Goodbye 2011...Hello 2012

Welp 2011 is long gone.  I was not successful with this blog.  However 2012, I resolve to write more and keep it up to date.  It’s such a shame that I don’t, we do and see so many fun things out here.  So with that, another year another chance.   But before I embark on to the future, I’m going to reminisce a little on how good 2011 was to us!2011 was good year.  Lots of things happened.  We tried new things, saw new places and met new people.

 One of the biggest things to come out of 2011 is that I’m pregnant!  Morgan and I have been talking for awhile on when the right time was to start adding to our family.  Finally in September we decided we were going to start trying.  Its’ actually kind of crazy how fast it all happened.  I got off birth control on September 12^th and literally by the next week I was pregnant!  I didn’t know it yet, I just went on with life.  I was told by my doc that my cycle would be a lil screwy from coming off the birth control and to give it a couple months to go back to normal.  I few weeks after I got off bc I had a feeling I was pregnant.   And the test came back positive, a woman just knows her body!  We were over the moon!  From then on I just keep dreaming of our little family of four.  We don’t know what the sex is for our baby yet, but we are going to found out in the coming weeks.  I’m due in June, so we will have 2 summer babies!

Another life changing event is that I got back into the working force.  I go back and forth weather or not I’m cut out to be a stay at home mom or not.  There were really good days Amelia and I had, I miss all the time we got to spend together.  There were also not so great days where I wanted to tear my hair out and I missed adult conversations!  I currently work full time and Amelia is full time at daycare.  She has been able to learn a lot and for the most part I think she is happy being there.  Her daycare is another issue I have to deal with and we are probably going to move her. 

Amelia turned 2 in 2011.  Let me tell ya, a 2 year old is a whole different kind of kid.  She has been talking up a storm and repeating everything we say.  We have to really watch what we say in front of her because she does not hesitate to repeat it. She is very active and funny.  She loves to dance and sing songs.  Whenever we can we try to get her to dance and sing in front of the camera, she gets camera shy a lot though.  She sleeps in a toddler bed now.  With the new baby on the way we thought it would be the perfect time to transition her into a toddler bed. She is growing up so fast it’s really hard to believe, it seems like only yesterday we took her home from the hospital. 

A lot has really happened in 2011.  Morgan and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. Morgan turned 28.  We had lots of family outings all over Okinawa.  Went back to the states for a few months.  Morgan went to Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Hawaii, and DC.  Morgan’s sister had a baby.  We FINALLY sold our house after a year and a half!  I’m just ready for the great things and adventures that 2012 will bring.  I’m so EXCITED

Birthday at the Beach...

Sorry its been so long.  We had a long hiatus in CA due to the tsunami.  Well we've been home for almost 2 and a half weeks now and boy it feels good to be home.  Not that I do not LOVE California, but its just nice to be home.  Anyway yesterday we celebrated Amelia's BFF's Birthday yesterday at Kadena Marina!! Unfortunately it wasn't the sunniest day but we still had lots of fun.

Lana was turning 2 years old and had a Dora themed party.  Dora was everywhere from the table cloth to the cupcakes, it was a cute party.  Plus Amelia loves Dora so she recognized her right away.  Lana had lots of treats and delicious food.  The true highlight of the party wasn't the adorable decorations, or the bouncy house or the beach, it was the DIRT!  Lana and Amelia bathed themselves in the dirt.  It wouldn't be my first choice for fun, but the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves playing with the beach toys in the dirt.  I dont think I've ever let Amelia get so dirty.  But I didn't want to be the uptight mom.

Once we could pull the girls away from the dirt..... they got to enjoy the bounce house too. haha Well so did the adults.  Its a work out for sure!  Amelia had fun doing summer saults and bouncing!  I have to admit that the bouncy house was too much fun and I am a firm believer that you are never too old to jump in one!  All in all it was a great day, with good food, good people and good fun.  Amelia was pooped by the end of the day.  We got home I gave her a bath and she ate a small dinner and was out by 7:30pm.    Now I got to get planning on Mills' bday in 2 months!!!

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!

Boo it up Big!

 Amelia’s first official time to go trick or treating! Last year she was too small to know what was going on so we held off.  I’m sure its debatable if she knows now, but we took her anyway.  Jackie invited us over to her house to go with her friends and family.  Jackie went all out!  She had Halloween décor up, Halloween treats and snacks and a whole baby pool full of candy!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much candy to fill up a whole baby pool, quite impressive.  It was pretty cool for a night in Okinawa.  I was afraid that Amelia would sweat to death in her costume, but since there was a cool breeze she was actually dressed perfect for the weather.  Amelia was an elephant for Halloween, I’m sure one day when she gets old she’ll kill us for putting her in her costume.  She looked soooo adorable it well worth the killing in the future.  Her costume had a headpiece, which I was surprised she kept it on for the whole night.  Well her first trick or treating experience lasted all of one block.  She kept wanting to go back to houses we’ve been to and as soon as she realized what was in her bag that was it.  It was very cute and a memory I’ll keep forever of her first trick or treating trip.

Plane ride with a 1 yr old

It was always in the plans for Amelia and I to fly down to San Diego. We didn’t think that she could handle the 16 hour (possibly longer with her) drive down to southern California. Especially with Amelia getting car sick way more often, it was better to take a trip alone then to try and drive down with her. I knew it would be better to fly down with Amelia, but I dreaded the flight. I picked a non-stop late night flight. The flight was only 2 hrs and departed at 8:50 pm, however I over packed like a madwoman and I had to bring so much stuff on the flight I was totally overloaded. I am probably one of the worst packers ever. First off I wait until the very last minute to pack, (generally hours prior to my departure) and I ALWAYS pack more then I have to. Well, not only did I have to pack for myself I packed for Amelia too. When I pack for Amelia I like to be prepared so another reason I over do it.
Saying good-bye is always hard for me. I always get emotional. Saying bye to Morgan’s family was not easy. It’s a good thing that we we’re running late for our flight or it would have been way more tears and a lot harder. So with my eyes blurry I walked through security. I had Amelia in her stroller, a backpack filled, a hobo purse, and Amelia’s teddy bear. I probably looked like some mommy backpacker, cuz with my stature and all my stuff it was a scene. Getting through security was a mess! With taking off my shoes, Amelia’s shoes, taking the lap top out, taking out my liquids, taking off our hoodies, folding up the stroller and walking through the metal detector…..needless to say it was rough. I knew people were looking at me judging. I even let people go ahead of me because I felt bad for holding up the line. What’s worse is that NO ONE helped me! Well, one guy helped me after I did all that …he pushed my stuff through the x-ray. Then I had to put everything back in order. The whole time I was sweating, nervous and even a little scared. Morgan and his family watched the whole time, that was embarrassing. I kept looking back, they all had smiles on their faces. I know they all wished they could help me out.

The flight went off smoooooooooothly! Amelia whined for about 5 minutes and slept the whole time. There were only 40 something people on the flight and the 2 seats next to us were empty, so she got to lay down and sleep. It was great! During the flight I heard a couple babies crying. I was just happy it was not Amelia. I know that a 2 hour flight is in no comparison to a 15 hour flight but doing it on my own gave me some confidence. At least I’ll have Morgan on the way to Japan and I know there will be other military families on the flight and hopefully they will understand. I know that she will cry I’m just hoping that she doesn’t do it the whole time.