Diving

Well, I haven't been able to get out too much since I was certified to SCUBA dive but I hope that changes in the not too distant future... also, I just got a dive camera. It's nothing fancy but it does allow me to take digital photos under water so I thought I'd post some of my inaugural shots. I was still figuring out how to use it so I didn't get a whole lot of great pictures but there were a few that I liked so here they are, if for no other reason than to get my sister-in-law Sarah and brother-in-law Jared to cross the Pacific and come dive with me.

The first place I have pictures of is called Horse Shoe. It's about a 100 yard or so snorkel from the beach and then it just drops off to over 170 ft. I know a few crazy kids who wanted to see just how deep it was, when they got to 170 they turned around but said it would have probably bottomed out at about 200 ft. For those not in the know 120 - 130 feet is about as deep as they recommend you go.

There are a lot of bright, little blue fish around the island that I am a big fan of.

And here is a shot from about 60 ft below. Like I said, I'm still getting used to the camera.

I had a bit more photographic success at the second dive site of the day, Toilet Bowl, about a two minute walk from where our cars were parked for Horse Shoe. It's a bit of a perilous walk to this entry site down some lava rock, you just have to watch where you're stepping and choose your path carefully. If there are any scouts out there looking for an Eagle project, building steps down to Toilet Bowl on Okinawa would be a great one! You have to be careful here because the site is right below a fisherman hut and I guess if you get too close they like to throw rocks at you. We didn't have any issues though.

Every dive I've done here I have seen a sea snake. Here's one next to one of those blue fish.

Here's a fish posing for the camera.

This is Duane and Will, two of the three guys I was diving with.

There was a school of trumpet fish just below the surface where we exited the water.

Toilet Bowl is a good place to dive.

The Best Part of Christmas (2)

More silliness...
Admiration (nice floor Grandie!)...

Friends...
Games...
Memories... (wrong end Grandma!)

And Piratey Things...?

The Best Part of Christmas

The kisses...

hugs...
stories...
silliness...

(and hitting Uncle Jared of course) :)

PreChristmas through Christmas Day

Christmas comes but once a year... and usually so does decorating the tree. Coryn got to help a little this year, though he couldn't quite get the hooks to cooperate. We broke two ornaments, but neither was really his fault surprisingly. Of course, we had to take the tree down about three days later so we could put some carpet in (yay!) and redecorate it but it was worth it.
Coryn got to see a variety of Santa's this year, three different people (Torii tree lighting, Army/Navy football game (go army beat navy) and Boise mall) and a Pipeman Santa. The pipeman is the 505th mascot and stands near the front gate year round, but apparently someone long ago made him a santa suit and now he gets to dress up at Christmas and has his own humvee sleigh and pipe reindeer.
As most of you know, we went to Boise for Christmas, and though I don't have any pictures from the plane ride, we obviously survived the trip. One of Coryn's favorite things to do at Grandma's house was play instruments, he got to play the piano, flute, saxaphone, and trombone. (Fittingly he got a harmonica for Christmas from Uncle Aaron which he adores and plays pretty well now).

Here Coryn's showing off his newest bedtime duds, his Christmas Eve gift, while playing his favorite game at Grandie's house: throw the ball down the stairs so G-pop has to chase it. Also in the picture is Bindy, cat that thinks everyone is a climbing tree.

Christmas morning! Coryn marvels at the ornaments on the tree... look down Coryn, its more exciting there! He did good for all the excitement of the day, but he did have to quit unwrapping presents after a whiles. Who needs more presents when there is already so much to play with? Thank you everyone for the fun new toys!

randomness from awhile ago

spotted while shopping in August, its in his room now.
His 'friend' from across the street, he always wants to 'go hello Wesley' but then he runs away because Wesley is a crazy boy and Coryn doesn't like getting touched by kids his age. Here Wes is enticing Coryn to join him in a ride in his birthday present, but Coryn's also afraid of the sudden noise and motion of the powerwheels.
Hand chair... yes you can get weird stuff here too.

Finally, a sleepy boy.

Happy Birthday!

He's a terrible two now, and we celebrated the event, complete with cake, which he again ate the frosting from. We invited a couple of neighbors who's names he knows over, one of whom he's taken on as a kind of surrogate grandmother.
Opening his first present he was gentle with the paper, not wanting to hurt it, but then he got the hang of it and he rips mercilessly. Here he has his first real game, matching bears. He calls it 'the same game', and though he's not quite ready for the flip two at a time to find matches, he does like having them strewn across the table so he can find the bears, most of which have affectionate names now (ie: grumpy bear, green bear, binkie bear).
We got him a CD player we found in one of the Japanese stores here, the CD goes in the tree stump, honey pots for speakers, and dancing Pooh characters. He also got a couple of airplanes from the neighbor boys, and takes them everywhere.
Usually in the back of his tricycle, which he rides in circles around the house. He also sings songs about his trike now too ("riding a bicycle, riding a bicycle"). He loves all of his presents!

Halloween

Halloween was a smorgasborg of fun filled times for Coryn. Our playgroup had a trick-or-(healthy)treat session the Friday before, Coryn's first memory building experience with the matter. It was super windy that day, so I had to stow his hat and attach a chin strap later.
One of the ladies made cupcakes... Coryn ate the frosting.
Later that evening was the company party which I was in charge of. It went fairly well, and Coryn got to decorate his own candy bag. We had a pumpkin carving contest and a door decorating contest as well as a huge potluck and tp mummies.
Here's the whole ensemble, he was really good at saying trick-or-treat and thank you to everyone. He only got scared once at a dummy of a guy lifting his head off. There were a ton of kids, about half of which were Japanese, its not really something they do as a culture but the kids have fun dressing scary and taking candy from Americans :)

Lucky 27