There's nothing like camping to make you grateful...

We had a great weekend. We started out the holiday weekend with a district wide Thanksgiving dinner. That was really cool! It is a tradition here in Okinawa since we are all pretty far from our families. The church district provides the meat and whoever wants to come can come and bring either a side or a dessert. We had it at one of the schools on the Air Force base and there were a lot of people that showed up. Then after getting full on turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pies of every flavor and so much more, the kids got to run around and play in the gym for a little while. Then we left and drove about 2 hours to the very top of the island for some camping at the beach resort that is up there. It was already getting dark when we left and we were following friends that had been there before. If we hadn't been following them I just know we would have gotten lost! It was kinda hard to find in the dark. We got there and it was fully dark and had begun to rain. We had to get the tents set up and Juanpablo and I had never set up our tent, we had just bought it the day before! But, it was really pretty quick to get it set up. The Cook's tent was bigger than ours and took a little while longer to get up, but in not too much time we had both tents up and the kiddos were ready for bed. We didn't do anything that night but attempt to sleep. The rain never got that bad, just sprinkling mostly. But oh my goodness, the wind was insane! It was seriously blowing the tent down on top of us most of the night! It was like a hurricane was going on outside! It was so loud! And then we were practically on the beach, just a little bit of grass was between our campsite and the sand, so we could hear the waves really well also.

This is our view and our new tent.

I wasn't able to sleep most of the night due to the wind, I was sure that it was gonna pull all the stakes out of our tent, luckily it didn't. The kids slept great though! It was like nothing was going on outside! Samuel woke up before Bella and Juanpablo took him down to the beach. A little while later they came back and Sam was soaked from about the knees down. The water had come up quickly on him and he hadn't run fast enough to not get wet. Well, we had him change clothes and then he walked around in Juanpablo's shower shoes because his were soaked. We made breakfast and ate and then Leeanne and I drove out to get into the near by town to get Samuel some new shoes. While we were gone Juanpablo, Blake and the kids went to explore and play miniature golf.

Bella tried to kiss Dopey...how cute!

Here is Sam playing miniature golf in Juanpablo's shower shoes!

Samuel loves miniature golf and you just don't see to many places for it anymore. The resort is called Okuma and it has campsites, cabins and like hotel rooms. The campsites are the best because they are actually on the beach and you can see the water while laying in your tent! They also have go-karts, these jumping things for the kids, miniature golf, boats you can rent, water bikes, buggies to tour the resort, jet skis, scuba gear all this stuff for rent at really low prices and we are really excited about going back when it's warmer and the water isn't freezing! It is a Air Force resort and it is really nice. When Leeanne and I got back from shopping we ate lunch and then Juanpablo, the kiddos and I went for a walk on the beach.

It is just so beautiful there.

We found a blowfish on the beach and we weren't sure if it was alive, Juanpablo tried to turn it over and it tried to take a breath! We knew that we had to save the blowfish! So, Juanpablo got some bark that was on the beach and picked it up and got it back into the water. We don't know if it survived, but I like to think that it did!

The water is better than anywhere I've seen. It is this beautiful turquoise color. The pictures just don't do it justice.
We made hobo dinners and ate s'mores while waiting for them to cook. And just hung out. The guys played basketball and the little girls just ran around playing. Then we got the kids to bed and the adults had fun hanging out by the fire til it was really late and we were all ready to go to bed. It didn't rain and it wasn't very windy, so Friday night was much better than Thursday night! On Saturday we packed up camp and then went to play at the beach and then Juanpablo, the kids and I went and did a tour of the resort on a buggy.

Then we went to the go karts and Sam was to short so he had to ride as a passenger with Juanpablo and they raced Blake.

Then Sam rode with me and we raced Leeanne.

Bella slept through all that. She actually didn't nap on Friday which was shocking! But she made up for it on Saturday! Then it was getting late so we went to eat at the restaurant there on the resort, it was really good and very, very reasonably priced. Then we headed home. The camping trip really made me grateful for this beautiful island that we are living on now, for the beautiful world that the Lord made for us, for family and good friends. It really was a great weekend!

Finally!

We are in our house and we have some furniture that we have on loan from the government. So, our house is not so empty any more. We just got a couch and a dinning room table with 6 chairs. We get to use them until we leave from here. I think that's a pretty cool thing that they do. We left our couch and dinning room set in storage in the states. Next week we should get our first shipment. And then by Sept. 15th (our 7 year anniversary) we should get our last shipment with our beds (Yeah! No more air mattresses!). Right before we left the hotel to move in here Sam got a new toy....the funny thing is, Bella loves it.





We have a pretty nice house, the rooms are pretty big and it's really pretty nice. We have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. We also have 2 balconies! One off the living room and one off the master bedroom. The MB balcony is a little smaller than the LR one, but they both have pretty nice views! The first is from the master bedroom and the second is from the living room.






We went to the beach for the first time today. It is less than 10 minutes from our house and is really beautiful! We went to Araha Beach and there they have this big pirate ship for the kids to play on. It has a zip line and slides and all sorts of fun stuff for the kids to play on. The water is beautiful! And something that I loved, it has a net around the swimming area so you don't have to worry about getting stuck in a current and getting carried out to sea and you also don't have to worry about jellyfish or sharks getting to where you are swimming! It was Arabella's first time at the beach. She didn't really like it very much. She didn't really care for the water and she hated having the sand on her! She got really upset and started complaining whenever sand got on her foot or leg. It was kinda funny. She loves to color on herself with pens and get dirty that way, but don't put any sand on her! Here are some pictures from the beach.






Oh, so we also got a second car today. Juanpablo will be stationed here on Camp Foster where we live, but the rest of his unit is on MCAS Futenma. So, if he needed to go over there unexpectedly and the kids and I had gone out somewhere then he wouldn't have the car and would have no way to get there because it's kinda far. So, we went to the same place we got our van (B.C. Motors, in case any of you ever need a car in Okinawa, they are really good!). I still haven't taken any pictures of the van, I keep forgetting and when I remember I don't have the camera. I'll take pictures of both cars once we pick up the other one. It's a really cute little car. It's big enough that we could fit the kids in if we needed to, but it's pretty small! It reminds me of a mini cooper. All in all it was a pretty great day! Lots of fun! I also got my license so now I'm legal for driving in Japan! So, yeah, it was a good day.