Halloween week.. aka.. week of costumes

So, when I was a kid, you planned your Halloween costume and enjoyed it thoroughly for the evening of Halloween (and maybe a party) and that was all.

It seems that our kids have more Halloween committments than any other even combined, AND in our case, they changed their mind on costumes for each event (gotta love that dress up box).

Last week: Halloween Party for Nix Dojo - Olivia: Tinkerbell Alessandra: Purple Fairy
Thursday: Olivia's Storybook Parade: her choice: Sacajewea
Friday: Trick-or-Treat Olivia: Flamingo Alessandra: Dog
Saturday: No events, just plain dress up. See below.

I love Candy.

Olivia's Kindergarten Class at EC Killin Elementary. SO CUTE!

Is it possible that I got a cute photo of Brad and the girls and no funny faces?

Why yes it is...

Enjoy. I know I will.

Weekends are not wasted...

Before I move any further, a note must be made to Suzann (aka Susu) to wish her a happy birthday. I hope that your day went well (even with the really awful ending to the OSU game). We love you!!

Okay, now the important business out of the way.. onto our weekend...

Friday night was Olivia's Fall Festival at school. Our first elementary school event. It was a lot of fun (complete with bounce houses and games) and the girls had a great time. Our friend Angela came down and joined us with Sage and Sophia too! It was a busy and fun experience. (Although it is a little scary that the Sponge Bob Squarepants song was sang for karaoke and the WHOLE crowd seemed to be singing it... what is wrong with America?? (for those of you who didn't know that, I am NOT a SpongeBob fan))

Halloween is in the air in Okinawa. One might think that Okinawa wouldn't get hit with all the mania that associates itself with this crazy "holiday" but thanks to the thousands of American's on the rock here, Halloween is local. We always have tried to keep a low profile on Halloween, and we are again keeping it low, but wow, it is the first year Olivia has caught on truly to what is going on, so we are trying to oblige somewhat, without overdoing it.

We went to a Halloween Party on Saturday afternoon that was hosted by Olivia's Sensei's (Ron and Akemi Nix). They do a party every year for friends of the Dojo. They held it at the middle school on the Air Force Base and did it up well. They had tons of games for all the kids and the whole thing was just really nice. Here are some shots of the kids for you:

This is Olivia with her friend Marisa, Olivia is Tinkerbell this year (she really wanted to be "a big orange sock" but my creativity was stumped on how to make a costume). Nana sent her a new Tinkerbell costume for the big week. She loved it!
Alessandra we coaxed into a fairy costume also (nana sent her one too, and a friend sent this one over for us to borrow (in case Nana's didn't get here in time). She opted for the "puple" one and we will check her out in other wings in a few days. Suprisingly though, she did actually leave it on the entire party (nudity is definitely Alessandra's M.O.)
Here is a shot of Olivia's Sensei Ron with her. She was TERRIFIED of him the entire party. He sounded the same, but normally he is bald and not a freaky looking. He even went into Karate stance for her and everything. She wasn't so keen on him being dressed up. We finally coaxed her into a photo with him.

AND THEN... Sunday, Sunday, Sunday...

Our original plan was to head south to Shuri Castle for a festival and a parade on Kokasai Street, but after some thought about how .... well... unpredictable Alessandra can be, we decided on another option.

We headed to the Southeast Botanical Gardens (which is funny, since we have to drive north to get there.


I must say this was one of my most favorite days in Okinawa thus far. What a gem of a place. Gorgeous, lovely, wide open spaces, just wonderful...

Alessandra and Olivia on one of the "Parade of the Cows" Cows... Aunt Shannon - don't you love these guys?

This is the craziest thing I have seen in a long time. A carp pond where the carp were actually jumping to get the food. There were so many of them, we bought another box of food just because we couldn't get over it...

I think in all actuality, I should have filmed this section. These photos just don't show you the whole picture...

A shot of one of the many ponds and lakes in the gardens...


The girls running to the playground area. It was SO very Laura Ingalls Wilder (without the tall grasses of course)(hi Halfpint). They saw it and just took off. It was so lovely to be able to have so much freedom!

One of my artsy tree photos...

Another artistic shot of a Lily or Lotus (truthfully, I do not know which is which, and I couldn't read the signage since it was in Kanji, so thankfully I did know it was one or the other...)

What you can see: A nice picture of Olivia and her daddy
What you can't see: Alessandra telling us "no, no,no, Mommy picture... no, no" as she is running away because she does not see the need for a photo op. with dad.

For those of you who do not know Alessandra yet, she is quite the sprited "small, but mighty" child. Here she is running on the wooden walkway (as we are yelling at her not to) and she is laughing hautily at us the entire time... for real, who is in charge here?

Where do 5 year olds learn the hip shift to the side for sassiness anyway?


From one of the overlook areas.

Small But Mighty, right amidst a small meltdown (it was just about time for lunch)

Olivia on the palm tree climb - she felt pretty groovy after being up so high.

We can't wait to go back. We enjoyed a lovely buffet lunch and more walking after lunch. Through rows of palm trees, jungle forest and butterfly gardens. It was just a lovely weekend.
Love to you all!

The morning run...

Hello loyal fans...

This blog is for all of you, but mostly for my friend Juli, who always poses questions about descriptions (i.e. what does it SOUND like, what smells are there... etc.). I figured I would give you a little description of one of Alessandra and my (almost) daily activities... with photos and descriptions.

First we drop Olivia off at the bus stop (the reflection was bad with the sun, but you can see her hand waving... above that kids head)

This is the entry area right beside out house to the beach path. Basically the sign says "no parking" but (except for today for some reason) there are almost always cars parked there. This is also a corner, the street/alley behind our building is always full of parked cars with walkers/runners/fisherpeople etc.

Here we are heading onto the beach walkway/path. Usually this area is less crowded than the swimming beach area. Sometimes when I come out in the morning there are only a couple of people walking. (Earlier in the morning it is quite busy)

Running north on the path

"The Big Rock" is what we call this (original I know), it is a stopping point for when Olivia rides her bicycle because we can't see her on the other side. I assume when they created this beach area they left it in to help with the wave and erosion flow.

Once we go around "The Big Rock" we hit the more "beachy looking" area of Araha Beach. This area is also much more busy than right around our building.

A common site most days are older couples out walking together (you did know that Okinawan's are the healthiest people on earth right?) I loved this photo. They were wading in the water and probably having a good conversation, her hands were moving around a lot. Also you may note with puzzlement the long sleeves and hat. One thing that amazes me daily is how covered up the Okinawan's are - I am always so hot doing ANYTHING in the sun, I don't know how they handle it!

More of Araha Beach after the swimming area. These are the recreation folks that set up every day with their banana boats, wave runners and other assorted water fun. I liked this shot too because you can see the windmill in the background - that is where I run to (and around) when I go out.

"Over the river and through the woods" hehehe. A little bridge on the way.

Heading up over bridge number 2 (the largest incline in this run... no hills here!)

Not sure what happened when I downloaded these photos, but I will do my best to give you some info.... These two photos show the seawall heading out towards the windmill. The photo here on the right is covered with grafitti (but it isn't bad, and it actually looks pretty neat) and then the photo below here is once on the seawall path.

This is a crazy statue that I have no idea about. I assume it is an American woman depicted (thus the cowboy hat), but I can't figure out the nakedness or the little dancing person up there on top...

The photo on the right is as you make your way around the corner of the seawall.

I love this sign. They are everywhere (and usually right around them are about 2 little lumps of dog poo. I can't figure out why so many people do NOT clean up after their dogs. Probably my biggest complaint about the path area. (and for the smell, yes sometimes it smells like s*@t)

The second photo is of coming around the loop by the seawall and heading back behind the windmill.

Old friends will know how much I love crooked and crazy trees... I love this part of the path. Off to my left is actually a running track and large open sportsfield where they have competitions. They also hold a number of festivals here. As you go further down you pass tennis courts and baseball fields.

Then, since I have included WAY too many photos of pathways, I decided you could imagine the run back (the way I came) but heading south.

My running partner. She pooped out on me today (must be the early riser needing a little catnap). Usually we get to the end (by home) and she gets out and does her own "run", squats and pushups. It is quite funny

A shot of me post run. I took another one that reflected all of my sweatiness, but decided that you might not enjoy that. It is still so hot and humid here that it takes me about 1 1/2 hours to cool down.

A couple of things I didn't get shots of: My favorite Okinawan man who ALWAYS smiles at me (he is always in full Okinawan clothing and the standard white towel on head). I passed him today, but since i haven't ever said anything aside from "Ohayoo Gozaimas" (good morning) I thought maybe a photo of him might come off strange.

I also was unable to capture all of the other people I passed along the way. People are friendly, and you find yourself nodding a small bow and saying good morning just about to everyone (It is funny to bow while running and even more entertaining to watch someone do it while biking). It seems to be recieved well by all, but the older people really respond nicely with smiles and bows. How could you have a bad day after that?

So, why did I blog about this you ask? To make you realize that when you come to visit there is loveliness right outside your doorway.

Birthday wishes to Joe

Since I didn't update the blog this weekend, I neglected to send a little Happy Birthday message out to my fantastic Father-In-Law Joe (aka Grandfather (or Grandpoppi as Alessandra calls him). Olivia had determined that he was 49 years old before she talked to him on Skype and asked him, after he told her how old he was (I will let you guess, but it is older than 49). After we got off of Skype she told me "wow mom, I didn't know people could be THAT old" So, Grandfather, here is to amazing your grand-girl Olivia and the to the best birthday ever!

The Great Tug Of War

We headed down to Naha (the Capital of Okinawa) on Sunday for the annual Tug-Of-War. With us went our friend Nicole and her two boys Cooper and Caden.

The Naha Tug of War has been in the Guiness Book of World Records for years as the largest tug-of-war in the world. Not something you knew about huh? Welcome to Okinawa!

A rare shot of Brad and Kelly - self portrait among many people (that is our friend Nicole behind us)

Here is a photo of Cooper - I thought it was a good one and worth passing on.

The giant rope being brought in. They actually close the main highway to have enough roomfor the event. This is just a part of it. It is LONG and there are a huge number of feeder ropes off the ends to that everyone can participate.

Another shot of the giant rope

I liked the below shot that Brad took. A view of the LOADS of people that come down to see this spectacle.

Another photo of the rope coming in, people on top of the rope and the crowd. You can obviously see a lot of American's mixed in with the Okinawan's, a great event for all!

Another groovy shot by Brad - this huge ball was full of balloons and paper confetti, they opened it and it blew all over. It entertained Alessandra (and Cooper and Caden) tremendously (well really, Cooper and Caden entertained Alessandra and the confetti and balloons were a part of the process).

A shot of Brad and Olivia. They are the only ones of us who actually pulled the rope. The rest of us retreated to the background (Alessandra we found, is not that keen on crowds). The two of them stayed in and Brad said once Olivia got down to help pull, our side won! Tough girl!

At the end of the "WAR" everyone jumps up ontop of the rope and then it is cut into pieces. It is said that if you get a piece of the rope then you will have luck for the following year. Thankfully Brad (who always has cutting tools on his person) took care of our luck for the next year and we all got a little piece to take home

Not sure if this video came in, but check back if it didn't. This is my first attempt at adding our own video to the blog...I will work on it if it didn't work!