My Little Chef

Each morning before daycare, I'll fix Caleb breakfast and once he's finished I let him play with his toys and books. On this particular morning he decided to play chef and cook for me. What a nice little man!! I'm not sure what he came up with, but coffee was also included. He then cooked Daniel some "bouncy balls" for supper once Daniel got home from work. He's really enjoyed his chef hat and apron lately. He use to hate it!!

Ending Ceremony at Daycare

At the beginning of April, Caleb's daycare starts the "month of the military child". The entire month of April is dedicated to celebrating and acknowledging the children of the military families. Since we were gone until April 23, Caleb didn't get back until April 26th. His first few days were a little rough (more on me) but we did fine overall. Friday, which was May 1st, the daycare held the ending ceremony which held a ton of activities for the kids to enjoy and some live entertainment as well. We had one of the Marine Corp bands there (III MEF), some of the Japanese kids doing a culture dance, and a police dog obeying commands and attacking the "bad guy". The kids loved it and also got to enjoy jumping in the "bouncies" and getting their faces painted. They basically spent the entire afternoon outside playing, eating cookies or chips, and drinking tons of juice. Caleb was one of the few kids that actually ate some of the healthier things like carrots and celery, but he had his fair share of the cookies and chips too! I was able to get a few video clips too of some of the different things that went on. Caleb had a blast! Even though the children really don't understand all of the fuss over them through the month of April, try and remember how special and important all of the families and kids really are that have a mom or dad in the service. It's very hard on the adults and spouses when you have to move or go through a deployment, so I'm sure you can imagine a little bit of what the kids must feel around those hard times also. God Bless!!

Eating snacks with his pre-school class.

The III MEF BAND playing.

Caleb and his friend Rayna dancing to some music.

Caleb playing the nice Marine's drum set. He LOVED this part!!

One of the two police dogs they had.

Eating snacks on top of the stage.

Sitting in the police car playing with the radio.

Here is a video of Caleb while he was playing in the police car. He literally got into the police car and buckled up then the cop let him talk on the radio. Too cute!

Here is a video of a Japanese kindergarten class dancing. It's a culture dance that they do here. They were so cute and I know the video is long and very repetitive so the beginning is very much like the end. :)

An Afternoon at Araha Beach

This was our little trip to the beach about a week later once we got back to Okinawa. Caleb and I wanted to go and feed the fish so we went one late afternoon before supper time to Araha Beach. We tried to feed the fish some bread, but they ran from it. It's a popular fishing spot, so I'm sure the fish were thinking a pole was attached to the food. Anyways, the fish finally ate the bread once it sat in the water for a while. We then moved to the beach part and looked for some shells and let Caleb throw some rocks into the ocean. Here are a few pics from the day.

We were collecting sea shells so Caleb kept handing them to me saying, "ooh this one is pretty."

After he was done looking for sea shells he decided to roll and play in the sand.

Daniel was looking for shells too.

Here's a video of how crazy Caleb was acting. Just a little hyper that day!

Feeding the Giraffes

This video is of Caleb and Nana at the zoo feeding the giraffes. Caleb was having a hard time holding on to the twigs himself so he got to help Nana. Caleb really seemed to enjoy it though and I'm sure Nana enjoyed doing that with him.

I tried to post this over the weekend with the post about going to the zoo but it took over two days and the video was still trying to upload so I stopped it and figured I'd try again later. Here it is...finally, lol.

Our trip back to Oki

So as you all know, we always come a long way and travel many, many hours to get there and back. This past time was around a 40 hour trip to get back to Okinawa. When we left FL we had a layover in Dallas, TX, from there we went to Seattle, WA. Once in Seattle we had to wait about 4 hours until 11:20 PM Seattle time (2:20 AM for EST) to start the process to see if we had made it on to the military flight. There was a lot that came up last minute before we left FL so there was a good chance we wouldn't make it on the plane. Anyways, around 2AM Seattle time we found out that we did make it onto the plane and we would be boarding the plane around 3:30 AM and departing at 4:30 AM. Also note that Caleb only had an 1 1/2 hour nap from FL to TX on the plane and he got up around 9 AM the morning of the flight. While we were waiting to hear if we'd make it on or not, Caleb was literally running in circles and in zig-zags. He was WIDE open!! Finally, we got called back and started the process through security and all. By the time we made it to our gate there had to be at least 200 people already there. The plane is HUGE and takes all the military personnel between three different bases, so we had a little while left of families and men sleeping on the floor and my 3 year old, along with others running around and having a ball. Caleb was still going wide open at this point. Well, around 3 AM we found out that the new departure time will be an hour later so we won't be boarding until 4:30 AM and flying out at 5:30 AM. We made it on the plane after a little while and we are 3 rows from the very back and in the dead center (we were on a row of four seats in the middle section of the plane). Just so you know, Caleb "needed to pee" SIX times from Dallas to Seattle (which is a few hours at most) so us being in the middle was a nightmare for a really LONG flight (13 hours +). Luckily one of the guys agreed to move to the inside and let us have the aisle so we could get up and down freely. I knew one of the two guys would be changing their minds a few hours into the flight anyways if he were awake so I wasn't too worried about it. As soon as Caleb got buckled up, he crashed! He didn't eat much and wasn't even about to wake up for the food they served so he slept for a while. Once we were about to depart we found out that we had to go to Alaska to get fuel...yes, I know...why not get fuel in Seattle? Apparently, part of the runway was closed or something and we needed to land and get filled up. I think it was about 4 1/2 hours to Alaska. Once we fueled up in Alaska we found out there was a mistake and the lavatories didn't get filled back up with water once they were cleaned out so we'd have to wait another 30 minutes on top of the hour or so we'd already waited. After that we then we had a 13 hour flight (give or take a few) to Yokota, Japan, an air force base. From there we flew about 1 hour to Iwakuni, Japan, USMC base and stayed on the plane and then flew to Okinawa which was about 1 hour 20 minutes. We were so ready to get off that plane!! Caleb threw up about 10 times throughout the trip. I guess it was because he hadn't eaten much and what he did eat wasn't great, he hadn't rested much, and the turbulence during the flights didn't help. Caleb changed outfits about 3 times (he refused to throw up in the bag towards the end) and we walked down the steps in the rain and all. No we didn't have a little thing to walk through into an airport to get our baggage and leave, we had to walk down a ton of steps to a bus and get driven to the terminal which was right around the corner on the base show our passports and "check back in" and go down some steps for our baggage. We landed a little earlier than planned but that meant nothing seeing in how our bags were dead last. No exaggeration there. Daniel lucked up and got there on time. When we landed he still wasn't there (b/c we landed earlier than initially planned) but he called to see if the flight was still on time and found out that the plane had already landed so he came right away.

Finally...

Once we had our bags and went through customs, Daniel was standing outside the door waiting on us. Caleb saw him and ran straight to him yelling daddy!!! He was so happy to see him and latched on to him for a while. I was a little worried of how Caleb would react, but Daniel and I were both surprised to see him so clingy and loving (which was great)! Once we got to the car, Caleb was being so sweet. He was saying things like, "oh thank you daddy (or mommy), yes ma'am, and no thanks." Daniel was surprised to see how well mannered he was. He only got to hear a little of him on the phone from time to time so he had no idea. What he heard usually was Caleb saying "what?" or something like that so he obviously thought he wasn't using any manners with me or at least not to that extent. Anyways, we drove home and Caleb was so sweet and happy the entire way. When we got to the house and pulled in Caleb said, "mommy and daddy's house...and Caleb's too". He was so funny about it all. We got home around 5 PM and immediately showered, ate, and I passed out on the couch. Caleb ended up getting on the couch with me around 7 or so and he fell asleep on me. We didn't do much over the weekend except get Daniel up around 6 AM. We got our "clocks" back on track in no time, and we've been doing great since. Sorry this post is so long, but in order for you to know how things were on our way back, you needed to hear the journey we took and everything that came with it, lol. Here are some pictures of us coming into Seattle, WA. Caleb and I were looking at all of the mtns. along the way. Enjoy!!

He did so good the entire trip!! I really couldn't have asked for him being any better. For us both being so tired and him being a little air sick he amazed me with his behavior. He really was such a trooper with all of the obstacles we had to face.

A Day at the Zoo

The day before we flew out Rhonda wanted to take Caleb to the zoo so we drove out and made a day of it. Caleb was all about the different animals and was so happy and kind of amazed that he actually got to see the animals in person. He would look up and say, "that's an elephant", "look there's the giraffe". He was so funny about it all and he was so cute. Caleb walked the majority of the day but we took the stroller so he could have his breaks whenever he wanted them. We would push him until he saw something else and he'd pop up and look at whatever animal we were at. Of course, anything with antlers was a reigndeer, and any kind of bird was a flamingo. We would tell him the real name of the animal and he'd repeat it and lose interest and then move on to something else. They had a water park there for the small kids so after lunch we let him play in the water and run around. The water was pretty cold and he didn't want it in his face so he lasted maybe 15 minutes or so then was ready to move on to something else. Caleb really enjoyed himself and the weather was amazing that day so it couldn't of been any better!

Nana and Caleb looking at the monkeys

One of his favorite things to do - stand on the fence.

One of the animals Caleb referred to as a reigndeer.

The flamingos (or mo-mingos). He says it different every time.

Sunday Lunch

The Sunday before Caleb and I left FL we had a family lunch at Rhonda's, or better known as Nana's house. Wendi (Daniel's cousin), his brother Jason, his sister Tara, and their families came out for the day. It was so nice to have almost everyone together for lunch and to let the cousins hang out and enjoy each other. Brody, Caleb, and Cale did really well throughout the day, and even though the day probably had its moments for everyone at some point, it was still nice to have that day and time together. Caleb and Brody received kites in their Easter baskets so after lunch we went to the beach to fly them and let the kids run and play. Caleb's kite went up right away, but Brody's was defected in some way. We came to that conclusion after a lot of trial and error. Either way, the boys didn't mind because the sand and water was to enticing for anything else to matter. We all had such a great time! Here are some pictures from around the house that day.

The boys youngest to oldest: Cale, Brody, and Caleb

(of course none of them would all look in the same direction or smile at the same time.)

Nana with her three boys. This is the first time all three have been with her at the same time.

Caleb and Brody have not seen or been around each other hardly any. The last time they had seen one another had been quite a few months back and they played great then, but wasn't really sure of each other's boundaries. Anyways, the reason I'm writing that is to tell you this. The second Caleb found out Brody was coming, he wouldn't stop asking about him. He was asking when Brody would get there, or if Brody was coming yet, or if Brody was here yet (and where ever we are is where "here" is). He didn't understand "later on" so he asked every few minutes or so about "his" Brody. Well, Jason, Jenny, and Brody finally arrived and the boys instantly took to one another. Brody said, "Caleb" and Caleb said, "Brody" and they were off and started playing without missing a beat. They went straight outside and sat in the pool chairs and just talked to each other for a little bit and played. There were a few rough moments between the two of them (neither of them had really taken a nap that day) but overall they played amazingly well together. Caleb got a little pushy at times and of course each thing one had the other one wanted so there were a few "that's mine" disputes but not too many. As you'll see in the next few photos they're both doing the same thing. It's really cute and so funny how well they took to one another and kept each other company throughout the day. We had a ton of copy cat moments and luckily I was able to get a few pictures of them.

Monkey see...Monkey do...

Caleb's ideas:

Computer genius in the making

Brody's ideas:

This is when Brody got there and they decided to go outside and sit by the pool. They had found some balls and actually shared. Later they'd argue about what color each had, but in this picture they were behaving really well. :)

They also decided to lie down like this for a while in front of the door later on in the night. It was definitely past bedtime at that point but they were still so cute.

The following pictures were taken when we made it out to the beach later that afternoon.

Caleb LOVED this part of the day. He finally got to put his feet in the water and enjoy the feel of the sinking sand and waves around his feet.


Jason, Jenny, and Brody trying to get their kite up in the air.

Pictures on the Railroad Tracks

These pictures were taken by my cousin Lynn. She did such an amazing job!! She took Caleb off to the side and had him changed into a pair of my cousin's overalls. Caleb enjoyed playing with the rocks mostly, but around that she was able to take some great pictures. Afterwards, we went to play in the little park there and Caleb also got to slide a little. Once we were finished with that we went and sat in the grass so Lynn could take a few pictures of the both of us. Caleb enjoyed picking on me and running wild. We were able to take a few good shots as he was climbing all over me. She tried to get him to lie down beside me, but he decided to lie on my back instead. Either way, they turned out great and we had a blast.

Caleb spelling his name!

Caleb has been able to spell his name for a little bit now, so the other night in the bathtub I gave him enough letters for it and he spelled it out. He's so funny with it all. He had done it a few times already so once I started recording him he started being a little silly. Here's the video and I also put a link to the same video underneath this one just in case the pixels and all don't come out that great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZkdLxafZGU

Here's a few pictures from the same night.

Caleb swimming in the pool

While we were staying at Daniel's mom's house, Caleb thought he needed to go swimming in the covered swimming pool. The fence was up and all he could do was ask and try and find a way to the edge of the water. He just wanted to put his feet in...right!!! He finally got his Nana to give in so she told him once Poppy was done with the yard work he could put his feet in. Thankfully, it was only a solar cover over the water so it was just lying there. We were able to fold the cover back and Caleb was able to put his feet in and stand up on the step. He did that and kept wanting to ease more and more in. Next thing you know he's covered in water and wanting to go under, so of course before we did all of that I was able to get a small video clip of him playing. Mind you...the water was so COLD! It wasn't unbearable but it sure did take some getting use to. He had fun regardless so it was worth it all. Hope you enjoy the clip!!

The video didn't turn out that well because of the size it had to "convert" to so if you want a better view try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-xfueS6a7Y.