Family Fun Day at Torii Beach

We went to the battalion family fun day. It was a lot of fun, although I missed getting pictures of pretty much all the organized fun. If you take the kids to the beach, they want to get in the water. Smart kids. After all it feels like 100 degrees here everyday lately.

The kids loved the water slide. 200 feet of slipping, sliding fun.

Oh, please, for the love of God, click the picture. Just do it, do it now.
Steven's face is so worth your click!

I tried so hard to get a good picture of one of the kids in the spray ground, but was not successful. I'm surprised I didn't get a picture of Garrett one of the multiple times he slipped and fell. Ummm, hello, it is wet and slippery as has been stated to you several times now.

Jerry in the dunk tank. Lucky him. This is the CO trying to get him; he didn't.

But SSgt looks like he's doing pretty well......

and he was!

Jer and the boys are some of the people WAY far out there.
Mommy was not happy with this.....

Steven and Vaughn were so proud of the sea cucumber they found
and dug off the ocean floor. Ewwwwww!

Who Cares if it Rains?

Seth and Garrett played out back in the pool, in the rain.

Tons of Fun at Round 1

We went to Round 1 this week, an indoor sports/amusement facility. It was great. Three floors of pure kid (and parent) fun. I am sure we will be back there several more times during our time here. There was so much to do. We didn't even come close to trying everything.

Here are few things we did try:

Mini golf, Garrett is right in the middle of the picture.

Tennis anyone?

How about a little mechanical bull riding?

Steven liked this one, note the smile.

HA! Could you pay an American teenager enough to have this job?

Mini bike racing-we didn't get to try this. The mini bikes are only brought out at specific times, since we don't understand the announcements, it is hard to catch it at the right time. Looks fun though. Maybe next time.

The view from the window. Pretty.

Video games, lots and lots of free play video games. Kudos to the boys for not staying in this section the entire time.

Garrett driving a Mack truck. Look how hard he is concentrating. So funny.

If you lived here, you'd get why this is so funny. Driving a bus on Oki is a feat in and of itself, I can only imagine in the largest city in the world!! I played this game several times. I apparently really suck at it. It kept taking off 5 or 10 points, and I am sure the kanjii that came up with it told me how not to suck. Too bad I couldn't read it!

Skating! Rollerblading, or good old-fashioned four-wheeled roller skating. This is why the mini bikes are only a set times, the rink is used mostly for skating.

Ah, yes, the massage chairs. Plenty of these around the facility for the parents to relax in while the kids run and play.

The biggest hit of the day. The ball pit with blasters. This was so much fun. Especially since we could all play together.

And I didn't get any pictures of the ping pong, archery, regular golf, and batting cages that we did try out!

Beetles and Spiders, Oh My!

Beetles are a common pet here in Japan. These ones are for sale at the Makeman (closest thing you get to Home Depot here). I think these are a rhino and a hercules beetle. The rhino beetle was stuck on his side, but we couldn't get him flipped over. Poor guy. It's hard to be a bug.

You can't really tell from this picture, but this hercules beetle was as long as my pointer finger. I do not have small hands people. This is one seriously big bug. Garrett wants to bring him home. Yikes! I have a scary premonition that at some point before we leave Japan we will have one of these as a 'pet'. Calgon, take me away! Although it is better than a tarantula.

After we got home from Makeman, we were working outside. Garrett and his friends start squealing about a big spider. Sure enough, a good sized banana spider had decided to take up residence right in front of my patio wall. I think not. I am not a fan of spiders.

I mean, for pete's sake, he has a symbol on him that looks like a skull. Nasty.

You have to click the picture to see the spider on the bat. This is after Jer got him off the web and everyone came around and looked at him, and before he got squished. Sorry spider, you can't live here. This banana spider was small, I am totally good never seeing a bigger one.

Morakot, well the edges of it at least....

We had our first experience with typhoon preparation here. Although, we ended up with no typhoon. Morakot rolled by south of us hitting Taiwan. We got wind and rain but only from the edge of the storm. It was a good trial run, at least we could get all of our stuff* put away. It looks like we just moved in now, there is nothing outside that isn't rooted in the ground. I kind of like the clean look. It won't last. ;)

Today we went down to the beach to see what might have washed ashore. The wind was still pretty wicked on the beach itself. The sand was a little painful on the legs.

This picture of the boys makes me laugh. For one, Seth's hair. Vaughn's super cheesy grin. Steven actually has a half grin. And Garrett looks v-e-r-y worried! Poor baby, he's still unsure about the ocean with its waves and all.

We were thinking maybe some shells or more sea glass might have been thrown up on the beach, not the case at all. There was trash though. A whole lot of trash. Sad, terribly sad. And you know some Privates and PFC's are going to really happy to be part of this working party.

Last night we tried to get some pictures of the sky. It was crazy reds and purples as the sun was setting. Hard to capture with the camera, these pictures hardly do it justice.

*read 'shit'