Merry Christmas!

We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! It is Christmas Eve here already and the girls are out on a walk to the park with Gram, Brad will arrive home from work soon and we will have dinner with some of our good friends here. We will be around most of tomorrow, so if you have the chance, give us a call, or SKYPE us! My computer is down, but Brad has Skype also. I think his name is devildog_bja or you can look up Brad Aiello.

We love and miss you more than words can say.
Love you,
Kelly, Brad, Olivia and Alessandra (and Gram Heather too!)

Footage for the Grandparents!

Alessandra has officially made her stage debut! Her new school East-West Montessori put on a terrific Christmas Program this morning. She was a little unsure about the whole thing, but made it through and in the end was very proud of herself.

Here is some footage of when Miss Reiko asked her what her name was and what she wanted for Christmas. She told me she was going to say "Chocolate", but ....

(And, there is more footage to come... I wanted to get this on here and the other videos i think were too long... I have 2 more of Alessandra's class and 2 of Olivia's Class, I will try and add them soon. Just wanted to make sure you got to see the little cutie pie! )

Santa Knows Everything.

So, this is going to be one of those great years that the SANTA stories will live loud and clear in our world. Where Santa IS real and you just have to believe. How can you not with a 5 year old in the house?

Olivia had her first Christmas party of the year last weekend. Our Dojo (Karate) held a fantastic party complete with performances, caroling, dancing and SANTA. The week before the party Olivia told me (in a whisper) she was going to ask Santa for a new Polly Pocket. She told me to keep it a secret (which I am very good at). Amazingly when Santa came to the party, he gave her a gift and it WAS a new Polly Pocket. She was amazed and SO happy! Afterwards I asked her how she thought he knew she wanted it (since they didn't have time to actually talk to Santa) and she told me "Mom, Santa knows everything. You don't even have to tell him"

Behold the happiness of Santa Knowing IT ALL!

Sisters...

With all of their love and adoration for one another (as well as all of their frustration and arguing with one another) I can SOMETIMES get a cute photo of the girls together. Tis was taken the other evening when we took a walk down to the park. Right before (you guessed it) another gorgous and amazing sunset.

Okinawa is beautiful.

Hard Drive Crashed

Hello nice people.

SO, that is the newest news on my life. My nice new (from March) laptop crashed last night due to ... who knows what...

I am still trying to figure out if I can pull all of my personal info off of there. I had most everything backed up (just trying to figure out how to get itunes on another computer from the back up), but is is still REALLY frustrating. I am currently on the phone (to India) with Dell customer service and having a hack of a time getting them to understand that I live in Japan, but have a US postal service address (I never should have mentioned Japan) and am now trying to just get a refund, so I can go and get a MAC. I don't think I will likely buy a Dell ever again.

SO, if you see this, please email me at aiellobk@gmail.com. I had a GREAT address list on my Microsoft Office stuff, but obviously I can't get to that at the moment, so I am going to work on my web based list. ARGH!! Sometimes technology just kills me.

Happy Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Susu want a cracker?

The other day we were on Skype with my parents and the girls were having a snack. Alessandra kept feeding her crackers to her grandmother (Susu) on the computer. It cracked me up so much, I had to catch a photo of it.

Sorry about the glare... it was a sunny day! :)

The Ball

Yes, it is December and I am only now posting a Marine Corps Ball photo. Our ball was actually on the 25th of November ad in true Kelly form, I forgot my camera. THANKFULLY our friend Heather took a photo of us and sent them on to me!

Here we are. Happy Birthday Marines! (not sure what I got on my dress, but everytime I picked up my water glass little droplets ended up on the dress... argh.) AND to note: this is shortly after Brad broke his ribs, he held up pretty good!

Olivia's World

Olivia's friend Nyomi had her last day of school today (they are off to somewhere new!) and here is a shot of Olivia with her friends Alexa and Nyomi (doesn't Alexa look like a living Dora?)

I love Kindergarteners.

Happy life and happy times. Who doesn't love a nice vacation?

Well we made it back from vacation. Yes, it is a tough life we live here... don't you forget it!

Alessandra and Daddy during a stroll on the beach! Chilly, but gorgeous day!

A view from the walking path around the resort ground

I will now try and give you a brief synopsis of our trip, with my long awaited opinion on the whole thing (which I know you are longing to hear).

We left on Thanksgiving morning from Naha airport (our lovely friend Nicole drove us to the airport - THANKS Nicole!) and after our long flight of 48 minutes, we arrived on the beautiful island of Ishigaki. (I should also tell you that the weather on this day, was terrible, so we are assuming at this point it is beautiful, the clouds were quite large and gray). We are met at the airport by 2 nice people carrying a "Club Med" sign (I have always wanted to be picked up at the airport with a sign). We got our luggage, visited the watercloset and got into a spiffy van for our 40 minute ride to our resort. Alessandra by this point is SICK of traveling (yes, already) and a tad bit unruly in the van. Thankfully there was another family in there with a little child (probably 2 1/2) who was singing the English ABC's song (she was Japanese, so it was REALLY cute) and that helped our child who always has ants in her pants.

(more walking path views... beautiful!)

So, you pull up at the resort are the staff is out there waving and greeting you. At this point, I was really not sure what to expect... but I liked it. We got greeted with tea, cool wash cloths and a nice seating area and then our lovely G.O. (General Organizer) Jin told us how things go. We hit the dining room and had the first of MANY fantastically amazing spreads of food and then checked out our room. A nice, clean, room with a king bed and 2 twin beds (I love this place for putting beds in there, instead of the per normal pull out couch). And a really nice view of the Ocean. We love views.

Our room view - yes, that it a circus trapese set up. You can take trapeze lessons if you want to.

The kids went the first afternoon to the "Mini Club". This place is specially for 4-12 year olds. This week (due to low numbers... it is winter season) they put the Petite Club (2-3 year olds) in with the Mini Club, so Alessandra and Olivia got to be together a lot of the time. Most often there would be 2-3 staff members with our kids, entertaining, leading, playing and just being with the kids. We spent most mornings with the kids at the Kids Club. And, in true Olivia form, she really would have prefered to be there ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Alessandra liked it, but not nearly as much as her sister. (and I think they had their faces painted 4 times...life it good)

So, this part sounds like a bad mommy talking - but why in the world would I ever go on any type of vacation again? The kids had fun, and we got to be with them AND without them on vacation. The staff were unbelievably good and pretty much EVERYONE there knew the girls names, so anywhere we went they were greeted with "hallo ms. Olivia, Ms. Alessandra... how are you today?" I don't think they knew our names (until the after the night that he went to the bar and sang with the bar band... then they all knew his name... so sad I missed it!), but they lovingly called us "mama and papa".

Kabira Bay

AND, we actually left the resort one day and went on an excursion around the island. It included a trip to Kabira Bay with a glass bottom boat tour (which the girls LOVED), the black pearl shop (they harvest black pearls in this bay), and Awamori distillery (think Sake, but ickier), an Okinawan Village recreation place (complete with cool monkeys you could feed... in truth, I found it gross, but the kids loved it) and Ishigaki-yaki - an incredible pottery place that makes some very unusual and rare type pottery (fused with glass... color of ocean... very amazing). It was a lovely day (albeit a tad chilly), we were excited to see another part of the Okinawan Islands and their history.

Our little fam on the glass bottom boat (Olivia made her own hair accessories)

Olivia with our tour G.O.


Our little family (the only sad shot I got of us the whole time.. I need to work on that)
Brad, the girls and the monkeys.

Olivia and her new playmates.


Ahh, so cute. After our yoga (Kelly) and stairmaster (Brad) workouts. We hit the trail and walked - it was gorgeous!

All in all, I don't know how anyone could complain about a trip like ours. The most important things to us: rest, time together, good food, good drinks and nice place to be. All points were covered and then some.

Anyone want to go to Club Med Bali next year?

Where in the world is Ishigaki Island?

So, here we are, through another week and I have yet to post anything that I have been planning on in the past few days. IF I have the chance, you will get some video of the International Festival we went to this weekend AND a video of Olivia and Alessandra. AND, if not, you will have to wait until next week. When we get back...

FROM - Ishigaki Island. Yes, that is right, we have been on this little island paradise for about 4 months and we already need a vacation. :) No really, it is just a way to spend a little family time - pre-deployment and check out some of the great things these islands have to offer. AND - for those of you who don't know, Brad broke his ribs, so it will be a nice place for him to sit, read, drink and recuperate (not necessarily in that order).

So, here is where we take off to on thanksgiving day (I will now try to embed a map from google for you..)



View Larger Map

We are location A and Ishigaki is B. (Note Taiwan off to the west - apparentely Ishigaki is about 1/2 way between the two)

Now, usually I research vacation items till the end of time (most likely because we never take vacations...), however, when someone gives you a heads up that there is a Club Med, that offers decent deals AND child care... well, I didn't research a bit.

So, here is one of the links about Ishigaki. We hope to check out a lot of the local sites and maybe take in some snorkeling (Brad said, if Manta Rays were on the agenda, he will likely go WITH pain... that would be amazing). Otherwise, the plan is some great R&R, family time and lots of memories to share with all!

Wish you were here. We could go together. Happy Thanksgiving.

Weekend up North

Hello again! It has been awhile since I have been on here, so sorry for the delay. I have no excuse, just simple laziness, and finally, for you.. an update.

This weekend we headed up to Camp Schwab. This is another Marine Corps installation that is home to many of our unmarried and young Marines (think Recon, Infantary etc.). It is a gorgeous place on the island (but one that would definitely be tough for a single guy with no car). On Camp Schwab they have cottages that they rent out to SOFA status personel (that is us and many others like us). We decided to give it a go, and if nothing else it owuld put us another hour north and closer to that part of the island.

The first day out, we were planning on hiking Hiji Falls (a waterfall), however, once we got to the location, the trail was closed (or so we think, the nice gentlemen there couldn't speak english and our Japanese is well.. BAD, so from what we gathered (and from watching the other Japanese visitors leave too) the trail was closed, we will have to do it again at another time.

SO, we ended up at Cape Hedo (or Hedo point.. I forget which). It is the northernmost point on the island and the water is deep, blue and dangerous! The sign above (I am sure) tells you that we are at Cape Hedo...

This photo is looking down the East side of the island, (Pacific Ocean side).

This is straight out/down from the point

These are 2 girls that went with us. Suprisingly they are both smiling AND facing the camera... that never happens.

Another shot looking inland. It was a lovely day. Cool (think 76 degrees or so) and breezy.

We ate Okinawan Soba (Brad's favorite island dish) at the snack bar there and enjoyed watching the girls play. They truly have NO idea where they are in relation to everyone we love or how lucky they are to be here. They just think that you know, trekking around "our island" it perfectly normal. Ahh, to be 5 and 2 again.

I don't remember where I took this photo, but i think it was heading back south and on the East side of the island. We headed down on the east side and then cut across back to the west side.

On Saturday we decided to hit the Churaumi Aquarium. Brad and I have been interested in visiting this place since we saw a special on Modern Marvels about it last spring. They have one of the largest tanks in the world! AND Whale Sharks. I had never seen a whale shark, it was totally worth the visit.

Here are Brad and the girls outside of the main entrance area. The Aquarium sits in a location that is part of the Ocean Expo Park. A gorgeous area and a high spot for Japanese tourists.

Inside the aquarium at the touch pool. Olivia actually held the starfish - she gets so startled by creatures of ANY sort... oh, except for the baby gecko she befriended at our cottage for about an hour... ahhh, to know when things are scary and when they aren't. That would certainly help mom.

The view from the dolphin show tank. I don't know why I downloaded this one, but here it is. It was a great show (aside for the fact that we still don't speak Japanese...)
Here is a shot of the Aquarium building from the dolphin tank. It is fairly large (4 stories high) and a very interesting place.

One of the highlights for the girls (after the ice cream of course) was the huge Kid's Adventure Area that is outside of the Aquarium in the park. The girls played for HOURS and loved every minute! Here is Alessandra on one of the climbing net areas (tagged for 3-6 year olds, but we couldn't keep her off of it... that girl is tough.

Olivia on the nets. These go on forEVER - they all connect together and go all over the park. I had never seen anything quite like it.

Here we are on the way out. Our girls were the center of attention for a HUGE number of Japanese school girls that must have been on a school trip (it was Saturday, so we assume they were from mainland). This was the first group that posed with us (many more followed) all in uniform and probably 100 girls or so.

I liked this photo because of the girl in front trying to get Alessandra to do the peace sign. They were so sweet and excited to be with the girls.

In the end, we stayed at Schwab for 2 nights (we had reserved 3) and came home a day early since none of us were sleeping very well (let me correctly say that the girls were not sleeping well, in turn, NONE of us were sleeping well). The cottages at Oura Wan were nice (and big) and we look forward for a little getaway again sometime (maybe when we aren't recovering from ear infections and colds...)

Signs We Love I

I stole the name of this post from Sara and Kevan (and there are definitely more to come) There are so many things to look at when we are out and about and here are a few from this week.

My FAVORITE sign. I saw one the first week we were here and haven't seen one since.

Now everyone should want one of these cars!

This doesn't really count as a "sign" per se, but this was a t-shirt someone was wearing in front of me. I'm not sure if you can read it, but it made my day.

Tonight

Yes, it is another sunset. I just can't help myself, they are really something amazing.

Okinawa World

Today we hit another tourist attraction in Okinawa. Okinawa World (or Gyokusendo Kingdom Village). It is home to one of the islands largest caves (second largest I believe) and has all sort of local artisans set up to watch as well as have you participate if you want.

The day began in the RAIN. We met our friends Juan, Angela, Sage and Sophia down there (after many interesting driving directions and turns). We all got out of the cars, ready to go and it POURED!

Here is Brad in the downpour in the parking lot.

Here are Juan, Angela and Sage (Sophia is in the front pack covered up). Again, in the really, rainy, rain)

Inside the cave (yes, I have a way to go on getting good pictures in bad lighting... It took us about 40 minutes to walk from end to end).
After the Eisa Drummers. A Family Photo op. Olivia got down on her knees, so of course, Alessandra followed suit. I think that was so funny!

Olivia banging on the big drum!

Alessandra got a turn too!

My own personal Shisa's - Olivia directed this shot.

It was a great day. Soggy, but fun! More to tell on this adventure later.