December 27, 2008

Comprehensive Park in Okinawa City

The second park we went to today was awesome! Definitely a park we will be heading back to soon. In the few hours we were there, we just saw a fraction of the park- it is huge.
There are miles of running and biking trails (including marked 3K, 4K & 5K courses), a track, a stadium, a carp pond, water slides& water park, paddle boats, miniature golf playgrounds, tennis courts, picnic areas....so much!

Our first stop was eating our picnic lunch. We felt like giants- all the tables (and other seating too) were LOW to the ground.

After playing football and Frisbee in the big open field we went through this torii gate

and checked out the carp. We didn't see any of the turtles, but LOTS and lots of carp! There were a couple of families feeding the carp so we hung around and watched.

They come right up- David was even able to touch one. They were almost cute as they begged...

but at the same time they are a bit freaky- they open their mouths really wide and make weird sucking noises...a little eerie sounding! I am hoping I don't have nightmares from that sound...




Next time we are going prepared with popcorn or bread to feed the fish (apparently you can also buy food from machines there too).

We followed the trail up over two bridges and found this in the middle of the tail. Looks like a sundial and compass.



This playground was wonderful- we had a great time climbing on this rope jungle gym. It was huge!








the trail we were on T'ed into a trail following along the coast line. These benches were sheltered by huge "oyster shells"- pretty wild looking.

By now the sun was setting and we called it a day. Heading back to the car we stopped by some soda machines to check out some of the different sodas- there were several we had not seen before. You just can't believe all the choices you have here for drinks out of vending machines! As I said before, the boys claim this is their favorite thing about Okinawa. We loved the look of these three...unfortunately we couldn't try them as we only had 90 Yen and a 500 Yen coin, and the machine would not take the 500 yen coin for some reason.

Wrestling

December Wrestling

Kubasaki Vs. Kadena

Matt wrestled a couple of matches against Kadena wrestlers in scrimages. In this match, Matt dominated and won with a pin in the first round.





Matt's teammates helping him get ready to step onto the mat for his match.





Camp Kinser Wrestling Tournament

Camp Kinser was the first MCCS Tournament Matt wrestled in. The boys wrestled against active duty service members. Little intimidating to watch our young boys wrestling against these tattooed guys...but the guys they wrestled were great about adjusting their wrestling level to who they were wrestling. In several of the matches, the boys ended up wrestling team mates.










Camp Courtney Wrestling Tournament

Sunday, December 21, Matt wrestled at the Camp Courtney Wrestling Tournament. Weigh in was from 7:00-8:00 AM so we had an early start to the day. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take us to get there (it can take an hour with afternoon traffic, but knew a Sunday morning shouldn't be too bad...) so we left at 6:45 am to allow plenty of time. It ended up being a quick trip- just a half hour door to door. Matt got registered and weighed in- then was finally able to eat his breakfast he brought with him.

Courtney put on a great Tournament- beautiful crystal awards as well as ipods for 1st through 3rd! The boys (from the Kubasaki Wrestling team) were so excited. They also supplied tons of bottled Gatorade, apples, bananas, oranges, granola bars and box of box of different "100 Calorie" snacks. What a spread!

Matt wrestled two matches in the 185 lb weight class. He did really well on the first one, but lost by points. The guy he wrestled was a tough competitor- he had wrestled two weight classes last week (they allow them to "wrestle up" if they wish).
On his second match he was pinned- this guy went on to place second.

Four of the wrestling team went with home with ipods- by placing in the top three (which in some weigh classes is easy- one of the boys didn't even have to wrestle...he was the only one in his weight class- made his whole week to walk out with an $150 ipod! He ended up wrestling up in the next weigh class so he could at least wrestle, and did great.

January is a busy month for wrestling- they have a MCCS tournament the first weekend, the next weekend Matt travels to mainland Japan for "Beast of the East", then the Okinawa-American Friendship Wrestling Tournament at Kadena, Kadena vs. Kubasaki (straight high school verse high school match) and finally "Rumble on the Rock" the 29-30th. Whew!!

"Santas" of Christmas Past....

How Time Flys By...

Every year we take pictures with Santa...our own personal Santa that is.
Mike and I found Santa our first Christmas together after we were married...which means he is now 20 years old (can that really be right? Yikes)! One look at him and we knew we had to get him. Even then we shopped at Costco (although it was Price Club back then) and this is were we found him- the flagship store in San Diego.
We have taken pictures of Santa with the boys every year... all the way back to when Matt was just 4 months old and about the same size as Santa. Since all of those print photos are in storage back in the states, I can't share them with you. I do, however, have some more recent photos...some with Santa, and some not, but all a trip back through time.
Check them out....

Here is last year, 2007. Boys don't look too different other than Matt's braces.







Back to 2006....a definite difference here.
All the way back to 2005....Was this only three short years ago? My sweet adorable elves.And back still further to 2004- only four years ago and they look like such babies!
Time surely does fly by, even when we think we're looking, it just passes us by in the blink of an eye. I know the boys cringe when I pull out the camera (and they're begging me to pull these photos off here!), but I wouldn't give up a single photo of my little angels for anything! So grab your cameras and snap away- you'll be glad you did! :)

December 25, 2008

Our First Christmas in Okinawa

Mike worked Christmas day, so we had our Christmas at night, It was pure torture for the boys to look at all the presents and stuffed stockings all day, and not be able to touch!
I did let Matt and David each open one- but in some ways I think that made it even worse. Ty enjoyed opening one of his presents (a new bandanna)...and he was ready to keep going too!

The boys and I had a leisurely morning- just relaxing and kicking back for the most part. Matt went to the gym and I took Ty for a nice long run and got back just before it started to rain. It was in the 60's today, but at least the rain and clouds made it seem more like Winter and Christmas. We had a late lunch and after I did all the prep for our Christmas dinner we headed out to Jusco and the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" at 4:00 pm. Not too bad of a movie- not exactly a holiday movie, but there weren't exactly a lot of choices.

Mike was home by 6:30PM and the boys were able to go through their stockings. "Santa" had put in all kinds of cool things...like this Jolt gum (looks like Matt already had a piece) and Garden Lemon Tea...our favorite drink here in Okinawa.






Ahhhh...technology invades. Quit texting your friends, Matt, and open your gifts!

David was thrilled with his Tech Decks (finger skate boards). He received a bunch of decks, parts and ramps. We also got him a Razor Scooter- David is excited to give it a try while doing the paper route.



Matt and David opening present from Santa...a very cool remote control car!

Matt's big gifts were shoes (but of course!)- Wrestling shoes and Air Force One's.



Mike reacts to his new T-shirt.


You're in Steeler Country now, Folks!! The guys are dressed and ready for the Superbowl...











LeAnn sent Matt a bear- complete with an Anacortes Letterman's jacket.
David played photographer and took a few pictures of Mike and I- thanks Dave!

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all our Family and Friends.

May today be filled with many blessings for each and every one of you.

Ty is getting an early start on opening presents... the rest of us are all waiting until Mike gets off work after 6:00Pm on Christmas night.

Scout Camp-out

Kin Blue Beach

This weekend the guys camped with the Troop up at Kin Blue Beach, just outside of Camp Hansen. Beautiful location where the boys got to camp right above the beach- the sound of the soft waves on the shore lulling them to sleep.

They met up at the scout hut at 4:30 in on Friday afternoon and after loading all the Troop gear they were on the road by 5:15. I drove up with the Troop- just to drop off and come home. We took the Expressway up- the first time Mike and Matt have been on the Expressway here in Okinawa...it's almost like driving in the states! Got all the way up to 100 KM per hour- which is about 62 MPH(shhhh! Speed limit is 80KM- but even the locals don't drive that slow!)

By the time we got to Kin Blue it was almost full dark. We pulled the cars together and left the headlights on for the boys to set up camp. Matt and David didn't know what to make of THAT....they're used to hiking in to the camp sites, then setting up by headlamps of it was already dark. I stayed for awhile to watch the fun, then bugged out for home.

Mike gave me a call Saturday morning and I asked how everyone was doing. "Okayyyy...". Humm...what does that mean? "Well, I woke up at midnight power puking...threw up all night." Ouch! He was just glad no one had been tenting with him. So Mike had a rough night throwing up and dry heaving. He had planned on going on the hike with the boys, but he ended up opting out of the and tried to catch some of the sleep he didn't get the night before.

I had to wait around the house Saturday morning for some movers to pick up our couch we sold but after they came around 11am I hit the road to head back up to the campsite. When I arrived Mike was still trying to get some sleep. I was sneaky and snapped off a few shots before he woke up.
The scouts were still out on their 10 mile hike so I had a few minutes to play around and take pictures. Ended up ducking back out to a Family Mart to find some Sprite like soda for Mike. It was hard to find the signs for the Family Mart...I almost missed it (NOT!) That huge sign on top of the building was pointing to the Family Mart directly across the street...which had another sign almost as big in the parking lot. Guess they don't want anyone to miss them! Notice the sign includes the fact that they have toilets!

I passed the scouts coming back from their hike on my way back in.












This is where the boys pitched their tents.



Standing at the campsite and looking North along the coast.I joined the troop for the last mile of the hike (they had only hiked 9 miles and needed to do 10 miles for it to qualify for the Hiking Merit Badge). We walked up one of the service roads and then back along the beach.
Matt stayed behind to keep watch on the camp site...This was a huge leaf from an Elephant Ear Plant. The leaf must have been at least 2 feet across. The light was catching it just so- it was just glowing in the shadows.




On the walk back along the beach, I filled my pockets with shells and sea glass...just couldn't resist! The beaches here are usually usually a mix of coarsely crushed shells and coral.

The scouts had a chance to play around at the beach while they were gathering drift wood for the camp fire. The water was so clear!














As we were leaving Marine Security stopped by to check on everything. His dog was HUGE-and a total sweetie, He told us he was young still. I asked how much he would weigh full grown- maybe 200 pounds? He said the grand sire had been 240 lbs, the sir 280 lbs...and this guy was the largest of his litter. Can you image a dog almost 300 pounds??? Yikes! We visited with the puppy dog a big...and got drooled on a lot!

A New Endeavor

Paper Route

At the beginning of December the boys have begun a new endeavor...a paper route! (As if they don't have enough to do)

They were asked to take the route by the Stars and Stripes (our paper here). I had been in email contact with gentleman in the circulation department, Scott, in regards to our current subscription and the fact that we were rarely receiving our paper. After finding out about Matt and David he asked if they might be interested if a route ever opened up. Lo and behold, not long afterwards our route became available. The boys jumped at the chance to make a little spending money, and since they both wanted to do it they are sharing the route. So far it's working out...but a big responsibility to get the paper out 7 days a week in the time window they give you (the papers arrive between 4 and 6PM and they want them delivered by 7:00PM).
The regular route doesn't take long (only 18 houses, including ours), but Thursdays seem to take forever! Every Thursday they deliver an extra 100+ papers- a free "Stripes" issue that is put out...and all of those have to be rolled and put in bags (to hang on the door knobs) too. The first Sunday of the month they also have a huge delivery- The Sunday issue goes free to the 100+ homes and since they are thick papers they are difficult to put in the plastic bags.

One battle they have...keeping Ty away from the papers! He seems to think they are delivered to HIM and he keeps trying to give them to us so he can have a cookie. He will even take them straight off the pile of unfolded papers...rotten dog! :)
In the picture above he was just beside himself...so many papers and we wouldn't let him have any of them!

It will be interesting to see how it goes. Their customers have been very appreciative of receiving their paper everyday (unlike the sporadic service from the previous carrier).
The last two days Matt driven the route while David ran the papers to the doors. Actually takes longer to do it that way, but Matt is loving the fact that he can DRIVE! The first day he drove off I had to resist the urge not to go stand out on the hill and watch him drive around...it wasn't easy! :) Hard watching our babies spread those wings and fly...