Ty

Ty has been enjoying the cooler weather we have been having- and begs to be let out to laze in the sun. He loves to lay on the front lawn and look out over surrounding area. Of course, he also loves the fact that the neighborhood kids come to visit him!

In the photo, Alani (in pink and black) and Sami (in blue) were taking turns brushing Ty. He was in Heaven!!

Ty has adopted our neighbors- Rebecca, Ryan, Indira and Izzie. Whenever they are sitting out in front, he goes right over and makes himself at home- usually sitting on Rebecca's feet. They are nice enough to let him stay out with them if we have to leave...all Ty has to do is look at us with those sad puppy dog eyes when we call him in- "You want me to go INSIDE and be alone, instead of staying out here with people's feet to sit on and children to feed me sticks and pet me??" Ty loves the attention and we are very lucky to have neighbors who enjoy him (even if he does litter up their front lawn with bits of chewed up sticks and palm fronds!).

Life is Good- Just Busy!

I know, I know! I am WAY WAY behind on blogging! I apologize, but too busy with wrestling and football right now to keep up on our own photos...

Matt's wrestling season has wrapped up- here are a few photos from his Wrestling Banquet, which was tonight. Can you believe how grown up he looks?? I sure can't. Coach Chumley is on the left, Coach Bobby on the right. Great pair of coaches. Matt received his Varsity letter for wrestling, which he was very excited about. Now he is really going to be bugging us about that Letterman's Jacket to put it on!

The banquet was held at the Globe and Anchor and was very nice. All the wrestlers were asked to wear slacks and ties- and they did! They all looked so handsome. Matt had to go buy slacks AND Dress shoes- he didn't have any...which is amazing considering how many clothes/shoes that child has. He actually went shopping at the BX by himself- and found a great pair of slacks on sale for only $10 and a pair of dress shoes marked down to $10- that's my boy! Scary when your child is actually clothes shopping without you (although he has much better taste then I do, fashion challenged that I am!)

Until I looked at this photo, I really did not realize how much taller Matt had gotten...Mike is looking downright short these days. (You have to overlook David's hair...he had come straight from football practice and had "Helmet Hair")
And no, we won't discuss how short I am feeling these days! The next picture speaks for itself...but just so you know, David IS standing on his toes to look taller!!
For a Wrestling fund raiser, I am putting together picture cd's of the wrestlers- their entire season in pictures. Most of the boys ordered them- and I'm going to be busy busy finishing up on those. Sorting a few thousand photos into individual files then color correcting and cropping as needed. But hey, who needs sleep anyway?? Ended up with some great action shots of the boys- learned a lot along the way too.

David's football season is in full swing- they've had two games now. Sunday I did the team photos- here is David's.

I 'm the official photographer for the Okinawa Youth Football League (doesn't that sound glorified?? LOL!) and it is keeping me busy (as if the wrestling photos weren't!).

I promise I will get caught up on the blog- it will just be a little while before I do. This weekend the boys are camping up at Torii Station for the Boy Scout Jamborette. The Jamborette will be both American Scouts as well as Japanese scouts. Should be fun! Mike is going too. I am not camping over, but will be driving them up Friday night, visiting on Saturday, then picking them up before heading to football in Sunday.

More to come:

Mike and I's Day of Play
Far East Wrestling
David's First Football Game
David's Second Football Game

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 4

The Beach at Sunset

As the day was drawing to a close, we finally decided to head for home. Little did we realize that half of Okinawa must have decided the same thing at the same time. We got into Nago and sat in traffic...seemingly forever! Felt like we were back in downtown LA on the 405 or coming through Seattle at 5pm. After I thought about it, it made sense...there were several festivals up in that area of Okinawa and Sunday night is apparently a heavy traffic time anyway. Traffic finally cleared up after the turn off for the Express Way- whoo hoo! open road ahead!

On the plus side, the fast approaching sunset promised to be a beautiful one. I debated pulling over but had pretty much decided just to push on for home as it would be too hard to pull off (if you live here you realize what I mean- not always easy to find somewhere to stop). Just as I made up my mind, fortune smiled on me (and frowned on the boys...well, Matt at least!)- I was stopped in traffic for a red light and low and behold, there was an entrance to a actual parking lot on the beach! And traffic was clear to pull across into it! I whipped into the parking lot amid Matt's groans of "Why are we stopping??". David cheerfully got out with me and we walked down to the beach...Matt opted to stay in the car (again!).

David and I spent a wonderful 20 minutes playing at the water's edge watching the sun go down.

David found this neat "Heart Rock". We brought it home to put in our Shell Garden (next to our walkway we have part of the flowerbed filled with sand and this is where we put our sea shells, sea glass and interesting rocks we find).







The sun had set and our wandering was done for the day. Next stop- home and dinner!

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 3

The Churaumi Aquarium

Next stop on our day of wandering, and our original destination, the Churaumi Aquarium. The Aquarium is located about 1 1/2 hours north of us and sits right on the East China Sea. The buildings are beautiful- very striking architecture.

David and I had been to the Aquarium during a school field trip, but this was the first time for Matt (Mike has still not been...that work think just keeps getting in the way of having fun!). The indoor part of the Aquarium itself is huge and you have to pay to get in (well worth it- it is AMAZING!) . However, there is enough outside, which is free of charge, to keep you busy for hours. Since Mike was not along and it was so late in the day, we opted just to wonder outside.

Right now there is a Flower Festival going on, so there are glorious flowers everywhere! These stairs lead from the parking areas down to the main parts of the Aquarium and park. There were designs made out of the flowers, all so carefully arranged. The boarders were living flowers, but all the flowers in the middle were cut. The mama bird and baby bird were neat- the little girl in the picture loved them too. Our first order of business- lunch (it was after 3:30 and we had not eaten yet). We had packed a picnic lunch so we decided to eat while we watched the Dolphin show. While we waited for the show to start, Matt actually went back to the car for his jacket. In the sun it was nice- but in the shade, being blasted with the wind it was down right chilly.

The Dolphin show was fun and featured several different kinds of dolphins. The main feature of the show were the False Killer Whales. They did a lot of interacting with the trainers.
In this photo I'm not sure if he was sticking out his tongue at us...or playing dead! Since all the announcing was in Japanese, we weren't sure.

The stars of the show where these guys- the Common Dolphin They definitely had the WOW! factor with their incredibly high jumps (and personally, I thought the False Killer Whales looked just a tad sinister!)

After the dolphin show we saw the sea turtles. The breed several different kinds of turtles there at the aquarium and we got to see adults as well as babies. You can view them from the top, then go downstairs and see them under the water. Next best thing to diving with them.

Since I take such great delight in dragging the boys around, we had to check out this little beach. We kicked around for a bit. I made them pose for some pictures then turned them loose to play. The had a blast throwing rocks into the water (do boys EVER outgrow this??)Here is Matt putting his shoes back on as we left the beach. The story behind the photo- he was giving me a hard time about taking pictures of EVERYTHING "We're at the beach- let's take a picture. Oh, hey, he's putting on his shoes- lets take a picture!" Since he was being such a smarty pants I just stood there and took pictures the whole time he put on his shoes- me laughing and him grumbling the entire time.

Hey, anyone want a soda?? Pick a machine, any machine! (just a note here- Matt does not have his hand on David just being nice...he is actually pushing him away from the soda machines so he can't check out what kinds there are).
The boys discovered their new favorite drink- Melon Cream Soda. I am not much of a melon person, but it is surprisingly good.

Matt was uncooperative for pictures after the shoe incident, so David was the only one agreeable to pose in the pictures of this cool dragon like guy (Thank you David!).

Another fantastic feature at the Aquarium is the net play area. This statue is right outside the entrance to the nets.The nets cover a huge area and are very popular (and definitely not something you will find in the states since the potential for injury- ie: lawsuit- is there).Unfortunately, the play area is for children 12 and under...although Matt tried to play, but I made him get off. No way he can pass for 12- especially around all those little Okinawan kids. David had a blast jumping from net to net- we had to drag him away. I will admit to being jealous- looked like ton of fun and I would have been out there in a heart beat!

For some obscure reason, David was really taken with the walking escalator ramp and wanted his picture taken as he came up.

Last stop of the day: The Beach at Sunset

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 2

Manzamo Point

Our next stop along the way was a surprise find. Matt had asked to stop at the next restroom so I was on the lookout for somewhere to stop. My first attempt of finding a beach (and hopefully a restroom) was short lived- there was a locked gate right off the road.

The next sign I saw looked promising- big white sign with blue Japanese writing. I saw something "Point", threw on the blinker and took the turn. The parking area was just a bit down the road and as we pulled in we were amazed to see Tour buses even! There were vendors on either side of the parking area, wonderful bathrooms, and soda machines (of course!). The twist to these soda machines- one of them sold BEER! Can you imagine a Beer vending machine just out in a parking lot in the States? Don't think so! David wanted to know if he could buy one- "just because". (we didn't)

We wandered through the vendors and discovered some wonderfully tasteful donuts (not sure WHAT they actually were, but we'll go with donuts). They were so good (and fresh and hot) that we bought two, then bought two more on our way out. Here is Matt telling the vendors which ones we want (they had three different flavors- all yummy)

After going through the parking lot a trail lead out into an open area then along some bluffs. The view was amazing! There was a stiff breeze coming off the water which put a chill in the air, but it was magnificent.



The blue of the water was so vivid.

As the trail wound a bit north and made a loop (the whole trail is probably only a 1/4 mile or less) you could see the coast to the north (where we were heading to the aquarium).

As it turned back towards the parking lot you could look into this cove. From what I can tell from the map, it is looking towards Onna Village.I don't know what the purpose of the rope between the two rocks- but I loved it!Our own little blue bird of happiness...

We checked out the vendors of the other side of the parking lot as we came back. Same exact stuff that the other vendors tents had! The thing that struck me as odd was that it appeared to be lots of individual vendors...but each one sold almost exactly the same things...arranged in exactly the same manner. A group of three Okinawian ladies visited with us. They commented (using broken English and lots of sign language) on how big Matt's shoulders were and how big and strong he looked. They asked if he did weight lifting. We told him "Yes, a little, but he wrestles right now." The weren't sure about the "wrestling" part until we mimed the wrestling stance "Oh, Hai!!" Sounds funny, but what comes to mind to describe them is "they were twittering like little birds", smiling and nodding. Matt was horribly embarrassed to be the center of such attention.

A Day of Wandering with the Boys- part 1

Sunday, January 15, 2008

Today I drug the boys out and about. Of course, they couldn't wait to go! (yeah, right!)

The final destination I had in mind was the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. It took us a bit to get on the road and going. We had to stop and exchange American money for Yen and got waylaid at the little clothing store next to the Exchange. Little shop, but lots of cool clothes, hats and belts (for the boys). Then onto Kadena to top off the gas tank and, finally, we were off!

We only made it about 5 minutes up the road before I had to pull over. After seeing the hearse parked along the side of 58 I just had to stop and take a picture. The Japanese Hearses are a bit different than their American counter parts...as you can see here. Quite the work of art! Believe it or not, this is not one of the more ornate ones (the picture at the top is the very front of the hearse).
Here is some information on funerals in Okinawa that was posted on Okinawa Hai:

Having been to a few Okinawan funerals, there are a few other differences I observed.

Firstly, public signs are put up on the streets to `advertise` that there was a death and give directions to the deceased home for people to come pay their respects.
At the funeral, as with weddings, it is customary to offer money in a special envelope to the deceased persons family (usually 1000yen, in old notes to show you were unprepared for the death, new notes are for weddings). In return you will usually receive a token gift (a towel, candy, cake, rice).
All the mourners wishing to pay their respects will complete a brief ritual at a alter of sorts (at the cremation center) which contains incense, and picture of the deceased. The family is usually seated and you pay your respects to them too. In my experience there isn't a service/reading that people attend like western funerals.
The family of the deceased are obliged to carry out many other rituals when a person in their house dies; some of these are repeated for up to 12 months or more. Furthermore, people in mourning usually refrain from attending joyous events such as weddings and parties for the next 12 months.
These are just things that i`ve observed so I'm sure some are wrong or incorrect, but that's the basic premise. Posted by: Kate

We made it another 5 or 10 minutes down the road before I was again compelled to stop. This time the stop was a parking lot alongside a bridge. I have always admired the sign along the side of the bridge (photo on the right with the cherry tree behind it), so what better time to stop and take a look? (especially since i had to stop for a red light- it was meant to be!) The sign on the left was one of two in the parking lot- I have no idea what it says, but thought it was beautiful!

I was pleased to find that there is a wonderful path that runs along the stream. There were some shires on the far side. David walked down a ways with me before going back to the van. Matt decided to stay at the van (fuddy duddy that he is!). While they waited for me to get back, he and David played football.

Up on the hill side, deep in the trees, was a man-made shelter. It looked to be a cave that someone walled off by weaving palm fronds- it was complete with a door and everything (the black area in the middle is where the door was). Looked very cozy! There was a man up there- but I hesitated too long to take a picture so he isn't in it.

Part II- Manzamo Point

Part III- Churaumi Aquarium

Part IV- A Glorious Sunset to End the Day

SUPER BOWL XLIII

Steelers Win!!

What a close game!! I don't think Mike was breathing most of the 4th quarter.SuperBowl Okinawa style was a bit different as the game started at 8:20 AM here. The boys had begged and pleaded for the last week- "can we PLEASE watch the game??" and we did decide to let them stay home and watch...after all, it was the Steelers!! (I took them in to school as soon as the game ended). From what we heard, a lot of the high school teachers actually play the game during class- but Matt didn't think the teachers he had would do that.

There are a LOT of Steeler Fans here, so lots of people looking forward to the game. Many places on base had SuperBowl parties this morning, but we opted to stay home since we let the boys stay home. Beautiful morning for SuperBowl watching...sunny and 73 degrees.

Camping with the Scouts

TORII BEACH CAMP OUT

David went camping with the Boys Scout Troop out to Torii Beach the weekend of January 16-18. He has camped many times with Boy Scouts, but this was his first camp out without Mike along (Mike usually camps with the Scouts as one of the adult leaders). Since Mike had to work on Friday and Matt was wrestling on Saturday, he decided to pass on this camp out. David was not too thrilled that he would be "by himself", but he decided to tough it out.

The scouts gathered at the Scout Hut Friday afternoon and were on the road by 5:30PM. We allowed David to take his cell phone as a comfort (they do not usually allow phones/electronics to go). Sure enough, about bed time we got a teary call from David. "Can't sleep", "Other Scouts too loud", "The others won't go to bed"...in other words, "Mom and Dad, I miss you!". We stayed positive, gave our love and kisses over the phone, and hung up... and Mom felt her heart break a little!
David did call in the morning- having a great time and they were heading out on their 10 mile hike "Love ya, bye!!". From what we heard, it was a beautiful hike through Torii Station and up to some castle ruins. How cool is that to hike to castle ruins???

Mike, Matt and I went up Sunday morning to pick David up. They had had perfect weather for the camp out- warm and sunny with very little wind. The camping area there is RIGHT on the beach- very pretty. Here are a couple of photos of the beach in front of the camping area. I am not sure what the stakes sticking our of the water are...maybe they harvest seaweed out there or something.

Later, we heard from the scout master, Walt, a funny story. For dinner on Saturday night, the boys were going to cook meatballs and rice to put in tortillas (this is a meal Matt learned from his Anacortes troop, and it has quickly become a favorite in this troop). David was assigned the task of cooking the meatballs. As he gets things set up, David whips out his cell phone. Walt asks him what he is doing. "I'm calling Matt to see how to how to make the meatballs!". Walt laughed. "I think we can figure this out- put away the phone!"
Mike and I got a chuckle from that. David has helped prepare this meal lots of times- yet felt he had to call his brother to make sure he was doing it right.

So our "Baby" survived his first "solo" camp out. Sigh. Just another step along the way of growing up...