Halloween 2012! Trick or Treating fun

October 31st, 2012, Noboru and I took Branden and Noah trick or treating. For Branden it was his 2nd time. For Noah it was his very first time! We had been told for the best time to go in Guam, to go around 5:30pm and it starts around 6pm. That was totally right.We left the hotel around 5pm. When we walked through the lobby of the Hilton so many Japanese tourists were pointing and many said about Noah's costume..."kawaii". One American guy in the elevator told Branden, "hey you're an elf!" Branden smiled and said, yep. ; )  We parked the car and immediately could see so many family's with kids all in costume. However nobody was moving everyone was waiting along the streets. So we stayed in the car, at around 5:50pm we got out of the car and locked up the car and started walking and pretty much right around 6pm, 5:55pm is when folks started walking from house to house. This picture was taken pretty much like 2 minutes after we walked out of the car. First block/street.

We did our trick or treating in a very nice housing community/area. It was the perfect place to take the boys trick or treating.  A bit blurry but you get the idea.

One very cool zombie costume!

This family had a huge basket of treats and they were sitting enjoying the trick or treaters. Noah just got his treat. A little princess was about to get a treat. On the left side of this picture.

This man with funny wig handed out treats. Everyone was totally in the Halloween spirit!

Great big double front doors.  The other pic you can see more of this house.

Big huge balcony. Yeah, we picked the perfect neighborhood to go trick or treating.

See the smoke? We saw about, honestly....20 different families all BBQ'ing. I really dug that and thought it was pretty cool. I think if we lived in a hot climate for Halloween we'd definitely make that a tradition too. All the streets/blocks we walked down, smelled lovely...like yakiniku and American BBQ. Yummo! : )

A prisoner getting some treats. In front of the boys. : )

Branden and Noah getting some treats and Spiderman behind them! : )

By this point, the boys were so excited. Hmm this getting treats from house to house thing is pretty cool, they thought! ; )

About 4 of these houses had their own private golf carts for motoring around the housing community. This one had one and they were also having a bbq. : )

The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack Skellington, king of Halloweentown right here... taller then this houses roof! And they also had an equally huge boogie man named, Oogie Boogie. Also from the Nightmare Before Christmas.  And can you see the spider on the door? Fake of course but very cool!

This house went all out! It was excellent and most awesome! Zombie graveyard on the grass, you can see 1 half leg on the lawn, lol!!! Double click this pic. I know Noah came out a bit blurry but you can at least see the decorations! They were so nice!

Branden getting an "elf adjustment" ; ) Yep, Branden jingle jangled from his head right down to his toes! lol!

Again double click if you want, most pics are double clickable on this post. Except I think the food, no double click for those really needed of course. : ) But look closely at this house. they had huge glow in the dark spiders and cobwebs. And they had a headless man on the roof! Limbs dangling over the houses roof. I mean this house was cool!

This house had a little scary walk through in the drive way and 3 girls about 14-15 years old were sitting at the table passing out treats. But they were such a lively bunch of girls. They razzed each person they gave candy to, but just a little and not in a mean way at all! A very cute fun way! They told Branden..."oh you're an elf, I see" "After tonight are you going to go back to the north pole and make me a present?" Yes they other one chimed in..."make me something good!!!" Branden has zero problems speaking English, writing English reading English, same for Noah. And Branden is pretty playful too. So he said.."okay 1 doll coming right up!" Of course he knows they are too old for dolls. And the girls squealed..."no not a doll! How about a...".....Branden jumped in and said...."ipod, DSxl?" Not to worry I'll get ya something good" They laughed and he laughed back too and off Branden walked all dimple smiling at Noboru and I. Noah walked up there and they gave him some candy. I was almost wincing...what are they going to say. And they said..."see you in heaven pretty angel boy!" Another one from the peanut gallery chimed in and said, "yeah he's cute huh" Huge sigh of relief from me. Wince erased, lol. Phew! Noah said..."okay see you there" Side note that I thought to myself...this is perfect for the boys because while we do speak in English in our house 99.99% of the time (unless homework needs Japanese but for the most part Noboru even explains 99% of their homework in English and our TV is all in English..just very English speaking enviroment our home, lol). And they go back to the US or Guam often. This trick or treating still gives them that interaction with kids their own ages or kids in general. Gives them that chance to chit chat on the fly. Can you think of a reply or good zinger without hestitation and I can say they passed the test with flying colors on that. : ) And that is really very important thinking off the top of your head like that.  yes, I keep them on their toes and they order food from the food court. we always have them order.... again for the experience and they don't even bat an eyelash ordering food because they have been doing that for so long and we will walk up the the counter or make sure we are in close range. But this interaction with kids their own age was super good.  Anyway...moving right along....so many houses pumped out music...Halloween type music out of their houses or car ports. below is Thriller!

Another stunningly gorgeous house. We will be coming trick or treating here again next year for sures. We all just loved it! And it was so much fun for the boys.

Some demon decoration hanging from the second story window. Americans really know how to celebrate Halloween to the fullest! That's for sures! Made me so proud! : )

Look very closely at this pic, keep in mind it was pitch darkness out. Yes that is Chucky from Child's Play. That creepy little doll. "Hi I'm Chucky wanna play?" LOL, yikes! Noboru and I cracked up at this! The sense of humor....I just totally get it! And it's important to mention we saw an adult "Chucky" he was wearing the overalls, red wig the whole outfit and he was carrying a Chucky doll also. I told him..."cool costume seriously super cool!!!" Noboru thought so too.  Look how big the decoration are in the 5 second short video down below and this house played..."creepy sounds"  Must have had a scary sounds CD. Or something. it was cool though.

Another stunning house. And this was just their car port. This area had gorgeous houses. We all want to come back here and trick or treat next year and every year after that. We're hooked. : )

Noah waiting for his brother. Branden is such a chatter box. The video below you can hear the music...ting tang walla walla bing bang. That Witch Doctor song! Ha ha ha. Another house played the Haunted Mansion music.

This was a great big huge house too with very nice walkway but I liked this house because they kept their decorations so simple. We watched the boys go to each and every house.

Americans are also very playful. And I hate to generalize but we really are. : ) I hope you can see this. Okay a blurry Noah. A lady at the back with huge Halloween treat container. And there is a guy blurry. But next to him to the right. Look closer and double click. He looked like a fake man, a dummy/doll. Ykwim. Anyway, he suddenly moved and went really really loudly BOO!!!! Picture all of us all calmly walking. Quiet quiet. Us parents/fellow parents chatting while our kids go up and collect candy and say thank you. Your little heart is all slowly thumping away. No danger. No danger. And blammo! You get startled. Poor Noah jumped our direction about 3 feet! One lady about 50 years old clutched her heart...just in joking but she said..."you nearly gave me a heart attack" By now everyone is joking and laughing after all of us just getting the living crap scared out of us all. And he stood their still yet again. I think the next bunch crowd could sorta tell something was up because we were all still chuckling a bit. But we all got really quiet and waited for their turn of a very good scare! And then we all laughed. "Boy didn't they all look really scared, hahahha" I mean it was so much fun! Everyone was into it...us adults, the kids...just everyone!Yeah if you look at the pic, you will see 3 feet, the older gentleman's 2 feet and the man who was scaring people all dressed in black face covered too. His other foot was not picture but he was definitely there and he was a real person. Scared the living daylights out of us. : )

So many parents chatting and a teenage red riding hood.

Nice house behind gates but they were opened for Halloween. And look closer...see the crime scene tape?

Yep, letting everyone know something scary happened in there! Of course not really. It was all in good fun!

And this couple were probably my favorite of the whole night. They were 100% playful to all the kids. And look at their costumes you know they have a good sense of humor. If you don't know Mario Cart you probably don't know who these characters are though. But the husband was Princess Peach. blond wig and all and crown! And the wife was Mario! Cutest couple ever prize, for that night! And #2 reason was again like I said they were so playful with the kids.  We could see him chatting with each kid having a good laugh. Again playful teasing. The kids loved it! Branden's turn....Princess Peach said..."hmmm what are you...as he rubbed his chin. I got it...you are a court jester!!! Branden laughed and shook his head..."nope I'm not a jester." Okay okay Princess Peach said..."you are a joker!!!" "Hahaha, nope I'm not a joker Branden said. "Alright, I think I got it....you make Easter baskets for the Easter bunny!!!!"  Crowd is gathering around...and Mario Princess Peach's wife is laughing hysterically...good thing because I was also laughing hysterically also and so was Noboru. And Noah. Alright, alright he said...could you be an Elf then? "Yep, I am an Elf."  That kind of interaction was perfect for the boys. Noah went up...and Noah chatted with him for a tiny bit, Princess Peach said..."what a nice angel costume" Noah said, thank you, what a nice costume you have on too" The wife laughed and they gave Noah his candy and Noah said, thank you and Happy Halloween. : )  Also see the French maid behind Princess Peach in the picture.

This house was also having a big family BBQ. I think you can see Branden's hat and Noah's halo in the pic if you double click it.

Okay not the best picture here, I think Noah was sniffling mid pic and Branden's eyes were closed. : ) Gah! But you can tell how heavy the candy was in this pic. Which is why we switched to the Halloween tote bags. Good thing we brought the Halloween pumpkins and Halloween tote bags too.

My little angel walking with Halloween treats in his trick or treat bag. By now we were heading back to the car.  From there we met my dad at the other housing community and we trick or treated with my dad for about 30 extra minutes. My dad got a kick out of it. And then we went to dinner. We went to Vitales on hotel row. Mr. Vitale who knows my dad quite well, gave the boys candy. Some shop people came out and gave the boys candy too.  Japanese tourists were pointing and smiling. It was all in good fun. It's the one night a year you can be a totally different person, dress scary, silly, funny, wacky or whatever you choose/decide.

We 3 adults all had lasagna and garlic bread.

My sweet little elf and my dad's elbow. Branden and Noah shared a pepperoni pizza. We chatted for a while enjoying dinner. Boy oh boy did we get the exercise with all that walking, which is so good. Noah fell asleep after he ate. Poor little guy.

Our sleeping angel. : )

Came back to the hotel room and I went through the candy. Candy checks were always done when I was growing up. And so I do the same. After their candy passed the inspection. ; ) I put it back into their Halloween bags. Noah woke up and he and Branden showered with Noboru. Washed their hair, feet, bodies. And into jammies they went. I showered afterwards and just relaxed and watched TV in bits and pieces and also talked with Noboru. The boys slept. I sat drinking a Vitamin Water. Noboru really isn't a drinker but he did have himself a beer to unwind. And we laughed about a few things that happened during trick or treating. We talked and laughed for about an hour, then we crashed. We were tired.  

Tootsie rolls, chocolate flavor and other flavors, Butterfingers and Milk Duds, dum dums etc.

This crazy picture won't stand the right way, sorry about that. But they each got a Nature Valley granola with chocolate.

Wonka Fun Dip, anyone remember those? Starburst. See the name on the Fun Dip the flavor was razz Apple. The name reminded me/made me think of Razzles, anyone remember Razzles, omg those were so good!

Twizzlers, And also red vine both licorice, 100 Grand bar, yumm. Jolly Rancher. Of course I had to tell the boys, that even though Jolly Rancher is now owned by Hershey or whoever, Jolly Rancher originally came from Golden Colorado (Colorado my home state). And they have a plant on Ward Road or somewhere near. And when I would drive down that street I'd always smell green apple Jolly Rancher. : )

Anyone remember Wonka Bottle caps or Sugar Daddy.

See the Bit o Honey. Man those were so freaking good! : ) Air Heads and Gummy Bears.

Wonka Laffy Taffy and Almond Joy.

Jelly Belly fun size. 3 Musketeers and yes a pen! The pen made me smile! I told the boys.."see I told you you'd get a pen or pencil or eraser!" That totally made me smile!

Hot Tamales, M&M's plain and peanut. and Skittles, Yep they have tasted the rainbow! lol!

Nerd is the word!!! LOL. Wonka Nerds, Super bubble and Double Bubble. Wonka Gobbstoppers and Whoppers.

Goobers, Oh Henry, Reese's Pieces with a bat on the bag that says trick or treat! Life Savers Gummies!

Sweet and sour twizzlers these were filled with stuff inside. Snickers almonds. And Starburst jelly beans.

Special time of the year flavors...Caramel Apple Milky Way bar.

Spree, OMG, I remember those! Sweet Tarts. And Pixy Stix. In all seriousness, getting the opportunity to watch Branden and Noah, trick or treat like how I used to get to do. See their smiley faces. See they end up getting the same exact treats I used to get as a child. It was just a really cool thing. And to watch them open up a Pixy Stix and eat it the same way I used to! Wow! Just really really fond memories!

I told Branden and Noah if they sniff their treat bags/bucket they will get a special smell that you really only get when you've gone trick or treating. And they sniffed their bucket and I sniffed it too. Yep, same smell from when I was little. All the mixtures of smells. Anyway there you have it. Our Halloween trick or treating experience of 2012. Lots of fun and yep we would like to make this a yearly tradition. So hopefully we can go back there next year too. : )

October 2012 Guam trip

We flew to Guam last Monday, October 29th. It was an evening flight. We arrived in Guam around 11pm. The rental car folks were waiting for us, we got in our car, we were 90% tired and 10% hungry. So we drove through the 24 hour open Wendy's drive thru and got something light not too much food, just a sandwich/cheeseburger each. We shared one huge drink (raspberry lemonade). And we ate this in the hotel. After we checked in. Everyone brushed their teeth, the boys showered quickly. And went right to dreamland. The next morning, October 30th. Was our 1 day to get all of our shopping , done, finished and out of the way. We figured the 30th would be "shop day" and the 31st would be "relax day". So, we all knew way in advance what that day would be and we were ready! We started off with a good breakfast at Denny's. Here is what Noah had, apple juice, chocolate chip pancakes and sausages.

Branden enjoyed the junior grand slam. pancakes, scrambled eggs and all bacon. Extra crispy. And an apple juice also.

I had my usual. pecan banana wheat pancakes. Yummm! It comes with egg white omelet and turkey bacon, but I always ask for regular scramble eggs and regular bacon. Extra crispy on the bacon. And I had a hot coffee.

Noboru had a breakfast skillet. With lots of Tabasco on it, he loves Tabasco. He also had a hot coffee. So, after we all ate and were stuffed, we immediately hit the 2 Cost u less stores. Got what was on the list. Huge bottle of powder gravy needed to be replaced since my last one was almost out. Huge bottle of chili powder for making chili all Fall and Winter. Just many many things. We also hit 2 Payless grocery stores. Again went right down the list. Crossing things off. Halloween costumes also bought first thing.

We made a couple toilet breaks/ pit stops at the hotel throughout the day and of course they also used public toilets also, but we did this when we had to drop off things in our hotel room. We also dropped off the freezer/fridge things at my dad's condo. We dropped things off at his condo twice on the 30th. We were just super busy. Not "stress us out busy" at all...more like... "fun busy" actually. All the things we ran out of, food wise, we got to restock. Underwear for the boys they got to pick out for themselves.

We also had time to have some delicious frozen yogurt before we stopped at the 2nd Cost u less. So we just got our fro-yo. And we just relaxed. For about 30 minutes. Chatting. The boys were having a blast, so were we. Here's Branden enjoying his frozen yogurt.

Noah enjoying his too. : )

Noah loves chocolate, so he picked Belgium chocolate frozen yogurt, with chocolate toppings and M&M's too. 

Branden had cheesecake and also coconut frozen yogurt and toppings.

This was mine, coconut frozen yogurt and some granola and coconut toppings. So freaking good btw.

Noboru picked coconut and pina colada. He said the coconut was better then the pina colada and next time he won't be getting pina colada. : )

When we had gotten all the food shopped and picked and put at either our hotel or my dad's condo. And we had 1 stop left....Kmart. We decided it was time to have some lunch. We went to the food court and somehow we all picked Taco Bell. First time that's ever happened we usually pick different restaurants. : )

We all got nice and full and felt recharged. And ready to take on Kmart.

A sad shocker of sorts! The Nintendo 3ds LL is available in Japan. And the Nintendo 3ds XL is available in the US mainland. Because we see the commercials for it since we have American TV. However, we didn't check Guam's release date. @_@ Branden as you know sold his regular 3DS. Money accounted for and he was ready to buy. Ahem until we saw this staring back at us at the store. @_@ Ummm yeah. Talk about a wrench being thrown in. No worries though, when we go back to Guam at Christmas we can get it then. He said he'll wait.  Anyway after that we went to Kmart and spent 2 full hours in there. You go in there and you come out hours later. It always seems to happen. We had meds to buy. Shampoo. All that stuff. Underwear for the kids and myself.  Socks for Noboru. Yada yada yada before you know it...whammo it's like you've been sucked into a vortex and hours have elapsed. Same thing happens to us, when we go inside a Target in the mainland or Hawaii too. : )

Costumes also bought on October 30th  one of our first things of the day we did also. Kmart had diddly they were 98% sold out of costumes. However, 3 cheers for having Guam TV because we've been seeing commercials for Twinkles and the Dungeon all month. So we went to the Dungeon and they had fully stocked amounts of costumes. They had Spiderman costumes, Michael Myers from Halloween., But Noboru suggested whatever costume they get.... make sure we can actually see their faces. And I agreed. And if you note, that picture...that is indeed a boy angel. And according to my dad all angels are indeed boys/males anyway. Not sure if that's true or not, but I'll take his word for it, not that it matters really it's just a Halloween costume for crying out loud. ; )Anyway....We got Noah's costume. And the girl angel costume was indeed different from the boy angel costume. Size 8 so Noah could wear again if he chooses.

Elf costume size 12. By the time we had lunch, Taco Bell, we had our costumes. Because my dad thankfully gave us a heads up and said while we were still in Japan....he told us that Kmart was sold out (costume wise) and after we had lunch and we went there/to Kmart sure enough he was exactly right (we checked too) and we could breath a huge sigh of relief that we already had costumes since around 10:30am-ish....so ours were bought and safely in our hotel room from earlier in the day. We had Subway for supper October 30th. And we took it to go to eat in our room. We were a bit tired. We ate, and we then went and soaked in the hotels hot tub for an hour and watched the sunset from there.... then we went up to our room and showered and then got jammies on and watched TV until we fell asleep. I was the last to fall asleep as always. : )

October 31st, Halloween day. Was our day of fun! And we knew it. All the work/shopping done and out of the way. That was our day before. But Oct 31st was our day of fun. I went outside and watched the waves roll in and out. I watched the man clean the pool in the morning. I quickly got dressed brushed my teeth. Woke the boys and then Noboru. They quickly brushed their teeth got dressed.

Sorry for this little blurb but, Wendy's uses sea salt now. Cool. Anyway, yeah we noticed, lol. : )

Wendy's is only about a 5 minute drive from our hotel so we quickly ate. Noah had an island breakfast, scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and rice. We shared a raspberry lemonade, Noah and I.

I had the same thing except I had a biscuit with mine. The biscuit wasn't as good as I thought/hoped it would be. Next time I'll just get what Noah had, minus the biscuit. Branden had a breakfast sandwich and homestyle potatoes and a raspberry tea.

One quick stop to Cost u less which is right next door to Wendy's to pick up Branden's birthday cake, Cost u less's holiday hours means it opens at 8am we were there right when it opened. We also picked up the syrups we forgot yesterday and the turkey pans and candy canes. We bought a huge amount of candy canes the day before for omiyage for Branden and Noah's classmates. But these were for home use. And Branden's birthday cake. And gallon bags to hold all liquids in, like shampoo, syrup etc.

Happy Birthday Branden. Happy 11th birthday sweetie pie. My first born. : )

In swimsuit because after all, this is your day of fun! ; ) 

Birthday family photo. And we sang below.

The cake was delicious. And then we went down stairs to swim. From around 8:40am to 12:45pm is when we swam. We had a movie to catch at 1:40pm.

You've got a good little life Noah!

I sure do love you kiddo!

And I sure do love you too, sweet cakes! ; )

Noah having fun!

Hi cutie pie!

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth. ; ) He's so happy and so smiley. A little goofball and a total cuddle bug. We all went upstairs and quickly and I do mean quickly showered. Shampooed and soaped up. And to the movies we went.

First movie of the day, $5 each person to get in. Super cheap! We got a large popcorn and 2 large sodas. Hotel Transylvania. The boys could have picked. Hotel Transylvania or Frankenweenie. They picked Hotel Transylvania. The voices, Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez. So many great people doing voices in this.

Yep 10/31/2012. Halloween day. By the way the person who handed us our popcorn and drinks was a "nurse", yep she was dressed up for Halloween. : )  We went back to the hotel, for about an hour, all four of us took an hour nap, rest, we had some down time and then we started getting ready for Trick or Treating. We got the boys all dressed and ready. And we had the time of our lives! It was better then imagined! So much fun, both Branden and Noah came back with a ton of candy. I will have a Halloween 2012 post coming up, because it deserves it's own post.

November 1st. Sadly our last day, we would be catching the 4pm flight back to Narita. So we still had the morning and afternoon. Our plan is to go to the airport at 1pm always so we can beat the huge crowds. We didn't go to breakfast, we slowly got dressed and all packed although Noboru and I, 80% packed the night before. We loaded up the car and stuff. Checked out of the hotel around 10:30am. We went to the GPO. I went to the book store and bought a few more magazines. Though I did buy some at Payless and also 2 from Kmart. However I did buy 4 more. And after that we went to have our last meal in Guam. We had lunch. Branden, Noah and I had KFC.

Noah picked the chicken strips and mashed potato meal.

We keep seeing the "Chicken Littles" commercial with an "s" if you see the package on this pic.

Branden picked the Chicken Littles combo, 2 Chicken Littles sandwiches and 2 mashed potatoes. Branden and I shared a large drink and Noah's meal came with a small drink.

Mashed potatoes and 2 chicken breasts and 1 delicious biscuit. Noboru had his favorite Mongolian stir fry. We then went to my dad's condo and loaded up the frozen and fridge stuff into the 1 empty suitcase. And then we said our good byes and we checked in and hopped on our flight. Also important to mention, there was only 1 other family in first class (family of 2). And they were around 60 years old, white/Caucasian husband and Japanese wife. So the economy was full completely but it was quiet and empty as all heck in first class.

Tandoori chicken, chocolate cheese cake. Etc etc. On the flight over to Guam, I watched "What to Expect When You're Expecting" with Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez.  I thought it was an okay movie, nothing I'd rush out and buy though. Wouldn't ever want to see it again either, but I am glad for curiosity's sake, I did see it. And on the flight back to Japan, I saw "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". Such an amazing movie. I would definitely see it again (wouldn't buy it, but would definitely see it again for sure.) Sad parts, funny as heck parts, I laughed out loud twice, thank goodness no one was sitting near us. : )  Anyway, as we landed in Japan, and were waiting for the door to open to deplane. The older American man turned around saw Noah standing there with his treat bag and he said in English, "did you go trick or treating?" "yes, I did!!!!" Noah said with a huge missing his 2 front teeth type smile. : ) Then he asked me, where did they go trick or treating? I told him the area. And I said, "we live in Japan, he's never been trick or treating before, my older son has once, but doesn't remember and we thought it was important for them to at least have the experience" Then he said, "we used to live in Japan for many years" We have two grown daughters now. I used to decorate our house for Christmas every year" he said with a smile and a "remembering" face. But (he said) "we never took the girls trick or treating" "he sighed. And then looked at Noah again and smiled. And he asked...in Japanese, "what grade are you in? Noah said, "ichinensei". Then the man asked, "what color randoseru do you have?" Noah said in Japanese, I picked caramel brown. The older man said with a smile and now he switched back to English, "good you didn't go with the typical black or red" as he shook his head up and down and smiling. Our daughters both picked purple so they picked a different color as well." He stood there just smiling at both the boys. I think remembering his time of when his children were young too. His wife was nice also and smiling and chatting with Noboru. And then we deboarded and we were off. We did see each other at the luggage carousal and he said...."nice talking with you" and he waved. I said, "same here" and I waved and smiled.  Anyway, there you have it, our October 2012 Guam trip in a nut shell. : )