Okinawa Trip: Sunday

 Sunday morning we were up and out the door at 8.  With traffic, it is an hour to get to Camp Foster, so we wanted plenty of time to get to 9am church.  But there was no traffic on Sunday morning!  We had more than enough time, so we swung through Camp Foster to drive by the schools.

Then we drove to church.  Wow!  Everything is so different than it was 22 years ago!  But the church is the same.  I don't remember it being that big though.  It was neat to see these places, even though I recall very little about them.  There was a Linger-longer after church and we were invited to stay, so we did so with great delight.

After a lovely lunch we went back to our cabin at White Beach and several of us went down to walk along the gorgeous beach.  It is soothing to the soul, I have decided.  And it gave a glorious sunset.

Adam and Miranda- did you go to Zukeran?! 

Here I am, at my old High School!Who'd have thought?!  Kubasaki looks..... I don't know!  I think I have blocked the memory, but it looks the same and very different.  

I did sneak a picture inside the chapel.  I miss having real pews. 

Me, at the front of the chapel I use to go to. 

The much more familiar back entrance to the church. 

Down at the beach, with Callie posing on the rock. 

And Marian must do it too. 

She cracks me up! 

Callie and Rylee. 

Dan and Rylee. 

Callie made a friend. 

It was very cute. And a little shy. 

Rylee wanted to bring it home. 

We found this on the beach and HAD to poke at it. 

It was a very long (dead) snake. 

So pretty!  And can you see that speck in the sky?  A helocpotor flew over. 

Delaney had much fun practicing her gymnastics on this balance beam. 

These two make me laugh.  

And a dazzling gift from God.  I love it.

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!