Birthdays and Being Blind-sided

Gavin turned one!! I had some pictures taken with a cake smash before his birthday and hopefully I will be able to share those in the next blog post! His Birthday was actually March 18th but we had a small party for him on March 21st. Mostly adults (of course) but we had three kids join us for the festivities. Here are some pics and videos:

We sang Happy Birthday to Gavin and I had the kids blow out candles on his big cake since he's not ready for that just yet. He had a small smash cake to enjoy on his own.

Smash cake

The bib and hat didn't stay on

The kids were nice enough to help Gavin open his gifts. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on or what the protocol was but he slowly got into it!

Violet helping him with his new Vtech book

RIBBON!!!

So fun...who needs toys?

Anne was a big help in opening all the boxes and getting the books and toys out for Gavin. I think the other kids really appreciated that as well! Overall Gavin had fun at his first birthday. He enjoyed playing with the other kids and really enjoyed the frosting on his smash cake!

Our Superhero decorations!

For my birthday, my parents sent me this dish towel which seems like it will be appropriate in a few months. Carlton got me this card which seemed perfect with the scuba divers on the front!! He also bought me the set of Harry Potter books which comes in a cute trunk! The card he left behind back in January when the boat left and the books he had delivered about a month after he left. It was a nice surprise for my birthday!

As for our upcoming move, we just got hit with a potentially major snag. For those of you who haven't heard, United Airlines has suspended their pet cargo services. They've had a few accidents recently and decided to suspend any pets flying in cargo while they review their program. They are supposed to make an announcement regarding the program on May 1st. I have no idea if they will discontinue the program altogether or just make changes to it. The problem is May 1st is when we are supposed to fly out of Guam! Which means we won't know the decision until after we have already left (it will still be April 30th on the mainland when we leave Guam). So we will be leaving here not having any idea if we will be able to get our dogs off Guam or not. United Airlines is the only company that had the pet flying service. The Air Force Base here does not offer that service and doesn't have the appropriate planes to provide it. There are a lot of military families here with dogs that will be struggling if there is no airline providing this service in the future! As if moving halfway across the world isn't stressful enough, we had to have this wrench thrown into our plans. Ugh!!

Cuddly and Huggly

Gavin gets very cuddly when he first wakes up from his naps, especially his afternoon nap! Here's a video of him rolling around on our bed and eventually coming to me for cuddles. He LOVES our bed and the pillows!

He also decided to play peek-a-boo one day, so I got a quick video of that. It's the first time he's actually initiated the game.

We were able to make it out to the playground one day and he enjoyed the swings again. He's still too little for the other playground equipment but the swings are great fun!

Now that he is pulling himself up and cruising around on the furniture, Gavin loves to pull things off tables. One day he got the wipes and crawled around with one in his hand for awhile. Then he stopped at his high chair and it looked like he was trying to clean it!

We were also able to talk to Daddy again this week!! They pulled into a different port in Japan and had a few days to get off the boat. I didn't get any video or pictures this time but Gavin was very happy to talk to his Daddy again. Hopefully this means that he won't cry when Daddy comes home this time!

Here's an article about the Topeka pulling into Japan: Topeka in Japan

Carlton will be home to help out when the movers come in April and help get the dogs situated at the kennel as well. We plan to have the dogs stay at the kennel here on Guam for about a month after we leave and then they will fly to the east coast. Hopefully we will get into military housing by the time the dogs arrive. They will be flying into Boston. Since Edge's kennel is so big, he will only fit on certain planes and the Boston airport is the closest to CT that will accommodate those larger planes. My truck will be turned over to the vehicle shippers a couple days before we leave and we will have to get over to Baltimore to pick it up. It's the closest port to Connecticut for military vehicles or maybe all vehicles, I am not sure. Either way, we have to go to Baltimore to get the truck.

Needless to say we will be fairly busy in April! For now, I am getting ready for Gavin's first birthday!! I am getting him a smash cake and can't wait to see how he reacts. Hopefully I will get a good video of it!