Christmas in February!

Ok, not really, but thats what you get when I don't have access to my Christmas pictures all January.



First of many Christmas related functions... Torii tree lighting, complete with bubble blowers, brass quartet, cookies, and Santa visit via firetruck.






Coryn was super obsessed with Santa this year, at every event he was the first in Santa's lap, wanting to run across the road just to be the first to say hi. He really wanted his Star Wars Legos.




This year he had the joy of sitting with a friend from school as well, Savina.




The second event was the 505th party, they had fun dancing and playing in the soap bubble snow they used for pictures. My camera died so I was only able to get pics of them in this 'be an elf' board... too cute.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

While we were in China, Mom and Dad were watching the kids. When we got back I got to spend some time with them before they left. We went up to Okuma and climbed Hiji (go Mom!)


Visited the giant Okinawan Rail (bird) observation at Hedo Point.

And Ryukyu Mura to name a few... here we got to dance with the old lady balancing a giant sake bottle on her head.
Look! Dad's dancing! and smiling! Is he having fun? Is he laughing about how much taller he is? or is he enjoying watching my mom swim her way through a gaggle of school kids?

China! part 1

okay, I just wanted to start blogging this trip though I'll have to do most of it later while I catch up on what we're doing... and yes, the signs in China are indeed as funny as you think, you are here!

Our first stop was Shanghai, though we only stayed long enough to catch our flight to Beijing. Its an entirely different experience than Japan, but I'll get into that later. Shanghai is the largest international hub in China, which makes sense being that its the most modern and international city in China. It was fun though to see the multiplug posts! Jackson has a couple of international converter plugs thanks to the USO but China wasn't one of the options so we had to buy a converter there.

Pizza Hut! its everywhere, but different just like McDonalds is... there's usually always an item or two on the menu you know and will be the same, but this is a popcorn chicken pizza (delicious!) which we're pretty sure had Tabasco sauce for a base.

Although China is now all about the communism and sameness and junk, they have broken from that when it comes to tourism and have fun things like pillars covered in gold fabric.

I thought I'd seen everything in Japan when it came to strange named foods...