Graduation and a LEGO Party

Owen has had a FULL weekend. On Friday we attended his kindergarten graduation. So cute! He was so handsome in his shirt and tie and belt. The kid never wears belts and you would've thought he was going to die by having to wear one for 2 hours. His class did a great job with their program. The other kindergarten classes performed things that they had learned throughout the year too. Then they received their diplomas. You would think this meant "school's out for summer" but sadly no. He still has 9 days. I wish he was done but actually we really need those 9 days to get things done. (I need another post to explain)

Then on Saturday we had Owen's birthday party. It was a LEGO party and I think it was a success. I tried to be low key this year but somehow I always do too much and worry too much and enjoy too little. I think Jeff may enroll me in a 12 step program for birthday party planning. Either that or make me the head of the party planning committee. My friend Toni helped me with the cake. It was adorable. The kids seemed to love it too. My friend Jen stepped in and helped with the water balloons as Jeff was called to an emergency at the hospital. And the other parents helped too when it was time for present opening. They were all so excited to give their gift to Owen. Can you believe that child got 7 new LEGO sets and not ONE repeat?! Praise God because I was a little worried if he would respond with "I already have this" or would kindly say thank you and move on. He did great and I think everyone enjoyed the day. 

Siblings

New Friends

Owen, Masa, baby Lisa, Jeff, Meg and Alison in front of the O club

Naval Hospital Okinawa has a Japanese intern program that lasts for a year. The interns begin in April and finish the following March. There are six interns who spend their days working hard to sharpen their English and western medicine skills in the hopes that it will help them enter a stateside residency program. This year Jeff is a sponsor to one of the interns and we are really enjoying getting to know him and his family.

Masa and Meg have an 8 month old daughter Lisa. They are such a sweet and hospitable family. They moved here from mainland Japan so Masa could participate in the program. Meg and I have had the opportunity to go out to lunch a few times and to go to the dragon boat races. It was such a blessing to have her along to be my navigator. She could actually read the signs that told us where to go. She and Masa also had our family over for a typical Japanese meal one weekend. The food was delicious! Both Alison and I ate our first sushi ever. Of course Alison ate it because it was pink (salmon and tuna) and she could dip it in soy sauce. She loves soy sauce! 

Our latest outing was to our church, Calvary Chapel Okinawa, and to the O club for brunch. We wanted to give them a typical American meal. They seemed to enjoy their time at both places. Our church is neat in that it translates the service and some of the songs into Japanese. 

We're looking forward to getting to know them better and learning as much as we can of Japanese culture and language while they are here. 

There's a Birthday Boy In The House

Owen turned six on Thursday. His kindergarten graduation is next Friday. He repeatedly tells us that all his old favorite pixar movies are "baby shows" and he watches "big kid" shows. He loves to laugh, run, climb, and work out his hands on the Wii. His favorite toys are LEGOS, video games, (bonus if the video game is a LEGO game), balls, and guns. He adores his Dad and loves his sister, most of the time. He likes to make people laugh which may mean we have years of him being the class clown ahead of us. He is very tender hearted, I think he gets this from me. Most of his personality is like his dad's, but the emotional side is more me. He still lets me kiss him goodbye at school and tells me he loves me too when I leave. He loves Jesus as much as a 6 year old can and I find myself wanting his childlike faith. He can almost beat his dad when it comes to memorizing scripture. He can definitely beat me at it. He's riding a two wheeled bike. Riding said bike may mean ER visits our in our future. He reads like a champ and is doing very well in school. He is the sweetest, silliest, six year old I know. It's going to be a great year! 

I Had A Lunch Date

And if anyone reading this is from my bootcamp, I swear I did not have fast food. At least not my own. I may have tasted a few french fries, but does that really count when they were not really mine? 

I have been told that I need to update the blog. That it has been a month and that it is annoying to keep checking it and not to see something new. So be ready. There will be lots of updates soon. 

This Little Girl...

Is one of my biggest blessings, but sometimes I think she is going to be the end of me. She is a much more challenging 2 year old than her brother was. God is growing us both up. I just wanted to post some of her sweet sayings before I forget them.

'I will get my mok from the chicken. " (milk and kitchen) I love that she calls the kitchen the chicken.

"I need to do my ecercises."   Then gets down and does push ups. So cute!

"I go serious big one."    This is not so cute, she learned it from her dad.

"Mommy lay down with me for a yittle bit. It's not too hard. "     Mommy laid down with her because I couldn't resist her plea.

"I want the pink one. "    I love her love for pink. 

"Hi, my friends. I'm here now. "  Definitely no self esteem issues here. 

"I"m big and drong".  (strong)

Ok, so China!

I can't believe we've been back for a week and a half and I haven't told you about China yet. No good excuse just lazy and busy. A bad combination for me. 

So we started our 8 day adventure to China on April 5th with a flight from Naha to Shanghai. Amazingly when you live on this side of the world it is only a 2 hour flight to China. That still blows me away. We then went though immigration/customs with our group and had a layover for our flight to Beijing. The Shanghai airport was HUGE! That is about all I remember about it. Well that and that when we went to the airport store Alison picked her snack based simply on the fact that it was pink. Just so you know her rule of thumb is if it is pink it must be good. I can't argue with that logic.

From Shanghai we flew to Beijing which was also about 2 hours. The Beijing airport was HUGE and very new. On the bus to the hotel we learned that Beijing's Terminal 3 was only a year old and was built for the Olympics. No wonder it was so big and new. We made it to the hotel around 10pm and were ready to hit the bed, I mean cement slab. The hotel was very nice but the beds left MUCH to be desired. We called them rocks, but another couple on our trip referred to them as slabs and I have to agree they were much like a slab of concrete. 

Beijing was very cool. Much prettier than I expected. Also much dirtier than I expected. Not dirty like trash everywhere, but dirty as in dusty.  My kids were filthy by the end of each day from exploring every thing there was to climb. Our first day included Tienanmen Square, The Forbidden City, a silk factory, lunch, The Temple of Heaven, and a park which I want to say was Jingshan park but I could be making that up, and dinner. It was a long day. We were able to see the road where the tanks rolled in to Tienanmen Square and enjoy the beauty of the many rooms and buildings of the Forbidden City. On day 2 in Beijing we traveled to the Great Wall. This was definitely one of my top 2 favorite places. It was amazing to be there in person. I still don't really feel like I've been there. We all climbed quite a way up but we stopped before the top for the sake of our 2 year old. Alison and Owen did great climbing. We have lots of pictures and a keepsake card that says we climbed The Great Wall. Very Cool life experience. This day also included a trip to the Ming Tombs, lunch and dinner. On day 3 we went to the Summer Palace. This was definitely one of my favorites too. Incredibly beautiful. I just didn't expect such beauty, I'm not sure why. I could have spent several days exploring this place but we only had a couple of hours. We also went to a market this day. Since neither Jeff nor I are good at haggling we looked around said a lot of "bu yao" and decided to hit the Coldstone Creamery we saw across the street. YUM! We had free time this day too so we used ours to swim and go to McDonald's and Wal Mart. Do we scream American tourist or what? 

The next morning we woke way too early to fly from Beijing to Xi'an. Xi'an is famous for the Terracotta Warriors. Once arriving we had lunch and headed to the Xi'an city wall. After there we headed to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was pretty but definitely a little creepy for me. The huge gold Buddha was weird to look at. Owen made his mama proud that day. He wanted to know why they were burning "pencils" which were really incense. We told him that was how they worshipped Buddha and he asked "why". We said we weren't sure. He then looked up at the huge Buddha and said "God is bigger than him, God could step on him". Amen Owen, Amen. I was so thankful that he wasn't even tempted to think that a shiny statue was cool. 

We then went to a dinner show that night. The food was pretty good, except for the beef and the show was fun. The next day we headed to the 8th wonder of the world, the Terra Cotta Warriors. These were really cool. What rich history they represent, but also much violence and Godlessness. It was amazing to see these in person. From there we went to The hot springs and then the Ban Po museum. The next day we flew from Xi'an to Shanghai. 

Shanghai was amazing! What a neat city! Incredible skyscrapers mixed with old architecture. Great shopping. Definitely a cool place to visit. We visited the Bund, down on the water and then the Yu Garden Market which was definitely a fun place to shop. If only I'd had more time I'm sure we'd have come home with less money. We finished the night with an acrobat show which the kids loved. On Sunday we woke up early again for our flight back to Naha. 

It was an incredible trip. One I never would have dreamed of taking. We experienced such rich history, yet found ourselves very thankful to God for our freedoms in The United States. We are truly blessed to have been able to visit China and also to be from such a great nation. This trip will always be one of my favorite life memories.