June 2011 - Peace Prayer Park

In June 2011, I went to Peace Prayer Park with work. It is a memorial park for the Battle of Okinawa for World War II. I got a nice big history lesson and a chance to see the history that fills this island.
Here is one of the caves that the Okinawans hid in during the war. Very sad stories come with this that I will not share here:

This is one of the battle sites, the stairs lead to another memorial. The wall in front is a piece of concrete left from the war, with bullet holes still there.

They are still recovering weapons from the war. Divers find things in the water, stuff turns up on the beaches, things can be found in the jungles. It's everywhere. This gun was found only a few months earlier on one of the Marine bases.

Paper cranes made by Japanese elementary students for peace. These hang in the beginning of the Japanese Naval Underground Headquarters. The war was mostly strategized underground.

Map:

Showing US forces:

You can click and read this one:

Walking thru the underground headquarters. Very low and tight.

The corner stone of peace. Memorial at Peace Prayer Park. Beautiful scene:

Peace:

In the background are walls with the names of those who lost their lives. American and Japanese.

The Walls:

June 2011

Ok, so it's been a while since I last posted. Why? We've been busy!
I'll bring you to speed a month at a time. I'll try not to leave anything out. But, let's face it. We've probably already told you most of our lives via the phone or facebook. But, nonetheless, here it is. Complete with pictures.
First up is June. June brought many, many things. Along with our daily activities, we moved, Olivia got her second set of tubes, and my grandmother passed away. I love her and she is missed. I love these pictures that I have of her and Olivia. She didn't like getting her pictures taken much. But you can't really tell from these.

I can hear her talking loudly to me in this picture. And by my smile, I'm sure it was something like "I'm gonna kick her butt"

These were taken in August 2008. Olivia was 3 months old! Seems forever ago.

So, June took off with Daddy celebrating his promotion selection. You can see the pretend sticker stripes in this pic:

Olivia also changed "schools" aka day cares. Since she turned 3, she moved up to the preschool rooms, which are at a different center. Here is one of her last events at Shima No Ko. It was a cultural celebration day. And her room had Mexico. She is making a maraca.

We jammed out to the finale of American Idol:

We won a sprinkler at family night and played in it outside:

This is outside the new house. We got to move out of our tiny 2 bedroom into a bigger 3 bedroom, since Mike made Master. Yippee! We moved to a different house, one that is actually on Kadena. Much more convenient. Also convenient that we got to get new furniture. Our couch was from when we first moved in together, and it was pretty loved (and falling apart). And we moved into a neighborhood where we already had friends. Pretty awesome.

Oh and Olivia got a hair cut! A major hair cut. Before:

During: She wasn't that sure. But no tears!

More During: Still not sure.

Beginning to look really cute and feels a little famous with the stylin' going on:

After: Sportin' a new 'do! Very sassy.

At the hospital in the hospital clothes, ready to have the second set of tubes put in her ears, and the adenoids removed:

After the surgery: Still passed out. She recovered just fine.

And you get a glimpse at the new furniture. Couch, loveseat, and Daddy's recliner (although Jill tries to steal it from time to time).

Ok, July coming soon!

Safe and Sound After Typhoon Songda

You may have heard we’ve been prepping for a Typhoon all week. We were in TCCOR 3 by Thursday, then went in TCCOR 2 on Friday, and seen TCCOR 1 on Saturday morning. Typhoon Songda hit us late Saturday night. It wasn't the super typhoon they were first expecting, but still a strong CAT 2. I heard it was 109kt (125.43mph) sustained winds gusting to 136kts (156.51mph). We lost power from about 9:30PM to 2AM. Then no Internet, cable, or AC for most of today. Others were without power for 20 hours. We were lucky and nothing is too damaged and we are all fine.
Look in the distance. See my little blue car? Safe and sound (and dirty) across the street. We didn't trust that big tree that looms over our parking spots. And I'm glad we didn't trust it, because it lost against Songda.

3 guess on what used to be here...First two don't count.
We (Mike) tried to be good and prep, put everything in our shed and strapped it down, staked it in...But it didn't matter. Songda wanted to play with all of Livvy's outdoor toys. And grill while she was at it.

The back yard, coming around the house.

Our back door sandbagged. It rattled so much. In Mike's words "it sounded like a C-5 landing on top of a T-Rex." We were a little scared. Livvy was really scared. Jill was terribly scared. Those are not our recyclables BTW.

The kite string. This is important because once we realized our shed was blowing everywhere: Mike said, oh man, my airplane kite is probably gone...

Some parts of the shed in the neighbor’s yard. And random garbage cans...only one was ours.

The stuff that was in the shed. It didn't go far. Just slammed into the hill in the back of us. It looks a mess, but we were able to keep half of it.

The grill was not one of those things. Livvy's bike and table were saved. However, the table used to have an umbrella that went with it. Used to.

Her wagon and car were saved as well - just wet and dirty. Next to her blue car is an Elmo kite - he didn't make it.

We found the roof to the shed in the middle of the houses next door.

The floor of the shed and a side. We think we gathered most of the pieces. We were not the only ones to loose this shed. Pieces of this shed can be found all over the bases...

Another view of the back.

See the blue poking out? That's the airplane kite! And a hula hoop. The hula hoop wasn't ours.

The views from the front of the house:


See? Our cars were safe way over by the new houses.

From across the street. This tree used to be very full. I tried to find it in other pictures, but I guess I don't take many pictures of our concrete bunker.

Sunset Swimming Sunday

On Sunday I ran a 5k. My last 5k was about 2 months ago, right before my surgery. That 5k also included other exercises along the way. Sunday's 5k was just running, but I was slower this time than I was two months ago. Only by 2 minutes, but still. It is crazy how fast fitness declines once you stop. Easy to see how people get addicted. But my goal was to finish and I did, even if it was slower. My excuses are lost time from surgery, crazy muggy, and crazy hills.
Anyway, to rest and relax after running, I took a nap, but when I woke up it was such a nice afternoon, so I wanted to do something. We decided to go to the warm pools at chula-Lu. But before dipping in, we stopped for some yummy ramen! Olivia loves noodles!


Then off to the pools. They are right alongside the beach which leaves for a nice view. One pool is deep, but the others are only 80 cm, so Olivia found out she can touch, and she thought that was perfect!





Showing off her two piece!



Our view of the sunset. Olivia calls it "pretty sun!"



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