Goobers

Josh went through the box of stuff he left behind and reevaluated what he needs to keep.This etch-a-sketch sis not make the cut and the girls were thrilled to run off with it.  Rylee was obsessed with etching away all the sketch and wanted to show that she had done this.  You can't really tell, but she has erased the entire front and she was delighted to be able to see what was inside.

After leaving piles of shells and sand dollars on the porch for weeks, Marian organized it. 

I took Levi to the doggie park to hang out with my friends and their dogs.  Levi is a weirdo.  He was obsessed with the little toy poodle, who wanted nothing to do with him.  The miniature dachshund wanted to play, but Levi wanted nothing to do with her.  It was high school all over again! 

Callie practiced her french braiding skills on Rylee and Rylee wanted to know how it looked. 

The girls thought it was hysterical to put the tiki face in front of Levi. 

And I just love them! 

Someone thought she was funny and left this on my phone.  She's right, it is funny!

Adventures with Katie: Futenma Shrine

 We have lived here for over 2 years and are walking distance from the Futenma Shrine.  I know the girls have gone for Activity Days or YW, but I never have.  It gets crazy crowded at New Years, and for some reason, we decided this would be the best time to go!  Okay, really it was just a short excursion that Katie could do on her last day.  So on Jan 6 we parked by the hospital gate and walked over.

There is this building. 

Which has this cool bell, which apparently they ring a million times to welcome the new year.

 And they had all these New Years wishes hung so prettily.

We roamed and took photos.

This is the entrance to the shrine itself.

There is the Temple there and there were lines of people waiting to go in.  We did not line up or go in.

It is the year of the Rat, so this billboard was up to celebrate that. 

 We went around to see if there was more than one street food vender and I loved all the lanterns.

Katie tried the Squid.  She said it wasn't bad.

 Maybe because it was covered in delicious sauce?

Okinawa fun

We took Katie to some of our favorite Japanese thrift stores.

She did not buy the kimono but needed to try one on!

One thrift store had this sweet grandfather clock and it made me think of my dad and uncle. It made me happy.  But I don't have room for it so I did not buy it. 

We had a ton of shells and sea glass, so we made some art with it! 

The girls are SO creative!  The photo does it no justice. 

I tried my hand at a wreath.  It is a lot harder than I expected!

Such clever ideas! 

They had a lot of fun with this and I had sand and glue gun streaks on the table for days!

Adventures with Katie: Hacksaw Ridge

 Thank goodness Katie was here so I had a reason to get out of my comfort zone. Hacksaw Ridge has been on my bucket list since we moved here, but I was always too afraid to go look for it. I was intimidated by the lack of directions for other laces and I was worried about getting lost and not recognizing it.

However, as a family, we were brave!  We put "Hacksaw Ridge" into the GPS and off we went!  It sent us to a parking lot and there was a nebulous map that showed Hacksaw Ridge on it, but when we walked in what looked like the correct direction, we were wrong.  We did spend a bit of time roaming around, but that was fine, because there was lots to see.  One person was not fine with it and there may have been a minor meltdown.

We did find the right spot after touring the Urasoe Castle ruins and a sizable gravesite.  It was a very worthwhile excursion.  After all the trauma of roaming around, we did go to the park to assuage the sadness of the one.

The scenic overlook by the parking lot where we tried to figure out where we were, and how to get to where we wanted to be.

The Urasoe Castle ruins.

Katie was there!

 I love this kid so much!

My selfie with the castle.  It was destroyed during WW2 and very little remains. Still cool.

Roaming around, looking for Hacksaw Ridge.  Unfortunately, we went down. 

And then we climbed back up via these tombs.  It was a huge graveyard of tombs all across the mountainside.  I'm sorry the lighting is so dreadful, because it was pretty impressive. 

At the official Hcksaw Ridge point.

 It had it's own designation marker and info plaque.

 The nifty park.  Except the giant roller slide was out of commission and the kids were sad.

And 15 minutes was really all they needed there.

And Josh assumed his natural position until it was time to go.   

Can you spot the Marian?!!

Adventures with Katie: Snorkeling

Jan 3, we went snorkeling.  No one else wanted to come, so it was just me and Katie, which was fine. One of the coolest things about living on Okinawa is that it is surrounded by coral reefs and you can go out and snorkel almost anywhere.  We ended wetsuits and drove 15 minutes down to the Sunabe Sea Wall , and just hopped into the water.  The water was about 73 degrees, but still chilly enough to want the wetsuit!

You can see the housing right there in the background.  We did have to walk out a fair bit to get to water deep enough to swim in though.  

I got a knock off GoPro and it is suppose to have filters to correct the water color, but I have not used it enough to know how to make that happen.  So you get green/blue pictures.  You can still see the fishies though!!

 And Katie

We had a good time and saw a lot of fish and stuff. 

The fish were not close enough to get good photos, but this is the coral reef. It does look way cooler in real life! 

Katie was super-brave and had no problem diving down to check stuff out. 

That is a puffer fish!  We saw tons of them! 

I am sad I could not get photos of the cool fish and their vibrant colors.  I'll have to figure out how to work the camera better before the next time out.

 Katie being cool.

An unintentional Dab?!