Harroween in Okinawa

Halloween this year was an action-packed two-week long celebration. Last weekend we joined the Pinnau family in bringing American culture, in the form of hot dogs and sugar cookies, to some Okinawan preschoolers...

Which One of These is Not Like the Others?

This weekend we had some friends over for a pre-trick-or-treating Halloween bash. After consuming unhealthy amounts of frosted sugar cookies, we threw costumes on the kids on embarked on a quest for more sugar...

Slack-Lining

While I was in Alabama, my friend Aaron got me hooked on slacklining. Before the party we set up a slackline and the kids had a blast walking it.

A Self-Proclaimed Tooth Fairy Princess

Holly and Melfeldt with Kids

Juniper was a Faithful Candy Assistant

Scary Faces!

Marriage Is What Brings Us Together Today......

Princess Bride!! (I'm just trying to quote movies like Michael does on "The Office"). Normally, I'm not the type to put sentimental, anniversary blogs on the internet, but this isn't a normal year. Since Jason is still in the states, and therefore we are apart, I thought I would post a little something for him.

Twelve years ago today, we married as best friends, and today, we still are. I'm happy to say that being married to Jason just keeps getting better every year. I fell in love with him because he made me laugh, and he still does, and always will. Our past 12 years together have been full of adventure: We've had 3 children, finished degrees, had a few jobs, built a home, climbed mountains, purchased a few too many Volkswagens, trained for races together, moved to another country, traveled, and the list could go on and on. We knew when we married that we wanted to live life to the fullest, and that's what we're trying to do together. I could type all day about how amazing I think Jason is, but he knows how I feel about him, and like I previously stated, I'm not really into doing that on the internet.

That being said, I would like to bring attention to the pictures below. Jason decided to run in the "City of Montgomery Half Marathon" with some of his new military buddies that he's met through school. They might all be "Muscle Heads" and outweigh him by a lot, but he "Schooled" (sorry for the lame pun) them in the race. He ran the 1/2 in one hour and forty minutes which is an awesome time! He has become a really great runner in the past couple of years. He says he does it to impress me - well, I am impressed!! Here's to many more years of adventures together, and no more anniversaries apart!! Fly home safe - we'll see you soon............

Since You've Been Gone......

We have missed you so much! Thankfully, we have really great friends that have looked out for us and kept us entertained. The following pictures are some things that we've been up to in the past couple of weeks. We wish you could have been here to do them with us, but we'll see you soon!!

We went to Naha with friends. We to to watch the Japanese kids participating in Sports Day. Sports Day is a big event that is held once a year at all of the schools in Okinawa. Our friends teach English culture at this school and have been kind enough to invite us to a few of the school's festivals. We were treated like dignitaries. They reserved a spot at the front of the gym for us, and fed us drinks, snacks, and bento lunches. The kids actually loved the bento lunches (despite the looks on their faces in the picture). McCall especially loved all of the fish she got to eat. Juniper thought the music and dancing was a blast, as you can tell by the grin on her face.

Denver had a day off from school and we went with some friends to the Okinawa Zoo (Don't tell McCall since her school was still in session). Denver loved showing Juniper all of the animals.

A couple of weeks ago, Juniper decided to start pulling herself up on everything, and walking along furniture. She loves her new mobility, but it is stressing Denver out! He is a worrier anyway, and he can't stand it when she falls down. He has even been having bad dreams about her falling off things. I try and reassure him and tell him that when he was her age, he used to fall down all the time too.

We had a nice, relaxing day at a secluded beach with friends. We were the only ones there. Juniper enjoyed eating her first tastes of sand and rocks. Denver enjoyed snorkeling, boogie boarding, and collecting shells and sea glass. McCall enjoyed entertaining herself in whatever random way she could think of at the moment. The picture that my friend Melanie took of McCall laying in the sand captures her perfectly. Who knows what is going on in her head most of the time?

Oh yeah - this is the picture I took of Juniper the first time I discovered she could pull herself up into a standing position. I thought to myself, "I guess it's time to lower her crib now". I captured this cute "first" moment and then she fell out of the crib. Maybe I should have been more concerned with her safety and less concerned with capturing the moment.

McCall's first day at school. This is her second year of pre-school at Kuwae. She is in the "big kid" 4 year old class this year. The boot on her foot is from another of her stitches incidents. Watch out for those packing tape dispensers! The serrated edge cuts deep when you step on it!!

The Third Child

Jason has been gone for about 5 weeks and we still have one more to go before he comes home. Instead of emailing him pictures of what's been going on, I thought it would probably be easier for me to just go ahead and post some recent pictures on our blog. This is normally his job, but I thought I would give him a break. My posts aren't going to be witty or funny like his, but that's okay since my intent is for him to be able to see what his children have been up to while he's been gone. Our poor, sweet baby girl Juniper has been dragged all over the world since she's been born. She is the most adaptable baby I know. Unfortunately, as the third and best natured child ever, her schedule (or lack thereof) is sometimes neglected as I deal with all of the other home-front responsibilities. She can (and will) fall asleep anywhere as you will see in the pictures below. These are just a few examples: On the floor after she gets done crawling around, while playing with toys, when other men are holding her, etc... She is such a joy to have in our family! She started babbling a lot lately and her first word was, "Da Da". I think she misses her daddy and is very excited for him to come home soon!