A Day at the Dam

Last week I was feeling restless.  The kids had been fighting all day and I knew we needed to get out of the house - besides, it was beautiful out and I wanted to enjoy the weather!  We have been to almost all the close-by outdoor spots/parks by now, and I was in the mood for some peace and quiet, so we got our swimming gear on and headed out to Kurashiki Dam.

We've only been here one other time, and it was over a year ago when Olivia was just a baby.  Wyatt didn't even remember the trip, so this was all new to him.  He had an absolute BLAST playing in the water.  He thought the dam was amazing the way the current (which was not very strong at all) would take his boat and sail it down the river!  Then he would chase after it and do it all over again!  Olivia had fun playing with her nesting/stacking cups, and I could relax in the sun and not worry about the kids playing in the shallow water. 

We were the only ones there and it felt nice to get away from it all.  Earlier that morning I had been scolded while at the Shopette (convenience store) for leaving my car running while going inside to get a 1/2 gallon of milk.   I had been patting myself on the back for not having on workout clothes (also against the rules) and schlepping both kids inside and getting out of the shoppette without A) either kid having a tantrum or B) having my kid accidentally swiping something and walking out of the store with it, when someone confronted me and told me I could have been cited for leaving my car running and unattended.  I said, "At least I didn't leave my kids in the car too." The guy just looked at me blankly.  Sometimes, living on a military base with all the rules and etiquette and everyone all up in your business gets to me, so the wide open space at the dam was a welcome change of pace.

At 85 degrees, it was a beautiful 'fall' day on Okinawa, and I couldn't help but thinking at this time next year we'll probably be freezing our butts off, scraping snow!!!  So I'm choosing to enjoy the moment and this beautiful weather we are having.  We had a snack (some more than others...Ms. Olivia!!!) and soaked up the sun. Yay for Fall!!

JapanFest

We took a break from the Fall/Halloween festivities this week to enjoy a little bit of Japan.  Kadena AF base hosted JapanFest on Saturday night and, being a sucker for cultural stuff, I couldn't resist taking the kids!

We started out with a little Ikebana - that is Japanese flower arranging, which is much different than American style.  They let the kids pick out the flowers and stick them into the bottom (above) so as to 'arrange' them Ikebana style.  The finished product:


Next we moved on to Origami.  Wyatt got to choose what he wanted to make and after changing his mind twice, he finally settled on a penguin.  The Japanese lady taught him how to make the folds and we finally ended up with a penguin to take home - and as a bonus, she gave him hers so that his would have a friend!  Then she tried to teach me how to make a rose....it turned out great, but there is no way I am going to be able to remember all the steps...it seriously took over 10 minutes and I was lost and trying to make sure the kids didn't run off!  She finally just finished it for me!

We took our time looking at the Kimonos, sumi-e painting (I learned how to do that awhile back) and the bingata painting.  I actually did the bingata painting earlier that day at a baby shower and learned how to do it.  It is a special form of dye that you use to hand paint various objects - purses, canvas bags, a block print, whatever.  It was great!

The kids and I were both getting restless by that point (their air conditioner was broken, and it was HOT), so we decided not to stay and eat, but the sushi, soba noodles, tempura, and yakitori looked YUMMY!  Another great activity here in Okinawa - we are so lucky to live here!

Outdoor Fun

 Bubbles and chalk are where it's at, don't you know?  My kids love both, and always insist on bringing them to the park, or out back on the patio. 

I just love the way Olivia blows bubbles!  She dips it, drips it all over herself, then holds the wand up directly against her mouth (usually popping the film on the wand), then blows out a big, "whoooo!"  Then her face lights up with joy if she has managed to blow a bubble or two :)

Wyatt is more into the chalk... he likes to draw things with lots of colors, like rainbows, but this day he chose to draw a fish!  I told him there is such a thing as rainbow fish and he loved that.

Every once in awhile, I'll take a picture of one of my kids that doesn't look a lot like them in reality, but I feel is a glimpse into what they'll look like as a young adult.

This is one of those pictures.  His hair is sweaty, and because of that, it looks like it has been 'styled.'  His shirt is sleeveless, making him look broader in the shoulders than he really is.  And he's not smiling his goofy 4-year old grin.  All of these things make him look older and wiser, and to me, it's like catching a little glimpse into the future. 

Rainy Days...

We hit a patch of rainy days a couple of weeks ago, so I broke into my box of emergency supplies to entertain the kids.  I had been reluctant to let them play with the Window Markers that Aunt Christy sent awhile back, but they were perfect for the rainy, dreary weekend we were having!

I moved the couch back and theoretically out of the way to avoid getting the markers on it (FAIL), and let the kids go to work.  I gave Olivia a little step stool to stand on.  The markers are more like a cross between a crayon and paint. They are crayon-esque in that the nub will eventually wear down the more you use it, but they are paint-like in that the nub is much softer than a crayon.

While Olivia scribbled away, Wyatt set to work drawing a neat picture of "daddy's boat." He even asked me to help him write the #2 on it, because daddy's boat has a big one on it.  I was impressed that he had remembered that detail!  He did a great job and then drew a picture of Daddy too.  The kids loved it!

Adventures at SeaSeed

We just passed our two-year "Japanniversary" and with roughly only 8 months left on our little island paradise, I am determined to make it to the end of my Okinawa Bucket List!!  To this end, I took the kids to SeaSeed a couple of weeks ago, which is just a hop, skip and a jump up the road in Yomitan Village.

SeaSeed is a Coral Farm where they basically "raise" coral.  Okinawa offers some of the world's best snorkeling and scuba diving, but the live coral is continuously destroyed because of these pasttimes.  The coral farm's mission is to "raise" coral at the farm - no easy task - and then transplant it via root clumps to the ocean's coral reefs in their natural environment.

It was amazing, it really was.  That first picture up there is how the baby coral starts out.  The second picture is the bigger coral after it has been "raised," I think. There wasn't a whole lot of translation, but this is what I gathered from it.

 Pretend this picture is turned counterclockwise 90 degrees.  It's a picture of some of the fish.  They have tons and tons of beautiful fish - it's like going snorkeling without the equipment ! They even had small sea turtles, which the kids loved.  They had some open ponds, and then they had a path that went down underneath the bottom of the pond so you could look through all these really cool windows like the one below. 

Wyatt and Olivia thought these were their own little personal windows to sit in and stare at the fish!

After we looked at all the fish and coral, we went out toward the beach it sits on.  There with this crazy little footpath (below) that you can walk all the way out to the water on.

 So of course we took the footpath out there, and Olivia kept falling down because the rocks were uneven, and then she wanted to take off her shoes, but then her feet hurt on the rocks. Then I spent the next 10 minutes try really hard to not let the kids jump/fall over the edge of the platform and into the sea.  So that was fun. :)

Once we had made it back safely to shore, the kids discovered the massive amounts of shells and coral that had washed up.  They sat amongst it for a good 20 minutes, Olivia playing in it and throwing it, Wyatt looking for shells to add to our collection.  It was hot out, but the breeze off the water felt amazing and we enjoyed what was left of the sun.  The kids and I were amazed by this little-known gem here on Okinawa.  This island just never ceases to amaze me, and it made me think for the 100th time that week how much we'll miss this place when we move.