The Ohrvalls | The Life and Times of

So this year my birthday fell on a Tuesday.  Matthew, of course, had to work so I stayed home during the day.  I basically did absolutely nothing all day but read and eat and watch tv.  Later on though we had plans to go out to dinner to celebrate my turning a quarter century old! Well, of course Guam is a tourist place to go for the Asian countries that it is closest to.  Needless to say any time that you go somewhere that is in the tourist area there will be a lot of Asian people hanging out too.  I found a dinner and show type of attraction that we decided to check out for dinner.  It had a buffet dinner and about an hour and a half show of all the traditional dances of Micronesia (the small island in the Pacific).  The dinner was made up of traditional Chamarro BBQ foods and mostly Chinese/Japanese foods. The show portion of the dinner was pretty cool.  We saw A LOT of different costume changes and dances.  Those guys and girls did a...

I can finally answer my brother's question of what is the most beautiful sight that I have seen on Guam. This passed Sunday Matthew and I went out to a park where the ocean creates natural salt water pools out of the coral that surrounds it.  Below are some pictures!! We started by climbing up the old stairs and walking (dangerously) across narrow coral to a lookout over the whole park. Beautiful right?  The breaks in the coral create little pools that were full of colorful fish and went from just a few inches deep to about 8 feet in some places. This is us (and Pluto came along) at the top of that perch overlooking the ocean and south side of the island. Look at those colors!  Yepp, definitely the most beautiful sight so far! You could walk all the way around this part of the park because the coral created little shelves and mini waterfalls. My handsome stud man! Here is a picture of how they had to get Pluto down! lol. I...

Hey guys, I know I haven't posted in a while but I have A GOOD REASON!! I had a little accident this past Wednesday that I would rather not go into details about on the blog.  (I don't really want the whole world to be able to read about it.)  BUT... if this is family reading this, and you feel like you need to know all the details, then you can talk to my mom or dad because they both know what actually happened. SO ... this 'thing' that happened caused me to have to take my first ride in an ambulance and get my first ever stitches!  Yep, that's right I had to get stitches.  I got them in my upper right arm, seven total.  NOT FUN! That, my friends, is why I have not been able to write a blog the past few days.  I have not known how to even go about telling you all.  Hence, I came up with the above solution.  But now this puts a damper on all of the fun Guam stuff that I have been doing or planning on doing for the next few weeks.  Stuff...

Hey guys, so this post might be a little boring because I am just tell you what I have been up to but I will try to make it interesting! Friday night Matthew and I had made plans to go to the base theater to watch a movie.  But, like plans do all the time:  they changed!  Quickly too!  Matthew came home from work Friday night and was like:  "how would you like to go to a party tonight?"  And so we had a new plan for the evening.  Thus, I went to my first beach party that evening.  It was a birthday party for one of the guys in MA division and who Matthew has made friends with since being here.  It was a lot of fun and there were many people there that were our age.  Some of the guys that came to the party had wives too so I was able to meet a couple new girls my age.  But here is the discoveries part of my post:  All of the people that I met Friday night are wrapping up there time here on Guam and are leaving anywhere from 1 ...

Ok so I know how blessed I am to be living on Guam and believe me I am enjoying myself so far!  However, there are a few things that I miss that were easily attainable in Raleigh.  Here there are only a few places to go where you can get things for projects (crafty or otherwise).Here are my options: On Base: Naval Exchange Center (NEX) :  This is basically your walmart of a military base.  They carry everything from clothes to tvs to sporting equipment and kids toys.  But the good thing about the NEX is they also carry name brand materials.  (Like my favorite Bath and Body Works lotion and soap). Exchange Home Center :  This is where you get all your garden items, lawn/outdoor items, and applicances for the home. Exchange Furniture Center :  Where you get furniture (obviously). Off Base: K-Mart :  Yepp there is a Kmart here.  The only problem with it:  ALL THE JAPANESE TOURIST GO THERE!!  Like no kidding, Matthew ...

So today Matthew and I took a ride up to Two Lover's Point at the northern end of the island.  It is basically a tourist attraction but we wanted to go see it at least once during our time here.  BUT...before we did that we had to get one very important task taken care of:  Give Pluto a BATH! For those of you who have been keeping up with the blog you know that Pluto is a retired MWD that we have taken in for a few months until his paperwork and processing is finalized for his adoption.  Well, in the time that we have had him (just 3 days) he has captured my heart, but not my NOSE!  He SMELLS BAD!!  It's from all those days and months hanging out in his kennel where he could use the bathroom anytime and roll all in it.  SO, needless to say he was smelling up the back room in the house.  It was time.  This morning after he ate breakfast we took him out on the back porch and gave him a nice long shower/bath with the hose.  He started sme...

This is Pluto!  He will be hanging out with us for the next couple of months because he is retiring from the military and going to a nice home in the states. ABOUT PLUTO: Pluto is 11 years old and has been in the military since he was a pup.  He is a Belgian Malinois and has been 'stationed' in Guam the entire time that he has been in the Navy.  He was a detector military working dog who went on 3 deployments and probably saved dozens if not hundreds of lives.  He is a military hero and we are proud to be keeping him and getting him adjusted to the civilian dog life.  A life of relaxation compared to what he is used to!  For those of you wondering, yes he is a BIG dog!  BUT...he has been trained so well that I don't have to worry about him dragging me around at the end of the leash! :)  He loves to be petted and brushed down.  Like all dogs, he has his temperaments but he is also very playful. For now we are getti...

I wanted to clear up the questions of whether the island of Guam is a tropical island....YES IT IS!  I took some pictures of the beach when I was there this weekend for you all to see.  I have been to the beach every day since I got here because it is just a short drive away and there are multiple beaches to choose from. The classic laying out shot with legs! lol. This is the way most beaches look.  About 5 feet with clean sand then another 5 feet of shells and coral leading into the ocean. The darker spots in the water are where the coral is.  The lighter spots are safe to go in without water shoes. It's mostly coral. The sandy part right before all the foliage. Gonna snorkel over to this small section of the island. Enjoying the beach and the sun!  I've already gotten like 3 shades darker! There are lots of these little suckers sneaking around on the beach.  Hermit Crabs! So as you can see, Guam is very tropical...

On Monday morning Matthew and I went around the southern half of the island exploring.  For those of you that have asked:  Yes Guam is a tropical paradise!  It is the perfect place for an adventurous, young couple that loves to explore!  Matthew and I are anxious to get out and go hiking, snorkeling, swimming and much more around the island!  Here are some pictures that we took on our trip. Most of the beaches here have a short sandy area then coral all in the water so you have to wear water shoes.  There are sandy spots that you can hang out in though. I thought this was so cool.  Its an island of coral that a tree has grown on! This is a War Memorial right off the base and it is where a lot of chicken and rosters hang out.  The smaller one in this picture was ruthless!  He ran straight at me when I was trying to take the picture.  Who would have thought I would be scared of an animal so small I could kick it away. ...