Adventures in Wellonsland: Shorter post I promise!!

I made it back to Okinawa from my amazing "field trip" just in time to watch Ben's baseball game and then we hurried home to so I could see the girls. Of course the first thing out of their mouths was "what did you bring me"! Lucky for them, I had brought home a few gifts.

No one felt like cooking that night, so we all climbed in the car and went out to dinner. We pulled over at a nearby park to take in the sunset and I snuck in a few hugs. I missed my people!

The Cherry Blossom blooms or Sakura are a big deal in Japan and Okinawa is the first place in the country where they bloom thanks to the more tropical nature of its climate. Okinawa not only has the earliest blooms, it also has a different species of Cherry Blossom call Kanhizakura which are dark pink and has a different shape then the Somei-Yoshino cherry trees commonly seen on the mainland. Jim had tried to take the kids up to one of the many local Cherry Blossom Festivals but the kids were still recovering from our experience at the DC Cherry Blossom Festival from last year. However we were able to talk them into it once I got back. The only way Ben would go was if he could have a friend come along. Thank goodness Carson is such a good sport!

Sadly, the blooms weren't quite ready. So after a few attempts, we switched gears and headed to a local Sunflower patch and fell into a tiny festival complete with live music, food and crafts. The kids were good sports and gamely let us take a bunch of pictures. Even Wesley didn't hate it.

I joined up with a group of fun ladies last month in what has been dubbed the Thursday Adventure Group. Last month I was able to join two of them for some hikes and lunch down south of Naha. Since last month's post was already super-long, I decided to wait until this month to highlight some of our outings. The first one of the month was more Sakura! Since my first attempt was kind of a bust, the ladies thought we would try again. The trees definitely had more blooms than just a few days before.

After scouting out the blooms, we went to check out an ostrich farm because, why not. These guys had seen better days that is for sure. Mary had been to this place before and the last time for a few more yen, you could sit on an ostrich. Sadly, that was not an option for us on this visit, but I am not sure any of us really wanted to have that experience after feeding them earlier in the visit.

We tried to eat at a particular cafe, but it wasn't open. The hours of operation for most places are really unpredictable. Not to be deterred, we just decided to cruise on over to another town and found a really nice restaurant that we think may have been someone's house. It really felt like we just ate lunch in their living room! As we were driving back we saw more of the strange free-standing bicycle "sculptures". Still have no idea what their deal is other than being a tad creepy.

Lilly truly is thriving in High School thus far. She and a few friends all attended the Winter Formal. She half-heartedly looked for a dress on island, but ultimately decided on wearing this beautiful one. The kids all had a great time and were home fairly early.

As far as Ben is concerned, February exists solely to celebrate him. He turns 12 later this month but due to scheduling we had his party a couple of days early. He decided to do a tried-and-true standard party - BOWLING! I love this type of party. No muss, no fuss, no cleaning up afterwards - ahhhh heaven. The boys all got along and it went off without a hitch!

On his actual birthday, I got the obligatory picture in the bed with balloons. Pretty soon the balloons will be all over the floor. There is barely enough room for them! This tradition may have to evolve (disappear). We also bought him a cake from a Japanese bakery near our house. It was DELICIOUS!!

Ben's winter baseball season is also winding down. His team, sadly, did not do well. They had some great players, but it took them a few innings to get into it and I think if they had had another inning or two they could have beaten some of the teams. But you can't win them all, or in this case - any. Sorry Ben! MCCS soccer has already started practicing and his team looks pretty good so we are hopeful that they can win some games and peak during the playoffs.

Sadly, the ONLY picture I got of him the whole season - Mom FAIL

As I stated earlier, Lilly is doing really well so far in High School. We had twice been to the middle school for Lucy and Ben's awards ceremony, but High School does it by semester, so we had to wait. She was super embarrassed that we got even this picture of her practically running off the stage.

An update on how Yoshi and Wesley are getting along. For the most part, nothing has changed. Wesley continues to get rebuffed by Yoshi. However the hissing has pretty much faded to nonexistence, they are still not exactly friends or even friendly most of the time. Occasionally I catch Yoshi running up to Wesley and swatting at him in a playful manner. So I am hopeful that they will continue to warm up to each other.

This is a totally staged photo, but they did stay like this for a few minutes so that is something!

The Thursday adventure group headed towards Naha on our second trip this month to what used to be a Navy housing area that has been converted into an arts/restaurant village of sorts. There were several different shops and many coffee shops/bakeries. We checked out a few and found a great lunch spot!

Lilly is still trying to get her dive certification. We can't seem to string together two great weekends in a row that aren't already filled with soccer games. She is closer however. On this weekend she was able to get two dives in on a glorious Sunday afternoon!

Not a great shot, but here she is in action!

The Japanese do sports a tad differently. Americans generally practice a few times a week for about 2 maybe 3 hours at a time and then play one game on the weekends unless they are in a tournament. The Okinawans practice 5+ hours 5 to 6 days a week and then play at a minimum of 3 games in a row on Saturday and Sunday. Yes -- that's about a 40-hour weekly commitment. This practice has been an eye-opener for the girls. The team we play most consistently has three levels (Team A, Team B and Team C) and we have U15 girls and u15 co-ed teams. So between the 5 teams we end up playing 2 or 3 games on most Saturdays and Sundays. There are some other teams that will play us when they have room in their schedules but for the most part the Japanese do not play us. On this Saturday in February the coaches decided to mix up the teams so we had Japanese and Americans playing on the same teams for a few of the games. Even though there was a language barrier, the kids were able to find a way to communicate and maybe even come out knowing each other a bit better.

Teammates for the day!

Even with the rest of the world bracing for the coming Covid-19 pandemic, the Marine Corps is pushing on with training, so Jim found himself in Thailand for most of the month. We really missed him!