A Walk to the Park

Today has been a nice day. The weather was beautiful and sunny! Grace and I went to the gym and she enjoyed playing which isn't always the case. After the gym we headed home for lunch and a nap. As soon as she was up from her nap we were out the door to meet Dustin as he was getting off of work and we took a nice long walk on base. We stopped at one of the school playgrounds and Grace had blast. I think her favorite is the swings! We left in such a hurry that I forgot to take the camera so we didn't get any pictures. Maybe next time.

Sunday

So I was planning on blogging about our weekend this morning but life got in the way. Or rather glass shattering around Grace's feet put a stop to my blogging. There was a piece of paper that she wanted and when she got it she also pulled my little baby cup off the desk that was sitting on top of it. I spent a good while picking up glass, sweeping, wiping the area down with a microfiber towel, and then I vacuumed and then finally mopped. I had to pick up all of

Grace's toys before I could do the vacuuming and mopping. I also had to put her in a safe spot - her crib - while I cleaned up the mess. I really didn't want her to try to eat glass again!

So now back to where I left off this morning... as you can see I had nothing written!

Sunday morning we went to the zoo and the wonder museum they have there.

(For pictures click HERE)

Grace had a great time looking at all of the pictures and playing with everything inside the museum. She didn't want to leave the crocodiles!!

After the zoo we decided to stop at one of the fruit stands that we pass by almost everyday but had never stopped at before. It was closed. So we decided to go to one of our favorites that we have only visited once and that was while my parents were here in August. It was closed. I guess fruit stands are closed on Sundays here. I saw a MaxValue (Japanese grocery store) and knew they would have what we were looking for so we stopped. Produce can be very expensive here. The last few apples we had cost almost $1.50 EACH, potatoes can be more than $1 for 1, and we know someone who actually paid around $24 for a cantaloupe when they first arrived on island! So we try to occasionally go off-base to buy locally. One of Grace's FAVORITE fruits right now are Japanese oranges. I think they may be tangerines but our mamasan calls them oranges (they have brought us some before.. this is where we learned how yummy they are!).

We found the tangerines and we also found lots of other goodies. We ended up with some fresh broccoli, tomato, tangerines, strawberries, and ice cream! At the commissary strawberries have been about $6 for a little package but here they were 342 Yen (around $3.50)!! On the way home I started thinking... what are we going to do with the strawberries? I happened to remember the toy chocolate fountain I bought around Christmas that we have not had a chance to try out yet. So after dinner last night I set everything up and we had a yummy (and fun) dessert!!

For more Chocolate Fountain Fun pictures click HERE

Whale Watching

We ended up being able to go whale watching yesterday. On Friday we were not to sure if we would be able to go or not because the weather has been quite rainy lately. We had two calls from the tour company telling us "bad weather" and "baby" and "cancel" then finally someone else who spoke just a little more English called and said they would tell us at the port if it would be OK to take a baby. It turned out to be a really nice day!

We got to the port early and were told where to park. Then we had to write our names on a waiver then told to wait. As it turns out, the lady didn't speak any English and that was the only thing she knew to tell us. So we waited while everyone else went to get on the boat until someone who spoke more English could try and translate.

{our boat in the background}

We had a short ride out to the place where the whales were. The waves were pretty big and the boat was rocking a LOT. While we were just watching we pretty much had to hold onto the boat all of the time. We saw several whales - more than I thought we would!

There were about 10 boats in this area watching for whales. They would get so close to each other too!

After seeing the whales for about an hour it was time to come back to land. It was another fun day!

I think we are going to head over to the zoo in about an hour for some more fun!

I am going to try and get some videos on here but that is a different camera and different computer. The video camera software isn't Mac compatible so I have to dig the HP out.

Little Princesses

Yesterday morning Maggie came over to play. Grace always gets so excited when Maggie comes over! We played tea party (Maggie ALWAYS wants to play tea party as soon as she gets here), play dough (Grace thought it tasted yummy... maybe I should make play dough with them again?), read books, told riddles, and were little princesses!

I think Maggie liked the tiara a lot more than Grace did!

Weekend Plans

Before Grace and I left for the states we had planned on going Whale Watching. Well, we got a flight out the day before we had planned to go. So yesterday we went and booked our trip for this Saturday! Hopefully the weather will be nice and we will see some whales.

We are also thinking about taking Grace to the science museum at the zoo. We have a year pass to the zoo and several admission tickets to the museum and I want to use them all up before our zoo pass expires.

I like having things to do on the weekends!

Ready for Summer!?!

The weather is absolutely gorgeous today! Yesterday was almost just as nice. It has been a bit hazy the last few days due to a dust storm in China but today is warm and sunny with clear blue skies. On days like today I normally let Grace play outside on the balcony after her nap. And when it is warm enough we fill the water table (I got it for FREE last year and have been waiting for her to be big enough to play with it) and put her bathing suit on her and she has a blast.

The little sunhat she is wearing she picked out all by herself. While we were shopping at Babies R Us during our visit to Oklahoma she pulled it off the shelf and put it on. She wore it the rest of the time we were in the store until it was time to pay. Her Grandma picked out the matching bathing suit!

She loves to play in the wagon too! We bought this when we moved to our new house since we would be having to carry groceries up the elevator. We thought with a wagon we could get everything in one trip. Well, we don't even use it for that anymore but Grace LOVES it!

I think this afternoon we will go sit out on the balcony and enjoy looking at the blue ocean!

Bowling

On Saturday we decided we needed to get out of the house. We had a coupon for 3 free games of bowling so we figured it was as good of time as any to use it. This was Grace's first time to bowl! She really had a good time. She got to pick out her ball and push it down the ramp. And she had fun cheering for everyone! Her final score was a whopping 66!