First Christmas on Okinawa

Christmas on Okinawa was everything we expected this year. On the one hand it was great for the kids to wake up in their own home for one of their first times ever, but on the other hand we missed all the hub-bub with being with our families. We had a quiet Christmas Eve dinner followed by church, then we had a relaxing Christmas morning opening gifts. For Christmas dinner, we got together with several families and had a huge feast. It was great time together. The kids were happy that Santa was able to find them on the tiny island of Okinawa and were happy with their surprises. They laughed at some of the Japanese trinkets that were in their stockings! I think everyone was pleased with their gifts! The weather was absoutely beautiful on Christmas and all of the neighborhood kids played outside in shorts most of the day. Dan had to work the days following Christmas, but has the week of New Year's off. We headed to one of our little get-away places for New Year's. Unfortunately, the weather turned cold and we actually had to come home to get warmer clothing!! We ventured to the furthest point on the northern end of the island - Cape Hedo and were able to weather the wind and rain for about 30 seconds - enough time to snap a few pictures. We were geo-caching along the way, but only found one of the three treasures. We will try again when the weather warms up. We spent about an hour looking for a restaurant - Pizza in the Sky - that has been recommended to us, finally found it only to find the place closed for the month. Oh well, we will try again. Japan has pretty much shut down for the next few days. Their big holiday is New Years and so it is like a ghost town around the area. We sure missed seeing everyone during the Christmas holiday, but everyone was in our thoughts over the last few weeks. Till next time . . .

Sydney Turns 5!!

Sydney had a great 5th Birthday! She wanted a monkey theme, so we decided to rent a bouncy house to let the kids go ape! It was a beautiful day, and they had a lot of fun bouncing and running around outside. Sydney keeps asking when she gets to start kindergarten now that she is 5! I think it will be a long wait for her!

Grandma and Grandpa visit Okinawa in November!

We had a great visit with my parents in the middle of November. We did a lot of sight seeing as well as stuff around the home front. The kids had a lot of activities associated with Thanksgiving happening at school, so we got to partake in all of those festivities before we ate our own dinner. We spent three quiet days up at Camp Schwab and Orua Wan Beach. The cabins were beautiful with great views of the Pacific Ocean. During our stay on that part of the island, we went to the aquarium and a pineapple farm. Later during their visit, we went south to Shuri Castle and Kokusai Street for some busy times down in Naha. Of course, we didn't get to do all of the things on my list, so they will have to come back for another visit!!!

Grandma and Grandpa visit Okinawa!

Grandma and Grandpa made a trip all the way to Okinawa! Mom and dad reported that their trip went very well! After a few days of jet lag, we started touring the island! One of our favorite spots was the Aquarium! It was a beautiful facility and a beautiful day. We are loving having family here to show what Okinawa is all about. I will post more pictures as we get them! We are off to see more sights!

BOO! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Here are some fun pictures from the last few weeks. The kids had a neighborhood party which was a lot of fun and then of course we had Trick-or-Treating! I think we had somewhere between 300-500 kids. We went through so much candy! I ran out at 7:30 and had to turn out my light. Next year I will plan better. The Japanese Nationals get to come onto base to Trick-or-Treat, as long as they have a sponsor, so there were tons of cute little Japanese kids who had memorized the phrases "Happy Halloween," "Trick-Or-Treat," and "Thank You!" It was fun. The kids had a great time and made a haul themselves. I think this is the first year ever that the kids didn't have to wear parkas under their costumes! It was a beautiful night!

Weekend "Away"

We decided to "get out of town" for a couple days last weekend!! Ha! We drove for about 40 minutes across the island and arrived at a different ocean!! There are several of the different bases that are located right on the ocean. They all have cabins that you can rent to "get away" for a short period of time, so we took advantage of one on White Beach Naval Base and rented a cabin for a couple nights. The weather was kind of poor, we couldn't swim in the ocean, but we still had a great time on the beach looking for shells and playing with all of the hermit crabs. We went with another family, the Parkes, who we have found to be very compatible with us! We will definitely take advantage of these places for a quiet family weekend.