At the water park

Today we went to a little water park nearby (the one at Comprehensive Park). We got there right when it opened hoping to be wrapping it up by noon and salvage nap time. They had a shallow toddler pool with some slides, an even smaller wading pool, a big lazy river and about three water slides for bigger kids. Matthew and Anna had so much fun playing in the water. Cameras weren't allowed in the water so I only got mine out at the end when we were almost ready to go. Anna was so done by then and she DID NOT want to get her picture taken. So here are some of Matthew. :) Here he is in his little floaty in one of the shallow pools. He had fun floating and walking around.

Here's Scott and Matthew in the lazy river. My camera got a little fogged up, so not the best picture. We had a lot of fun going round and round. In one part there is a little waterfall you have to go under and Matthew really didn't like that. So he and I would get out, walk around the waterfall, and then meet up with Scott and Anna as they came under it.

Here's one of the shallow pools with a big cement slide in the middle. Matthew didn't want to go on this one because you have to walk under some water spray to go down it. He doesn't like water sprayed in his face. I can understand. The rest of us tried it, including Anna. She went on it twice with Daddy.

After a couple hours the kids were beat, so we got cleaned up and headed home. Here we are walking back to the car. Matthew thought it was super inappropriate that Scott was wearing a towel over his swim shorts to walk to the car. He kept telling him it was not ok to wear a towel. Here Matthew stopped to play with a little xylophone statue on our walk to the car.

Even in the car Anna still got mad when I tried to take her picture. She's like a teenager trapped in the body of an almost two year old. Even though she doesn't look too happy here, she had a good time. And now I know to take her picture at the beginning of our adventures, not the end.

Comprehensive Park

We went to Comprehensive Park this weekend (see other trips HERE and HERE). It's a big park with a lot to do. Here we are feeding the fish. These carp were hungry! Matthew tried to eat one of the fish pellets, but we stopped him in time. Ew!

Anna had fun feeding the fish too.

Those fish can be kind of creepy!

They look like they might eat Matthew's hand.

Anna riding the carp.

We played on the big bungee tree. It's not made of bungee cords, that's just what I started calling it for some reason. The bigger kids were climbing all the way to the top, but we were happy staying pretty low.

We played on this old wooden play structure. I liked it 'cause it reminded me of a big wooden play structure they had at a park near my house growing up (Acacia Park). Good memories!  Matthew is going down the big slide and I'm cleaning sand out of Anna's shoes.  Remind me not to dress her in Crocs when we go to a sandy park anymore.  Such a pain!

I wanted to try the zip line. Don't worry, I didn't push any little kids out of the way to try it.

I kind of had to lift my legs up high at the end, but I made it.

Then Scott tried it too.

His legs are a little longer than mine, but he was still able to zip on down.

After we did it, Matthew wanted to try. I lifted him up on there and Scott held on to the line and ran along with him, so he wouldn't fall. I didn't get a picture in time. He had this to say about his experience, "I was scared at first but I didn't fall off and then I liked it." :)

Here he is after his wild ride. So tough. We also played on another bigger and better play structure than the wooden one, but I was too busy chasing kids around to get any pictures. I did get a new "classic Anna" story out of it though:
Anna was climbing down a big steep ladder and she slipped and fell. I was standing right there and because I have super fast superhero/supermom reflexes, I caught her. :) Then I put her on the ground. She was so ticked off that I put her on the ground and didn't let her come down the ladder all the way by herself, that she huffily climbed back up the ladder, so she could come down on her own ("I DO IT MYSELF!!") So Anna.

I Control the Weather

I finally bought my kids rain coats that are big enough for them, therefore it will now stop raining for the rest of the season. You're welcome Okinawa. Here's Anna in her new Dora slicker.

And Matthew in his Buzz Lightyear one. They like wearing them around the house if nothing else.

Date Night

Scott and I got to go on a date this week. We hardly ever go out without the kids - the only times we've gone out alone is when we've had our parents to babysit. Our friend offered to watch the kids and we took her up on it. I didn't have to take my mom purse, which was very exciting. We went out to eat at nice place called Yoshida's. We had a six or seven course meal (now I can't remember...but I think six). We even had an amuse bouche. To my knowledge I have never had a meal that included an amuse bouche. I felt like a judge on Top Chef. Very exciting. I think my favorite thing was the appetizer that had, among other things, a really excellent blue cheese, some greens and beet slices. Scott really liked the fish (suzuki fish or Japanese seabass).

Here was our final course, a selection of dessert bites including the Japanese dessert, ice and ice cream with zenzai (polar zenzai?), and spun sugar on everything. Everything was delicious and we were so excited to have a night out.

Araha Beach

We went to the beach today, our first time this season. This was my first time taking both kids to the beach by myself, so I wasn't sure how it would go. The swimming area was really shallow and calm today, so they could walk and "swim" all around in it without too much trouble. I followed Anna around and Matthew played with some other kids there.

We brought some of our sand toys, but we really spent most of the time in the water so we didn't play with them much.

After swimming for a while we started heading to the car and played on some of the toys along the way.

Anna liked going down the slide.

She tried to climb back up, but we stopped her before it got too scary. Neither kid wanted to leave the beach and there was major drama when we finally left. All the locals probably thought I was a terrible mom as I practically dragged/carried my two kids screaming to the car. It was not pretty. As of now I never want to go to the beach again, but maybe I'll get my courage up again soon. We'll see.

Matthew at Bat

We signed Matthew up for T-Ball and he is so excited! He loves pretending to play baseball with anything he can find, but it was getting a little too scary in the house. This last weekend we went to the park to practice some T-Ball. He likes to bat left-handed. We were trying to teach him a few things about hitting the ball, but mostly he just did it his own way.

Here he is taking a BIG swing at it.

We set up some little bases for him to run around. The stroller was third base for a while, and then Anna wanted to climb inside it and go home. Matthew had a lot of fun swinging that bat. T-Ball ought to be interesting.

Anna vs. Nursery

We had a nursery breakthrough.

Anna and Matthew both go to the nursery at our church and have never made it through the whole time without either Scott or I being there. At least not in Okinawa.
After much deliberation, I decided to just take Matthew to class with me. I had a feeling Anna would be ok if Matthew wasn't in there freaking out all the time.
This week was Anna's second time without Matthew and she made it all the way through with minimal sadness. She was happy and participating when we peeked in on her. Hooray!
Sunday afternoon after church Anna was happily singing songs from nursery and had this to say...

"I like [the nursery leader].
She reads me a book and she *wipes my nose."

*For the record, she wasn't sick...the nose wipe was required after a little crying at the beginning.

And as for Matthew, he sat quietly by me in class, didn't ask for toys or snacks and was very happy to not be in the nursery. Go figure. I'm hoping he thinks class is boring after a while and wants to go back, but we'll see.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what it looks like when you put pigtails on a moving object, it looks like this.

I know they're crooked, but I thought I did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

Kurashiki Dam

We took a little trip this weekend to Kurashiki Dam. I've been wanting to go there 'cause they have a little swim area for kids. It was rainy and misty today and the swimming area was closed, but we still wanted to check it out. Here's Scott looking down at the reservoir. I thought it was really pretty!

Matthew was super excited to be there. He RAN all around.

Matthew looks at the dam

A floating walkway - Matthew wanted to go out on it.

Matthew right before he RAN up a big hill. Earlier in the day, Scott and I ran a hilly trail while pushing the kids in the jogger stroller (while Scott pushed them I mean) and Matthew was dying to get out and run with us. We didn't let him then, 'cause it was raining, so he was happy to get a chance to run up these hills. He ran all the way up too!

No matter where you are in Okinawa, you are never far from the jungle...and the snakes. Here's one of many snake warning signs we saw at the dam. At least I think that's what it is. Scott thought this snake looked too friendly. Matthew thought it looked like the letter N.

Anna liked walking around even though it was very windy. She was excited to see all the pigeons, which she called ducks.

We drove across the dam before we left.

After our trip to the dam we went out for Chinese food. Yum.

And took a little ride in a car by the restaurant. We got a lot done for a rainy misty day.

Dancin' Machine

We went to Kiddie Disco night at one of the clubs on base. I wasn't sure if it would be age appropriate, but the kids had a lot of fun. They had a couple buffet lines of food. One was at regular adult height and the other, complete with kid food like macaroni and cheese, hamburgers and spaghetti, was at child height. Very nice touch. We tried eating first, but the kids were just too excited to eat. Out on the dance floor other kids were dancing and there was a big bounce house.

Finally Matthew got to head over to the dance floor...and he really got his groove on. He was all over the place dancing up a storm. He even tried to do the Macarena. I was surprised he was so into it.

Anna ventured out there too. She mostly just stood in one place instead of running all around.

They both got plenty of dancing in.

They both had several turns in the bounce house too. Anna got bonked on her way out one time and needed a little Daddy snuggle.

After dancing we had a little dessert. Matthew picked cake and Anna got ice cream. Then Anna got mad 'cause I ate some of her ice cream and threw a full blown tantrum, so that was the end of our night. We still had fun and we might even go do it again on the next Kiddie Disco night.

Taking Care of Daddy

Scott has a tendency to fall asleep on the couch - it might be hereditary. ;) Last weekend he fell asleep and Anna wanted to make sure he was comfortable. She brought him the special duck blanket and put pillows all around him so he would be able to have a nice nap.

He napped for a long time without waking up, so Anna must have done a good job. If only the kids napped as well. Here she is bringing Matthew some blankets.