Sumo Sister, Sushi and Soba

This week Juniper learned how to laugh and we have really enjoyed listening to her giggle. She has also been working on her drooling skills and expanding her fat rolls...

Saturday we drove up to Nago for a "cultural exchange" where Holly and some other friends were taught by Japanese members of our church how to make Sushi and Okinawan Soba...

Sushi Rolling

In the action shot above, Holly is using a sushi mat to create a tasty sushi roll with raw salmon, wasabi, crab, avacado and cucumber.

Holly, Juniper and the Sushi Spread




Okinawa Soba
The highlight of the afternoon was learning how to make Okinawan Soba. Our kids LOVE soba, which consists of wheat noodles, pork ribs, green onions, pickled ginger and a fish cake in a delicious pork/fish broth. The city of Nago is particularly famous for its excellent soba houses. See the following wikipedia link for more details on Soba: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_soba





Chow Time!
It was so funny to watch McCall devour her soba. She was sooooooo hungry before the meal that she was crying and begging me to hurry and get her soba because her tummy hurt so bad. She ended up eating two bowls (fish cakes and all) in a matter of just a few minutes.



Passing Juniper Around
Juniper and her Japanese sisters really enjoyed each other's company. In the background of this shot are the missionaries. One of the unique blessings of being a missionary, is an enhanced sense of smell which guides you to any free food within a 10-mile radius.

Children's Day and Mother's Day

This week we celebrated two exciting holidays: Children's Day and Mother's Day...

Koinobori

In Japan, May 5th is Children's Day, a national holiday "set aside to respect children's personalities and celebrate their happiness." This year the Dalpias family joined in the fun by displaying some Koinobori, aka carp-streamers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koinobori) and cheering on the participants in the annual dragon boat races.

Dragon Boat Races

The races are conducted in heats of three every fifteen minutes. The top three finishing times from all heats then compete at the end of the day for first place bragging rights. The picture above shows a heat with women's rowing teams from the U.S. Navy (black boat), U.S. Army (yellow boat) and the U.S. Marine Corps (green boat). We had some friends from the Army and Navy that we were cheering on. The Navy's women's team finished first among the services and I guess it is fitting that the Navy team should win a boat race.

Now to Mother's Day - Denver, McCall and Juniper are really grateful to have such a wonderful mother and showed their gratitude by providing her with...

Breakfast in Bed,

Fiber-One Bran Cereal and Soy Milk - the Breakfast of Champions.

and Dumbbells

Nothing says "I Love You Mom" like some cold hard steel.