Video Crazy

I love posting videos, now that I have actually learned how to do it!

Here is a little video I caught of Alessandra in one of our dancing modes (we do this pretty much daily).

Enjoy!

A couple of sunsets, a moonset and some cute girls.

So, I have been accidentaly not putting my camera in my bag. Which really means that it hasn't been leaving the house with me.
Therefore, there aren't any neat-o photos of our latest adventures, however,
since we live on the water, I thought I would hook you up with some recent sunsets.

This was my favorite this week. YES, all week we have had nice sunsets... If you need a month to get away from the winter weather - February in Okinawa is NICE!

This was last night. It is a close up, but gorgeous.

This is from this morning when we woke up the moon was setting behind some clouds. It was really lovely (the photo does not do it justice).

And, here are the cute girls. They both picked ALL pink outfits today. Who ever knew that one day I would be doing one laundry load of only "pinks"?

A little Olivia

The other day Olivia and I were working on her Valentine's Box for school. I got the camera out and took a little video of her. I thought it was pretty cute - and just wanted to start the Valentine wishes headed your way (because with 25 classroom Valentines to do, you probably aren't going to be seeing one in the mail!)
Also - I know it is HUGE, I can't get it any smaller, but hopefully you will enjoy it anyway!

Morale Booster

A message from Brad:

Today was a particularly exciting day. The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen Amos, and LtGen "Fighting Joe" Dunford came to visit all the Marines at MNSTC-I. It was a big morale booster for me, as you can see in the photo's. They flew in on an MV-22 Osprey, which was also exciting. I have photo's and video of it landing and taking off, I will send next time.

For those of you who don't know about General Dunford. Brad served under him in OIF-1. His wife was also quite helpful to me through the process of some casuality calls. They are great people and he is a wonderful Marine. Happy to see Brad had the chance to say hello again!

Al-Faw Palace

Thought you all might enjoy a shot of Brad-Dad in front of Al-Faw Palace.

He wrote "Here is another photo of me in front of the Al Faw Palace. It was taken this afternoon before I got back on the armored school bus to go back to the IZ. The sun was low in the sky, and the light was reflecting just right off the stone facade. There were ducks and geese on the lake, and it was nice relaxing for a few moments before going back to work."

He'll likely LOVE that I am putting his words on here, but I felt the need to share nonetheless.

Pedal, Pedal, Pedal!

In reality I think that Alessandra learned how to pedal tricycles at preschool. HOWEVER, yesterday was the first time I saw it in action and caught it on film. Thought you all might enjoy a little glimse of her. (oh yes, and her sister too!)

Enjoy!



And, in reality, she really was only motivated by the fact that Olivia was MUCH faster than her.

Oh, Sakura...

It's Cherry Blossom (or Sakura) season here in Okinawa. The weather turned lovely this weekend, so we decided to head up to Mt. Yaedake for a little tour of things lovely...

We stopped at a pull off to get some photos with some pretty buds... too bad my little buds weren't into the posing so much! :)

Higher up on Mt. Yaedake, a lookout point. It was lovely and you can see the Cherry Blossom trees all the way down the road. Just lovely.

Yep, that's the ocean way out there...

The drive up and back was PACKED with people. I think the nice weather and the fact that it was a Sunday made people come out to check the trees in full bloom. This is a shot on the way down the mountain.

Another shot from the way down, the trees were sometimes hitting the top of the van and the windows.

About halfway up there was a park. They had festival type food set up and a playground. We of course had to stop. That's Alessandra making her way back to the "big kids" playground.

Alessandra after climbing up a big hill to get to yet another roller slide.

Look! It's me! A self photo with some blossoms...

Olivia took this of Alessandra and I

And Olivia and I!

They had this little carnival ride set up there, so after much begging, I agreed to let the girls go on it. (who needs nature when you have mechanical fun?)

On our way out of the park, we passed Cameron, Nicole and the boys coming in.

On the way home (it was a long drive) we stopped on the side of the road to get our tootsies wet. It was a gorgeous day and the girls squealed with delight at the water. Alessandra kept saying "where my swimsuit?"

I just thought this was a nice shot of where we stopped today. I love the hills in the background.