A Tour of Our House - Part 2 (the upstairs)

Our back balcony (upstairs)
Matthew is playing with his water table.
It looks kind of empty back here.
I think we need some plants or something.

Playing in the water

Matthew loves to find the puddles...and then sit in them.

The view of the ocean from our back balcony
It's there, I promise!

Our upstairs bathroom
(this one has a shower and toilet together, but no sink)

Matthew knows how to turn on the water in the bathroom
(check out the wet pants)
That's why we keep the door closed!!

Matthew's bedroom - in a kinda messy state.

Matthew "reading" his books

Our bedroom

More of our bedroom

Our guestroom/office
The empty futon frame normally has a mattress on it :)

The front balcony - outside our guestroom

The view of the ocean from the front balcony!
(again, the ocean really is there!!)
Extra points if you can spot Matthew's bald head...

Our car - as viewed from above!! Isn't it beautiful?

Hanging around the house...

Matthew on his ride-on toy
He learned how to get on it all by himself. Sometimes he gets on backwards.

After a collision with the TV

Matthew thinks the vacuum is interesting. He must be related to Jaron!

Wearing his outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Guptill

Matthew likes brushing his teeth
(here's a little peek at our sink in the hallway...see previous post)

Matthew practices his riding

A Tour of Our House - Part 1

The Tatami Room (aka Matthew's play room)

The Living Room

Dining Area

Kitchen

Storage and Laundry Room

Washer complete with homemade English subtitles

One of the bathrooms - the tub and shower are in one room and the toilet is in another room, while the sink is out in the hallway. It's a bathroom revolution!

Easter Dinner

For Easter this year, like always, we made a big Easter dinner. It was funny trying to cook a ham in our tiny easy bake oven. Our Japanese house does not have a big American oven. It has a microwave/toaster/oven that is the size of a microwave. It does fine with the microwave function, but toasting and the oven feature don't really pack much of a punch - also, all the buttons are in Japanese characters, so I'm probably using it wrong anyway. To solve (or slightly improve) our oven situation we bought a slightly larger conventional oven from the base. It is big enough for a frozen pizza, but that's about the biggest thing we can fit in there, and those full size cake pans don't fit...neither do cookie sheets, roasting pans, muffin pans and all that. So baking is an adventure. We had to buy a tiny ham since the big ones won't fit in our oven, which is fine 'cause we always make too much anyway. And we can't run the oven at the same time as the dishwasher (which is also very tiny...and in Japanese) without blowing a fuse and since I make a big mess when I cook that made for a lot of dirty dish back up. Thanks to Scott for washing so many dishes by hand. Eventually we did end up with an edible meal, and we offered some of it to Matthew since he didn't get any last Easter (he was one month old then). At first he thought the Easter food was no good, but eventually he got into it, literally, especially the scalloped potatoes. It seemed like he ate a lot since his bowl was empty by the end, but I think he wiped most of it in his hair. Easter dinner ended with a nice bath for Matthew...and then lots of bunny buns and Easter chocolates and jelly beans for mom and dad. Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Matthew decides the potatoes are good to eat (Grandpa Keeler would approve!)

Matthew's elusive teeth come out for a visit...both of them!

The post-dinner clean up

Easter was a lot of fun!

Matthew's Skills

Matthew likes to show off his clapping!

Matthew's First Birthday!! (which was actually Feb. 28)

I can't believe our little guy is turning one. It's been a rough few months for him, adjusting to the move and a new house, but things are starting to get smoother.
Here he is one year ago as a brand new baby!

Matthew on his first birthday, relaxing on his new birthday couch.

Balloons!!

Happy 1st Birthday Matthew!!

Okinawa!

Ocean Expo Park near Nago in Okinawa, Japan
(Matthew had a little scratch on his nose)

Churaumi Aquarium at Ocean Expo Park

The Guptills in Okinawa!

A nice view at Ocean Expo Park

Southeast Botanical Gardens near our home in Okinawa

Graduation!

After 18 months of hard work, Scott graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey as a distinguished graduate. He received his MBA with an emphasis in finance.

Yosemite

This past weekend we went to Yosemite National Park. I haven't been there since I was a kid and Scott (and Matthew!) have never been there so we wanted to take the opportunity before we move far far away from California. It was a good time of year to go, beautiful fall colors, not very many tourists and very nice weather. We hiked a little bit and took a tram tour of the valley floor (on which Matthew only cried a little bit and was admired by all). My favorite thing was looking up at the rock face of El Capitan and being able to see the tiny tiny rock climbers part way up the wall. It really puts it in perpsective how huge the mountain is. I think Scott's favorite part was when we saw a black bear running near the side of the road. He even stopped to look at us before he scampered away (see picture below of him scampering...it's a bear I promise!). It was a fun trip to a beautiful area.

Beneath El Capitan

Keeping warm on the tram ride

Half Dome

A bit like a Big Foot picture...but it's a little black bear cub running away from us...really!