Blossoming

Hey all,

       We were busy with church stuff most of the past weekend—although I should have brought the camera for the beach baptisms; it was such a gorgeous day—but I still have last weekend’s pics from the Botanical Gardens to show you.  Also, I am officially 20 weeks as of today.  Halfway through!  Yes, I know I don’t look 4 1/2 months pregnant; I don’t feel it either.  Honestly, it seems a little bizarre to me that I’m as far along as I am.  It seems to be going by very quickly this time around.  Anyways, see for yourself:

Not much of a belly, but I am in maternity clothes.  When you look at me straight on from the front (or the back, I suppose), you basically can’t tell at all, unless you happen to know me well enough to notice that my “waist” has shifted upward about two inches to the bottom of my ribs.

Here’s the arm-accented view.  You see the bulge now, don’t you?

We got a toilet seat for Logan.  We’re not really potty training yet, but recently he’s picked up on the words “potty” and “poo”; he likes to watch us use the toilet and he’ll usually let me know after he’s pooped in his diaper.  Judging by this picture though, it seems he’s not quite got the concept yet.

Now on to the Botanical Gardens . . .

We found a very small butterfly garden that we didn’t know was there before!

Jade vine flowers.

I thought this one was interesting because of the way it grows in a spiral.  No idea what it is though.  SG?

Logan gets a geometry lesson on a stone lantern.

Those crazy, crazy fish!

Water lilies!  As it turns out, this is only the very beginning of water lily season though.  There were already plenty of blossoms and a lot of different varieties, but when they really get going the whole lake will be covered in them.

  I love how the late afternoon sun made this almost black-and-white.

That’s all for now folks!  Have a wonderful day.

Splashin’

We found a cool new place to play in the water this afternoon.  It was brutally hot (mostly because it was simply the first really hot, humid day we’ve had and so we haven’t gotten used to them yet) but we needed a good outing to round out our trip to the farmer’s market.  Kurashiki Dam hit the spot!

We ended up exploring the dam itself for a while even though that was not our goal.  The shallow inlet were kids can play was on the opposite side of this little isthmus.  I thought we were going to melt before we found it!

We did find this in the meantime though!

But we did eventually get to the area we were looking for.  The water was SO refreshing!

There are these two tiny waterfalls, as you can see, and then a very shallow stream leading under a bridge and into the reservoir.  It’s a great little spot, perfect for toddlers.

This looks down on the whole kids’ river section.  The “waterfalls” come out through a tunnel/culvert/spout/thing at the bottom of the hill I’m standing on and you can see the little bridge in the distance.

On a side note, the farmers’ market was fabulous as usual.  Fresh passion fruit, vegetables fresher, tastier and half the price of the commissary, homemade sponge cake, even fresh herbs.  I got small new potatoes and green beans for dinner tonight, and dill, lemon and garlic for the fish . . . the fish that I was supposed to buy at the fish market on our way home but they were sold out!  It seemed a shame to put fresh dill on frozen salmon but it tasted good anyways!

And that (plus a good workout this morning and a decent nap for both Logan and Mommy) makes for one very good day!

Quiet Times

Love these new pajamas on Logan, the style reminds me of Ricky Ricardo!  He’s looking very Linus here with BedBear and Blankie (trailing behind him).

Love at first sight!  The lamb Grammie sent for Easter has been added to the bedtime stockpile and he’ll frequently ask me to give Lamb a kiss too when I put him down for bed/nap.

Earlier this week, it was too nice a day to stay inside so we had a picnic lunch in the backyard and snapped this pic in the hammock.

Same afternoon, Logan actually posed for a picture for me!

They put in a fancy new sign at the zoo.

Lilies are just starting to bloom.

It was definitely springtime at the zoo!  Several animals that you don’t normally see out of the water were enjoying the sun, and several other animals were . . . enjoying each other.  The turtles made a loud grunting noise that scared Logan!

We bought some food to feed the fish (and the swans) this time and Logan thought it was hilarious.

A couple of shots from today, when all we did is hang around the house and enjoy the nice weather.

And that’s all for now folks.  I’ll get you a belly picture someday when I actually have a belly to show off; right now I’m just getting to the “looking-chubby” stage!  Hope you’re doing great!

Fun with Gaffneys, Pt. 3

The thrilling conclusion . . .

This one’s for the grandparents because, between Logan and Elena, 7 out of 8 grandparents have some tie to NY (sorry Dad).  The shirt reads, in typical Japanese fashion, “Grandness, Various People, 1956, Live Nicely, It’s Our Hope”.   Umm . . . ????

Sarah and I loved the Botanical Gardens.  Until now, we’d only been here for the Christmas light show so I included a few extra pics of this particular adventure.  

Beautiful, vivid colors.

Take time to stop and smell the roses.

The kids enjoyed themselves at the playground.  Oh wait . . . :)

Just a small taste--I’m trying to go easy on you.

They have a lily pond that is just enormous, give me another month or so and I’ll give you . . .

acres of these!

Another Saturday brings fun at Torii Beach.

Sarah was ecstatic because Torii Beach has a wealth of sea glass—one of her favorite things.

Sunday, this sign in the church parking lot always makes me smile.  You can bet I’ll be making use of it at least once, just because I can.  I have to wait until I’m at least as big as the picture before I feel I deserve it though.

Another new adventure for us, Gyokusendo Cave.  This was one of the most majestic things I’ve seen on the island; too bad in order to see it you also have to pay for the tickets to the ultra-touristy Okinawa World (no pictures of that).  The cave was worth it though!

 

After just over a month of being in Japan, it was time for the Gaffney’s to head back to Hawaii.  The house still seems quiet . . .  It was great to have them here and they gave us a good test run, working out all the kinks for future visitors.  Who’s next?  :)

Fun with Gaffneys, Pt. 2

The day after we got back from Okuma, we tucked Luke away nicely on a plane, but kept the girls here with us.  Thankfully, Sarah and Elena didn’t mind sticking to our regular schedule of casual mornings (exercise/park and nap) and afternoon adventures.

We hit Futenma Shrine where Sarah’s camera was able to capture a much better shot of the interior of the Buddhist side.

Another day, another adventure--Nakagusuku Castle.

 

Of course, we introduced our guests to our favorite park--the one with the REALLY big roller slide and the drop slide that Elena almost made it down.

  A ferris wheel ride and ice cream accompanied a day of souvenir shopping. 

On Saturday, Jake took the gang down to the Peace Memorial Park while I stayed behind to work on another paper. 

Unfortunately, my paper wasn’t nearly as brilliant as these origami chains, but I bet it didn’t take nearly as long to do!

 

We got the sitter over so we could have some quality adult-time with sushi (complete with while-you-wait origami) . . .

and nightlife in Mihama.  The ferris wheel provides a pretty impressive light show, and we topped the evening off with more ice cream!  (We managed to find an excuse to eat ice cream probably half the days that they were here!)

At this point, the Gaffney ladies STARTED trying to get back to Hawaii, but since it took them a while to catch a plane (flying Space-A), we were able to have quite a few more adventures.  I’ll finish up the Gaffney fun next time . . .  Have a great week!