In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been from the arctic blast in the Midwest to the sunny climes of Guam.  We spent Christmas at my mother’s house in Illinois, where the temperature dipped down to -9 degrees Fahrenheit, feeling like -30 with wind chill.  We experienced snow, ice, sleet, and freezing rain.  Though we enjoyed a wonderful visit with family and friends, we were eager to return to Guam and warm up.

As it is almost every day of the year, the temperature in Guam has been in the 80s, cooling off with a nice ocean breeze in the evening.  We moved into our new place in Pago Bay, where we’re lulled to sleep at night by the sound of the sea and wake up every morning to beautiful views of the ocean.  We managed to bring both our cat and our dog with us, a process I do NOT recommend to anyone moving to Guam if you can avoid it.

We’ve been blessed with meeting many new friends already, and we’re diving right into all that Guam has to offer.  While I dug into unpacking and organizing, my husband and the girls joined friends for a hike to Pagat Cave where they got to swim in a natural underground pool and also enjoy sweeping cliffside views of the ocean.  There are so many great trails here, which we look forward to hiking, or “boonie stomping” as the locals say.  Our 11-year-old daughter had her first surf lesson and took to it like a natural.  Our 8-year-old daughter starts art classes next week.