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.

Scuba Diving

Three Gabriels get SCUBA certified!!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Read all about it!! Dan, Pam and Brenna completed a week long scuba certification course and are now certified Open Water divers!!! It was a long week, lots of reading, studying, test taking, and then skill performance in the pool and ocean, but we did it!! Dan and Brenna flew through the course with flying colors - I on the other hand, had some issues with some of the underwater skills (mask flooding, removal and replacement), but I made it through - by a thread (I had to keep my panic instinct in check). I'm really proud of Brenna, she had to do everything that all the adults had to do!! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

School is IN!!

Well, after a summer filled with new adventures, travel, beaches, new faces, pools, golf, sand, sun, typhoons, rain and shopping, the kids are back to school! YAHOO! We were all excited about getting back into the routine of school. Both Brenna and Morgan got accepted into the Partial Japanese Immersion program offered at Kadena Elementary School! We were very excited about this new adventure. The kids will get a very unique experience in school and will become our family's interpreters!! More about the program to come (as we learn more about what they will be doing), but Brenna has already started learning to write Kanji, Kana, and Hiragana. I won't pretend to know what that all means, but hopefully we will all learn together. Morgan has learned a handful of words in the first two days, so there is great things to come! Little Sydney starts her preschool next week! More pictures will be added to the slide show then.

School is IN!!

Golf Lessons

Brenna and Morgan had the opportunity to take a week long golf lesson! They learned about the game and got to play in a best ball tournament at the end of the week. It was a fun experience for them! Now they want to go to the driving range for evening entertainment! As you can see, the golf course has a beautiful view!

Upon requests - more pictures

Well - we had more great adventures this weekend! We got the kids outfitted with wet suits, so everyone can enjoy snorkeling without worries. Morgan and Sydney fit into store bought ones, but lucky Brenna had to have one custom made. She will be learning to scuba dive in September, so it will be worth it. The kids had a great first time snorkeling - even gettting more use to the taste of salt water. We saw a lot of beautiful tropical fish and starfish, so it was a great time. We also took another tour to watch some Eisa dancers perform in a festival. It was very hot - at one point, I felt like a walking waterfall. We enjoyed the busy Kokusai Street and the dances were fun to watch. Lots of loud drumming. Hope you get a better idea of our house, with the pictures I included in the slide show. We miss everyone a lot. Talk to you soon . . .

August Updates

July in Okinawa

July in Okinawa

Well - we are moved into our house! All of our household goods arrived on July 22, and we are out of boxes and getting settled. We just have to drill into the concrete walls to hang pictures - the rest is done! Now the fun can begin. We did have some time to take a tour, so there are pictures to view from that day. Our house is great. We live on a quiet street with a jungle for a backyard! I tried to include enough pictures for you to envision where we are living. It is very hot and humid here and the jelly fish have arrived in the ocean, so we will be cooling off in the pools! We miss everyone! Have fun looking at the pictures. More to come later.

Our first Okinawa pictures

Fourth of July - last day in the states!

It was great being in Seattle for the Fourth of July! We had a great day with Dan's family. The kids put on their own parade and we had a great BBQ! Afterward, we enjoyed some neighborhood fireworks.

Washington Pictures

Our time in Gig Harbor, WA has been a lot of fun. We have been having great weather and a lot of our time has been spent outdoors! The kids have been active making plays, running through the sprinkler, playing at the beach, and LOSING TEETH!! We have sold our van, which was the last major thing on our checklist, so I think we will be ready to board the plane on July 5th. Enjoy and we will post more when we arrive on the beaches of Okinawa!

Gig Harbor

We are enjoying our time in Gig Harbor! Yesterday was beautiful and we went down to the beach for awhile. The kids are having a great time playing with Zach, Sophie, and Max!

Our trek to Japan!

Here is a slide show to show photos of our trip from Iowa City to Great Falls, MT, then from MT to Seattle, then from Seattle to Japan. We depart from Seattle on July 5th and arrive on Okinawa on July 6th!