Daddy's Girl

Miss Artist at it again!!! She loves that guy in the middle SOOOO much! These last few deployments have been rough on her emotionally, and we are now experiencing some tears when dad leaves......Seeing him and saying goodbye again doesn't help....I'm so glad they've been so strong for so long! 

Nine years she's been doing this military kid thing!! 

Guam....again!

We had an amazing 4 days together in Guam as a family. It was our first ever true port call visiting the ship! The girls are definitely learning how special these times are in their life. 

Our final night together we had dinner at a great Thai restaurant! 

We stayed at the Hyatt this time and really enjoyed the property and pool slides

First swim with dad!! 

Enjoying the waterslide 

After swimming on day 2, she crashed at 6pm after her shower!!! 

Little miss sunshine---always!!!

The memory I'll take away from this trip.....seeing my girls LOVE and savor the time spent with their dad!!! The only times I don't mind playing second fiddle to him! 

Last deployment of this tour in Japan!!!! Counting down the weeks remaining. 

.......Sunshine and Ocean Breezes

In Guam for the week.....I'll catch up on phone calls next week!! Enjoying some R&R as a family of four! 

Picture Day--1st Grader

Well picture day fell on a work week for me this year. Of course it would. So I dropped the ball and only remembered to snap a photo of one child. They had photos on different days. 

Sigh......parenting fail. 

But we all looked good and were out the door at 645am each day! Still winning!!

What a weekend

We had a SUPER busy first full weekend---just the three of us. 

We started Saturday morning riding bikes to the nearby park off base with friends 

Then the kids were invited to their very first Nerf party for a friend. They had a blast and really got into it. 

Later that night I had a planned night out with 25 of my local friends....at a Japanese restaurant off base with our Japanese wives on base. 

And lastly on Sunday we boarded the train for Tokyo and travelled to see a good long time friend from High School that was coaching her team at a Jiu-Jitsu tournament. As of last year she was the 7th ranked female Jiu Jitsu contender in the world! What an amazing sport

And we ended the night with sushi, and the kids figured out finally how their animae cards they occasionally get from McDonalds here, can be used for free in a video game machine!! 

Labor Day Lunch

Of course the kids had the day off from school so we took the train to the local mall to browse and have lunch! Oh how I love eating in Japan!!

Maddy chose the decorate your own pancake kids meals

Abby picked the variety kids meal

And mom chose the variety adult meal! 

Deployment Donuts

Dropped Mike off at 630am!! 

Another start to another deployment---luckily our last goodbye in Japan! 

(Oh and it's 2pm and we are all still in our PJs lounging)

Summertime Kids

Abby is one creative cat! She may not have a love for athletics (yet....I'm still holding out some hope) but she is talented artistically for sure. I find random drawings on her white board off and on and saw this one last week! 

She also has a fascination for BUGS!!! And these sticky summer nights are resulting in tons on our porch! Coming home from dinner last night they spotted this guy above our front door. Mike helped them catch it with their new 100 yen bug nets and got him into the bug box for viewing, held him, then released him. 

The girls also LOVE their neighborhood friends. Everywhere we go they manage to make friends, and they all get along as if they've known each other for years. Some Friday nights this summer they have been going out to play their version of "kick the can". I can't understand the rules, but I know they live for the ordinary fun and know winter will be here before we know it, so I'm trying to let them enjoy the warm summer nights. (With lots of bug spray!!!!!)