Lunch Date

Dan and I have been going out to lunch once a week lately.  I took him off base and out to Sako's the other day, and introduced him to the best BLT's ever.  I was happy with the BLT with avocado, but Dan added the cheese and egg to his.  I was not sure he was going to be able to fit it all in his mouth!  He did, and lunch was delicious!  Mmmmmm.... now I want to go again!

Halloween

 I am a horribly horrible Halloween slacker.  I am sorry.  I just don't care enough about it and we and up running around at the last minute so I never get any pictures.  This year we did costumes for the base Boo Bash.  It was Wednesday before Halloween.   Joshua went as his obscure video game character "The Scout".  Marian and Callie were black-cloaked figures and the little 2 were cats.  The 3 older kids wore the same thing for Halloween, but Delaney switched to a "Flamenco Dancer" based on a make-it-yourself costume book. Ryle went as the same cowgirl she was last year.  All had a good haul of candy and they have been steadily working their way through it all.

Rylee at the Boo Bash when I suddenly realized I ought to get a picture.

My 2 kitties.  Delaney was more interested in her candy. 

Riley is showing me how a cat licks it's paw.  She was so funny. 

Cotton candy.  Yum! 

Joshua didn't like my pictures so he took a selfie of his costume. 

His whole costume.  He was pleased.

Callie likes Cats

 For Activity days a week or so ago the girls got to hike the path up to the Iwakuni Castle.  The castle and the hike were not the most interesting part for Callie.  The cats roaming the area were the most exciting part of the trip for her. She found a few that were friendly and quickly named them and wanted to keep them. I'm pretty sure the one cat would have been quite happy to go home with us!

Happy Doggie

 I feel very blessed to have some great friends here.  Recently one of them was away and in an area with more shopping opportunities than we have.  An offer was extended to obtain such things as we could not acquire in Iwakuni.  I mentioned that rawhide bones for Levi were not available here.  I was delighted that upon his return, he delivered a giant bone for Levi.  Levi was even more delighted than I was.

Levi carried his  bone around for a while before deciding to start on it.  He was a happy boy!

He was so happy with it he even took his naps with it.

Yasaka Dam

 Tuesday October 13 was a no-school day.  We decided it was time to go out and do something.  In the interest of full disclosure, it was a toss up for me as to whether there was going to be mass hair-pulling and screaming.  When the kids got up that morning I said we were going either to 3 Falls or the Yasaka Dam, whichever one was closer and Dan wanted to drive to. Dan chose the Dam.  Callie whined that she wanted to do 3 Falls.  Delaney cried that she didn't want to have to do any hiking.  Joshua said why was this the first he was hearing of this (It definitely wasn't!).  Marian whined that she just wanted to stay home.  It was getting ugly.

I told them all that we were going whether they wanted to or not.  I grabbed some snacks and filled water bottles and said yes to bringing Levi.  And we drove off.

It was about n hour drive to the dam.  And there was a lot to it, kind of like spider legs creeping out from the dam.  We drove till we reached a spot that looked useful, and checked out the map there.  Then we drove to another area and finally on to a third.  The view was lovely.  We enjoyed the event, despite the rough start.  Levi had a marvelous time and we did do a bit of hiking and it was nice.

A map showing where things were.  But alas, all in Japanese.

Callie was delighted to bring the dog. And he was delighted to sniff new smells and pee on new shrubs. 

Ryle just wanted to pose.  You can't see, but the rock is covered with Japanese writing. 

I was getting a tad nervous as we spent 10 minutes driving through roads like this. 

See that red bridge?  That was the first stop we made and we ended up making a giant loop!  But it is pretty, right?!

And more of this.

And we stopped at the dam (before walking and then driving over it.) 

All my minions. 

There were a LOT of stairs, and we climbed a bunch of them. 

Marian found this praying mantis, and everyone had to touch it. 

Ryle held it.... till it scrabbled up her arm, and there was some shrieking and leaping. 

Rylee sneaking into Callie and Levi's picture! 

So pretty! 

Rylee was afraid to walk through the tall grasses without an escort. 

Callie thoroughly enjoyed the bushwalking aspect. 

Joshua was unenthusiastic, but a pretty good sport. 

Can you spot the Callie?! 

 We hiked a bit down towards the bottom of the dam, but we couldn't get too close.  So the kids posed in front of the dam for me.

And they climbed this retaining wall. 

And Rylee posed some more cute poses. 

We wore Levi out!  He had a marvelous time.  The weather was beautiful and glorious.  But after running around in his shaggy coat, he was hot and tired, so he took a break.