Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends Christy and David. They have two kids, Avery, 4 and Evan, 2. They got here around the same time we did, so we will be here the whole time together. David works with Mike. Their friends also joined us. We ate at Christy's house, they live off base. So we (Mike) cooked the turkey here at our house, because they do not have an oven, since they live in a traditional Japanese home. Can you imagine!? No oven, just a stove top. They went out and bought a big toaster oven so they can at least bake some things. Anyway, we had a great time. Although we did miss those we usually spend our holidays with! Mike did a good job on the turkey. This is his third year making a wonderful turkey, so he is pretty proud of himself. We also had mashed potatoes, candied yams, corn, green beans, stuffing, Spanish rice, baked beans, and tons of desserts, including pecan pie and pumpkin rolls. Oh, and of course deviled eggs.
We started the day with Olivia waking us up. I thought maybe she would taste better (sweeter)than the turkey, so I tried to butter her up. She played along pretty well.

"Hey, what am I doing in here?":


Laughing at daddy:


She is thinking "This is funner than the thing they try to put up my nose":


Our little turkey, with her bib from Aunt Paula:
(Olivia even got to try mashed potatoes from mommy's plate)


We ate the turkey, but she passed out!

I'll post more pictures of the day later. Christy took some pictures and is going to send them to me.

Also...
For Thanksgiving this year we made turkey cards. Olivia had a fun time getting dirty. She didn't really grasp the concept of making the hand print, so when we were getting the ink on her hands, she dug the ink pad, causing her to have black finger nails that lasted a few days. I'm sure people thought I had a dirty baby. But the cards sure turned out cute anyway! Thought I would share the process!

The Purple Hat Place

Our friends Craig and Jennifer introduced us to a local Japanese restaurant off base. They call it the purple hat place, it isn't really called that, but the real name is written in Japanese, so we don't know it. The waitresses wear purple fabric on their head, so that is where the name comes from. When people come visit us, we will have to go here. You have to sit on the floor and take your shoes off. They have English menus, so you can just point to what you want. And the best part...the food is sooo yummy (and cheap)!

Olivia thinks this table is the perfect size for her!
Green tea is served with every meal...


A sign - Don't know what it says, thought it was neat.

Our food! Doesn't it look yummy? I got fried chicken strips, comes with soba (noodles) soup and rice, and a salad - but I didn't eat it because it was just raw cabbage.

I forget what this was called, but its just spam, eggs, and rice, wrapped in seaweed. Yum!

Mixing the sauce for the chicken, grinding something...

The finished sauce!

Mike loves the rice! He has the chopsticks down!

Veggies!

Olivia is loving her veggies! You know she is ready for another bite, when she opens her mouth and screams for more. She is very demanding actually! She has also had applesauce and enjoyed that very much too! Here is a collage of her trying out her first veggies. If you click on the picture it should open up bigger in a different screen.

American Villiage

I told you a few weekends ago, Mike, Olivia, and I went out and hung out at American Village. We ate dinner at a place called Four Seasons, its similar to Mori, if you ever went there with us (except I like Mori better). But this was good too. They come out and cook the food in front of you and put on a little show. The tables are smaller than Mori, so you aren't sitting with a lot of people. After dinner we walked around and explored the area!

Our Chef:

Olivia enjoying a teething ring:

I think that kitty lives at the beach. He is the same one we saw at the sunset.

American Depot - This ferris wheel is huge and it is on top of a building. I for one will not be going on it!

The lights change different colors:

Nuclear Meltdown

You may have heard us say this in reference to Olivia. Well, I was lucky enough to capture the process of a small "nuclear meltdown" on camera. I had Olivia sitting in her exersaucer, a little too close to the end table. She reaches for everything now! So I turned to find her with one of my books in her mouth. Here is what happened.

"Baby, what are you doing?"

Right in the mouth!

Book has been taken away...anger is coming:

And...Here it is! Screams! :)

Sunset Beach

In the beginning of the month, Olivia and I decided to go watch the sunset. Daddy had to work, but we still had fun. What better place to watch a sunset, than a place called Sunset Beach. So we headed off base, across the street to the beach. Sunset Beach is inside an area they call American Village, a popular tourist spot here. We all went down there a few weekends ago and walked around, I'll post those pictures next. But for now, here is Olivia's first sunset.

See, the sign even says this is where you watch sunset!

Before the sunset:

Sunset Beach and the Okinawa Tower Hotel:

At the seawall next to Sunset Beach

Even kitties love the beach and come to watch the sunset!

Going:

Going:

Still Going:

Gone:

This could be a post card

And After the sunset:


Here are some pictures of Olivia. She didn't want to look right at the camera, but I got her anyway!

"Mom, I really don't want my picture taken..."

Black and White:


All the Japanese people wanted to take her picture. They love her! I let them take a picture, then asked one to take one of us:

Big girl sits up all alone:

Searching for Seaglass

One popular hobby here is to collect seaglass. If you haven't seen or heard of it before, its just pieces of broken glass that has been worn down and smoothed out by the ocean waves, the washed up on the beach. There is actually a North American Seaglass Association - fancy, I know. Here the stories of seaglass range from the glass being pieces of broken bottles left over from the soldiers back during the wars, to pottery thrown out to sea during a traditional Okinawan wedding ceremony and then washing back up to shore in pieces. Most people that collect the seaglass make something out of it - jewelry, frames, whatever. I have already bought a seaglass necklace that I am in love with. Well, On Oct. 26th, we decided to take a drive and try to find Camp Schawb, a Marine Base nearby. It isn't a very popular beachy-beach, so there is a lot of pickins of seaglass. We got to take the Express Way to Schawb, which meant we got to go a whopping 80 km - and we thought we were flying. We also got our first taste of Japanese toll booths...that was an experience. But we made it to Schawb and hunted for seaglass...I'm not sure what I have in store for my findings.

Olivia Helping Mommy Look:

Olivia and Daddy Hunting:

Testing out the water with our toes:

Scenic shot:

Olivia likes hunting:

Our treasures - I am so excited about the pottery one with the cobalt blue design (I found it)!

P.S. If anyone wants any of the pictures posted on the blog, just email me and I will send them along!

Somebody Has the Giggles

Goofy girl had the giggles. This video just makes you laugh!

Answer to the Poll

Well you guys guessed brown as the winner and then blue and gray tied each other for second. Well...I think we were all wrong! I'm not sure what color her eyes are. All I know is everyone comments on them, and each time they say a different color. Sometimes they look brown, sometimes gray, sometimes a little blue, but most of the time they are kind of a hazel color. Here is the best shot of her eyes...you decide:

6 Month Progress Picture

She stretched out her shirt- every month she gets harder and harder to sit still.

This is her "I'm not doing anything wrong" look.

See? Not only does she not sit still, she ripped the "6" off! She is pretty proud of herself too.

The six month war wounds...Apparently they were out of girl bandaids because she got spiderman and spongebob.