Up on the Seawall

We went for a little walk on the seawall earlier this week. We do that a lot, but this time I brought a camera. The sea was angry that day, my friend. :) It was hot, but up on the seawall there was a nice ocean breeze. The kids climbed the stairs all by themselves and I pulled our double jogger stroller up the big steps to get onto the seawall (there is a ramp on the other end of the wall, but not by our house). I felt super strong. The kids liked checking out the crashing waves.

It was also a very blustery day.

Matthew didn't like the wind blowing on his ears.

King of the seawall! Matthew picked out his own clothes and got dressed all by himself. He's been doing that a lot lately. So grown up.

Dragon Boat Races

This weekend we got to see the dragon boat races in our neighborhood. Back in May they had the big dragon boat races in Naha, but they have races throughout the summer at different places on the island. There was a little street fair next to the river where the races were held. It was blazing hot but a lot of fun. Here's Matthew watching one of the races.

A view of the ocean as we walked over to the races. It was a nice day.

The boats race down, turn around at the flags and race back. See how into it Matthew is.

There were rows of canopies for all the athletes and tons of food vendors lining the race route. There were about 40 teams competing. We ran into a friend who was competing in the races and he gave us the scoop on the different teams. The teams race three at a time for time and then the top nine or so times get to race in the semifinals. Then those winners go on to a final race. I was amazed at how big an event it was!

The middle of a race.

It felt so hot out there. I was dying. Anna didn't want to get her picture taken...again.

More race photos.

We got some little treats on the way back.

The last race we watched - this team in front was supposed to be one of the front runners. They were fast!

It was really cool to see the races. It made me a little sad about leaving Okinawa, but that's not for another six months or so. I'm glad we got a chance to go.

Happy Father's Day

The other day Anna went and filled her Tinker Bell purse with coins and announced she was going to work. Then she went and got Matthew's boots, and started to put them on. She said, "Daddy wears boots to go to work." And she's right. I thought it was cute that she wanted to be like Daddy. Here is a little ode to Dad.

Disclaimer: I blatantly stole this from Lisa's blog. I thought the questions were so cute, so sorry Lisa...and thanks!

About Daddy
by Matthew (age 3.3) and Anna (age 1.8)

What is something daddy always says to you?
Matthew: You stay with me and read me a story
Anna: Some things

What makes daddy happy?
Matthew: To not do something naughty. Naughty makes him sad.
Anna: these...my "amimals" (pointing to her toys)

What makes daddy sad?
Matthew: Being naughty
Anna: some balloons

How does daddy make you laugh?
Matthew: Because he does silly things.
Anna: He does a WIIINGS!! (? I think this might mean when he plays airplane with her...not sure)

What was daddy like as a kid?
Matthew: ME! Me, Mommy, Me!!
Anna: He liked those (points to ABC poster)

How old is daddy?
Matthew: I don't know how old he is
Anna: Three (holds up three fingers)

How tall is daddy?
Matthew: So tall like this big (hand over head)
Anna: Good...Three

What is daddy's favorite thing to do?
Matthew: Clean the dishes
Anna: Sings!

What does daddy do when you're not around?
Matthew: Plays hide and seek
Anna: He wakes me up

If daddy was famous, what would it be for?
Matthew: A famous car
Anna: He would be a famous car (independent of Matthew's answer)
note: I think one of the only ways they know the word "famous" is from the golden book of the movie Cars, which says, "Lightning McQueen was a famous race car."

What is daddy really good at?
Matthew: Swinging and doing the zip line...very good, daddy, very very good!
Anna: He's older and he's taller

What is daddy not really good at?
Matthew: Doing something hard.
Anna: He's a few older inches

What does daddy do for a job?
Matthew: Clean up toys with me. When he goes to work, that's his job.
Anna: Stars!

What is daddy's favorite food?
Matthew: Maybe peaches!
Anna: Rolls!

What makes you proud of daddy?
Matthew: Doing very good
Anna: Some things.

If daddy were a cartoon character, which one would it be?
Matthew: A doctor
Anna: Cartoon!

What do you and daddy do together?
Matthew: Go to the airport and fly away with you guys.
Anna: He goes in the rocking chair.

How are you and daddy the same?
Matthew: Because we do something good.
Anna: Good!

How are you and daddy different?
Matthew: Because I'm tiny and daddy is big
Anna: Three olders is different

How do you know daddy loves you?
Matthew: Because he does read stories because he loves me
Anna: HE SNUGGLES ME!!!

Where is daddy's favorite place to go?
Matthew: To work...No, to PT! (physical training for work)
Anna: To Chili's

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.