More Adventures in Okinawa...

So, Chris volunteered one evening to stand by his plane at this festival that they were having on one of the bases... there were lots of games, food, music, etc... much like what they did for the 4th of July. Anyways, I stopped by for awhile at the end of the event, but when I got there, Chris and the other pilots with their plane were being treated like celebrities. There was a whole line of people waiting to get their pictures taken with them... I had to wait in line myself! Anyways, here's the picture I got with them... not sure if you can see me, but I'm holding up a peace sign. I was trying to be very Okinawan, because EVERYONE in Okinawa holds up a peace sign when they get their pictures taken...

Finally, I stole him away from the screaming mobs to get a picture with him!!

Soccer season has started a few weeks ago and Chris plays on his squadron's soccer team. I try to go to all of his games, but they're not very exciting. Let's be honest... his team is not good... not good at all!! (Sorry guys, but it's the truth!)

This past weekend, his squadron had a party on Torii Beach... gorgeous day and gorgeous weather! I spent most of the time talking with friends, which Chris spent most of the day playing on the giant, blowup slip-n-slide!

Chris's Adventures...

I know I have no room to complain since I live on a beautiful tropical island, but my husband gets to do lots of cool stuff without me!! So, he spent a couple days in Alaska, where he got to spend some time with his cousins who are stationed up there. He claims he took this picture from their plane, but I thought people only got pictures like this from flying into space in a rocketship... I have to admit that this picture is pretty sweet...maybe even frameworthy.

And he also got to see several of these things when he was there... I'm pretty sure they were just roaming around in his cousin's backyard. Why not keep it for a pet?

And this is the baseball game that he dragged me to... okay, I really did want to go. We went to support/watch our friend Rob play baseball, but it was SOOOO hot outside. It's really hard for me to concentrate on the baseball game when I'm distracted by the amount of sweatdrops running down my back... it was seriously hotter than hades... This picture is so far away from the field because I insisted we sit in the shade for the latter part of the game.

The Barrel Restaurant...

A few weekends ago we went to this place called the Barrel Restaurant... I think they picked the name for obvious reasons. Anyways, most of the restaurants in Okinawa are super-small... only maybe 1-2 cooks and 1-2 servers, with maybe 10 tables in the restaurant. But this place was huge!

Anways, we went to celebrate our friends, Melissa and Christian's birthdays... this is a picture of Melissa and me...

The food was delicious, but it was so busy that it took forever to get it! It was kind of funny though cause they kept bringing out food that no one ordered and then didn't bring out the food we did order (pretty common around here since there are lots of misinterpretations...). Anyways, we'd definitely go back, but not on the weekends!!

Babies, Babies, and more Babies!!

Don't worry... none of the babies are ours! But, lots of our friends are having them! So, I had a baby shower at our house a few weeks ago for my friend Tara, whose having a little girl. We had a pretty good turnout...

I realized that I didn't really even get a good picture of Tara, but this is her opening her gifts....

And this is a picture of a diaper cake that I made for her shower as a gift... it was my first attempt, but I guess it turned out okay!


Then, just a few weeks later, I went to another shower for my friend, Susan. She doesn't even look pregnant in this picture, but I promise she's due in just a few weeks!

They had an adorable theme of pink and brown polka dots for the shower... Susan is super-crafty and made her own diaper cake (which I have to admit, turned out better than mine!)

I actually decided to start making baby clothes for fun since so many of my friends were having babies! This is the first dress I made... and then I made several others after that, but forgot to take pictures of them before giving them away!
I actually made the cake for Susan's shower as well... and to make a long story short... I decided to start my own cake decorating busines... it's called "Sweet Cakes!" Wasn't sure if I would get a lot of business, but I put my first ad up on Friday and have already been contacted by at least a dozen people wanting to put in orders!... it's getting a little crazy!

And I just had to throw this picture in there... this is our friends baby, Aaron, and he has the most hilarious facial expressions... isn't this one funny?? I think his lip was just about to start quivering...

Ikei Island!! (pronounced E-K)

So... last weekend Chris and I decided to go exploring. Our pastor had told us about Ikei Island... we can almost see the place from our apartment. There are three little islands right off the coast of Okinawa, with bridges connecting all of them and we ventured out to the third one, which is Ikei. Just the trip there was breathtaking! And the best part was that it wasn't very populated. There are very few people who live on the islands and only a handful of people come to tour them each weekend.

Once we got there, we wandered upon Ikei Beach... unfortunately we had to pay to get in (about $4 per person), but it was so gorgeous! The water was unbeliveably clear... they also had all kinds of water sports to rent and participate in, but the Japanese are willing to pay much more than we are to rent them!
One of my favorite parts of the whole day was watching these adorable little Japanese children play in the water... the kids here are completely decked out in their goggles, tubes, long sleeve coverups, swimsuits, and goggles...

After we were done at the beach (you can only take so much of the sun here!), we decided to explore a little more and found this really cool look-out point... this is a picture of just one of many of the sites we found...
After we hiked just a little ways to see this point, I turned around and saw this GIANT spider's web... it was probably about 3 feet tall. And then, I saw the SPIDER!... It was so creepy. I told you they had giant spiders here! Total, it was about 6 inches long! (I zoomed in a lot for this picture, cause there was no way I was getting near it!)

Then we stopped by this adorable little cafe on the way back and ordered some yakisoba (it's a buck-wheat noodle with meat and veggies) and some banana cream cake.... oishi ka ta!! (It was delicious!)

Yea for exploring!! :)