He's making a list, checking it twice, gunna find out whose naughty or nice....

Christmas came and went.  I can’t believe this year went so fast!  This time we had a lot more fun with Amelia because she was older and kinda knew what was going on.  Morgan and I went a little crazy this year with the gifts.  I think we were trying to compensate for being away from our families and also because Amelia only has one friend. HAHA  We decided that we wanted to turn our extra room into Amelia’s play room.  One: because I would like the living room TV to play some adult shows and not be on Yo Gabba Gabba 24/7 and Two: to try and contain the mess to one room.  So we set up her new room with all her big toys, couch, and TV.

We opened our gifts Christmas morning.  Trust me it took a lot of discipline to not open them all earlier.  We were so excited to see Amelia’s face with her new gifts.  Well it as well worth the wait!  We started off slow, opening a few small gifts.  Then we took her to her new room and let her loose.  I think she was so overwhelmed.  She just kept going from toy to toy.  Then she saw her slide and I think that’s what took her over the edged! Amelia is one fearless little girl and she rushed that slide with no fear.  Well a little.  She needed a hand to hold the first couple times but after that she just kept going and going without our help.  I think that day she must have slid like 30 times!  She took a little break for breakfast but as soon as we were done with that she was right back in her play room on her slide.  It wasn’t until 1 pm she just fell out and I found her on her couch asleep.  It was the most tired I had ever seen her.  Then it was Morgan and my turn to sleep.  It was such an awesome Christmas!  Though we weren’t with friends and family we definitely had a great time and one of the most memorable Christmas times every.  Can’t wait till next year!

Twinkle Twinkle little light....1.3 million lights!

So its been awhile since I updated, so sorry.   We’ve been so busy with the holidays and such.  Anyway lets get on with it.  I was reading a local magazine and it suggested some things to see during the holidays while on the island.  There were a few things that I pondered over but one definitely toped the list as a must see.    The 1,3000,000 Lights Peace Illumination.   This was at the Itoma Tourist park right across the street from peace Prayer Memorial park (another park we plan on seeing).  We decided to take the trip with our friends.  The park is about an hour away and none of us have ever been.  Needless to say we got lost, with it being dark out and the Japanese street signs it was difficult.  Our hour trip actually took almost 2 hrs.  As we drove up we could see the light display and I got excited.  

I thought the lights were nice, I kind of was expecting more.  1,300,000 isn’t really that many lights.  I guess coming from the states where everyone has lights on their house and all the buildings downtown have lights, and even the zoos would partake in the holiday spirit.  It was pretty and I know the girls had fun.  It was a chilly night, luckily my friend brought an extra beanie for Amelia.  Poor thing was just getting over being sick.  The cold night air didn’t help her and in the end she caught a bad cold.  Anyway she ran all through the park.  She had and excellent time.  Morgan was walking with here through the hanging lights.  There was even a choo choo train that had lights on it.  I thought the train would have been running but it wasn’t.  All in all it was a fun time.  I know Amelia had fun, she knocked out as soon as she got into her chair in the car!

Cape Zanpa for the day

Over the weekend we just needed to get out of the house, so we drove.  We went to take Amelia’s picture at a beach nearby for our Christmas cards this year.  After we got that taken care of we decided to explore and drive where the road takes us.  The road ended up taking us to Cape Zanpa.  I’m so glad it did!  It was sooo pretty.  As we walked down to the beach we saw surfers and paddle boarders.  The water was so clear and warm.  Amelia wanted to get in, she loves water.  I was sad we didn’t really dress appropriately for hanging out at the beach.  We did get a few good shots and Amelia got to play in the sand.  There are even resorts there.  We saw about three.  They were pretty impressive sizes and I could imagine how busy it gets during peak season.  Its definitely a  place we’ll go back to again, with the appropriate attire and a picnic  basket of food so we can hang out all day.

 On the way back we noticed a little Hawaiian restaurant on the side of the road.  There was a really small sign with an arrow.  I heard about this place before on another blog I read and wanted to check it out.  The place was cute.  The man (I’m guessing the owner) thought Amelia was so cute.  (well who doesn’t J) But Amelia kept her attention on their little dog, he roamed around the restaurant and Amelia’s eyes followed him the whole time.  The food was DELISCIOUS!  Morgan said it was the best idea I had all day!  We’ll have to come back to the place again, they had a pizza with shrimp, smoke salmon and cream cheese…that’s a must try!