Okinawa Trip: Saturday

 Saturday we left the house at 6am.  We drove to the Shin station and took the Shinkansen to Fukuoka. We took the local train from the Shin statin to the airport.  We got on a plane from Fukuoka to Okinawa and rented a car there in Naha.  We drove to Camp Foster and loaded up on food, then drove out to White Beach to the cabin we were staying in.

The Shin is awesome!  It goes up to 200mph and is a sweet ride.

Big comfy seats with lots of leg room.  The girls enjoyed it. It was about a 90 minute ride (as opposed to the 3.5 hour drive!)  

Getting tickets for the local train to take us from the Shin station to the airport. 

The flight was 2 hours and Rylee was one tired cookie! 

Having a bit too much fun at the car rental office. 

Look at me!  Who'd have thought that I'd be back in Okinawa after 22 years?!! 

The kids enjoyed running around the cabin area very much. 

And we overlooked the  beach, which was pretty cool. 

We got to see a lovely sunset. 

It was much prettier in real life!

4th Grade STEM Night

 The school held a STEM night for all the 4th graders and their families.  Rylee and I were the only ones who accompanied Delaney to it though.  They had a long table filled with various materials and the task was to build a flashlight.  Riiiiiggght....

Thank goodness for Google!  I don't know if it counted as cheating, but we totally googled how to build one and then set to work.  And amazingly enough, it worked!  Well, it took a bit of finagling and it certainly would have helped to know exactly how a flashlight does work.  But we figured it out and the girls had a really great time playing around with different ways to do it.  I would call it a rousing success for us.  The girls were interested, they learned, and they problem solved.

Trying to figure out how to put things together.

Working out a container.  The water bottles were the right size for batteries, but not gfor the battery case. (Delaney used a case.  I did not.) 

Success!  It was spotty though and did not always come on.  I am trying to figure out why. 

I have 2 batteries in the tube, connected by tin foil.  The foil wasn't hitting the right spots consistently.

 She's feeling quite pleased that her flashlight works!  And worked consistently, unlike mine!

She has one battery, connecting to the light with foil and copper wire.

Rylee has claimed mine and is having a marvelous time with it. 

A little too much fun, maybe.

A Day in the Snow

 The kids had no school on that Monday, so Dan took the girls up to Megahira, one of the ski resorts about 2 hours away.  He needed snow chains to get there.  They had a marvelous day of fun and snow and sledding.  I think half the base went out there since that was all I saw on Facebook from my local friends!  Rylee was thrilled to see her friend Milly there.  A very good time was had by all.

Delaney trying out the sled. 

Callie having a blast. 

Marian needed a break.  And check it out- she did NOT wear shorts in the snow.  She put on real snow pants. 

 What the sledding mountain looked like.

Rylee and Milly! 

 They built a sweet snow fort.

Much fun was had. 

Trying to dig a tunnel through the snow.

Snow! Well, a sprinkling.

 We got a wee bit of snow.  It didn't stick to the roads, but to the lawn and cars.  Sadly, it snowed on Saturday night, and Sunday morning Dan and I both had to be at Branch Counsel, so that took off another hour of possible snow-play.   The kids were terific though. They ran around for the 30 minutes they could and then we were off.  They managed to get some fun in before we had to leave for church:

What the front yard looked like.

Josh, making a snowball while Marian scrapes enough snow from the van to make her oown. 

Callie is working on a snowman. 

It was a group project with the neighbors. 

I have no idea what Delaney was doing! 

Levi had a great time playing with his little buddy, Marshmallow. 

The completed snowman! 

And the snowman they made at church on someone's car as they waitied for Branch Counsel to end!  I love my kids!

A Night at "The Lockup"

A week or two ago we had a girls night out. I was a bit hesitant, as we were taking the train to Hiroshima and going to a place called "The Lockup".  No one knew how to describe the place, so I had some reservations.  Still, I was up to try something new, and several trusted friends were going, so on that frigid, almost-snowy evening, 11 of us moms headed out to have a good time with no children in sight.

It was quite the evening! The Lockup is a Halloween/jail themed restaurant where your table is in a jail cell and your food is haunted house fare.  Half way through dinner they lights go out and there is screaming and sirens and monsters that run down the halls and into your room.  Good times.

It did end up being a lot of fun and it was great to be able to go out with a bunch of awesome ladies. I ended up staying out later than I can recall doing in a loooong time!

Me and my friend Steph, riding the train and ready for a good time!

We have arrived!

The spooky hallways with "jail cell" dining areas.

The hostess.  She needed a volunteer to put the handcuffs on before she would take us to our table.

The menu is upside down, but totally worth the effort to look at it up close.  The pictures of dinner are fun, and the descriptions are awesome.

This was my drink.  I don't know what the eyeball was, but apparently it was edible.  I did not eat it.  The drink was cranberry juice and ginger ale.

My friend's drink was a bunch of different flavored fruit juices in test tubes with a pipette she could use to mix them in her glass.

A salad that looks like a mummy!  So cute!

I ordered the "Hash Brown Jenga"!  And it was delicious!

I also got the Dracula-killing Okonomiyaki, which was pretty good.

I was sad I did not order the flaming creme brûlée, but the description was questionable.

This was someone else's drink.  Not too appealing!

This is what you found when you went looking for the bathroom.  It nearly scared the.... well, you know... out of my friend.

Then the scary costumed people ran down the hallways and into the rooms, most people shrieked and screamed.  But not our room.  The ladies at our table jumped at the chance for selfies!