Well, once again we have fallen behind on the blogging... but hope to catch everyone up on the latest things occurring with the McGourty Crew. The most recent and exciting news is that Daniel was selected for the Navy's STA-21 program which is sending us back to College on the Navy's dime where he will eventually be commissioned as an officer and then be sent onto flight school. With that great news, we will be returning back to the states by Christmas time and it looks like we will be calling Jacksonville, Florida home for the next 3 years. However, there is nothing in writing just yet, so until then all we can do is cross our fingers.
Enjoy the photos below and keep us in touch on how you are all doing!!!
Daniel doing some SAR (search and rescue) jumps... it was just practice!
After doing jumps, Daniel swam into shore and hung out with me!!! My little scuba-Dan! He hated me for taking this picture!!!
A pretty nice sunset looking out toward Orote point with the
USS Kitty Hawk in the background (it is hard to see, but they it is there)!
Ike loving on his Dad... he is such a weirdo!
The pictures below are from our trip to Saipan. Saipan is another Island just north of here and is the capitol of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. We went up there because the Guam Women's Nat'l Soccer Team was playing the Saipan team and I (Alex, obviously) play for the Guam team. We made a little vacation out of it and had a wonderful time!
A view of the Banzai Cliffs where it is believed that thousands of Japanese took their own lives rather than being captured by the United States Marines back in 1944.
Daniel with an old tank.
Along the coast in Saipan.
On top of the Banzai Cliffs.
When I was playing soccer, Daniel made some friends!!!
This was probably the coolest thing we saw. It was a hide out location built into the limestone.
We also went on a sunset cruise and enjoyed an
evening on a catamaran sailing around the bay!
We had front row seat!!
We even had an awesome sunset on our "Sunset" cruise!
Daniel even got jiggy with it!!!
This is a view of "Bird Island," where it is common
to see birds specific to the Marianas Islands.
The multiple stairs we had to take down in order to get to the Grotto... then we had to climb them all in order to get back to the top. Yuck!!
At the bottom... the Grotto.
Standing partially in the Grotto... Dan didn't want to stand with me b/c he didn't want to get his feet wet!
Look Maddie... Dora is in Saipan!!
We also celebrated Daniel's birthday in September. He is getting so old!
Halloween this year has been pretty exciting for us. Daniel and I volunteer at the animal shelter on island (G.A.I.N.- Guam Animals In Need) and they recently had a Howl-o-ween costume contest. So, we decided to lend a hand and while doing so enter little Kianna into the contest as a "Devil Angel." It was all in good fun and didn't expect actually winning, but at the end of the day we walked away with first place overall!!! Needless to say we were very proud parents!
Kianna and here SUPER 1st Place Trophy!
What an Angel... but at times she is can be a little devil!!
Little Jack and showing his Devilish side on Halloween!!!
Jack helped Daniel hand out candy to all the lil' trick-or-treaters!!
But poor Jack couldn't hang long...
Here are some more random pictures from the past few weeks!
Making our way down the "2,000 Stairs," a recent hike we went on that took us along the east side of the island and lead us to the cliff line. We even took the pups on this trek.
Final destination, the cliff line... pups and all.
Pretty nice, we will miss this!
Some tired puppies... but cute ones at that!!
Risks you take when living on a tropical island... unfortunately we lost a glass table to a coconut falling from the tree out back. My neighbor reminds me that people die every year from that occurring, I am glad it was our table and not my head!!
So, I think that should catch everyone up on what has been happening here!
Hope to see everyone soon. Take care!!!
