Family Photo Time!!

 My amazing friend Anna came over and did family photos.  I was so impressed with what she got!  And I love them all and can't decide what I must have.

Driving; and Rylee Selfies

 Marian had her 6 hours of instruction behind the wheel scheduled for 8-10am on Mon, Tues and Wed. She was a little concerned, having never driven on Kadena, which has actual 4 lane roads anymore than one stoplight.  So we took 2 hours to drive over there (I drove there!) and meander through the base.  She drove all over the big main rads and did great.  And it rained.  Did I mention it just won't stop raining?!!  She was awesome.  And then she felt comfortable and ready for the instructor.  She rocked that as well and has passed all of Driver's Ed and can get a SOFA license as soon as her dad takes her in.

Aaaaand, here we have silly selfies on fun filters with Rylee:

How was your Sunday Morning?!

 How was your Sunday morning?  Mine was not a very restful one.  I got the kids out to the van and it would not start. It made an ugly noise like it was being zapped. Fortunately, I am amazing. I dashed through the rain, zipped Josh's car down and jump started the van.  Then I zipped Josh's car out of the way and sloshed back to the van and we were off!  We aren't even late.  But I was rather damp and my shoes went squish-squish-squish. To make the day even better, I got to speak in church.  Oh, and I was teaching Relief Society.  Good times.

Things got even less fun when the van utterly refused to start after church.  No amount of jumping made it want to go. Our awesome friends helped troubleshoot it for us.  Karli suggested her husband Teddy could "hit the thingy with the other thingy", and he did.  I had expected some specialty tool to wack the starter, but it turned out to be a tire iron.  And it didn't work.  Nothing worked.  Teddy said it was probably the starter. So we left the van in the church parking lot till I had time to deal with it (Spoiler, it stayed there will Wednesday.)

My mad skills, getting us going.

Did I mention it was raining?  All day, every day for 2 weeks.  

But I'm okay. I got this.  I am a strong, independent woman...." 

 Did I mention how awesome Teddy is?  In his church clothes, under my van to try to get it running.  He crawled under there several times and I felt horribly guilty.

 - - - - - -

Update:
It took me 3 days before I had the time to call and wait for the tow truck.  And I waited for a break in the rain.

This does not really sow the mad skills of the tow truck driver.  He backed this truck through the narrow opening into the parking lot, off a busy road.  I was impressed!

 Then he loaded up my sad van and drove it to the shop.....
...where they told me the battery connecters were corroded and loose and that was my only problem.  I was rather bitter that it was such a stupid thing, and also rather grateful that it was such a cheap and easy fix.

Friday: the Space A adventure home

 The weekly flight from Iwakuni to Okinawa was scheduled for a 2pm showtime.   They had 16 seats listed, and there were 15 of us trying to get on.  We got there and got checked in- plenty of space for all.  I was stressed about getting the rental car returned.  I hustled over to get it checked in and then hoofed it the mile back to the terminal.  The inbound flight was due to arrive at 3pm, and I was back before then.

The plane arrived at 3:30.  In the past, they have called passengers thru security about the time the plane lands, but not this time. We waited and waited and started to wonder if maybe they were forgetting us.

They finally called us thru security around 4:30.  And we waited and waited and waited. And I had not packed snacks this time. So the kids were getting hungry.  And bored.  I finally asked the Marine at the door and she said there was a ventilation issue they were trying to fix.  Alas, it did not get fixed.  And it was in the cargo hold.  They unloaded all the pets, and forced the pet-owning families off the plane with their pets.  Then they had to dig through all the luggage to find the luggage that belonged to the 7 families that got evicted from the flight.  Yikes!

We finally boarded around 9:30.  Then we sat on the plane for another hour. Yippee.  The flight was under 90 minutes, and this time we learned that because we came from Iwakuni and did not need our passports stamped, we could skip the long line. Plus, our luggage actually came out in the first 10 minutes, so we were out of there pretty quick.  Still not home till after midnight. But hey, when you fly for free, you can't complain!!

Delaney entertained herself while we waited by adding a "please" to this sign. She felt very clever.

 Finally going out to the plane!

We got out of there so fast that Dan wasn't quite there yet. So the girls waited patiently.

Thursday: Kintai and Iwakuni Castle

We do love Kintai!  So of course we went there.  Plus, Morgan wanted some good photos of Japan, and this is a great place for that.  It was hot and we wanted to be back by lunchtime, so we didn't linger.  We took the ropeway up to the castle (rather than the mile long, very uphill hike), and perused it. Then we moseyed around and enjoyed the sights.  Callie was bitterly disappointed that there were no cats for her to love, and we did look thoroughly!

My and my favorite bridge!

 The view was lovely, as always.

 A very dark photo of Josh.

I thought this was cute, with them all looking over the bridge. 

Such a pretty bridge.  And oh, what's that at the bottom? 

Oh yes, those are my children!  They just HAD to go wade a bit. 

Posing on the bridge with the castle (almost!) in her hand.

Selfie with my crew on the bridge! 

Mushy couple at the castle. 

Me and the castle

 Delaney at the top floor of the castle, checking out the amazing view.

 Rylee with the glorious hydrangeas.

 Uh, where did this come from?!!  I left my phone in Rylee's hands and got this!

One last view of my pretty bridge. 

Of course there was ice cream. 

And a pigeon who wanted to share. 

 This goober wanted the dipping dots.  Apparently rainbow flavor is not the best.

Callie went for grape and green apple.

Guess whee we went for lunch?!! 

Sako's makes THE best BLT's. So delicious. 

And Missy, the proprietor needed a photo with us. She gave Josh another kokeshi doll to match the one she gave him on our last lunch there before we left Iwakuni 2 years ago.

And the kids really wanted to stop by the Fruit Stand for old time sake.

It was a good day!

No photos of the rest of the afternoon, but it involved visiting my favorite thrift stores and stopping by the new dessert shop.Definitely a good day!