We drove onto base to watch some fireworks Sunday night. We had great seats. Here we are waiting for them to start.
So exciting!
We dressed the kids in their jammies so they could go right to sleep afterward.
Fireworks. I tried to get some pictures, but you know how that goes. Matthew and Anna liked them and Anna even clapped for them a few times, but by the end I think they were ready to go home.
It was a lot fun...next year (probably) Fourth of July in the USA.
I tried to take some pictures before church because everyone looked so festive. Well, except me. I'm not smiling very much here 'cause this was the third or fourth attempt using the delay timer on the camera and I guess I forgot to smile. Also my big camera was buckling under the weight of my point and shoot gorilla pod and I was kind of worried about the whole thing falling down. But I digress. This was the best picture of the bunch even though Anna looks a little confused and Matthew has a wicked smile.
This picture looked a lot better.
Scott didn't have to work on Saturday this 4th of July weekend, so we headed to the beach in the afternoon. It was hot and windy and there were a lot of people there but we still had fun. Anna's checking out the scene.
We dug a big sandcastle (hole) and had a lot of fun. Here comes Anna with her tools. Both kids were conflicted about whether they would rather swim or dig in the sand and kept running back and forth between activities.
Here they are coming back after washing off their hands.
Matthew was having fun!
Anna loved being in the water and floating with her floaty ring. She wanted me to go away so she could float on her own. I didn't, of course, and she learned to live with it. Anna also had more fun than our last swimming outing 'cause I got tear free sunblock. No more stinging eyes! Hooray!
The kids didn't even cry and run away from me when we had to leave. Matthew was sure to tell me on the way to the car that he was being good and obeying me this time. I think he wants points for being good.
For dinner we made sliders. They turned out good!
And were just the right size for Matthew and Anna to eat. Happy Fourth everyone!
Scott had to work all day today (Saturday) and he's going to have to work all day tomorrow too. Did I mention his work life has become a bit insane? So it's kind of a bummer weekend. We were planning to go to our church pool party this morning, but when I found out Scott would be working I chickened out. I didn't want to have to wrangle my two non-swimmers in a big kid pool. The kids were a little sad, so later in the day I took them over to a shallow kiddie pool in our neighborhood. We stayed there for hours and they had a blast. Here's Anna sitting on one of the slides.
You have to wear swim caps at this pool. Matthew's looks like a little beret.
Matthew liked this little slide. He liked it more than the cement slide at Comprehensive because it didn't have water squirting on you. He also made lots of little friends at the park.
Anna got sunblock in her eyes, so she was very sad and uncomfortable for a while at the beginning. Poor Anna. Also it rained on us a few times. Here's Anna taking shelter in the stroller. She didn't want me to take her picture. She was having a bad time.
Luckily, she felt better later and wanted to go in the water, try the slides and splash around. She even acquiesced to wearing a swim cap, although she wasn't sure about it at first.
Here she is about to try the little slide. She tried the big octopus slide in the background too, as did Matthew. Hooray! Matthew went up to the top of the big slide two times, and then changed his mind and came back down the stairs. But on the third try he summoned all his courage and went down. After that he went again and again and asked me to clap and cheer for him each time and say "wheeee" as he went down.
Both kids could touch bottom everywhere in the pool, so that made things a little less stressful for me. Anna did trip in the deeper end of the pool and went under. In true Anna form, she was very ticked when I picked her up out of the water and told me she wanted to swim on her own. In spite of my interference, I think they both had a good time.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: