Next Stop Chicago

Chicago it is! We are very excited. We will be a 5 hour drive to Josh's parents and a direct 2 1/2 hour flight to my family. That totally beats the 21 hours it currently takes to get home. We are set to move next summer, most likely the beginning of August. So anyone thinking about making a trip to Japan, you have 6 months baby!

Hawaii

Our family spent 3 weeks in Hawaii so a pediatric surgeon could remove a soft tissue sarcoma from Brand's thigh. We were sent to Hawaii because Okinawa doesn't have a pediatric surgeon or oncologist. The surgery went well and Brand is doing fantastic! Now we just wait and see if it grows back.

We stayed at the Hale Koa, a really nice military resort right on Waikiki Beach. It was about 20 minutes from Trippler Army hospital. Most of the trip was spent at the hospital and recovering at the hotel. As you can imagine it was a very stressful trip. We tried to make it feel as much like a vacation as possible. Here are a few pics from our trip.

Maeda Flatts Beach

Maeda Flatts Beach

This is the walk down to the beach.

Thad's first dip in the sea.

Brand's favorite beach activity.

Brand found a sea cucumber, isn't it gross!

Max - Learning to ride a bike

Max told us the other night he wanted to take the wheels off his bike and went and got a screw driver out of the toolbox. It took us a minute to realize he was talking about his training wheels. We have been trying all summer to get him to take them off and in true "Max style" he decided all on his own it was time.

Here he is 30 minutes later, riding all on his own! Way to go Max!!!

The cheering section!

First Day of School

Brand's first day of school was last week. He started 3rd grade. I can't believe I have a kid this old, I totally remember 3rd grade.

Today is Max's first day of Kindergarten. He was so excited this morning. He has been counting down the days until he gets to start school.

Waiting for the bus with his friend Kayla.

It was so cute to see how excited he was as the bus pulled up.

Waiting to go into the classroom.

Can you tell he is done with me taking pictures.

We made it, no tears from either of us. So now here I am sitting in a quiet house just me and Thad. What a change after such a loud, hot, crazy summer.

Jason's Visit

Josh's brother Jason came to visit us at the beginning of August. I can't say enough how much we LOVE having visitors. It is fun for us because every visitor has different things they want to see so every visit is a bit unique. Jason wanted to see as much cool wildlife, sea life and plant life as possible so we spent most of the time outdoors. He and Josh went snorkeling at our favorite spot at the very tip of the island and night snorkeling. Night snorkeling was really cool. They saw a squid, box jellyfish, sea snakes, lion fish, lobster, and a crown of thorn starfish. We took Jason to Okuma, our favorite place to stay. A typhoon just missed us while we were there. The outer rim of the storm did hit us with some really strong winds and rain.

Stormy Okuma

View at the end of a short hike at Okuma.

Little hermit crabs are all over the beach.

A bunch of huge hermit crabs were all around at night.

We took Jay to the Aquarium

The Okinawans like to wear t-shirts with English writing. It is fun reading them because they rarely make sense.
Josh, Brand and Jay hiked to Higi Falls.

The falls.

They saw a ton of salamanders, lizards, spiders, and insects on the hike.

This is one of the snakes they saw. They also saw a Habu snake. The Habu fell off the side of the trail and almost landed on Josh and Brand. Once Josh's heart started beating again they were able to get away. Of course Jay had to see what the extremely poisonous Habu felt like before making his escape.
We also took Jay to the Botanical Gardens.
There were a lot of cool Banana spiders all over the gardens. This one is about 5 inches long.

The boys did a little fishing with bamboo poles at the gardens.

Thad and I watching the boys fish.Brand and Max's favorite part of the gardens, the playground.

My favorite thing to do at the gardens is feed the fish.
It is the funniest thing. 100's of huge carp make really loud gulping sounds as they wildly splash and fight for food.

Thanks for coming Jay, we had a really fun time!

2 Year Anniversary

Today is the 2 year anniversary of the day our family boarded a plane bound for Japan. I find it very interesting how time can seem to fly by and standstill at the same time. The first year we missed Target, malls, and Mexican restaurants. Now all we really miss are family and friends. So the count down begins.... 364 days until we are coming HOME!

Here are some new pictures of Thad (2 1/2 months old).

I love the chubby checks!

Brand had a palatal expander put on this week. Every night he turns the key a bit to slowly expand the roof of his mouth. He will wear it for 4-6 months and then have braces put on. Turning the key is a bit painful and lets just say he is such a tough kid!