Sydney's 8th Birthday

Beautiful 8 year old!

Brownies with Reese Cups were the "cake" of choice for this year!

Super big hit - "Kiss the Cat" - they didn't want to try a poster of Justin Bieber! Ha!

Dance Party! Look at those kids rock out!

Japan Fall 2010 Trip

Well, the Gabriel Clan 5 may have just taken our last trip in the Far East! Very sad to think about, but it ended on a good note. We just spent the last week up in Mainland Japan in the Hakone and Nikko areas to the south and north of Tokyo. We had beautiful weather, did a ton of walking/hiking and saw many interesting things. Mount Fuji was out in full view, which was awesome! We took a bullet train ride - very speedy mode of transportation!! We experienced an Onsen (hot tub spa) - not the naked side!! They had some really fun themed hot tubs, as you can see in the picture. At the end of our trip, we spent the day in Tokyo and the New Sanno - of course it was great! Dan did an awesome job maneuvering us through the subways, trains, monorails, busses, and cabs! Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Halloween!!

BOO!

Happy Halloween all you Ghosts and Goblins!

Gabriel Secret Beach

We took an awesome day trip up to our "Secret" beach yesterday. It is a long drive up there, a tough hike down and up with all the gear, but 100% worth it. The snorkeling was awesome, a local fisherman was showing off to us (he caught 2 octopi), I found tons of sea glass and pottery, and we had a great relaxing day. Just what the doctor ordered!!

First School Dance of the Year

Brenna had her first school dance of the year. A group of 8 girls got ready together then headed to the big event. Everyone had an "OK" time, but we parents couldn't get too much information out of them. I think there was too much supervision! HA!

First Day of School Pictures 2010

We started the 2010-2011 school year with a Typhoon on Okinawa! The kids were able to get one day under their belts, and then we had a day to rest during the storm! Fortunately, the storm did not impact our neighborhood too much - downed branches and such was the worst of it, but our beloved Okuma got hit pretty hard. Work crews are working around the clock to get the resort area back up and running. It should be fine in a week or two. Of course, it is Typhoon Season, and we have another one headed towards us tomorrow! I guess our Labor Day weekend will be spent playing games and watching movies - could be a lot worse. Brenna is happy with her 8th grade schedule . . . lots of work ahead, but she will do great. Morgan has a great 4th grade teacher and we are excited to see how she progresses this year. Sydney has a BIG class but a highly organized teacher (Morgan had her too), so it will be awesome for everyone!

18th Anniversary at Okuma!

We decided to spend our 18th Anniversary up at Okuma with the family and some friends. It was a great weekend, complete with diving, snorkeling, banana boat rides, and sunbathing. What better way to spend our time together???

Summer Fun

Hello everyone - long time no post! I know, I know! Life has seemed to overtake me, and the fun things I enjoy doing have fallen to the wayside. I hope to re-engage and start a steady flow of pictures, especially as the kids head back to school. We have had many fun times, since my last post (April). We made the long trek to the States and visited with all of our family . . . it was great, especially since we hadn't seen most of them for 2 years!!!! Everyone was shocked at how the kids have changed. In this post, you will see snapshots of our summer vacation in Seattle and Montana. Other adventures have included several weekends up at Okuma - our favorite spot here on Okinawa. The countdown is on, as we will leave our island paradise in June of 2011, destination UNKNOWN.

Morgan's 9th Birthday!

Morgan celebrated her 9th birthday this past week! Only one more year until she can get her military ID card! She is thrilled. We had a nice party at "Round One", an indoor sports and gaming facility followed by a sleepover! We are STILL catching up on our sleep this week!

Beijing, China

After Guilin, we boarded the airplane and flew up north to Beijing. After a fairly long ride from the airport to the hotel - remember, there are only 16 million people that live in Beijing, we got settled in for the night. Have I mentioned that the beds were harder than the carpeted floor? Hummm, most of us slept well. The first day in Beijing with our guide, Chris and her driver, was spent at the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We had a nice time wandering around those sites - people were really curious about us and aren't shy about staring or invading personal space. Interesting. We got a small feel for what the Hollywood stars must feel like. That evening, we had an interesting Imperial dinner, with food that the Emperor would have liked - deer tendons, turtle egg soup, mystery nuggets, etc . . . glad I packed loads of granola bars and even peanut butter and crackers! We attended a Chinese Acrobat show that we all enjoyed and also took a Rickshaw ride through an interesting housing district. Day two was filled with excitement, because it was Great Wall day!! We loved hiking the Great Wall of China, and that was a favorite for all 5 of us. It is a very steep portion of the Wall, so it wasn't a leisurely walk. The whole time we were in Beijing, there was a smog/haze over the city, so none of our pictures are clear. We still got an impressive view of the Wall. Following that, we visited the Ming Tomb and eventually ended up at a very exciting Kung Fu show! It was great! We got toted around to a silk factory, cloisinais factory, jade factory, and porcelain factory - all with high pitch sales following the demonstrations. No bargains to be had there, so no buying from the Gabriel's. On the last day, we asked to do some shopping, which was fun, a very quick trip to the zoo to see the Panda Bears, and then out to the Summer Palace, which was very pretty! Overall, our trip was very memorable and we are glad we were able to experience such an interesting country! God Bless the USA!! We are all very fortunate!

Guilin and Yangshou, China!

It was time for another one of our adventures, so this time we traveled to CHINA!! I was a little short on time, so my research was not as extensive as in previous trips, but things still turned out ok. A couple things happened initially, that sprouted a twinge of doubt that our trip would be perfect. For starters, I was not feeling well, no problem that tons of Motrin and Tylenol wouldn't cover, to ensure I wasn't detected for a fever. Secondly, we almost didn't make it on the plane. I almost had to break out the Immodium for that little mishap. You see, when stationed in Japan and traveling outside of the country, you need a cute little stamp placed in your passport that allows you re-entry into the country! It was on my mental to-do list, but never made the actual done list. With 25 minutes to spare, I remembered that we had a copy of Dan's original orders for us to accompany him to Japan. We were saved! Once we were on the plane, I felt that things could only get better. Everything was going smoothly and we arrived in Guilin very late. In the morning, Dan went to exchange some of our American money for Yuan - no go! We had "dirty" money (a little marker on some of the bills), so the hotel wouldn't make the exchange. With very little Chinese money on hand, we began our tour of the beautiful Li River. It was the whole reason we wanted to travel to this southern part of China, and it turned out to be very enjoyable and picturesque. The mountains were beautiful and unique, and even though it was cloudy, we got to experience the quiet of China's farmland. We disembarked in Yangshou, which is a tiny village upstream. We stayed here for two nights touring the various sights and shopping on West Street. Turns out Dan was the pro at bargaining - I was way too soft. He purchased three North Face jackets for us for under $80, a couple North Face backpacks and some LeSportSac purses, some art and trinkets . . . I've never seen him enjoy shopping so much!! I thought we were going to kill ourselves on a bike ride - hundreds of bikes and cars with no recognizable traffic rules. I don't think I had been on a bike in about 10 years, so I was scared. Once we were out of the city limits, we had a relaxing time peddling through the farms and mountains. It was awesome! We really enjoyed this part of China, despite some high pressure sales women on our hike up Moon Hill. We thought it was really cute that these two old ladies wanted to hike up the mountain with us. Our guide failed to explain that they would try to sell us drinks, books, and postcards, once we reached the top . . . wow! They turned evil! We ended up buying 2 drinks for about $7! Rip off!! They were furious with our guide that we didn't buy anything else. Oh well! We ran into that a couple times - taking us to nice tea demonstrations and then expecting us to buy $100 tea! Get real! I lost my cool at that location . . . the guide knew it, so we didn't visit any more of those places with him! :) Overall, we really enjoyed this part of China and the experiences we had. Look to the next post for the Beijing write up!

Gabriel's Top 10 for traveling in China

Gabriel's Top 10 Things The Travel Agent Forgot To Warn You
When Traveling To China

1. People in China will STARE you down!

2. You will get many MYSTERY MEAT food items (Deer Tendons)

3. Blonde girls are CELEBRITIES!

4. Nice old ladies turn WICKED if you don't buy post cards from them!

5. NEVER EVER pay the asking price on ANYTHING in China!

6. You will meet someone you know from MONTANA on The Great Wall of China!

7. The tourist sights might be SLIGHTLY crowded!

8. Strangers will GRAB your children to arrange them for their photo!

9. You need to use your imagination when viewing famous rock formations!

(there are 5 horses in this picture)

10. Tea brewing demonstrations followed by high pressure sales will put some people over the edge!

Sydney's Chinese New Year Party

Our youngest is very creative AND persistent! She REALLY wanted to host a Chinese New Year party, after studying all about it in school. We relented and the party actually turned out to be a ton of fun complete with crafts, music and dancing!

Cherry Blossoms with Boosom Buddies

The Clancy and Gabriel Clans

We were a little early this year for full blossoms, but it was still a pretty day!