Getting There

We recently got back from a trip to mainland Japan. We went with the Smith family from our ward, canvassing Kyoto and Tokyo over an 8 day "vacation." The first day pretty much ended up being 100% travel. We flew from Naha to Tokyo in the morning, and we almost missed our flight. Traffic to the airport was TERRIBLE, and even with several long spans of illegal driving in the bus lane, we were seriously so late. We were checking bags at 9:04am and our flight left at 9:35am. To make matters worse, on our way to the terminal we discovered Shawn had a stinky diaper, so after a speedy bum change we were running to the gate! I was so relieved to be on the plane.

After a quick layover in Tokyo, we hopped back on a plane and flew to Osaka. Then we took a bullet train from Osaka to Kyoto, still about an hour and a half ride. 

Although not excited for a picture, Syd was actually a champ during all of the traveling.

Shawn, however, wanted to walk! He kept us busy the whole way there.

Because of passport issues (i.e. Spencer didn't have one) we couldn't get the same train tickets as the Smith's. We were trailing them by about a half hour, but I was severely underprepared to navigate from the airport to our hotel in Kyoto. Thank goodness for cell phones and a friend who was much more prepared. It was not fun carrying our gigantic suitcases, Pack 'n Play, umbrella stroller, and baby up and down stairs in the subway stations. Lessons learned: pack lighter and do more research on train/subway travel before the trip. We were grateful to finally arrive at our hotel, even if we had to walk a bit in the rain to get there. 

Look Who's Walking

The Squish took his first steps on October 9. That happened to be a day that Spencer was home (because of the 96 for Columbus day), so he got to see them too!

Go, go, go!

By the end of the day, he was taking about 8 steps walking back and forth between Spencer and me. He still prefers the reassurance of holding on to at least one of our fingers, but before we know it he'll be walking all over this house!

Finishing Touches

Sometimes when I go shopping and buy home decor that's kind of funky, I think to myself, "I'm pretty sure Spencer's gonna hate this." I'd been looking for a sunburst mirror for quite a while, so I was super excited when I got this huge white one in the Marine Gift Shop before someone else snatched it up. And I was right, Spencer thought it was weird. But he's a good sport and pretty much lets me do whatever I want when it comes to decorating.

Doesn't it look fun? 

 I still need to adjust the pictures on either side of it so they aren't overlapping, but seeing it on my wall makes be happy.

The other thing I'd been eyeing for a while was a rug for under our dining table. I got this cute indoor/outdoor striped rug- although it's really too small for the space. But if you know me well, you know I love love love stripes. And how could I resist a rug that's that cute and easy to clean? And someday when we update our dining set, we can use it somewhere else, like outside on our future deck.

We're in full force holiday decor around here, as you can see. I stole a cute Halloween silhouettes idea from Pinterest, and used a free stencil online to paint a witch and broom on burlap. I think they turned out really cute! I love free home decor :)

This clock is also a newer (like 4 months ago) addition to our room. The picture online made it look grey and white, but when it arrived it was really brown. I was bummed but couldn't return it since the shipping was pretty much the same price as the actual clock. Oh well, we still like it and it does the job.

While I was snapping pics, the kids were keeping themselves busy too:

This scene stealer thought I needed to take pictures of her playing beautiful tunes on the harmonica.

My Squish uses everything at his level that slides as a walker. My antique Chinese water bucket is one of his favorite things to push around the house. No me gusta.

Fukushuen Garden

I can't believe we've already lived in Okinawa for almost a year and a half. We are going to be leaving here before we know it, and I feel like we've barely scratched the surface of fun things to do. Spencer got a day off for Columbus Day (have I mentioned how much I love government holidays?), and I'd heard from neighbors about a cool Japanese garden down in Naha. I wanted to check it off our list of cool Oki place to visit, so off we went.

The garden wasn't huge, but we meandered through it for over an hour. And apparently we were a little snap happy because we managed to take over a hundred pictures. I have no idea if this place is of any historical significance (we didn't see any signs in English), or if it's just a nice respite from the hustle and bustle of the city. Here's my attempt to not include every single thing we saw, but that's tough when it's pictures of my cute kids and handsome husband amid cool Japanese-y stuff.

We bought some fish food and got right up to the edge of the koi pond. Why is it so entertaining to watch fish fight over food? There were lots of turtles in there as well. We got splashed several times, which was kind of gross, especially since I was bending down far enough that some of it got on the corner of my mouth. Sick. After trying to eat a few pellets, Shawn quickly learned to follow the rest of us and drop them in the water instead.

We thought it was cool that you could walk behind the waterfall.

Don't be fooled by Shawn's sweet face. He was NOT happy that I wouldn't let him crawl around everywhere.  

He's always happier when he's in his Daddy's arms.

Spencer & Shawn, checking out the cave under the main pagoda.

Sydney was in stair climbing heaven.

We had a great time! It was definitely beautiful, free entertainment.

Beach Day

A few weeks ago we went to clean the church, which is right across the street from one of the back gates of Futenma (a Marine base). When we were leaving, there were tons of Japanese police outside the gate. I'm assuming it was because of protests that had been going on regarding the new Osprey airplanes. They had to lock down the base for a few days prior because protesters were getting out of hand. Glad we don't live there!

That afternoon we met up with some friends at Torii Beach, which is super close but somehow we've only managed to go there one other time since we've lived here. It was a gorgeous day, and we were in good company. What more could you ask for?

I've become slightly addicted to finding sea glass on the beach, and Torii had a ton! After I found a bunch, Sydney and Jack started looking for it too. It kept them busy for quite a while, and it was so cute to see how excited they got every time they found a new piece.

Sea glass hunters.

A few days later (after soaking the glass in bleach water), Sydney and I separated our loot by color. She took this job very seriously.

While I was snapping pictures, she started making crazy faces. The one below is my favorite.

No, I didn't just catch her at the wrong time- she was intentionally making that face. Ha ha! 

We more than doubled my sea glass collection. We will certainly be going to Torii more often!

Typhoon Traditions

This typhoon season has been a doozy. We've already had four storms, and there are almost two full months before the season is over! What the heck? To make it all even more lame, every single one of them has landed on a weekend. Don't get me wrong, it's kind of fun to get a day off of church every now and again, but Typhoon Sanba took away one of the two practice days for our Primary program. Then there was Jelawat, which threatened the actual day of the program. It was supposedly going to be a low-key category 2 storm, but it ended up doing more damage than any of the others we've seen so far.

As usual, our kids slept like champions during the crazy wind. We were actually a little nervous with how well Shawn slept- I think he was out until like 9:30am! When the eye of the storm passed over us in the afternoon, Spencer went outside and surveyed the damage in our yard. Our front bushes were laid out once again, and one of the palm trees by our building had fallen down.

I thought Spencer looked pretty cute wearing my rain boots :)

Apparently he needs a pair of his own!

With all of these storms, our family has implemented some little typhoon traditions. Typhoon days are pretty lazy, so I tend to not want to cook. We've started doing popcorn on the stovetop and fruits and veggies for dinner. It's a hit with the kids.

The other tradition is doing "One for the Money" before bedtime. We get out our heavy duty BYU blanket, and the kids take turn laying down in it while we swing them. They could do it all. night. long, so we typically don't initiate this activity until about 15 minutes before we start the bedtime routine so we don't have to do it forever.

Thankfully our branch still met for sacrament meeting on Sunday, which saved us from rescheduling the program. (Sydney did awesome, by the way. Her part was, "I choose the right when I am baptized." She memorized it and said it in the microphone all by herself!) We were shocked on our drive to and from church- there were trees down everywhere. Tons of trees that were cemented into plots in the sidewalk were on their sides, the whole plot of dirt and roots pulled right up with it.

Family Fun

On September 21, Spencer's command hosted a Family Fun Day at the Foster pool. It happened on a Friday, so he pretty got a half day off so we could all play together. They had a giant bounce house and an inflatable obstacle course complete with a giant slide for the kiddos. Sydney was quite brave about going down it, I think partially to keep up with her new friend Ada.

It was toasty outside, but we were one of only a few families to actually go swimming. The water was chilly at first, but we warmed up to it pretty quickly.

Later that day we went to the Heaton's for dinner and good company. Stacey gave Shawn a much needed haircut- hooray! That was his 3rd haircut to date, but the first one to be done by a legit stylist (Spencer did the first one, and me the second. I'd say we did an equally terrible job.)

Before Stacey started cutting, she asked me how I wanted it. I just told her I wanted it to be shorter and clean cut. She was being pretty conservative with the curls in the back until I assured her I wasn't emotionally attached to them. Then the hacking began! His arms and shoulders (and bottle- yum!) were quite hairy when it was all said and done. Now he looks quite handsome, like such a big boy.