A Day at the Park

 Some ladies from the Branch were going to meet at a park.  I decided to be brave and see if I could find it.  And the kids really needed to get out of the house.  So we went off on an adventure.  The good news is that we found a great park.  Bad news is it was about 1/2 mile from the park our friends were at.  We played at the big park for a bit and then managed to meet up with our friends at the other park.  It was a good morning and a lovely time was had by all.

Having fun on the wide slide.

And even more fun..... 

This the Urasoe  Park.  Pretty cool, isn't it!

Rylee is a crazy driver! 

There were 100 preschoolers at the park and about 15 of them were on the roller slide park.   

Delaney finally got a turn. 

It was a good slide. 

 It was great... until they caught up with the preschoolers.  

It is hard to go fast when you have little kids in front. 

When that happened, they just turned around and tried to roll backwards back up the slide.  So a good time was had. 

 Climbing structures are always a hit.

And then Rylee says, "Take a picture of me!"

It's not Christmas till the Cookies

 The kids had the entire week before Christmas off of school.  It was nice.  Sort of.  I was not feeling well for half of it.  But we did manage to make gingerbread cookies!  These kids are awesome.  They don't just slap a little frosting on.... no, each cookie must be a masterpiece. We did use a lot of frosting.  But they had a marvelous time and made some amazing cookies.

Delaney worked very hard.

Marian was disgusted that I only had these sprinkles to use for decorating.  So she got creative. 

My sweet Rylee. 

 Callie worked diligently.  

Even Josh got in on the action. 

He produced this masterpiece and then ate it. 

Delaney was particularly proud of this "Patrick SeaStar". 

Some of their delightful creations.  (Apparently oreos can be used for a wide array of decorating purposes!) 

Even Percy wanted to help. 

But he wasn't much help.

You know you love the doggie pictures!

Just a girl and her puppy. 

Percy cracks me up.  He just backs into Levi till he can't back up any more, and then he sits.

Taking a drive.... with two dogs on Callie's lap.

Percy is getting so big, and he's getting that little ear up!

We keep taking pictures because we want to entice a nice family to adopt him and cute photos help!

Little bit of wrestling.   

And Percy makes himself comfy on Levi. 

Two cute dogs. 

The girls put the mermaid tail on top of the toys in this basket and Percy decided it was a bed for him! 

Look at this sweet face!

The Beach

 Josh had an assignment for English class.  He had a Thoreau paper to write and he was suppose to spend time in a noisy, high traffic area, and then spend time in a quiet place.  We dropped him off at a busy store and them went shopping ourselves. We picked him up and then headed to the beach.  He got his solitude while the girls and I played.  I confess though, we picked a poor day for the beach!  It was COLD!  It was windy and chilly. But this is Araha Beach.

There is this cool play area that the girls enjoyed.

 It had this sweet Zip line.

They enjoyed it very much! 

Look at me!  I'm at the beach! 

The girls were even willing to pose for me. 

Of course, there were trees, so they must be climbed. 

I love this girl! 

And Rylee hammed it up a little for me. 

I thought Callie and Delaney were cute here.  It was pretty.  Just cold.

Why Okinawa is a little bit cool.

So this happened.  We got Josh a car.  I know, crazy.  And if we were in the USA, he probably wouldn't have one at all till he bought it.  But here.... This bad boy was a total of $500.  $500 for the convenience of having him pick up the kids from school and not having to coordinate cars so he can go to the gym, yes please! 

This particular vehicle is a Honda Zest!  It is a small lightweight Japanese car with about 2 gerbils under the hood.  Josh said when he had 3 girls in the car it was struggling to make it up the hill.  Heh heh heh.  No speeding for him!

And as I drove home from the commissary I had a real treat!  Helos on the Field!  Props going and everything! 

I was all excited thinking this was a 46, but alas, it was not. It was still cool to see it.