This post is all about belief. Here are the rules --some of your answers can't be religious. You should include at least one belief about food and one belief or unbelief that reflects your philosophy about life.

6 Things I believe:

I believe that God has a divine plan for all of us
I believe bullies will get what they deserve
I believe that new socks and or a new toothbrush are the best of new things
I believe in sleeping in
I believe hot bubble baths
I believe in prayer, chocolate, and my mom

6 Things I don't Believe:

I don't believe its almost Christmas!!!!
I don't believe I will ever be as good a mom as my own
I don't believe I will have everything ready for Bryton's birthday party
I don't believe in fate, life is what you make of it.
I don't believe there is a more handsome man than my husband
I don't believe it almost time to leave Okinawa

6 Things I am not sure about:

I am not sure if I will ever make my bed in the morning
I am not sure if I will ever finish Bryton's scrapbook
I am not sure if there is anything more comfy than toe socks
I am not sure if I will get my Christmas packages sent off in time
I am not sure if I will ever have a higher gamer score than Jason again
I am not sure if I will ever get my Great Dane (I better)

Now I am tagging: Mom, and Janara

2008 Halloween Slide

HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEN

This year for Halloween, Bryton really wanted to be Indiana Jones! She's had some what of a crush on him since the commercials for the new movie came out.
We have always put together Bryton's Halloween costumes since most of the costumes online or at the store aren't good enough for us....(ya we are really picky)
So it turns out that it is REALLY difficult to find a brown jacket on Okinawa. We managed to find one and we bought her some boots, a whip, a hat and snake (just for fun) and everything else that goes with Indie.
Costume make-up was no where to be found so her scruff was paint or marker that we dotted on her face. It turned out really good and she was definitely the best Indiana Jones to be seen.
As for myself and Jason, He was a Hero....Guitar Hero to be exact and I was his super hot groupie. It was a lot of fun making my costume. Just lots of make-up, tattoos and hair spray.
I hope that everyone's Halloween was as memorable as ours!

Bryton Goes To School

My little girl is growing up.
She recently started going to a full day preschool at the local elementary school. She loves it there and is doing really good. She also gets to take the bus there. Which for me, wasn't so great. At least not for the first day of school. After meeting her teacher the week before school started she asked, " mommy, are you going to come with me to school?" "No honey, you get to go all by yourself." I said, trying to sound reassuring-no need I guess She quickly replies in her innocent but sure-of-herself voice "good, cause I don't want you to come." Right. As I pick up the pieces to my shattered motherly heart, I ask her if I can drop her off for the first day of school. Nope, I can't, she wants to ride the bus. So, doing the best that I can, I bring the camera with me. The humidity was so think that it took nearly 10 minutes for the camera to defog. I managed to get some pictures of her as she took in the splendors of waiting with the other kids at the bus stop.
When the bus came into sight the children rang out and Bryton ran for the bus, I mean, ran right past me to the bus. I gave her a quick hug and kiss. then she turned and stepped onto the bus, totally forgetting about her poor mother who was desperately trying to get her to notice me as I waved goodbye. and then. the bus drove away. Well it's not so traumatic for me anymore, although I am still in awe of what a big "little girl" she has become. We love our Bryt so much! We are so proud of her.

The Very Very long Tokyo,DisneyLand,DisneySea, and Tokyo (Ueno) Zoo

TOKYO-YO-YO

Ah, well where do I begin?
Jason Bryton and I just got back from Tokyo, Japan! We went to Disney Land and Disney Sea, and had two days to get lost in Tokyo.
So here we go, a day by day blog of our trip.
Day one:
The Alarm goes off at 4:50 am! (yuk) We hop out of bed, get dressed, wake Bryton up-get her dressed, get to the bus, take the bus to the Airport, get on our flight, and then land in Tokyo about 11am. Hooray -boring part is over.
After we checked into our hotel we loaded up our camel backs and headed to the subway station to learn how to use it. I must say I was pretty excited to use it. I probably looked silly, smiling the whole time but whatever, I was having fun!
We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe with our friend Jessica and her daughter Abigail (Bryton's Friend). Lunch was uh, REALLY EXPENISIVE! But for some reason we got a military discount, which was super! and the food was super delicious also.
After lunch we headed (best we could) to the Tokyo Tower. Which is a replica of the Eiffel Tower only bigger and painted orange and white. We only went to the lower observation level but it was high enough believe me. The craziest part of it was the glass elevators! and the glass floor you could stand on and take pictures of the ground below.
After the Tower we went to look for a 4story toy store that Jessica had read about. After asking for directions from a lady at the tower we found our way pretty easily. The toy store was great! lots of fun stuff. Bryton's favorite, I think, were the scoops of legos. Just a large bin of mixed legos, we bought two scoops for 900 yen and after we played with the toys and the really really big race car game (you'll have to see it in the pictures), we set of again.
This time we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. In fact Bryton found a seat in the subway car so she could rest her feet and fell asleep against a Japanese woman's shoulder. Very cute! Jason carried her all the way back after that. It's not the easiest thing to do after 3 or 4 blocks. And once we got inside the hotel she woke up and instead of staying asleep, and started playing with her legos. We had dinner and then headed out one last time to find the Tokyo LDS Temple, which was conveniently right down the street about 4 blocks. We saw it at night, all lit up and magnificent. very cool. and of course on our walk back it POURED!!! By the time we got back to the hotel we were soaked. So Bryton and I headed to the pool/hot tub. oh ya, that was nice! As exctied as we were for DisneyLand the next day, we all fell fast asleep.
DisneyLand WOO HOO!
We got up and headed down stairs to the restaurant to get some breakfast. a quick breakfast at that. YA RIGHT. they took forever. We ended up asking them to bag it up because we had to leave or we would miss the bus! It was a muffin and some fruit for goodness sake! So we ate our food on the bus. I loved seeing Tokyo on the way to the theme park it was really cool. The ride wasn't too long, and soon we arrived at the park.
We headed out to explore the park. Jason ,though, ran super fast to get a Fast Pass for one of the rides we wanted to go on so we could come back to it at a later time and not wait in line. It was just amazing to be there, to see the castle and all the characters and colors. WOW. It was magical. Bryton could ride all the rides in Disneyland and nearly did. Including Space Moutain and Thunder Mountain. I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean! one of my favorites but all of them were good. Now, we were dropped off at the park at about 9am and would not be picked up until 9pm, so after 7 hours or so we started to slow up. We ate tons of snacks and candy and it was a lot of fun to just buy whatever and I am really glad that we saved up spending money. We felt sorry for Bryton, (who had been a perfect angel and had not complained about anything, not even her aching feet!) and about 5 o'clock we rented a stroller. And then decided to hit up the gift shops. I saw something and asked Bryton if she wanted it. -no answer- I looked at her, her eyes were open but were in a blank stare. I told her if she was tired and she could go to sleep if she wanted to. No sooner had the words left my lips than she was out!
We had dinner at the Blue Bayou, which was in the Pirates ride. It was really good!
Then it was time for the Lights parade! it was amazing!!! I loved it! Every character was covered in lights! The walking once, the dancing ones and of course the floats were decked out in lights. Quite the spectacle to see.
Then of course the fireworks......ya, they got canceled because of all the cloud cover and lightning. oh well we had a good time regardless!
Day Three Disney Sea
After two days of walking my hips and feet hurt so bad!!! But we had another day of fun to go!
Jason ran to the Tower of Terror and got another fast pass, and then we headed to the Indiana Jones ride! Which, turns out, Bryton was a little to short to get on, oh well. We walked to the Arabian coast and rode on an extremely long ride of a movie I've never seen, Sinbad....something. It was nice and slow. After that we went on a Flounder roller coaster. So much fun! and then off to the kingdom of Atlantica. With King Triton's permission we magically entered the underwater world of Ariel. My favorite part. It was amazing to see all the detail that was put into creating the 'under-da-sea' effect! we rode all the rides there and Bryton played in the ground fountain. She also enjoyed Ariel's Grotto and play ground. Before we left Atlantica we got some Minnie and Mickey ice cream, as well as some sea salt ice cream. Which was really good and salty!
As we headed to the Tower of Terror the rain started to drop. A lot. a lot a lot! We managed to find some ponchos but by the time we made it there we were soaked. oh well, we were determined to have fun and ride the Tower of Terror. Bryton did really good on the ride and the whole falling part she liked, but the Tiki character scared her a little bit. Later Bryton got to meet Ariel in person and talked with her and got her picture taken with her. Very cute.
Another awesome ride was 20,000 leagues under the sea. My favorites of Disney Sea.
We had a lot of fun, even though it rained A lot! and we were happy to watch a really awesome Choreographed waverunner/waterfloat parade. Some breathed fire some shot out water. it was awesome! they were all topped with Disney Characters. it was really cool.
We had a great time there and if it hadn't rained the Fire and Ice show wouldn't have been canceled. Oh well.
Bryton, between the two Disney Parks, met Cinderella, Peter Pan, high-fived with Cpt. Hook, met The Fairy Godmother, Minnie Mouse, and Pinnochio-I think that's all of them.
Our 2nd to last day in Tokyo we took it slow.
Slept in, ordered breakfast through room service, and finally made it out of our room about noon. We decided to see the Tokyo Zoo. Right before we went into the zoo we got a banana from the banana man. It was really good, it was dipped in a chocolate, a blue and a strawberry dip of some sort, and doused in sprinkles! Really delicious! as for the zoo it was really nice, it had animals I had never seen before, including a deer mouse. crazy! Bryton's favorite part was the squirrels. So she picked out a Squirrel stuffed animal to remember it by. We were there for several hours. took our time and rested a lot. It was nice!
We found Jessica there and we all left together back to the hotel and then to TGI-Fridays. I really really wanted to find a candy store but never did, we did however, find a store with candy and we bought watermelon kitkat bars! so delicious! It rained again and all the way to the subway, but at least we had ponchos this time.
The next morning we ordered breakfast again -ROOM SERVICE ROCKS!!! we packed up all of our stuff and since we had an hour or so before our bus took us to the airport we walked around the block. We bought some Baskin Robbins ice cream and strolled around the park.
I think we were all sad to leave. It was the only bad part of our wonderful vacation....the leaving.
We all had a wonderful time there and we will always remember the good times. We hope that in a few years we can manage to go back.

Katsuren Castle Slide

Katsuren Castle

On Saturday Jason, Bryton and I went to see the Katsuren (kaht-soo-den) Castle ruins.
There are many castles and ruins here on Okinawa, so far this is one of my favorites. It sits high on a hill over looking the ocean on two sides. Which by the way, is always a beautiful blue-green, that is so clear you can nearly always see the bottom.

It was quite a walk up but worth it to see the view.
The walls, foundations, and stairs are intact enough to get an image of what it may have looked like back in the day.

I hope to be able to see all the castles here before we leave.

I've been tagged by Taryn

3 Joys
Having fun with my Family
Going out for Sushi
Relaxing on a tropical beach

3 Fears
Losing my Daughter
Not being as good of a mother as my mom
Spiders

3 Obsessions/Collections
Clowns
Sea shells
Fun Japanese things

3 Surprising Facts
I hate meat loaf
I organize my dirty dishes before I wash them
I must wear socks to sleep.

Crabby Pics

Hermit Crab Hunting

Recently we went to White Beach with our friends the Matas.
The beach itself was quite the let down. It was a beautiful beach but swimming was not allowed. The campground was pretty nice though. The real fun began when the sun went down. We walked the beach in the moonlight, and between the crashes of the waves you could hear: clickity clickity clackity clackity tick tick tick. You get the point.
The cause of all this noise was apparent when we saw all the beautiful shells....moving and crawling all around.
Hermit crabs!!! We ended up spending an hour or so searching for the biggest, smallest and prettiest hermit crabs on the beach. Then Jason found a large boulder and shrubs and there were millions of them crawling all over the boulder and underneath the shrubs. Maybe not exactly millions but you get the point. You and I may be a little creeped out by these spider-like creatures, but Bryton was more than happy to hold them upside down until they came out of their shells. Pretty cool.
I'll add pictures soon.

Ocean Expo Slide

Our Ocean Expo Adventure

While we have been on Okinawa we have been privileged to be able to see the most amazing sights. From castle ruins, to the Dragon dance, to one of the largest aquariums in the world.
The Ocean Expo and Churami Aquarium is one of my favorite places to go. The Churami Aquarium is indeed the 2nd largest aquarium in the world (used to be the biggest) however it is the largest of its kind.
It has 2 or 3 whale sharks a few angel sharks and several smaller sharks swimming around and around. Before the main aquarium we walked through the entire exhibit of smaller aquariums and tanks. Even a petting zoo for underwater animals. SO much fun!
Throughout the Expo portion there are tons of sights to see. A dolphin show, manatees, sea turtles, a ground fountain, and about a quarter mile of blue climbing nets stretching above the softest marshmallow-like blue padding your feet have ever felt. As well as a variety of very large and very impressive Chia Pet like hedges.
It is truly an amazing place to see and is a one of a kind experience.

Can you still feel the Butterflies?

Chyo Chyo Koen (Butterfly Park)

Recently we visited the Butterfly Park in Okinawa.
It's a beautiful park, and with all of the colorful plant life in Okinawa butterflies are abundant!
The main part of the Butterfly Park is the Butterfly House. Just a big shaded tent with trees and flowers. This house is filled with butterflies!!! These aren't your everyday monarchs that we have in Utah. They are about the size of my hand and are black and white. I believe that during different times of the year they have different butterflies in the House, but when we went they were mostly huge white ones.
The butterflies are attracted to bright colors; pinks, yellows, and reds. There are several red hats that you can wear in the tent and they are covered with butterflies.
Bryton had on a pink shirt with bright red flowers, and she had on bright yellow shoes. Well the butterflies just couldn't resist, and they would crawl on her from head to toe!
We really had a good time!

4th of July Pics!

America Fest

We had a great time celebrating Independence Day last weekend.
It was incredibly hot and humid! Bryton had a great time playing the over priced carnival games and won a lot of $1.00 toys.
Bryton was big enough this year to play on the bungee-trampoline. She tired to do a flip but it was too difficult and stuck with just jumping super high.
We were allowed to see Jason's planes (C-130) and see where his systems are and all that fun stuff. We got to go up into the cock pit (or flight deck) and Bryton sat in the pilot's seat!!
On a side note, last year I was able to fly on a C-130. They opened up the back and strapped me into a harness and I sat out the back and dangled my feet out of the plane! Really really cool!
Anyways, the fireworks were great! We sat on the flight line and watched smiley faces, hearts, stars and other amazing colors explode into the night sky. ooooh aaaah.
all in all it was a great night.

Bugle Bryton!

BUGLES!!!

Hey remember the first time you had bugles?
I do, my sister Karri and I put them on all of our fingers and pretended they were claws, or that we had witch hands.
It was just as fun watching Bryton find the joy in these little and delicious snacks as I did.

bazillion degrees

So, I've got a minute to catch my breathe. I thought I would let you all know what's going on here.
first off, it really is a bazillion degrees over here!!! The humidity really kills ya. Being from Utah I honestly don't think I knew what humidity was, something like shower steam I guess. It quite literally takes your breathe away. I'm not complaining (maybe a little) I'm sure that it's better than freezing my butt off in Alaska. It does make for good beach weather!
Nothing is really new here. I am looking into getting nose surgery so I can breathe through it again. but probably not until after the summer.
Business is keeping me busy, and that's about it!

Botanical Gardens!!!

1 year left

Hi Everybody
We are still here in Okinawa, Japan for one more year.
Okinawa is BEAUTIFUL! It quite literally is a jungle out there! Among the trees and vines that we can see all around there are fabulous tropical flowers, pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, and purples. In fact one of our favorite places to go is the Southeast Botanical Gardens. It's an amazing place that truly shows off the splendor of plant life here on Okinawa. I will be sure to post some pictures.
I am getting better at speaking Japanese, although understanding Japanese proves to be a little more difficult. I'll keep on studying and hopefully by the time I leave I can impress all of you with my bilingual skills.
Jason is doing great in his job of avionics maintenance and electronic warfare systems for the C-130s. He made the rank of Senior Airman this past February and really is doing well in his shop.
Bryton 4, is really enjoying swimming and loves to go to the pool or beach. We are hoping that she can start an all day preschool this coming school year. Bryton really likes the idea of going to "the big kid school".
I am trying to keep busy with my Family Child Care business. At times I will have 6 kids in one day and other times I will just have one. It really is a great opportunity to work and stay home with Bryton at the same time.

That's all for now
We miss you all