What a beautiful Easter Sunday it is here in Okinawa! We got up early and headed to the 8:00 service and enjoyed the wonderful message at Koza. After stopping by the seawall to watch the surfers and the fisherman, we went for brunch. When we returned home, the Easter Bunny had left a little something for the boys. Fletcher and I are counting our blessings on this special Sunday. Happy Easter!
Saturday we decided to drive up north to Okuma and have a picnic, then hit Neo Park on our way back down. The boys wanted to show Fletcher all the cool birds at the park, so we loaded up and headed out. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed having our "4th" home to spend it with us. Neo Park is a free roaming zoo that has more birds than anything else. It would never fly in the states, but it's pretty neat (although there are moments when it's gets a little eery). I only wish Bennett and Beau would humor their momma and at least pretend to have a little fear. I think I said about a thousand times "don't stick your finger up to its mouth".....Lord help me!
The boys have been looking forward to their first camping trip ever since Santa brought them a tent. I think it was well worth the wait. Fletcher put the tent up in our backyard Friday after school and the boys couldn't wait to get their sleeping bags situated. I think they arranged and rearranged all their gear about 5 times. I strictly enforced the one and only rule to the tent (which just so happens to be the rule I made up).....no girls in the tent. That meant Momma had to sleep in her bed. It was a quiet evening for me until about 8:15 when I started getting a frequent visitor. Beau decided he's rather hang with me than outside. I can't say I blame him, but Bennett and Fletcher slept out there all night. I'm sure Fletcher would much prefer sleeping in his own bed after being on that ship, but he's doing a great job making up for lost time with the boys.
Tuesday Fletcher returned home from his second deployment on the USS Essex. This one was a doozy for all of us. I guess with us being new to the island, the first deployment didn't seem to be quite as rough for us as this one. Needless to say, we were thrilled that it came to an end. I was happy to get my husband home, and the boys were happy to have their daddy back. The pictures don't do it justice. 
Another Flat Stanley adventure.....we thought we'd take him to see the cool Air Force jets on Kadena. Let us preface with saying that we would much prefer to show him the extra cool Cobra helicopters, but since that wasn't an option, we settled for what the Air Force had to offer. I think it served its purpose. Bennett and Beau were ready to take flight. As their mom, I'm hoping for less dangerous job.
Bennett and Beau wanted to take Flat Stanley to Torii Beach, so Saturday we packed a lunch and headed out. The weather was beautiful, so it was a perfect beach day. Although I thought the water was a little cool, the boys didn't seem to mind it. We hope Stanley likes our beach as much as we do.
Flat Stanley and I have a long history. He first came to visit me when I lived in Hawaii, then he visited us in Georgia twice, and now he has come to Okinawa. The boys and I made a list of places we thought he had to see before heading back to Texas. Jakkepoe's Pancake House was at the top of the list. Friday after school we took Flat Stanley to have the best M & M pancakes EVER! According to Bennett, he loved them!
We've jumped right into spring weather and we're soaking it up. Today we packed our things and headed to Torii Beach. The boys brought their dumptrucks, of course, and I brought my book. Good weather, good boys, great day!
I thought Washi Egg decorating was something for the kids to participate in, but I was mistaken. It is a Japanese way of decorating eggs with beautiful material or in our case origami paper. Great idea except that I had been telling the boys all week that they were going to get to decorate eggs this weekend. Luckily there was a huge bouncy house that helped them quickly forget their purpose in coming. The cookies and suckers didn't hurt the cause either. Disregard the oversized blue shirts the boys are wearing. We had gone to a sports store out in town earlier in the day and once they spotted these "soccer" shirts, they couldn't bear the thought of leaving without them. 
