Dark, dark, dark!

I am amazed how dark it gets so early here. When we landed at O'Hare it took us so long to go through all the motions anyway that I didn't really notice when it got dark.

The second day I went to Great Lakes Naval Station to check in for my temporary duty while I do my final admin for leaving the Navy. After doing my business on base, I visited the Navy Exchange at probably 4:30 or so. When I came back out at 5:00, all was dark. I called my father on my cell and asked him who turned out the lights! On Guam it never got dark earlier than 6:00, and that only in the wintertime. I drove to my sister's home through the darkest night - so many cars on the road, so many cars, period! All of them dirty and covered with salt.

My kids are constantly amazed at the darkness too. When we lived on Guam we did dinner around 6:00 and had them in bed during the 7:00 hour. They almost never were out after dark. In fact, that was a special treat when they were out after dark because they could see the moon and the stars very clearly. Now it's dark even when we just go to my sister's house for dinner. They don't get how early it really is.

We're still adjusting to the major time zone shift after arriving on the mainland two days ago. My oldest slept all night last night and was the only one of the family to do so. My wife and I were wide awake at 1 AM (that's 5 PM on Guam). Both the boy and girl twin woke up during that hour, and we were fine with that because we couldn't fall asleep anyway. The girl walked into our room looking for mommy just a few minutes after she convinced the boy to go to sleep, bribing him with a cup of water (his favorite nighttime treat).

I can see how seasonal affective disorder can affect people!

We Go For A Family S-W-I-M

We have to spell this word out in code whenever we use it in front of the kids. Mere mention of the possibility of swimming provokes a strong reaction from our oldest daughter, and now also from her younger twins. Both girls love swimming and would probably go to the pool every day if we let them. Our boy doesn't have quite the same level of passion for it, but he does have a good time once he gets there.

We can't even tell our oldest ahead of time that we are planning to go swimming. We spring it on her as we are getting ready. I was reluctant to go, mostly because I hate having to be a lifeguard for all three kids. It's hardly a relaxing trip to the pool for me.

We live on a resort and the hotel pool is open for our use. It is perfect for the kids. Most of it is shallow, maybe one or two feet deep, going to a max of four and a half feet. Our oldest daughter in the past few months has grown tall enough to be able to touch bottom in all but the deepest parts. The twin daughter acts like she was born to live in the water; her nickname is "the mermaid." She doesn't know how to swim yet, but she loves jumping in the pool, going underwater, and floating on her back.

Our favorite part of the pool is the slide. Only on Guam can you have a waterslide with no restrictions on it, no rules as to how you can or cannot use it, no lifeguard at the top to make sure you follow those rules. Our oldest has been going down the waterslide in our laps since she was 18 months old, and her younger brother and sister started even earlier.

We spent most of our day climbing the stairs to the slide as a family, with my wife and I each taking one of the twins down the slide with us and with our oldest daughter going down by herself. My wife and I realized that this might be the last time we go to this pool. For our last slide down we all made a train and slid down as a family. It was slow going - I think the hard water wears out the sliding surface quickly. We all laughed and giggled and ended up in the pool together at the end.

What are we going to tell the kids when the lifeguards on the mainland keep them from going down waterslides for the next 5 years because they're not old/big enough?

I think our little mermaid will sneak past them and go down anyway.

A Moment

After three years, we finally did it.

We got our family photo on the beach.

We figured we couldn't waste the rare opportunity. We live 10 minutes from the ocean. This would be our only chance in the forseeable future.

After negotiating with our professional photographer/friend we decided our backdrop would be the beach behind the Pacific Islands Club Hotel. We knew it wouldn't be easy - getting three kids to do anything together is hard, let alone look at the camera and smile at the same time. We've been parents long enough to know that our job is to just hold our smiles and look at the camera while the photographer does everything she can to make the kids look at her.

She knew what she was doing. First we took the collective family shots while everyone was new to the scenery and fresh. It was at 5 PM, when the light was best. The sun had already gone behind the ridge the hotels are built on, giving the ocean a soft, warm glow. After a few family shots we got Melissa to "model" next to a stone wall. She can be so photogenic when she wants to be.

Our photographer probably took several hundred shots and will post them online for us to review. Amazing how digital photography revolutionized an entire industry for the better. No more film, developments, proofs. The photographer gets instant feedback on her shots and can instantly make adjustments to perfection. To me, that takes a lot of the guesswork out of photography and makes the art more accessible.

The magic really came when we stopped posing and just let the kids be themselves. That's when our photographer was able to capture their unique moments. The children, my wife and I will never look like this again. All of us will age, and eventually the children will grow and the magic of their early innocence will disappear.

At least we can now hold on to this memory forever - an enchanted moment of a young family playing on the beach at sunset.