Noah's reading chapter books

The kindergartens at Killin did an "ABC" parade last week. Each kid had a letter (Noah was F). He dressed as a farmer and brought Fruit by the Foot for lunch (nutritious eh?). We had a potluck lunch and mingled for a bit. He loved having me in his classroom and I loved seeing him there.

Not many things are as sweet as watching your kid learn to read. It has been a joy seeing Noah acquire reading skills. Last week I suggested trying a chapter book to see if he could do it. He hasn't put it down since. He stays up late with a flashlight in bed. I just think it's too cute. Here he is with siblings playing all around. What's that he's doing?

Yup, reading.

He's read Junie B Jones and Magic Treehouse. Does anyone have any other good first chapter books to suggest?

The tramp used to be for jumping. Now it's for reading. Love it!

Soccer banquet

The 2010 soccer season has come to an end. We missed the last three weeks and then the last game was cancelled due to the rain. Bummer! The kids still got a trophy and that's all that mattered in their eyes. Here they are with their coaches:

The Red Dragons.

Check out this cake. A mom on the team did it and she has some SERIOUS skills. It tasted as delectable as it looks.

DC 2010

Remember that crazy flight back we had? Well we decided to make the best of it and venture into DC for the day. Fist stop, National Museum of American History. Issy was in heaven to see Judy Garland's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

Thanks to the movie Night at the Museum, the kids were eager to see the Natural History Museum. We're here!

Excited to see the dinosaur in the foyer (like in the movie):

Um, no dinosaur in the lobby. That's in the back. There's a giant elephant instead. I think the kids were a bit disillusioned (as was I) that it wasn't set up like the movie. Or should I say that the movie didn't set it up like the real thing. It was still cool, though.

Giant whale hanging from the ceiling:

The Hope Diamond:

Looking down onto the lobby of the museum

Grrrrrrrr

There was some sort of service appreciation week going on...honoring careers that serve. The military was one of them and they had all these tanks and helicopters to climb on.

A future Marine?

Ahhhhh....back in good ol' Japan. Care for a smork anyone? They try, really they do.

Again I have to point out how freakin' AWESOME our friends are. We got in late at night and had a good friend pick up at the airport with no complaints. Then we can home to this:

A welcome home note along with a kokeshi doll with sympathy from my friends written on it. So sweet! We also had fresh fruit and bread. There was an oatmeal casserole for breakfast the next morning:

Two delicious dinners in the freezer:

And milk, eggs, cheese, and dessert in the fridge. Wow! It was soooo nice to not think about food the next day (which happened to be a Sunday).

We are so glad to be back and in the swing of our routine again. It was a nice trip home, but I hope to not make that trip again until it's a one way ticket home for good.

The good

Ya know, funerals are funny things. Everyone is supposed to be sad. When you're my dad and 82 and lived a good life it's a time to remember and reflect in my book. There was a distinct absence at the house without Dad there. That was sad. However, I also got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a very long time. That was nice. Like these guys:

These are my brothers. Many of you know Ben and Scott. My mom and dad were married for 42 years and had the three of us kids. However, my dad was married before that and has other sons. Jeff, Greg and Tim were at the memorial service, after party and graveside service. It just felt right having them there too. I think the last time I saw Jeff was middle school and Greg was 9th grade. I saw Tim in high school a few times. It was wonderful to catch up and get to know them a little bit. It was also strange to see my dad's eyes on Jeff, to see his swagger in Greg and to see his smile on Tim. We are all truly his kids.

Dad was on the Iroquois school board when I was in high school. As a remembrance to him the school flew the mourning flag and the US flag at half mast for a few days. It was a really sweet way to honor his memory in my opinion.

Fun in the States

Although we went home for a cruddy reason, we still managed to have some good times. Here the kids are on some random dragon at Sunset Beach (the beach right by our house).

Considering we flew a ridiculous flight pattern both to and from Oki we had a rather uneventful trip (thankfully). By ridiculous I mean we flew from Okinawa to Tokyo to Los Angeles to DC to NYC to Buffalo. Coming home it was Buffalo to NYC to DC. Spend the day and night in DC. Fly out back up to Newark to Tokyo....5.5 hour layover....to Okinawa. It was a LOOOOOONG flight, but hey it was free. And, if you ever get to fly Continental as opposed to United then DO IT! They had DVR's in every seat with about 150 movies and 50 TV shows, plus video games. As a parent I am usually getting interrupted during a movie on a plane about a zillion times. However, I would just pause, tend to the child and continue watching an hour later. It was wonderful and I actually saw 2 full movies on the 13 hour flight.

Another funny thing happened to us as evidenced in this picture below. On both the long transoceanic segments we received seats that not only weren't together, NONE of us were together. Yup, even 10 month old Kate was seated by herself. Obviously that wasn't going to cut it, but they insisted there was nothing they could do about it. It was real fun having to wait until everyone was seated and have the flight attendants beg for some poor soul to give up their aisle seat so my family could (sorta) sit together. We ended up having the boys sit together and several row up having the girls sit together. It was tricky when someone wanted to eat but the food back was with the opposite parent. Or when Kate needed a diaper change but the diapers were with the other parent, but it worked. At least WE were the ones changing Kate and not some random stranger.

My mom with my Grandma Ruthie and Kate. Oh yeah, the dog, Lotus, is my mom's favorite child.

We went to the Buffalo Museum of Natural History one day. I love doing stuff like that, but I don't have as many opportunities in Oki. However, I also love going to the beach and I get to do that all the time in Oki. It's a trade off I guess.

Here we are at the kid grocery store at the museum.

Rob got to take a quick trip out to Utah for a few days. Here he is with Grandpa Kiser and his dad. There's no family resemblance or anything (THICK sarcasm).

Rob got to go to the temple (me=jealous). Here he is with his youngest sibling, Micaela and his mom.

Back in NY again, Rob took little Ben golfing with big Ben and Scott. Big Ben aspires to be a golf pro and since both him and Scott work on golf courses they had to play a quick nine. Little Ben was in heaven as evidenced by this video. Very focused, but happy.



To say my mom has had some work done on her house lately would be an understatement. They added on about 1000 square feet including a complete remodel of the kitchen. The landscaping and outside work is still being finished up and creates big puddles when it rains. The boys found this frog one day in such a puddle. I think the kids thoroughly enjoyed being able to explore the woods and having an acre to run around on. I enjoyed just letting them play and not worrying about some neighbor kid hitting them or the MP's yelling at me for underage inattention. Yes on base you have to be SEVEN to be unsupervised while playing outside. Ridiculous in my book.

Anyway, it was a really nice trip and I'm so glad we were able to make it. Thank you to Rob's command for giving him the time off and for paying for our tickets. It would have been a huge financial burden for us to fork over 6 tickets last minute.

Kate starts walking in NY

Here's Kate at 10 1/2 months. She started walking for real at the end of church. Of course she was with Rob and not me. An hour later we are here at my Grandma Ruthie's house where she takes these steps. She certainly hasn't taken off running like some other kids of mine. She still prefers to crawl. However as evidenced by this video she can certainly walk if she wants to. Way to go, Katie Bug!

Noah's surgery

Noah got tubes in his ears two days before we left for NY. I wish we would have gotten them sooner, but at least he has them now. He was super loopy coming out of the anesthesia. Here's a video for anyone who wants to look. Ignore Rob and I making fun of him.