Kwajalein

Well we’re here and we hit the ground running.  It’s the holidays so there are more things to do than time to do them.  Given that we’ve been pretty lazy for the past two years, Andy and I are trying to keep up.  Jake has actually been playing so much that he slept until 10:00 the other day – a first in his short 6 year life (he’s normally a 6:30 kind of person).

We’ve gone to several parties, met tons of people, taken a tour of the island, gone on a lighted boat parade and Jake has gone on his first sleep over.

Jake, Miles and Jacob showing their silly faces.

This is a funny little place.  We’re thoroughly enjoying our selves but there are some things worth mentioning to help you get a picture for it here.  There are very few cars/trucks.  They’re all government vehicles.  The people here travel on bikes and the occasional golf cart.  There are all sorts of bikes too – “Island bikes” – meaning the handlebars might wiggle, the chain might slip, but no worries, because it gets you from point A to point B.  There are all kinds of trailers for these bikes too.  As a matter of fact, I happen to be carrying Prince Jake around on a trailer fit with a lawn chair tied down by a bungee.  The grocery store here even gets in on the action….since trailers can only carry so much, they deliver!

It’s nice because you can just sort of let your kids do what they want without worrying about someone snatching them up or them getting hit by a car.  It’s kind of refreshing knowing there’s still a place around that’s safe.

Everyone is really friendly and it’s such a small community that everyone knows everyone.  That could be good or bad, I suppose, but so far for us, it’s nice.

They have pretty much everything you need here – swimming pools, movie theaters, sports, water sports, beaches, even a food court complete with Burger King and Subway (Something I bet Andy they had…

I’ve never been to a military base that didn’t have at least one Subway).

Some of our favorite things have been the turtle pond and a little beach spot that our sponsors showed us with a rope swing.  Jake spent a few hours there the other day swinging and jumping off into the water.

MY favorite thing so far has been watching Jake learn to ride his bike!  He’s been on the boat since he was 3 ½ and cruising isn’t always conducive to learning the basics that most kids do.  So, we bought him a bike in Majuro and when we got here, we found a nice grassy spot for falling over.  Surprisingly, he caught on right away and he’s almost ready for the big time.  He just needs to learn to get started on his own and be a little more aware of his surroundings…but he’s doing great!

We’re off in a few minutes to pick Jake up from his sleep over.  I called and found out that our kid fits in fine even if he is a little different….his stuff smells like boat, he puts his toilet paper in the trash can and he politely asked Christina if she could turn off the air condition.