One sweet little dog

Yep, we are fostering another dog! 

Thank goodness this one seems to be a winner! 

This is Sarah.  She is about 3 years old and has been in doggie foster care for 18 months.  She and her litter of puppies was rescued from the kill shelter in July of 2017. 

She is potty trained, kennel trained, doesn't get into trash, doesn't chew, and best of all, she doesn't mark any territory!  She is fantastic! 

 She is small and sweet and loves cuddles.

She just wants love.  Lots and lots and lots of love! 

If you stop petting her, she will paw at you to tell you to keep going. 

She gets along with Levi.  Mostly.  She's the boss and pushes him around.  Despite the fact that she's about 12 pounds and Levi is 60 pounds! 

She is fun and great.  Her only downside is that she is terrified of everything. She is getting better though, as she gets more confident in our house and in us.

A Day at the Beach

 We wanted to go out before school started, and our friends suggested going to Sand Dollar Beach on New Years Day.  So we did!  the weather was gorgeous and probably hit 70 degrees in the sun.  The water was probably closer to 65, but that did not deter some of the girls!

There was much delight with hermit crabs, and this poor guy had lost his shell.  We tried to find him a new shell, but were unsuccessful.  He was released with hope he would have more luck himself. 

Rylee got wet, but not much more than this. 

Oh yes, we brought Levi! 

He had a VERY good time! 

My little Mermaid! 

The sun was so bright it made awful shadows!  That's Marian. 

 Group photo on the cliff.

It was beautiful. 

Rylee and Marian were the only ones who really got in.  Well, our friend's little boy did tumble in deeper than he intended to, but that doesn't count! 

Yep, Marian went all the way in and swam.  She was quite successful at finding some great sand dollars.  It was a good day!

Hiji Falls!

Despite some issues, we did manage to make it ti Hiji Falls before we headed home on Saturday.

It was fantastic!

The kids had a pretty positive attitude (except for one) and they were (mostly) thrilled to enjoy the glorious beauty.

It was just about a mile hike to the Falls, but I did not tell them.   It was a gorgeous hike.  Lots of different terrain.

You could hike through the water if you wanted.  It was too cold for that and we did not want to.

But where the water trail and land trail met up, we did spend a bit of time rock hopping and playing.

They had a great time.

Much fun was had climbing all over the rocks and running around.

Dan enjoyed the antics.

Callie was in the thick of it.

Even Josh enjoyed himself!

And he posed for some photos.

The trail went up and down and the bridges were cool.

Callie wanted a picture.

I got a selfie with the kids on the suspension bridge.  That was a nifty bridge!

Did I mention the up and down?!!!  It was some serious up and down.

They made it!  Hooray!

Okay, the Falls themself may not be the most amazing thing ever.

But the hike to see it was absolutely worth it!

The hike back was even fun.  Well, fun for all but one.

 

And check it out!  The girls snagged a salamander on the hike back!  It was a fast mover, but Marian was faster. (Don't worry, he was released unharmed.)

Fun at Okuma

 Okuma is a little beach resort.  They have almost all the usual stuff.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to play golf, miniature golf or put-put golf. Well, I did, but it was too windy and gross to go do it. There were go carts and a great fitness trail.  We could not find the go carts, but we did walk part of the trail. The weather on Friday was just ugly and drizzly though.

The girls realized that the outside seating at the restaurant had these hammocks.  So they enjoyed them. 

 And they all thought it hysterically funny to stand here and wait to see if a wave would blast the side hard enough to get them wet. 

 Callie and Marian may have gotten a little saturated. But the water did not cooperate when I had the camera out!

 Delaney wanted you to know just how windy it was!

 So here she is, blowing away with Rylee!

Delaney thought it was hysterical that this cupboard was big enough to climb into.

Rylee had to try it as well.

Later I came by and thought they were done playing in it. Nope, someone was sitting in there reading on their kindle!

Hedo Point, the northernmost tip of the Island

One of my goals was to go to Hedo Point, which is the northernmost part of the island.  The kids were not thrilled, but they were content to go.  It was about 20 minutes from Okuma, so it was the coldest we were going to be to go.

It was a gorgeous drive down the shore.

This chicken statue made the trip worth it to the kids!

So yay, here we are, at the northernmost point of Okinawa!

A selfie with all the kids! Hooray!

My "I was there" selfie.

And then there was this rocky outcropping that went a bit further.  Therefore, it must be traversed.

Except it was all this awful jagged rock.  Rylee made it about this far. Delaney wisely refused to try. But you can See Callie all the way behind Rylee!

Yep. Callie and Marian went as far out as they could.  I may have been a little worried they might fall to their deaths. But I let them be strong independent women, and they successfully explored and did not die.

Josh made it out there too and here he is, posing with Marian.  Such silly kids.  But I was still a little scared.

Look how far it is, and the rocks were jagged and sharp and rough. But I let them go try hard things and I'm glad no one fell.

The other side of the Point. Such a pretty beach!

There was a giant chicken sculpture that you could see, and my GPS made it look like it was less than a mile away.  So off we went to find it. We ended up driving down this road.

And we went up another mountain and couldn't get to the chicken. And we came back down this road.

This road almost got us there, but at the end, we had to back out a bit to turn around.  We never got to the chicken.

But I did make the kids get out of the van on the way home so they could pose by the glorious water!