Tokyo Trip

We took the plunge and made a trek up to Tokyo! I don't know why we were dragging our feet, because it was tons of fun. What an awesome city! We were lucky to be able to stay on the American Embassy grounds, thanks to our longtime friends, the Klingmeyers, who are stationed at the Embassy. That was a treat by itself! The Embassy is located a stone's throw away from the popular Roppongi district of Tokyo. Of course, we didn't hit the clubs, but we did enjoy the shops and restaurants the neighborhood has to offer. For two nights, we stayed at the New Sanno, a military hotel that was super nice. We did a lot of walking, riding various modes of transportation, mostly subway, and did plenty of people watching and shopping!! It was very exciting and stimulating - maybe over stimulating at times.

The main event and reason for traveling to Tokyo was for the Tokyo Marathon! Dan had been training for several months for the marathon and was lucky enough to be one of 35,000 runners for this event! The weather was very windy, cool, and rainy at the end, but Dan still did AWESOME and finished in 2 hours 57 minutes! Not bad for an almost 40 year old! The kids and I had fun running all around Tokyo to catch Dan in various locations. I was thrilled that we saw him 3 times throughout the course!! I was also thrilled that he finished when he did - I can't imagine fighting the crowds and trying to find him with the majority of the finishers, ending their race in the 4-5 hour time frame. Yikes!!

Enjoy the pictures - again, it was a successful Gabriel Adventure!

Beautiful Beaches

While I had some alone time on the beach this weekend, I sat and took in the scenery around me. I really couldn't get over how peaceful and picturesque it was. When I looked down, I saw this perfect cluster of nature and decided to capture a few images. Beautiful.

Brenna's Birthday

Brenna had a great 12th birthday up at Oura Wan! This was a very low stress party - just friends, hamburgers and hotdogs, beach and movies! The weather cooperated enough for us to do some beach activities - the girls even got a little wet. We had the double cottage, so there was plenty of room to spread out and despite the lack of sleep on mom's part - it was a great weekend! We can't believe Brenna is 12! Our last year before the dreaded teens! We'll be ready for the challenge!

Okinawa Sakura

The first signs of Spring in Okinawa are always the beautiful Cherry Blossoms - Sakura. The Japanese people (and everyone, for that matter) love the Sakura and flock to the mountain tops of Nago to see thousands of these beautiful trees. Unfortunately, we kind of missed the peak this year, but there were still some pretty sights, and we enjoyed the day up north. Of course, we had to end the day with a yummy pizza from "Pizza in the Sky!" It was a beautiful evening for this occasion.

Seoul Sisters

Lordy, Lordy, Look who's 40!!! You guessed it - I turned the big 40 this month. To celebrate, my Seoul Sisters and I took a three day trip to Seoul, Korea!!! It was a wonderful way to spend such a significant birthday! I led the pack with the birthdays, but Carrie is next, then Karen, followed by Liz and next year, Barb, and in many, many years, the youngun' of the group, Melissa will reach this milestone. Korea was COLD for us warm blooded Okinawa gals. It snowed the first day we were there, which was nice, but made for a cold day of shopping and walking around Seoul. The second day was a bit frostier as we toured some palaces and shopped some more. The Baileys and Kahlua in our purses made trips to Starbucks very yummy to our tummy. This trip was a ton of fun. I loved hanging out with my Seoul Sisters!! (P.S. For some reason, some of the pictures are cut off, so you may want to click on the slide show and view them individually!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We celebrated our second Christmas in Okinawa and managed to have a wonderful, quiet holiday. We had various holiday parties to attend - one which Santa visited, so the kids got to have their personal visit with the big guy. On Christmas Eve, we went to church and then had Father King, two of his friends, and the Clancy Clan (Carrie, Steve, Ryan, Kyle, and Connor) over for a big dinner at our house. It was a lot of fun and an overall success - the prime rib turned out perfect!! Christmas day started out later than normal - almost 7:00AM!! We had a nice family day, then had five additional friends over for Christmas dinner! Needless to say, I took a much needed break from cooking after those two dinners!

We took our annual White Beach Cabin trip a few days after Christmas. The weather was not that great, but we love being up at the cabins and away from everything. We drove around the northern part of Okinawa, went on a hike up Hiji Falls, then drove around the tip to Hedo Point and back down to White Beach. For being such a small island, it sure takes a long time to drive around it!! This trip, we discovered a great family run coffee farm and we will add that to our favorite spots in Okinawa. The coffee was wonderful!! Sydney made a friend, Myu, who was also 6 years old! The chickens running around the farm were a big hit.

New Years was celebrated at our friends house - the Carsons - along with about 30 other people. It was a brisk night, but fun was had by all. We almost made it to midnight - maybe next year?!