Our Oki days: June 24-27

June 24th – We have no sort of pantry in our house, so we went to the BX to find something to use for a pantry. We found a 5 shelf bookshelf which was pretty cheap, so we got that. I made pasta e fagoli for dinner; dinner has never smelled or tasted so good before!!!!

June 25th – The kids have had a blast with the other kids in the neighborhood, playing with water balloons. They fill them up really full, carry them around, and then pop them. Yesterday the neighbor boy was filling them up, then throwing one to each of them to see if they could catch it. They have been getting soaking wet, which helps them keep cool in this hot weather. Yesterday was nice though, it was cloudy with a little bit of rain, which really cools it off. I am starting to enjoy the rain and appreciate it, compared to the extreme heat. In Utah, when it rains, usually that means it is cold, and I do not enjoy the cold at all! But here it is different, unless of course, you have one of those extreme rainy days, or a typhoon, yikes!!!

Dallin started baseball practice this week. He has games until the end of August, which is when school starts. Mike also got on a men’s softball team. The little girls want to do gymnastics, but there is a waiting list to get in, which could be a couple of months, bummer deal. And Kaitlyn has no opinion on what she wants to sign up for, (she got that trait from me, can’t make a decision, grrrrrr!!!)

We had another great home-cooked meal, spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, and artichokes, yum! I have never been so thrilled to make dinners as I do now. There is nothing like the smell of great food cooking in your house, now that is home!

June 26th - We have heard from people that when you first move out here for the first time, you will think to yourself “what did we get ourselves into?”, and that is exactly what we are thinking. Because it is a culture shock, everything is in Japanese, and not very many Japanese speak English. So how am I supposed to get around this new home of mine now? But I am still glad we came. I know things will get better.

Yesterday the kids and I went to the beach by ourselves. It was very windy and the tide was low, so we didn’t stay long. We headed over to one of the base pools instead that had a waterslide. The weather is so unpredictable here, while swimming it would be sunny and warm one minute, and cloudy and rainy the next, but then clear up again.

We received an email about a boy’s baptism that was going to be at the beach. We really wanted to go and see an ocean baptism for the first time, though we weren’t sure where it was, but Mike did find it. We weren’t sure how to dress, so we did not dress up, but everybody was in suit and ties, and the women in dresses, so we felt kind of foolish. We thought we might watch from a distance, but we joined in with everybody. One place we feel at home here is being with others of our same faith. They said prayers, sang hymns, had talks on the beach, and had food afterwards. An ocean baptism is a wonderful and awesome thing to go to. Jenna gets to be the first in our family to have an ocean baptism, how lucky!

June 27th – Mike bought some snorkeling gear, so he was excited to go to the beach Saturday morning to go snorkeling. We went to Kadena Marina. Kaitlyn was brave enough to try it. Dallin did not want to put the breathing tube in his mouth. Mike and Kaitlyn went snorkeling for awhile. Kaitlyn said it was cool and they saw some pretty neat fish. After Dallin saw and heard how cool it was, he decided he wanted to try it. So Mike took him out there to practice. Later we came home and washed up. The kids played with the neighbors getting all wet playing with water balloons, which has become their daily activity with them.

We read about another beach that was good to take kids to, called the Araha beach. We headed out after dinner to go find it. It was going to be dark soon, but then I realized then we could watch the sunset, cool! It was a great place for kids because they had a playground and a big ship the kids could play on with 2 zip lines they could use. Again we walked along the beach, taking pictures and watching the sun go down. I could do this forever! (Minus the sand everywhere in the car and house ;>) On the way back to the car, Allie had to go to the bathroom; we stopped at the bathroom there and to our surprise, it was a traditional Japanese toilet, which is basically a hole in the ground. Allie didn’t have to go anymore, ha ha.

Note: Araha beach pictures and video are below.