Independence Day

Awhile ago, someone somewhere posted something about how it's not the "4th of July" - it's proper name is Independence Day. The argument went something along the lines of, we don't call Christmas the "25th of December," and for good reason. We celebrate Christmas because of Jesus... and we celebrate July 4th because it is the day we gained independence as a nation. At the time, I remember thinking, PotAto, PotatO... Lighten up, sheesh! But this year, living where I live, 8,000 miles away from our homeland and right smack dab in the middle of 25,000 of America's finest, I started calling it Independence Day. It just makes sense.

We had a wonderful Independence Day weekend. We covered a lot of ground! We kicked things off on Saturday by heading to Torrii Station for their Independence Day celebration. It was a good time and we watched some great fireworks!

On Sunday we went our separate ways - Tommy & Kyle went to our friend Matt's to watch the UFC fight (seriously...what do men see in UFC???) while myself, Jen (Kyle's wife), and the kids took a trip to Comprehensive Water Park. What a blast Wyatt had floating down the lazy river, sliding down the concrete slides (try it sometime! A Japanese invention...they are fast!) and dancing in the sprinklers (that's him, in the middle of the round sprinkler). Olivia loved hanging out in her floatie and after a few hours we were all appropriately famished, so we headed to Sushi Go-Round.

Sushi Go-Round is another crazy Japanese invention. Think Sushi Chefs in the middle of a circle, with tables and booths surrounding the circle. The circle is a "sushi train" as Wyatt calls it. The chefs make sushi, put it on the conveyor belt, and the people watch the various types of sushi going around and pick and choose what they want from their booth. Wyatt thought it was a hoot to take the plates off the conveyor belt and eat them right up!



After naps all around, our little family headed to Kadena Air Force base for their Independence Day celebration. Let's just say...there were a few more people there than anticipated. After standing in line for 30 minutes for food we decided to leave. We just could not handle the crazy cluster of people, children running everywhere, strollers running over our feet and ridiculously loud music, so we left and rode the Ferris Wheel in American Village, hoping to see the fireworks from there. We didn't, but that's okay. We saw them in the parking lot and that was good enough!

Monday morning dawned and we loaded up the cars with Jen & Kyle and followed them to one of the outer islands, Hamahiga Island. We drove down this funky road....

Climbed through some rough terrain

and arrived to the sight of this:

Absolutely beautiful!

We set up "camp" and frolicked in the Pacific Ocean on our own little secluded beach. At one point, I was swimming in the ocean and just looked around and thought about how few people in the world have the chance to do what we are doing and be where we were, on one of the most remote islands in the world with our feet in the sand and the sun in our faces. It was a great day full of swimming, snorkeling, and sunning with great friends. To say we had a blast would be a vast understatement. We are truly so very lucky!

On another note, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this weekend also marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of Tommy's dad. It has been hard as we remember his life and the grief we were (and still are) experiencing just one short year ago. We miss you, Tom, but know that it was only fitting for us to be watching fireworks this weekend, symbolizing what you spent your life protecting - America's Independence.