Brenna Turns 11!! EEKS!

On February 22, Brenna turned 11! Where has time gone?? She had a great day - even had her party on her actual birthday! She invited 9 girls. Let's do some quick math: 9 girls + our 3 girls + 1 mom = 13 girls under one roof. Dan was somewhere in the house, I think . . . Anyway, it was a fun filled night with a High School Musical theme. They watched several High School Musical movies, danced, sang and did Karoke. Around 12:30AM, mom and dad had about enough of the loud fun (keep in mind, we live in a VERY, VERY, small house!!!), but Brenna reports that several stayed up until about 2:30AM! UGH! Everyone was all smiles in the morning, so I guess the event was a huge success! Happy Birthday Brenna!

President's Day Getaway

We took a long weekend and went up to our favorite private haven - Oura Wan Beach Cabins on Camp Schwab. It was totally relaxing and the rain even let up for the weekend. We took one day and headed north on the eastern side of the island and found a really neat park. The kids had fun interacting with a group of Japanese kids that were there. It was very cute. The Japanese kids would say "hallo!", then giggle, giggle, giggle! They tittered even harder when our girls responded with "konichiwa!" It was a neat cultural exchange. Of course, this all happened before all of us 'violent, horrible, corrupt' Americans were banned from entering the community. For all of you who haven't heard the latest, due to some idiot Marines, all SOFA status persons assigned to Okinawa have been restricted from conducting any sort of business outside of the bases. This means no restaurants, shopping, going to parks, beaches, etc . . . we can only do this on the bases. It is a period of reflection for us to reflect on how we are suppose to behave in our host country. Long story short, it has made for some uncomfortable times here on Okinawa. It is unknown how long the reflecting will last - hopefully, not too much longer! We are craving some sushi and ramen! I'll keep you posted on the details as they unravel.

Lost Teeth!

Morgan wanted to share with everyone her new holes in her smile! She is pretty proud of them! Her top tooth was wiggly, but not quite ready to come out. That didn't stop her from working on it all day in school. She REALLY wanted to surprise us and get the cute little treasure box that they give the kids when they lose a tooth at school. It worked! She proceeded to coax her dad into pulling the bottom tooth, so she lost two in one day!

Cherry Blossom Season - Nago

The cherry blossoms have been blooming here on Okinawa for about two weeks! Evidently they are the first to bloom in Japan, then slowly move to mainland in late March to early April. The weather has been so wet and rainy, that we haven't made the hour drive north to Nago to see them, but we were running out of time, so this weekend we decided to take an adventure. We were glad we did, because a majority of the trees had already lost their blossoms, but it was still very beautiful. We hiked up the Nago Castle Ruins which was very picturesque with the pagodas and cherry trees lining the million steps up the hill. Once we were at the top, we could see the East China Sea and the city of Nago. After that, we went up the Motobu peninsula and drove up a very windy road to Mt. Yadake, which is also lined with thousands of trees. We FINALLY found a restaurant called Pizza in the Sky, which has alluded us in the past (couldn't find it on another trip up here). It was well worth the effort it takes to get there and will be a family favorite while we are here. The views were fantastic, even with the poor conditions we had, and the pizza was just like home. Only one kind of pizza on the menu, but it was delicious. They had a large collection of Shisha Dogs, and I took a picture of my favorite ones. After about two weeks of solid gray skies and rain, of course Monday is sunny, but we are glad we made the trek, despite the poor weather.