Wyatt & Olivia's Baptism

Last year I blogged a little bit about the new church that we had found.  Tommy was raised Baptist and I was raised Catholic, and this church was a nice blend of the two religions for us.  The church (coincidentally) happens to be the same place as where Wyatt goes to preschool, and the priest (also coincidentally) happened to be one of our neighbors our first year here on Okinawa.  His two kids match up closely in age and gender to our kids, who played a lot together until they moved off base.

 We have been thinking about baptizing the kids for awhile now.  After much thought and discussion, we had them baptized on Sunday with our friends (Okinawan family) there to help us celebrate!  We hope that when they are older, that they will make the choice for themselves about what they believe... but we also believe it is our job as parents to help guide them in the right direction toward faith, which if I am being honest, is what has really helped us get through this tour in Okinawa.

 The kids did great with the service - despite the fact that Olivia had been awake since 4:50 a.m.!  She is an early bird, that girl.  She didn't even bat an eye when Father Esau poured the water over her head.

 Wyatt was a big ham as always - he had a big grin on his face all the while the water was being poured on!  It was awesome to have Father Esau be the one baptizing our kids, since we have a connection with him outside of the church as well.

 They gave each of the kids a baptism candle, and Olivia, seeing Wyatt holding his, desperately wanted to hold hers as well... a little frightening there for a minute as she was reaching and grabbing for candle and flame!

 I made a bunch of food for the reception at the church, and the church bought this cake, which Wyatt exclaimed was "beautiful!"

 The kid's table... I see lots of donuts and not much of the fruits and veggies and egg bakes that I made!!

We were so grateful that all of our friends here were there to witness and celebrate with us.  It really meant a lot to have them there since our family in the States obviously couldn't make the trip :)  It was a beautiful, sunny day to receive such a wonderful blessing!

Tu-tu Cute!

Grammie (aka Cindy) sent Livy this adorable ballerina outfit in the mail.  Our little ballerina loves to dance so she set about practicing her dance moves... well, some of it was dancing...most of it looked like she was copying mom's workout routine of squats and lunges! :)

Livy's not one for costume dress-up, but she had fun with this one!  I have to admit she was pretty adorable running around the house in this.  She is, however, going through a bit of a no-clothes stage, so inevitably she stripped it off after awhile. 

...But not before we caught our little butterball rummaging through the fridge!  All that dancing sure must have worked up an appetite!

Camping at Okuma

After Bunco on Saturday night, Tommy brought the kiddos up to Okuma on Sunday around Noon so that we could spend some time there as a family. They had never been to Okuma (I had been there once before on a scrapping weekend, about 2 years ago) and there is a lot to see and do there. Jenny and Amanda stayed too, with their husbands and kids, and we all rented log cabins.

The weather was pretty rainy, so we killed some time in the game room before it cleared up enough to go on the scenic walk around Okuma.  The kids had fun playing on this retaining wall... :)

 

Another picture from the top of the breathtaking view!  You can see the sun trying so hard to peek out of the clouds!  We walked down to the bottom and the kids all looked for sea shells and "treasures."


Tommy and I at the top of the hill... the kids were off running around somewhere :)  Next we played a round of miniature golf, but that didn't work out so well.  Because of the rain the holes were full of water and sand, and Olivia and Vera tried to eat/drink what was in them.  Wyatt and Harrison repeatedly tried to put their balls through the putt putt tunnels to see where they would end up.  Then they would fight over the balls.

We retired back to the cabins for a bit and started the fire and food.  The boys played with some trucks for awhile... I would love to know what they were discussing in the picture up there!  They look so serious.

 Little miss Olivia did not particularly like the smoke from the fire.  She wasn't feeling the best either, she and Wyatt both had a nasty cold and they were both very tired from the day's events. We tried to put them to bed...


...but that was a major struggle.  Olivia would almost fall asleep and something would happen... cell phone rang once, a troop of child bandits walked into the cabin once, a loud burst of laughter from the group next door... you name it, it happened and the kids just couldn't get to sleep.  Had we not both already had a beer, we would have driven her around in the car, but the legal limit on Okinawa is .03 so that wasn't going to work!  After almost 3 hours of trying, I finally took her outside by the camp fire and she fell asleep sitting in my lap.  After a frustrating night, it was fun to snuggle with her for awhile until the rain started in again.

It poured down rain all night on the tin roof and the kids woke up off and on.  We had planned to hike Hiji Falls in the morning, but when we woke it was still pouring, so we ate a quick breakfast at the restaurant and hit the road and went home.  Honestly, we were so tired it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway but the rest of the trip was so much fun that I know in a few years I won't remember the rain or the lack of sleep, and I will just have another great memory of Okinawa!

Anniversary Bunco Blowout Party

Epic.  That is all I can say!

This month marks ours Bunco group's one-year anniversary of playing together, and our coordinator, Robin, had big plans for it! She rented out the condo at Okuma, the military resort on the northern part of the island, and we took Bunco on the road this month! 


This is no easy feat to pull off, mind you, when most of our husbands are usually gone for work/deployed and most of us have small kids.  But it worked out for all but two of our group members - mostly because there is a big annual exercise coming up soon that all of our husbands will be gone for, so the timing worked out great to do it right before they all leave!

 

 
So we all piled into two cars and made the drive up to Okuma.  We stopped for lunch and got there around 3 to check in.  This month's theme was pajama party, so we changed into our jammies and set up the condo with the copious amounts of food and beverages we had brought with us.  Robin got us each a pair of fuzzy Japanese 100Yen store socks to wear! 

Then it was time for the scavenger hunt that Robin had organized.  We had a great time with that.  Here's us all decked out with our team flare.  Green team rules!!  Then we toasted the past year of Bunco and the year ahead, and let the Bunco games begin!

After Bunco (I won the prize for most losses!!), we hung around playing Never Have I Ever, a popular pajama party game :)  And then things sort of unraveled from there...

One of our Bunco ladies had brought her family with her for the night, and they were staying in one of the fancy suites, which comes with a golf cart rental to drive around the resort.  Another one of our Bunco ladies had just announced to us that she was pregnant - after years of struggling and her first IVF process, she and her husband (currently deployed to Iraq) are expecting their first baby!   We were so happy for her.  Somehow she ended up driving the golf cart down to the beach, where one of our other ladies had decided to take a late night swim.  And that's when the golf cart got stuck on the very wet sand :)


 What you can't see is Amanda laying face-down in the sand behind us after losing her footing!  Soooo funny.  I will remember this for years!  After we rescued the golf cart, we helped ourselves to a picture in one of the resort's fishing boat....



 Here is me and Robin (our founder) - she is sweating to deatha nd I am freezing to death!!
 

We stayed up late - much later than can possibly be a good idea when you are not used to doing so - talking, drinking, eating, and enjoying "our" time.  But some of us were up bright and early to walk the scenic route in the morning and check out the beautiful views!


 Here we are at the top, checking out the view above.  I will so miss these views after we move!

 After breakfast, it was back to the condo to do a very quick clean up before parting ways.  Jenny, Amanda and I were staying up there and our families were driving up that afternoon to camp.  Stay tuned for part two of our adventure soon!

Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters

After New Year's we visited the Former Japanese Navy Underground Headquarters.  This is where members of the Japanese Navy Corps of Engineers dug a tunnel complex for the Japanese Navy's Headquarters bunker in 1944 during World War II.  The pick ax below is what most of the tunnels were carved from... you can still see the ax marks on the cavern walls.

America attacked Okinawa on April 1, 1945, and battled for control of the island for two and a half months, during which time the bunker served as a refuge for 4,000 members of the Japanese Navy.  The tunnels were only 450 meters in length. 300 meters of the bunker has been restored and is open for viewing. There is a small museum with pictures and historical information about the Battle of Okinawa and the impact of the war on the Okinawans.   I know it's hard to see in the picture below, but you can just make out some of the stairs that were built.


America's attack on June 13th, 1945 led the Admiral of the Japanese Navy and 174 of his soldiers to commit suicide in the bunker. In Japanese culture it is honorable and right to do so as opposed to being taken or killed by the enemy.  This served as Okinawa's surrender to the Americans. The room below is the room where many carried out their suicide plan...you can even see the bullet holes.

It was a surreal and somber experience to walk the tunnels... and somewhat mortifying knowing that as an American, I am a member of a country who was responsible for what happened there.  It also led me to think about my grandfather's experiences and role in the war.  I wish I had thought to ask him more about it when he was alive.

In true Japanese fashion, they have counterbalanced the tragic historical events that took place here by building an amazing park literally beneath the tunnels.  There were so many people there having a great time...you would never guess what had taken place literally on the other side of the park.  This was probably the coolest park we have seen on the island!  The kids had a blast playing on the roller slides and other play equipment.


There is a lot going on at this park!  We had to divide and conquer with the kids so that we wouldn't lose one of them!


 Check out these swings! They are big on basket swings here.

The climbing apparatuses (apparati???) wore both the kids out.  They did so much climbing.  I was worried for Olivia but she held her own!



Of course no park in Okinawa would be complete without roller slides.  There were TWO here, and another very small one at the bottom.  We had forgotten to bring cardboard, so we all had some bum rash going on, but it was a great time.  Another fantastic Okinawan adventure!

Fukushu-en Gardens

The holidays gave us some time together as a family to cross off some more of those Okinawa Bucket List items. I am so glad we got to do them because they were awesome!  Not only did it have some very cool architecture, but there was a neat pond/stream that wove its way through the gardens and ended up in a surprise at the end.  The kids had a great time feeding the carp and Wyatt and Tommy counted 5 sea turtles!

There were two of these pagoda-type structures and I just loved them. Wyatt loved walking around inside them.  I loved looking at them! ;)

The kids feeding the fish. They had so much fun!

This shot amazed me - they were both smiling and holding hands!!!

This was the surprise at the end of the stream... a pretty waterfall!  Not only was it pretty, there was an awesome cave structure with tunnels behind it that made it possible to stand right behind the falls.  It was really cool seeing the falls from the inside!  It looks totally different for some reason.  We got a little bit wet, but it was fun running through the caves.  We were also able to climb to the top of the cave and look at the garden/falls from the top.

After the gardens, we walked across the street and played at the park for a little while.  Then we forgot that we had brought Flat Stanley with us to take pictures, so Wyatt and I went back to the gardens, took a few shots, and headed home.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again - I am constantly amazed by the hidden little gems we find on this island!