Keramas with Jay

Josh's brother Jason had so much fun visiting us last summer that he had to come one more time. Yeah... we love visitors! His trip just happened to be during Spring Break for the kids. We had already planned on taking a ferry to one of the outer islands for a camping/snorkeling trip so if worked out perfectly. The littlest 2 boys and I only stayed for the day (Thad + tent camping for 3 days = stressed out mama). Josh says it was the best snorkeling yet so I am a little sad I missed out, we are just going to have to go back!

It is a 70 minute ferry ride.
View of the beach from our campsite.

The kids hung out on the beach while Josh, Jason, and I went snorkeling.

Jason and Josh

Soba noodles for dinner.

Sea Snake

Octopus (it did make it back to the ocean alive)

Clown fish, Jay took this awesome picture!

Sea Turtle

Angel fish

Beautiful coral reef

My favorite picture of Brand snorkeling!!!

They also saw a 5 foot shark, a ray fish, and a flounder. Like Josh said, the absolute best snorkel trip yet. I am so happy Jay was here for it. Definitely makes the LONG trip here totally worth it.

Cherry Blossom Festival

We drove 1 1/2 hours north to the Nakijin Castle Ruins for the Cherry Blossoms Festival.


Thad and I tested out our new carrier. He loved it and slept most of the time.

View of the East China Sea from the top of the castle ruins.

We had lunch at Pizza in the Sky on the way home. They serve one type of pizza (sausage, green pepper, & corn) and salad with ginger dressing. It is one of my favorite places to eat on the island.

Thaddeus 9 Months

I am so behind on blogging that I thought I would get back in the swing of things with some pictures of Thaddeus. Thad will be nine months old tomorrow. He is a very happy, smiley baby! Last week he figured out how to get around on his own with a cute scoot/crawl-like move. He finally gave in and will eat solid foods. Of course he only happily eats sweet potatoes, pears, and applesauce but at least it's a start. He loves his big brothers and is very entertained by their craziness.

He loves his Jumperoo. I love how well it wears him out!

One of the games we play all day long is "keep the baby out of the dog's bed". Sooooo gross!

He loves Zoey and now that he can get around by himself he follows her around the room.

Zoey loves Thad too. She sits right next to the highchair and eats everything Thad drops.

Our cute little Thad!

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!