Last Week

Between 5:30 and 6pm every day, Spencer looks out our kitchen window and says something along the lines of, "It looks like we're going to have an awesome sunset. Should I get out the camera?" Since we're still learning the ropes of taking good pictures with our camera, they always just turn out ok. But on one particular evening he also intermittently took these cute ones of Sydney walking in the ditch, a popular play spot for the kids on "the hill."

The weather here can turn on a dime. I'll check the forecast at night, then it will be totally different in the morning. More often than not, a sunny day will all of a sudden turn into a rainy one, but we've also had several days that were supposed to be stormy that ended up being totally beautiful.

We took another trip to the zoo, enjoying the flowers and eating lunch under a pavilion while it rained a bit.

Then we headed into the Wonder Museum for some lessons on perspective,

 

and water play, among other things.

We cleared out when a daycare arrived and a bunch of unruly kids took over all the stations. Bummer.

Luckily by then the sun had come out, so we got to cover some areas of the zoo we'd missed the last time we were there. There was a long bridge that cut across a giant pond, and they had vending machines with food for 100 yen at each end. 

Boy did those fish clamor over those little food pellets! The birds followed Sydney around too, snitching everything she accidentally dropped.

Then it was on to see more animals.

When it was time to leave, all clouds were gone and the sun was BRIGHT. Sydney was whining about the sun being in her eyes, but I didn't have her sunglasses. I asked her if she wanted mine, and she said "yes."

She thought she was pretty silly.

On Wednesday we took a trip to the Kurashiki Dam, which I'd heard was a fun place for kids to play. The day started off pretty warm and sunny, but it had gotten more cloudy and windy by the time we got there.

We walked back and forth through the water several times, but it just wasn't hot enough outside to warrant a full on swim. We had a picnic lunch, and Sydney filled up and emptied a squeeze bottle about 50 times, spraying the big rocks with water while I fed Shawn some baby food.

There were tons of paths all around the area, with beautiful views of the dam. Since it's located just east of Kadena, we also got to see some fighter jets take off just over the water. It looked pretty cool, but Sydney isn't into loud noises (and they are sooo loud!!) so she plugged her ears while they flew overhead.

They also had music playing over loud speakers near the visitors' center. Sydney has been kind of obsessed with The Sound of Music lately (the VonTrapp's have become her imaginary children that go everywhere with her), so I had to laugh when they started playing an instrumental version of "Do Re Mi." What are the odds?

The visitor's center was small, but there was a section made to look like a cave with several small interactive stations inside. You could easily pass through in about 2 minutes, but we were there for at least 15 since Sydney was having a blast pushing the buttons over and over again.

Happy Easter!

We had a really nice Easter holiday. Shawn woke me up at the crack of dawn, but Sydney actually slept in until around 7:45 am! That gave me time to make us a bonafide breakfast. When Sydney came downstairs we all searched for our Easter baskets, which the Easter bunny hid around our house. I really had a lot of fun being the Easter bunny this year.

Sydney finding her basket under the pillows.

Not sure why this picture orientation is skewed, but Shawn got a book, and toy giraffe, and some finger paints in his basket.

Sydney got lots of goodies, but the pink bubble gum and chapstick were her clear favorites.

As for church, General Conference was last Sunday in the states, but since the time difference made us miss it, the broadcast was delayed here until Easter Sunday. It was nice to just get to lounge around in our pj's while we watched Conference on TV and ate breakfast. The messages were so uplifting; I always come away feeling more gratitude for the blessings that the gospel of Jesus Christ has brought to my life.

After the first session, we got ready for the day. Sydney was itchin' to wear her Easter dress, and Shawn had a little Easter outfit too. It was really beautiful outside, so we thought we might as well all just get dressed up and try to do a family picture. We enlisted the help of our neighbor Krimp to take some photos. These were my favorites:

We had Cameron over for dinner, then headed to the sea wall to go for a walk and watch the sunset. The sunset was hidden by the clouds, but we still enjoyed walking around. We even got a few more family pictures.

I especially love Shawn's windblown hair in this one.

And how the kids are looking at each other in this one.

It was a great day!

Easter Egg Hunt

Sometimes I really drop the ball on holiday celebrations. We totally didn't dye eggs this year, but I didn't feel too bad about it since I did do the scripture-and-correlating-item in plastic eggs to count down the days until Easter. After all, that is the more important part, and Sydney was none the wiser. I was excited to find that our neighbors do an annual Easter egg hunt on "the hill." We all took turns filling up eggs, then delivered them to the Coat's for hiding.

This is pretty much the worst group picture ever taken, but it's the best we've got. I don't think a single child is looking.

Sydney's a big time fan of necklaces. She likes to wear every single one she owns at the same time, and her new thing is to wear one of them as a headband.

Totally makes her look like a (very cute) hippie. She was so excited to hunt for eggs.

Shawn had a little help finding this one on the swing set.

It was just the right height.

Is it just me, or is Sydney's stance reminiscent of Katniss Everdeen in a Hunger Games poster?

When it was all said and done, she had quite the stash of eggs. She immediately asked if she could eat some of the candy, and I told her she could have 2 pieces. We started talking to some neighbors, and she wandered off. I saw all the other kids emptying their candy in their baskets and returning the eggs back into Louise's giant stash of them, but Sydney was nowhere to be found. I told Spencer I bet she was hiding somewhere and just downing candy.

Sure enough, that's exactly what she was doing.

And this was her face when she got caught! Haha.

Sydney and her cutie pie friend Claire showing off their loot.

Some of the eggs were filled with stickers, and they quickly got to work decorating themselves.

Shawn thought all the neighbors and dogs were pretty entertaining.

Sushi-Go-Round

A few weeks ago, we finally ventured out to the Sushi-Go-Round in American Village. We sat in a booth and checked out all the different items going by on the little conveyor belt, grabbing whatever looked yummy. There was a menu so we could special order items that we didn't see going around, which we did several times. Plus, you never can quite tell how long something has been sitting out. I'm not quite sure how they monitor that.

Spencer (as usual) was much more daring than me. I pretty much held back and let him choose the plates he thought looked good, then if he liked it I would taste it too. Not being much of a fisher eater, I have to say that I really like raw tuna. The texture is so incredible... just melts in your mouth. Who knew? But there were some things he chose that I just couldn't bring myself to try.

Like this one (insert heaving noises here).

While we packed down the sushi, Shawn enjoyed eating peas in his car seat.

Sydney has yet to try sushi. That night she stuck to some plain old chicken and rice.

At the end of the meal, we stacked up our plates and our waitress came over and scanned them to total everything up.

Overall I'd say the whole sushi-go-round thing was fun to try, but I don't think we'll be going back any time soon.

Chocolate Mustache

The other day, Sydney and I made banana bread then started throwing together a treat I found on Pinterest just as Shawn was waking up from his nap. One ingredient of the treat was chocolate chips, and I gave Sydney a few in a little bowl right before I went up to get the baby. As I was changing his bum, I heard Sydney coming upstairs and yelling something about getting chocolate on her dress (which was really a shirt). When she came to his bedroom doorway, I started cracking up. The "chocolate" on her shirt was a stain of mac 'n cheese she'd dropped on herself at lunch, but she had no idea that she really did have chocolate on her... it was just on her face.

She had pretty much the best chocolate Hitler mustache ever.

It kept me laughing for quite a while.

Shawn thought it was pretty funny too!

Okinawa Zoo

Last week my friend Megan invited us to go to the zoo. She home schools her kids, and they were doing a week of field trips. I'd heard from a lot of neighbors that the zoo here was very '70s with its display of animals... like their cages were just concrete and bars, with no attempt to make them look like their natural habitats. Needless to say, our expectations were pretty low, but neither of us had been and we thought it would still be fun for the kids.

I was surprised to find that it was such a quick drive to get there. It was also kind of awesome that Sydney and Shawn were both free, so it only cost 500 yen to get in. There were lots of cute animal mosaics all along the walls where we entered in, and tons of beautiful flowers on the walls and in cool arrangements lining the walking paths.

My favorite was this giraffe.

Audra liked these squares.

The kiddos: Shawn, Sydney, Audra, Taylor, Landon, Myka

One of the first things we came to on the path was a carousel, which the kids of course wanted to ride. Megan and I were happy to humor them, and laughed that the 1 minute ride cost me almost as much as our entry fee into the zoo- and more than the admission price for her family! Oh well, it's fun to spoil your kids with this kind of thing every now and then :)

Syd chose the swan.

Megan, Myka, & Taylor

Audra opted for a unicorn.

A little post-ride siblings photo op.

It took us a while to actually find the animals. When we rode down the elevator, it brought us right to the lions and tigers. Just like we heard, the cages were pretty ghetto. I didn't take many animal pictures, but I couldn't help but document the very informative signs they posted next to their cages warning you to not get too close.

No translation needed. Ha!

The only actual animal I caught on camera was this peacock. It's not the first one I've seen with it's feathers out, but we caught him right when he was trying to woo a lady peacock. It was pretty cool to see him take steps toward her, then shake his feathers. She pretty much ignored him and pecked at her neck. Maybe just playing hard to get?

Cutie pies.

We also saw lions, tigers, hippos, raccoons, giraffes, ostriches, pigs, cows, horses, bats, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and an elephant. It was quite the random mix of zoo and farm animals. Sydney sure had a great time running around with the kids. We were there almost all day and still didn't see everything.

In fact, Syd was pretty disappointed when we found this little park area after we had left the zoo. I thought the Japanese-y dragon mosaics were pretty darn cute. We're excited to take Spencer with us next time to enjoy another cheap visit to the zoo!

The Big 2-9

My actual birthday ended up being kind of uneventful. During Shawn's nap and Sydney's quiet time, I made myself my usual birthday treat: a carrot cake. With Spencer's delayed flight, he was on a plane for a majority of the 12th. My friend's husband was supposed to be on his evening flight into Okinawa, so she was going to just pick them both up from the airport. Her husband's flight into Tokyo ended up being delayed, so my neighbor Louise held down the fort while my kids slept so I could go get Spencer. It was actually kind of exciting to be the one to get him, I'm glad I got to go. That was probably my best birthday present, although I also had fun getting lots of presents he bought for me in California. Some were legit birthday presents, others were just items on a list I gave him of things I wanted from the states- like jeans, picture mats, a big pack of white cardstock... things you take for granted when there's a mall or a Jo-Ann's just down the street!

Anyway, we ended up celebrating my birthday on the 13th. I woke up that morning to Sydney coming in to our room while Spencer was getting ready for work. In my half asleep state, I heard her tell him, "Daddy, I'm really glad your home." It was pretty sweet. Then he gave her beads and stickers and instantly reclaimed his spot as her favorite person in the world.

That evening we had dinner at the ticket restaurant, then came home to sing and enjoy (a very lamely decorated) cake and ice cream.

29 candles.

Notice the orange necklace she made that morning with her new beads?

Shawn had carrots for dinner, they left him with a bit of an orange beard.

Sydney enjoyed helping me put the candles in, but she was more excited to help me blow them out!

Carrot cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream aren't exactly complimentary flavors, but that's what I've requested for every birthday for as long as I can remember. Now it's just more of a tradition for me, looks like Sydney approves!