Last year when Barbara came, Sydney got an ear infection and was a bit pukey. This time my kids were both going through a week long stint of hand, foot, and mouth disease. Shawn's was more mild, but poor Sydney got it pretty bad. And both of their bums were so blistered, it looked like the most terrible diaper rash I've ever seen. Anyway, I may have had a very minor heart attack when I saw Sydney posing in this picture for her Grandma. Nothing like letting your diseased kid touch fresh produce (that we weren't going to buy) in the Japanese grocery store. At least it made for a cute picture, right?
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| Sydney modeling some lovely goya. You can see some blisters on her hands and around her mouth, but she was almost over it by then. |
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| Fun with balloons! |
Another hitch in our "fun with Grandma" plans was that Spencer's command was put on lockdown less than 48 hours after her arrival. Some Marines from Headquarters had caused alcohol related trouble off base literally the same day they lifted the "no alcohol off base" ban, and the General was really mad and put 3rd Dental on lockdown. That meant Spencer couldn't come with us to any off base restaurants and such, but thankfully he was able to get special permission for some sightseeing stuff because his Mom was visiting. And in a stroke of irony, the lockdown was lifted the day after she left. Naturally.
We did go bowling on base one night, and it was Shawn's first time to actually participate. He LOVED it, and Sydney does too.
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| She's quite independent and insisted on carrying her own ball to the ramp. |
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| Shawn liked to assist in the carrying process, then pushed the ball down the ramp all by himself. |
On one of Spencer's workdays, we took Grandma B. to Torii beach. The tide was super low so there was tons of seaweed everywhere, but we still had fun playing in the sand and finding sea glass.
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| Snack time! |
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| Grandma B. found a blue starfish. |
While I cleaned up our beach gear, Grandma took the kids for a little walk. They found these water spouts, and the kids were highly entertained with turning the water on and off and getting sprayed.
On another day we visited Peace Prayer Park. We trucked it up these steps to see what this white building was, and it turned out to be an art museum.
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| There was a huge Buddha statue inside as well. |
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| Family photo-op in front of a bell tower. |
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| Grandma B. and Shawn overlooking the suicide cliffs. |
For lunch we determined to find Thai in the Sky, so named because of it's awesome view of the ocean. Finding it was super tricky, but through a stroke of luck (literally spotting a specific Kanji on an itty-bitty sign) we totally found it.
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| The restaurant lived up to its name! Love that water. |
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| Each dish was a mountain of yummy food. |
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| Poor Shawn didn't take a nap and was soooo tired. We gave him his bink and blankey and he'd just lay down on his tray and rest while we ate. |
Up north we did a first time visit to Neo Park, where we were able to get up close and personal with lots of animals.
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| White birds. |
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| Reddish orange birds. |
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| Turkeys. |
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| Dogs. |
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| Guinea pigs. |
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| Giant tortoises. |
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| Regular sized turtles. |
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| And ROUS's. |
We topped off our sweat filled visit with lots of cold beverages and a train ride around the park.
Before heading home, we found this super old, very traditional Okinawan place for lunch. Pretty much the only thing on the menu was a few different versions of Okinawa soba- a noodle filled soup with a totally fatty hunk of pork in it. Not my favorite, but the building was cool and the grounds were really pretty!
Finally, we got to take Grandma B. to Sydney's beloved Pineapple Park. I don't quite understand why she loves it so much, but whatever.
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| Syd and Grandma touring the park in our pineapple cart. |
