Happy Halloween

We had an easy and low-key Halloween. In the morning we walked through the steamy Okinawa heat to the 100 yen store for Halloween treat buckets. On the way home we got rained on...and then it stopped and steamed again. I'm still adjusting to the Okinawa weather. And I didn't bring any of our warm weather clothes, I shipped them a few weeks before we left the states and they still aren't here. That wasn't too smart...but I digress. Here are Matthew and Anna getting ready for trick-or-treating. Anna was a kitten.

And Matthew was a fireman. Apparently it is a popular combo. We saw another sister and brother dressed as kitten and fireman too. I guess the fireman can save the kitten from a tree or something. Matthew was really excited about his costume.

We also met Hello Kitty in the BX and Matthew was really excited to take a picture with her - further evidence of the fireman/cat connection? Matthew actually insisted that she was a bunny, so I don't know.

We went trick-or-treating inside at the BX, which worked out since it rained a little bit tonight. We only went to about 6 or 7 shops before the kids buckets were totally full and we decided to stop. Here's Anna trick-or-treating. She was so excited to see the other kids in their costumes and completely perplexed by the people who would put candy in her bucket. It was a lot to take in but I think she had fun. Everyone thought she was very cute.

Matthew was really excited about the trick-or-treating too and kept asking about it all day...and telling me we had to go trick-or-treating NOW because today was Christmas. We tried to correct him, but he wouldn't hear of it.

And here they are at the end of the trick-or-treating excursion. I think we were only at it for about 15 or 20 minutes, but that was plenty for them. It was a lot of fun and afterwards we headed back to the house for dinner and a quiet evening at home. Happy Halloween everyone!

Monakids Jungle

Yesterday we went to Monakids Jungle, an indoor play place on the island. We were the only ones there so Matthew and Anna had their run of the place. They had a good time...at least I think so. Here's Matthew getting a little help on the zip line.

Anna and Matthew in the ball pit.

Scott and I tried to play the Taiko drum game (two player) but we had to take turns running off to follow children, so we didn't really get to play together. It was still fun though.

This was one of Matthew's favorites - driving the bus.

So many buttons and levers to push and pull

Here's a big shot of part of the play area. There were really a lot of things to do...and since we were the only ones there, no bigger kids to compete with. That's a roller slide on the far right, which was also a big hit.

Anna in the bouncy room. She really got the concept of jump and fall down in there.

They did have to get in each other's way a little bit, but mostly there were no conflicts.

I think Anna liked the ball pit best. There was lots of squealing and rolling around. I did have to rescue her once or twice when she got stuck in the middle and couldn't get out, but it was still fun. I think we'll be going there again.

Scott's Marathon

Like I mentioned in a previous post, Scott ran a marathon while he was deployed on the same day I ran my marathon in Hartford, but he ran his alone...on a treadmill. And now I have pictures!

Here's Scott right after coming back to his room post marathon. He looks a lot like I did after the run. We kept laughing 'cause our post-marathon grimaces both looked so similar (see mine here). Scott summed it up well; the pain is in the eyes.

Here's the gym where he did all his running

And here's his marathon course. That must have been a long 26 miles. Scott, you rock!

Cape Hedo

We drove up to the northernmost tip of the island, Cape Hedo, yesterday. It only took about 1 1/2 hours or so to get there (I think). The kids found the trip less than thrilling. :)

Here's a map of the island to give you an idea. We live about at letter H on this map and Cape Hedo is on the northern tip.

Here are some views of the ocean (West side of the island - East China Sea side) as we drove up north.

Here we are at a monument at Cape Hedo. It had a lot of volcanic looking rock there and quite a view.

Scott and the kids...we were trying in vain to get everyone looking in the same direction.

Some of the views reminded us of Hawaii

Here we are having a little picnic lunch. The kids were excited because stray cats kept coming around trying to get our food.

Anna works on an apple with her four teeth.

Matthew poses by the vending machine. He made his first vending machine purchase today. He bought a fruit punch. There are vending machines all over the place here...like on abandoned corners in the middle of nowhere and on suburban street corners. It used to seem odd to me, but not so much any more.

It took us 3+ hours to get home (or at least it seemed super long) 'cause we went down the other side of the island on the way back. There were a lot of winding jungle roads and steep cliff views on the way back. Here are some views driving home - the east side of the island (Pacific Ocean side). Also reminiscent of Hawaii.

A row of seawall jacks. I don't know what these are really called, but we call them jacks 'cause they look like giant cement version of jacks (as in the child's game). I think they use them as an ocean break, and reinforcement for seawalls and I think they make great homes for little sea animals too. It was a fun little trip.

Kiddicisms

Here are the latest Anna and Matthew-isms...

Matthew, about his breakfast orange juice: "This juice is really fresh, mommy!"

Matthew keeps asking us if they have certain things in Okinawa (Mommy, do they have band-aids in Okinawa? Do they have plates in Okinawa? etc.)
When discussing where a missing toy might be...
Me: Oh, I know where it might be
Matthew (eagerly): in the basement!! Wait, does this house have a basement?

He liked his church nursery group in Rhode Island (my mom was the nursery leader) and he keeps asking if he can get on one plane so he can go to the Rhode Island nursery.

Matthew and I were having a discussion about what things are ok to hit (you can imagine why). I'm saying something like, "we can hit a pillow, but we don't hit people." And Matthew randomly finishes it up with an emphatic, "and we DON'T HIT TREES!"

When a couple planes flew over us in formation, Matthew looked up and said, "Look Mommy, they're friends."

Talking to Matthew about our anniversary...I told him it was like a birthday of when Mom and Dad got married. Matthew says, "I want to get married too! I want to marry Aunt Alycia...or maybe Kelsie (his cousin)." Sadly, I think all the little nephews want to marry Aunt Alycia, but she is already married. ;)

Anna is working on a few sentences:
I Stuck (if she or something else is stuck)
I Broked (when she broke the barn toy or anything else)
I Sorry
...usually in that order

Anna kept waking up in the middle of the night on the first night Scott was home (and very exhausted and in need of sleep). I swaddled her hoping it would help her go back to sleep. She wiggled a little trying to escape and then said "I STUCK" except she can't say the "T" sound very well...so it sounded like more of a self deprecating comment. And we were both so tired of her night waking that night, that we couldn't stop laughing. "I STUCK...I STUCK"

Back in Okinawa

Here's a slideshow with some pictures of our first few days back in Okinawa...with a few sneaky pictures from last year (2008 in Okinawa) thrown in.
You can see pictures from our trip to pick up Scott from the airport, Sunabe Baba park, the Kadena seawall, Big Dip (ice cream), Kitakaisen (restaurant for dinner), the new Kadena Base Exchange (our base Wal-Mart type store, which is brand new and very nice!) and a few other pictures.
Warning!! This slideshow has music!

Four Years

Scott kept saying he was going to make it back before our anniversary, and he did. We've been married four years today and it seems like so much has happened. We've lived in three places (Niceville, Florida where we met - Monterey, California - Okinawa, Japan), had two kids and this year we're just happy to be together. Matthew said he would drum on his toy drum for us for our annivesary, and that sounds like a pretty good present.

Safe Arrival

I think Scott and I both felt like the day would never come, but after a 6 1/2 month deployment to Afghanistan and 8+ months of being away from us (and 60 consecutive hours of traveling through 21 time zones) Scott finally arrived home in Okinawa. We were all so happy to be together again. Here we are at the airport.

The kids were so excited that the big day was finally here. Even Anna kept saying "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" all day. Here are the kids wearing some shirts I had made (I had one that said "Welcome"). I got the idea from someone else's post-deployment pictures and had to steal it.

Here we are waiting at the airport. Matthew ran in circles for a while to burn off some of his excitement.

Matthew ran up to Scott as soon as he saw him coming out. We blocked up the exit for a few minutes.

Anna gave Daddy one coy smile before she lunged to be held and then snuggled him. She also ran up and attached herself to his leg when I put her down. She remembers her Daddy.

Here's a cake we made for Scott...maybe I should enter it into a cake decorating contest. Just kidding. The kids and I had fun making it and it tasted good...that's what matters, right? We're so excited to be together again...

And here, for your viewing pleasure is another clip from The Muppets Take Manhattan to go with the Saying Goodbye song I posted when Scott first left. :) It's nice to be on the other side of goodbye.

When we hit Japan...

Tracking our long flight.

The kids and I made it safely back to Okinawa...the house in Okinawa is still in good shape, no bugs have taken up residence that I can see and things aren't too musty.
We flew from Boston to Okinawa (three legs) and it actually went better than expected. The high point was flying Air Canada from Boston to Toronto and then Toronto to Tokyo, a 13 hour flight. Air Canada had nice clean airplanes with lots of leg room, pretty good food and an individual movie player at each seat. Matthew watched cartoons for a lot of the flight. He was a model child for most of the trip. Anna was more of a handful, but still did very good.

The kids climb on the big cats at a play area in Toronto

We flew so far north on the flight to Tokyo that we were way above Alaska. There was some mention of flying near the arctic circle and we did see lots of ice below us, but I'm not sure how close we really were. It felt like we were flying right over the north pole. And we flew over Siberia, which I don't think I've ever done.

Anna sleeps in her car seat on the long flight. I tried to block all light from coming in and waking her.

The low point was at the Narita (Tokyo) airport when I accidentally took all my checked luggage OUT of security after going through customs. I was so mad 'cause I had to stand in the ticketing line again (since I didn't have my boarding pass yet) and go through security again, which I wouldn't have normally had to do, not to mention lug the giant cart of luggage and car seats while pushing the big stroller with the kids and more luggage hanging from it. I was quite a pathetic sight, I'm sure. It was my own fault though. Sadly they wouldn't let me take the double stroller back through security at Narita which only added to my transporting problems, but they loaned us a single stroller, Matthew walked and we eventually made it back through security at Narita and to our gate.
**update** Scott tells me that you have to go back through security at Narita...so maybe I did it right after all. That makes me feel somewhat better about it, but it was still a pain. :)

This is a terrible picture, but it was the best I got. Matthew and Anna made friends with a little girl on our flight to Okinawa. She was very cute and they all liked playing together.

The last leg was the worst since the kids were so tired. The Japanese flight attendants decided that Matthew was too little to sit by himself for take off and landing, so they made me put Anna in the car seat (she screamed and screamed) and hold the very long legged, 2 1/2 year old Matthew for take off. They also kept referring to him as "your baby" so it seemed a little funny to me, but it all worked out in the end. Also a very grumpy American traveling on our flight made me switch Anna and Matthew's seats (moving the car seat was a pain) so she wouldn't have to sit in front of Anna and then immediately decided to move to a different row. I was a little irked, but I guess we had all been having a rough travel day. She was traveling with what looked like 10 and 12 year old kids and her husband, so I didn't feel that bad for her or sympathetic for her grumpiness. But I did politely move the car seat and Matthew to try and accommodate her.
Anyway, grumpy passengers aside (I'm sure I was one as well) we made it. Our friends picked us up at the airport in Okinawa and got us all situated in our house. They had even bought groceries for us so we would have some food waiting for us. So nice.
The kids were really excited about the house and all the toys they hadn't seen in nearly 10 months, so it was hard for them to go to sleep, but eventually we all got some rest, and hopefully in a few days we'll be adjusted to Okinawa time again. It's a little strange to be back. In some ways it feels like we never left, and yet so much time has passed. I'm just glad the flights are over and we made it back. Now we're just waiting for Scott to get here. :)

Our Christmas decor is still up from last year - we left in December. I guess it will make decorating easier this year. :)

26.2

Me at the finish line. I look very pained, but I was really happy.

Saturday I ran my first marathon. I've been training for it since April. I thought it would give me something to focus on while Scott was gone. I've wanted to run a marathon for a while now so I was really glad I was able to do it. The run went pretty well. It was definitely very hard - mentally and physically. I mean, it is a marathon, it's no picnic, but I didn't have to lay down on the ground in the middle or crawl over the finish line or anything, so that was a plus. I didn't hit "the wall" - it was more like a gradually increasing slope of pain and fatigue, but I still made it to the end. Hooray! I am SO happy I finished and it's done. Maybe I'll just stick to nice short distances now. :)

Matthew and I at the starting line...I look so fresh and happy, like I don't know what I'm in for.

When I told Scott I was thinking about doing it (back in March), he was very encouraging and supportive (as he always is) and he even said he would run some of the training runs with me (on the same day I ran them). Well, along with me, Scott ended up completing the entire marathon training program while he was deployed in Afghanistan...and he ran every mile, including the actual marathon on Saturday, on a treadmill. I am amazed. He said it was pretty tough. But it was a great way for us to do something together, and still feel somewhat connected while we were apart. He called soon after I finished so we could commiserate about it.