Comprehensive Water Park

McCall loves to talk on the phone, but no one is quite sure what she is saying. Whenever she talks on the phone she paces back and forth and, no matter who she is talking to, she always ends her phone conversation with: “Bye Grandma. Love You.”

Accident Prevention
This week McCall was chasing Denver around the house and she tripped and fell. She has not quite yet developed her father’s cat-like reflexes and was not able to get those stubby hands out in front of her before face, or more precisely – her lip, hit the floor. After her bleeding lip was properly attended to, her brilliant father had an excellent idea for ensuring her safety during future tripping events. Bumper pads (aka inflatable balls) were added to her front side, thus enabling her to bounce right off the floor without her head even coming close to contacting it. When Holly came home, she told me that the bumper pads were inappropriate, but I still can’t figure out why.

This Saturday we went to Comprehensive Water Park, which is located on the Pacific Ocean side of the island about a thirty-minute drive east from Kadena Air Base. We went to the water park with the Otis family. They live about a block away from us and they have three kids, two McCall’s age and one Denver’s age:

The wagon that Grandpa Allan gave McCall for Christmas a few years ago comes in handy for our beach and water park visits. We also received some funny looks from the Japanese people, while pulling this particular load.

View of the Water Park from the top of the Waterslide. Pacific Ocean in the background.

Another view of the Water Park from the top of the Waterslide. I will give $10 dollars to anyone who can find Denver, McCall, and Holly in this picture ($20 contest entry fee applies).

McCall enjoying herself in one of the many kiddy-pools.

McCall still enjoying herself in one of the many kiddy-pools.

After a long day of water-park fun, McCall’s ready to head out.

I just realized that we don’t have any pictures of Denver playing at the water park. The reason for this is simple ... we never really saw him much after we entered the park. He and his friend Devon pretty much disappeared and did whatever they wanted to. Now that is my kind of parenting! Finally after 6 long years of extraordinary parental-vigilance, we have now earned the right to ignore our oldest child. We can now just relax and hope that we would be able to hear his pleading screams for help in the unfortunate event of an emergency.

Torii Beach and Summer Solstice Party

This Saturday we went to the beach at Torii Station. Torii Station is an army post located about a fifteen-minute drive north of Kadena Air Base.

Water Slide
Next to the beach at Torii Station is this water slide. Denver and McCall had a blast on this slide. After each ride down the slide, McCall would immediately say “Again” and start running toward the slide stairs.

Low Tide
After the water slide and lunch we hit the beach and it happened to be low tide. In the background you can see that the reef is exposed at low tide. On the reef there are many treasures and we had some fun exploring the many tidal pools for sea creatures.

The Afternoon’s Bounty
The bounty included a stranded fish, sea urchin, hairy crabs, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, a sea urchin, a funky-looking starfish, a crawdad, and some other unknown creatures.

Ready for Snorkeling

Snorkeling Action Shot

Cheese!
Don’t worry, the child in the background wrestling with the alligator was able to escape injury and keep the alligator from attacking other swimmers until animal control arrived.

Be Free!
At the end of the visit, it was time to say a teary goodbye to the amazing Technicolor tropical fish that we had rescued from the reef.

My Sponsor Michelle
On Saturday night, my co-worker and friend Michelle had a summer solstice party at her house. She and her husband are renting a beautiful home with a great view of pacific ocean. Michelle was my sponsor coming over here which means that she answered the 3,914,000 questions we had and took care of many of the arrangements prior to our arrival. The party was lots of fun and we met lots of new people. Michelle rules!!

Ocean Expo Park Churaumi Aquarium

First a warning: This blog posting is long and contains many pictures. Those who are weak of heart should log off immediately. We apologize for the multitude of pictures, but there were so many cool things at the aquarium, we couldn’t help it.

McCall Makes Some New Friends

Denver in Net Heaven

Entrance to the Aquarium

CHEESE!!!

Starfish and Sea Cucumber Petting Pool
Denver playing with a starfish. McCall looking for Patrick Starfish.

I’m Not Sure Which One is Posing in this Picture

Open Wide

Turtles!

Denver Harassing the Turtles

Awaiting the Big Dolphin Show

Pre-Fathers Day Cuddles from McCall

I Love Cones!

Denver and Jason Re-enacting the Infamous Crab Pinching Incident

Waiting for Dinner
After the aquarium we drove up a ways up a long skinny winding road to a little restaurant called Pizza in the Sky.

Delicious Pizza!
My favorite part about this restaurant was that they only had two items on the menu. They had one kind of pizza and one kind of salad. It made ordering so easy. We all loved the pizza and Holly even called it “The Best Pizza Ever.”

Family Night Picnic and Japanese Children’s Pool

Family night at one of the parks on Base included an egg-salad sandwich picnic and a tour of a World War II hospital cave…

Two Utensils are Better than One
In McCall’s never-ending quest to become a more efficient eater, she has figured out this week that eating is faster with two utensils. She now regularly requests two spoons, forks, straws, etc.

Curly Qs

Outside the Hospital Cave
Used by the Japanese during WWII as a medical cave.

For the Grandmothers…
I thought that the grandmothers might enjoy this picture of this nice spider that was found near the entrance to the cave. For scale, the leaves in the background are about the size of school busses.

Fast-forward now a few days and it is time to celebrate school being out with a visit to a Japanese children’s pool.

Our Beautiful Daughter Preparing for the Upcoming Swim.

Charlie’s Angels
These girls obviously haven’t read the owner’s manual for this stroller. It states that it can hold two three-year-olds, not three two-year-olds.

What is She Looking At?

Denver Braving the Octopus Slide

America’s Next Top Model???

Capri-Sun Cat Fight
Never get between three two-year olds and their Capri-Suns!

Rainy Season Has Arrived – The Indoor Post

It has rained every day for the past week or so and we have really enjoyed the rainstorms. Because of all of the rain, this post contains exclusively pictures taken indoors. First, we started the week with a very close call…..

Caught in the Act
Miraculously no carpets or walls were harmed during the filming of this incident. The perpetrator unsuccessfully attempted to hide from authorities by closing her eyes. After smiling for this crime scene photo, the alleged criminal was severely punished and then taken directly to the prison cafeteria for lunch.




Mona Kids Jungle
We have been rained out on our beach visits for the past two Saturdays, so we went and did an indoor activity at Mona Kids Jungle. The best way to describe it is a super-sized McDonald’s Playland with more toys, more kids and more noise. Each adult admission ticket should come with a pair of ear muffs and some extra-strength Tylenol.

Many friends and family members have asked what the inside of our house is like. In an attempt to accommodate the thousands of requests, we took some pictures of the inside of our pad. McCall graciously volunteered so serve as a model for the pictures. Perhaps a better term for McCall’s participation would be volunteering without being asked. Similar to “Where’s Waldo?” the younger blog readers are welcome to participate in a game of “Where’s McCall?”

Living Room with Kitchen in Background



Dining Room



Kitchen



Denver’s Room (aka: The Crabby Shack)



McCall’s Room (aka: Living in A Pineapple Under the Sea)



The Master Suite
The appliance on the right is a DE-humidifier. We have three of these throughout the house.



The Center of the Home
…where all of the important decisions in our family are made.