The Worlds Greatest Birthday Party

November is a particularly busy month. Yes, you have Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving... however, for the Marines, there is nothing more potent than the birth of their Corps. The United States Marine Corps Birthday.

The Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated all over the world by Marines in many different ways (almost all including a slice of cake - what could be better?) and recognizing the Service that they are a part of and its intense history.

Another way to celebrate is with the fancy Marine Corps Birthday Ball. A formal event where pomp and circumstance is in high regard. Complete with ceremony, cake, guest of honor and words from the Commandant and SgtMaj of the Marine Corps. A night out to celebrate with your comrades at arms (and their great spouses).

This year we had the honor of taking Joe and Ruth (aka Dad and Ruth) with us to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Officer's Ball. Below are some of the nice shots we took over the course of the evening.

Brad with his Dad and his CO Colonel Ted Banta

A cute family shot (we were going to get professional photos done,but the photographer wasn't there, so we all started taking our own)

My friend Kristal and I (karate and school mom, I don't think we have ever been at a function dressed up and without a kid attached).

The S-3 nice people - Brad's office...

Carrie (aka The Chaplain's Wife) and I

Mary and Sean (aka the XO and his wife)

Ted and Molly (aka the CO and his wife)

General Fox with Joe and Ruth

General Fox with Joe and Brad

The hazy jet-lagged couple that made it through the evening with smiles on their faces.

Happy Birthday Marines, Semper Fidelis.

A visit with the Grandparents Aiello - Part 1

I love visitors. It's no secret here in Okinawa, that having visitor's means going on hiatus from your "normal" and showing them as many wonderful things about this island that you can in the time that you are given.

Brad's Dad and Stemother came to visit last week (aka Joe and Ruth or Grandfather and Granny). They flew in from New York for a week long stay before they made their way over to China for another tour (they are still there now!).

The first day in town they had PERFECT weather and we had to start of right by taking them to our favorite place in town, Daisy's. A good dinner, a cold beer and a gorgeous sunset.

Olivia and Alessandra took the camera and some shots of the evening. Here is Alessandra up on the seawall - how I love Okinawa in November!

And a shot of the Daisy's sign. I love it from their perspective.

Joe's comment at the end of the day "so, this Okinawa place isn't such a hardship is it?"

Take a moment, please!

Please take a moment for me today. My Uncle Bill has been battling Parkinson's Disease for the past 17 years. This disease has taken quite a toll on his body and mind, and unfortunately his smile!



Please vote for him to win a dental makeover so he can continue smiling BIG and touch the lives of those around him!

THANKS!

Link to the site for voting:
http://www.1800dentist.com/my-smile-bites/william-p-concinnati-oh-dentist-fall09

Happy Halloween

Halloween started off sticky for us this year. Here are the girls (and Brad) working on pumpkin carving. He turned out cute (and I forgot to take a photo of the finished orange globe head.. sorry)

Determined Olivia

Alessandra pointing out that the pumpkin is missing a tooth just like Olivia

Trick-or-Treat happens on base, so the Colvig's invited us over for their annual "chili and trick-or-treat night" fun so off we went!

Here are Cleopatra and Supergirl gearing up!

This is my favorite photo of our little costumed kidlets

Here's the whole gang almost ready to depart

AND, here is the beginning of trick-or-treat - rainy.

Post Rain Cleopatra

And Supergirl (whose boots just kept sliding more and more down all night).
She loved it though - ran from house to house.

Night of TREATS! YUM!

Singapore - Part 1

The past couple of weeks has rushed by in a bit of a blur. After karate testing, the girls and I geared up for our trip to Singapore. Pretty exciting stuff!

The participants in this excusion were Olivia, Alessandra and I, and our travel buddies Nicole, Cooper and Caden (Olivia refers to them as her "boyfriends" but in the "boy and a friend" way...)

We departed from Naha, Okinawa around noon on Wednesday, flew north to Tokyo, connected and flew onto Singapore (en route flying directly back over Okinawa... that part was a tad bit painful).

Here is Alessandra around 10:00pm when the airline served us Haagen-Daas. You gotta love Japanese Airlines.

We got into Singapore around 11:30pm. Got our luggage, exchanged some money and blew through customs. We hired a Maxi-Cab (a van) to take us to our hotel. We made it safe and sound, got checked in and into our beds.... ahhhh.

We stayed at the Sentosa Resort and Spa (on Sentosa Island, a small little island basically connected to Singapore).

Here are the kiddos on the walkway behind our hotel that takes us down to the beach area...

Olivia on the beach tram.

The following photos are of this plaquard that we found on Sentosa. Caden wanted his photo taken, so everyone else followed suit. Made me laugh...

Caden

Alessandra

Cooper

Olivia

On that first day we basically got our surroundings figured out and stayed on Sentosa (until dinner anyway) and one of our highlights was taking the Tiger Tower up and checking out the skyline...

(actually this shot is from our hotel...)

Olivia over Singapore...

The gang at our hotel. :)

The kids in conference with fearless leader Cooper.

Much more to come...

Yellow Belt - 3 Stripes!

If anything is a constant in our lives here in Okinawa. It has been Karate.

Ryukoku Seidokan, the Honbu Dojo and Sensei Ron and Akemi Nix have been a wonderful addition to our lives here. Olivia and I both tested this past weekend for our 3rd Stripe (or 7th Kyu) on our Yellow Belts.

Here are Olivia and I while I am getting warmed up.

We both did some push ups. (note: Olivia's new PE teacher recently told the class that the girls could do "girl push-ups" to which Olivia now told me "I told all of my friends, that real girls to real push-ups." Love our tough girly girl.

Here is a video of Kelly (me) doing the kata we needed to do for this level. Wansu.

And, here I am afterwards, happy as a clam! :)

Between our testing times, we were able to watch a lot of really great classmates get their green and brown belts. As well as a Black Belt test for his 3rd Degree. Pretty amazing stuff.

Next up: Olivia!

And a good look at her Self-defense moves...

Here she is getting her third stripe put on.

HAPPY Girl!

The best part of this whole experience is that I have gotten to watch her REALLY grow. She practices almost every day and works really hard.

Here she is with her friend Mia

And with Christopher and Emily

And of course: With Sensei...

And this is a photo of Olivia with Marisa. It was Marisa's first time testing at a "big" test time. She did great!