Beach Day- Spring Break 2011

We were lucky enough to have a few nice days during the week of spring break this year. We made sure to take a trip to the beach.

There was some playing in the sand.

And a little splashing in the water. (Although, the water was a bit cold- just below 70 degrees.) It feels a bit cool at first, and then you get used to it, and then a while later, you are cold again. This is Kadena Marina beach. It has a really nice flat area that gives the kids quite a bit of room to play, especially when it's low tide like it was that day. I like that they rope off a section, as well, to keep some of the more dangerous sea life and the seaweed and what-not out. This beach is a little softer than some of the other beaches, since it's in a protected cove and doesn't get as much choral washed up the beach.

We were able to stay for about four hours before those clouds you see forming in the first picture began to gather and begin to storm. Ahhh, spring in Okinawa. At least it didn't rain the entire break.

Scuba Carston

I just had to share this picture of Carston. We asked Cassie to babysit for us one day. This was going to be the longest time babysitting she had ever done, AND if Carston had a poopy diaper, this time, she was going to have to take care of it. She agreed on the condition that she could wear her snorkel mask to get the job done. Jason brought it inside for her. Well, the need did not arise, but her mask sat on the bench by the door for a while. One day, I came around the corner, and Carston had it on. He's such a goofball.

Teppenyaki

Teppenyaki is just one of those things here that is really expensive for dinner and half the price for lunch. For that reason, Jason has gone with work a few times, but the kids and I hadn't been, yet. So one day in April, on one of their many early-out days, we picked them up at school and headed for Four Seasons.

Tammy and Natalya came with us, too.

Yummy soup.

Here, teppenyaki is not quite the show that it is at Teppenyaki Restaurant or Benihana in Utah. No, onion volcano or trying to catch the shrimp in your mouth. Maybe that's just a dinner thing. Maybe that's why dinner is twice the price. But, they do cook delicious food right there at your table.

Noodles- yakisobe.

Preparing the chicken. It was really good. I ordered it for Carston, but I had to eat some of it. The steak is cooking there in the corner, too. It was also tasty.

And of course, the shrimp. Mmmmm. Oishii- delicious.

15 Year Anniversary

March 30, 2011 was our 15th anniversary. I've been stumped on this post for a while. Fifteen years seems significant. But I didn't bring our wedding pictures (no digital copies), and there wasn't much to take pictures of during the day.

We weren't able to do much on our anniversary as it fell on a Wednesday. Jessica woke up in the night ill. She wasn't asleep in the morning, so we were unable to take our morning run. I had visiting teaching appointments during the day, and Jason stayed home with Jess and Carston, so lunch was out. After a quick dinner, Cassie had Activity Day Recognition Night, so we snuck in some brownie sundaes at the end of the night.

We were able to go out on Saturday, though. We went to Seaside Ristorante and I had some delicious, freshly caught mahi mahi and Jason had some scrumptious crab legs. After dinner, we did a little bowling.

For our anniversary, we bought each other this cool running watch. I can hear my brother's commentary on this gift from here. "My sister is becoming obsessed with running." But you don't have to be running for very long before you start to wonder how far and how fast you're going. Plus, how does it compare to your last few runs, not to mention the training benefits this watch offers. Are we obsessed with running? Well, I'd like to say I love it, but I don't. However, a couple of weeks after our anniversary, I came down with bronchitis for four weeks and was unable to run. After about three weeks, I started noticing I was missing it, so maybe I am becoming a little obsessed. The really enjoyable thing is that running has become something Jason and I are doing together. We don't talk much, especially early in the morning, but we motivate each other to get out of bed, and we try to help each other with our individual fitness and weight loss goals.

Also for our anniversary, Jason bought me a bowling set.I have been inviting myself to bowl with Jason and his coworkers at lunch on Thursdays. The house balls are awful. This ball is a hook, so I'm not doing that well with it, but I'm still having fun.

This picture was taken last October. Usually one of us is behind the camera, so there aren't a lot of shots of us together. You know when people say, "Fifteen years ago, I married my best friend..."? Well, looking back on it, he was no where near as good of a friend then as he is now. In fifteen years, we've accomplished quite a lot- three degrees, a career with the Air Force, three wonderful children, a house, a temporary relocation to the other side of the world. I am so glad that I have him to go through these adventures with. Just like best friends, we go through our good times and bad times, but overall, our marriage has been a happy one. Overall, I have been happy to be married to my best friend, whom I love more than I did that day fifteen years ago.

Literacy Parade

Jessica's school had a literacy parade where all of the kids were to dress up like a character in a book. The kindergarten got together and decided to do 100 Hungry Ants.

Jessica was ant number one, because she was student of the week that week.

The teachers were the picnic food.

Mister Donut

Our friends are always telling us how yummy Japanese donuts are, so for Family Home Evening snack one Monday night, we decided to head down to Mister Donut and try it out. Each of us picked one donut and took them home to try it out.

Carston got a chocolate cake-like donut with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. You can't go wrong with chocolate. Japanese chocolate is not as sweet as we're used to, but still very good, and the donut was yummy.

Jessica settled on chocolate with chocolate frosting, as well, but hers had more flair. It was also very good.

Cassie chose an old fashioned donut with chocolate frosting on one side with sprinkles and powdered sugar around the rest. Turns out the inside was filled with banana cream filling. Way good.

Jason chose a sugar sprinkled donut. Despite his silly face, he really did enjoy it.

I decided to try something that looked a little different. This one had a fried crust and looked like it had chocolate inside. But, when they packaged up our donuts, we noticed that they wrapped mine up plastic before putting it in the bag with the others. Hmmm, what did that mean? Oh, it meant that it wasn't filled with chocolate. It was filled with curry. (Sorry this picture is a little out of focus.) Who puts curry in a donut? I bet the lady at the register thought how weird it was that I was ordering dinner and everyone else was ordering dessert. So, my lesson for my kids about taking a chance and tasting something great fell on it's face. Instead, I hope my kids learn that if they take a chance and it's yucky, I'll let them throw it away. That's what I did. I didn't need the calories anyway.

Nursery Balloons

Jason and I have been working in the nursery pretty much since we've been in the branch. It was pretty overwhelming at first. Now, we have two extra sets of hands, and we sent about ten regular nursery attenders up to Sunbeams at the first of the year, so it's gotten a lot better. A few weeks ago, Jason had this inspired idea to bring balloons for the kids for the last 15 minutes of class. They had a blast. I just had to share the pictures from that day.