnie though, he just got 2T/3T. And they're still a bit baggy on the butt, lol!

Wall E shirt for B. Granted he won't go cruising to a fancy shishi poo poo type restaurant in this but he can play in the backyard or cruise with mommy to the grocery store if he wants with this, and it's fine. : )

Noah got a swim towel. Would have gotten Branden one but the measurements were up to 120cm and Branden is way taller then that. So no towel for Branden. : ( Sorry kiddo. : )

We got Noah the one on the left in the picture, the turtle one. That was the cutest one we thought. : )

You know how Martha has her cheaper more affordable line at Kmart and then her higher quality and price line, right? Well, this came from Macy's. I've been wanting one for ages. A pie and cake holder and also carrier. You guys know, I have been without one forever. : ( And typical me....I always talk myself out of one at the last second. Saying I should use the space for something else. yada yada and this time hubby said...let's just get it! And so, I am glad he said that. And I tried to get one from the cheaper Kmart line but they didn't have any. : (

These came from Kmart. I've been in dire need of a baking dish or two, like for my augratin potatoes and such. I realized this at Christmas, when I baked them in an unattractive metal dish and then transferred them. : ( I wrote down in December..."buy baking dish", I was glad I wrote it down or else I might have forgotten. : ) And I also got the cheaper Martha line, gravy boat! But heck, little by little bit by bit it all helps, right?

Body wash, Oatmeal and Shea butter body wash and oh dear god it smells so divine and it will keep my body feeling nice and soft while winter is still lingering on! My skin always gets so dry in winter, this body wash helps and the smell really is fantastic. 1 face wash, one happy peppy red polish for my toes. And some antibacterial hand wash. With 2 boys I always seem to need antibacterial hand soap in the upstairs sink area and the kitchen sink area too.

Toothpaste, toothbrushes for the boys, the Colgate toothpaste smaller one is for B to take to ichinensei. And the Listerine Smart rinse is new, it was on commercials like crazy whole time we were in Guam. My 2nd to last day I went and got some. Oh gosh I am such a sucker for a good commercial. Ha ha ha. : ) And Noah just had his every 6 month dental visit the week before we left to Guam and all looked good. Both kids get every 6 month dental check ups. I got the toohbrushes that light up for a minute to make sure they brush long enough. Just making sure. : )

Dryer sheets and some bleach pens. I already have the Oxy, Color safe bleach and the Tide pens and the Spray and wash stick and spray.

Tampons, okay I think we're all adults around here. : ) And I think we're all women on here too and most of us are mom's (except my dad but he ran to the store and bought me boxes quite a few times as is normal living with your daughter, so he doesn't care, lol). So, no biggie. I use regular tampons on regular days and super ones on, "oh good grief" type days! Ha ha ha. Hey, just being honest. And every 2-3 month's I use a feminine cleanser like the one I picked up. Don't need it every month or even every 2 month's, but I like the clean feeling I get after. Anyway....ummm moving on.

Godfish snack box, and also a sandwich keeper for Noah's obento arsenal. Another bottle of Rolaids (antacids) sunglasses for Noah and I swear I need a flip flop key chain like I need a hole in my head but I got another one. Yeesh.

Popcorn. I like different kinds. Movie theater butter, regular butter, homestyle like the commercials say, the kind grandma used to make. LOL.

Corn Nuts. Oh my gosh we love Corn Nuts.

Cake mix in a box. Yup, I might be a busy mom, but who says I still don't want to enjoy some nice delicious hot fresh cake!!!! :D Those yellow cake mixes are for that pineapple upside down cake I am planning to bake this week. And will be making a German chocolate cake next month maybe. Blueberry muffins and corn bread. And the Heath bits for making those delicious cookies ...recipes on the bag btw.

2 bags of rigatoni and 3 cans of spaghetti sauce. I usually use Prego in the plastic jars from Costco or Flying Pig. Have never had sauce from a can. However, I need something for quick meal days. The days I need to feed the family yet am a bit pinched for time. And I really don't let them eat fast food for dinner normally, unless on vacation, I usually prefer cook it at home, even if it's a short cut gratin box or a short cut premade spaghetti sauce. Just something simple and easy peasy as usual.

Chili beans, these are for fast meals like nachos or for chili cheese hot dogs. Just quick fast American type meals. Ravioli and cream of chicken soup for making casserole. All the cans are the Western family brand. Yup, I buy the generic store brand when I can. If it saves me 20 cents a can, I'm all for it.

Thank you Sara at Sakura Flavored, you rock! Those cookies you mentioned were everywhere, yet if you didn't mention them I would have never noticed so thank you. I never noticed the mint ones before but you were right they are delicious! Info share, so helpful, thanks again! Some puddings and some Hot tamales. And the Andes choco mints. Dvd rental night around our house is going to be mighty fun!!!! Ha ha ha! : )

Snack sized peanut butter great for dipping in apples or celery. A-1 steak sauce and maraschino cherries for that pineapple upside down cake I am planning to make this week. geeze, will I hurry it up with that cake or what? Ha ha ha. :D And Miracle Whip.

Mangos for the boy's and cookies for omiyage for all the sensei's (ichinensei, yochien and swimming, and Kumon, geeze that's a lot of teachers and one left over for the boy next door's family)

Fritos for nachos or taco boats. Because Fritos don't get soggy as fast as regular tortilla chips, lol. : )

I have been wanting a cloth table cloth. Being cheap/frugal, I tried Kmart first. They had lot's but I have a weird table since it's oval? I didn't know my table is odd shaped until I went looking for a table cloth. : ( Whoops. What a shocker! I tried Macy's and they had a very small selection, I flipped through them all and nothing finally the last 5, one of those was a white one and it was oval. I have yet to open it, but I hope it fits. And it was originally $40.00 US and then it said 50% off, but I checked the price on that electronic checker thing and it rang up US$ 11.99. When I went to check out it rang up $11.99 and she tried to charge us 20 bucks for it anyway. Noboru jumped in and said no way it rang up $11.99 and that's what they should honor and the lady behind her agreed and so I got it for $11.99.

Granola bars and baked Goldfish. Snacks we coulda got at Costco but they were cheaper here and we were there already so, it was fine. : )

Frozen waffles for fast morning breakfasts during the week.

Bean and cheese burritos! Just for fast snacks during a study break for B or during an afternoon of play for the boys. Or the hubby or me even. : )

2 family size of lasagnas, have them in the freezer right now. Will go great with a nice salad and a loaf of garlic bread. : )

The frozen stuff and the refrigerated stuff I could never bring back from the mainland with me because the flights are just too long and the stuff would have surely gone bad by then. But with a short 3 hour flight, the frozen lasagna was still froze, sure we wrapped it well in towels and stuff, but they travel well from Guam. What do we have here? Honey sliced ham for lunch and obento stuff. Swiss and provolone cheese. Pepperoni for pizza making. And all beef Oscar Meyer hot dogs.

Cinnamon rolls will probably bake these over the weekend on a nice relaxing morning for the kids.Biscuits and crescent rolls. Velveeta cheese for grill cheese sandwiches also keeping the ol' obento fixings in mind. And with the crescent rolls am thinking...Pig in a blanket for Noah's obento as well.

Of course can't forget my little boys and my hubby for Valentine's day. And these will make it even easier. Heck, anything that makes my life easier....I am all for it! Cut corners anyway I can!

I will bake them these cookies and probably some cupcakes as well. Maybe even buy them a chocolate or two, that's it. Will make them something good for our meal that day at home. But mostly keep things low key as usual. : ) We don't do fancy shmancy much around here. So, just goodies for us from home, is about all we'll be doing for the big V day coming up! : )

I had been wanting some sneakers. I was going to get 2 pair. One trainer type for jogging/walking. And these but I held off on the other ones. I had 2 pair of these low tops in high school, a red pair and a black pair. hadn't worn them in years and years and years. When I was at the mall, I peeked through the window at Lady Foot Locker. Almost pressed my nose against the window type looking. LOL. Wow, they had so so many new kinds. Dark gray ones with silver sparkles, plaid ones, pink ones with pink sparkles. Gee they have been updated a lot. As I sat there just boggled by so many choices and options. Hubby said to me....."just get the basic ones, trust me you'll never go wrong", at first I gave him the stink eye type of look. But then a second later, I thought and thought and yes he's right. And so, with all the new and nice posh low top converse that just came out, I left with a new pair of basic plain black ones. I can wear them with my jean capris with the big cuffs, or my little faded and worn jean shirt and black cardigan when Spring hits. yeah, I think I chose the right pair for me. And ohhhh gosh I agonized about the trainers. Hubby said I could have them. But then the cheapskate part of me, said no, I couldn't. But they were yellow and orange and cool and so me. Yet I didn't get them. Now......if they should still be there in 6 month's. Crosses fingers I will get them for sure. Ahhh well, happy with what I got. : )

I looked for the book Rosa mentioned, I even printed and brought the print out for the book to them and nope. Man, this always happens to me. The lady working there said she would order the book for me and in 10 to 12 days it would arrive. With me not living in Guam and going back in a few days that was not going to work. Ah well. I'll get that book sooner or later, I will save my print out. I always try to get the boy's at least 1 book every trip. Hopefully more but at least 1. This time I picked them up the hard cover copy of, the Wizard of Oz. We read this Branden and I together and Noah listens and flips the pages (Branden reads a page and I read a page) we read this as our bedtime story this week and on Friday evening the boys and I will pull out the DVD of it and pop some popcorn and enjoy the Wizard of Oz together as a family. The boy's love the book, they notice the differences between the book and the movie. In the book the shoes were silver but in the movie they were ruby slippers. In the book the munchkin males wore all blue and the females all wore white again much different from the movie. But they love the book and it gives us a fun way to wind down the night together before they go to sleep. Picked up a great Martha Stewart magazine and some tabloids. Typical me, loving to read that stuff. I feel bad the feud between Jennifer Anniston and Angelina has gotten worse. Oh man and yikes that's all I'll say about their fight.

The Travolta tragedy was so well written and they loved their little boy very very very much! Daughter too. I'm glad I read that.

And flowers from my husband! We got back so late last Wednesday night. We got to the house around 9pm. Fast showers and straight to bed. However I did put the perishable stuff away first. The alarm waking me up at 5:30 am the next day, was like the worst sound to hear as I was snug in my bed totally sound to sleep. The boy's had to be in school first thing Thursday morning. There I was making breakfast and packing up Noah's lunch. Wow, the day before I was relaxing on my patio at the hotel, watching the ocean, now today reality check and it's fast fast hurry hurry. I managed to get both kids off to school without a hitch. I also unpacked completely. But honestly I was spent. I was tired. Also the weather was completely opposite. I had gotten used to hot and tropical and I came back to freezing and raining like crazy! I decided to just take it easy. I think being away from the computer for vacation for me is easy and even when I get home, I find out of habit I won't use it much either. Does anyone else get unbloggy after a vacation, or is it just me? : ) I found it really hard to get back to being online. Thursday around 11am the doorbell rings. Hmm, I thought. Wasn't expecting anything. It was this huge rectangular box. This has to be some sort of mistake I thought. Turns out. Flowers for me from my husband.

They really brightened my day.

The card just said, "you do a lot for us and I want to let you know I appreciate it, Love, Noboru." Simple and to the point. I called him right away and thanked him meanwhile he asked how my morning was going and if I managed to get the boys sent off to school and I said yes. He told me, "well done" and that he loves me and would see me when he gets home. He's a wonderful man, and a great husband and a super father. For that, I feel I am blessed. Okay please don't think I am a dork for saying that. : ) (he ordered them before we even went on the trip, I didn't know, now that's thinking ahead: )

Now here's my question for you: What do you bring back to Japan from your "home" country. What are your staples and must bring back items? Or if you live in the US that's fine but...imagine then what would your staple items be if you did live overseas? : ) Ohhh fun question to ask! : )