Saipan T-Giving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner this Thursday. There were about 20 people gathered for the meal at our friend Laura's parents house, so there was also a ton of delicious food. We all made traditional American Thanksgiving dishes, and Brian and I made his mom's recipe of Sweet Potato Cassarole.... it was aaamazing.

It was great to combine some of our friends' Thanksgiving traditions into our own this year. We all sang the doxology before prayer (my friend Amy's tradition in her family), and went around the group to say what we are all thankful for (Laura's family tradition). It's always tough for everyone to be away from their families for Thanksgiving, but everyone had a great time and enjoyed great friends this Thanksgiving!

Old, old man

My husband loves to climb everything :)

Last Sunday, seven of us took a hike down to Old Man by the Sea...

Can you see his profile? We explored the area, lounged in the ocean... the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Saipan!

Happy week of Thanksgiving!

My girls Kara and Amy above Forbidden Island

Hello everyone,

Guess what we're excited about.....

THANKSGIVING FOOD!!

We have two Thanksgiving dinners this week- we feel very lucky! On Monday night, our small group Bible Study is having a big Thanksgiving dinner and we're bringing stuffing (yum!). On Thursday, we will have another wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at our friend's parents' house, and we're making Brian's favorite T-Giving food: sweet potato casserole (from his mom's awesome recipe).

It's always tough to spend the holidays away from our families that we love and miss so much, but we are thankful to be in Saipan. We feel like our friends here are truly our family away from home, and I'm so glad to spend this holiday with them.

The steep hike down to the island- at some points you need to use a rope.

some more DBall

Here's some more pics of the epic Dodgeball tournament last weekend :)

Brian's team won- the Huevos Grandes!

Go Huevos Grandes!!

Brian's dodgball team won at the Pacific Island's Club Dodgeball tournament on Saturday!! They made it into Marianas Variety, Saipan's newspaper.

More pictures of the intense dodgeball action to come soon :)

Hey hey it's my birthday

On my birthday a couple of weeks ago, Brian planned a dinner with our friends at Oleai Beach Bar and Grill, my favorite restaurant here. We sat out on the patio overlooking the ocean to eat, then we all went over to my friend Kara's house- SUCH a great birthday night all planned by Brian.

On our way to dinner

Brian made chocolate chunk cupcakes with cream cheese icing- the best birthday cake ever!

Can you guess what we were for Halloween this year??

Brian hiking pics

Brian isn't into blogging quite as much as I am, but he has some really great pictures of his hikes that I wanted to put on here.Here's some more from Forbidden Island- again, most were taken by Josh Franklin- thanks Josh!

Many of the caves and hikes in Saipan have ropes that you have to use to lower yourself down by. It's not difficult- a little slippery after it has rained- but really cool.