Tokashiki Island, School and Onigiri

The fun just continues! Hyrum had a four day weekend last weekend for Labor day, so we went with three other families to Tokashiki Island which is one of the Kerama islands. It was a blast! Although it did start off a bit rocky. We had to drive about an hour to get to the ferry which would take us. Hyrum went to fill up the car before we took off, and after filling up the car wouldn't start. Someone there had jumper cables and started the car up again, but you could feel that it was struggling. We are about 40 minutes into the drive to our ferry when the car just dies. In the middle of a busy road. During rush hour. Hyrum had bought a new battery in case that was the problem, so we install it real quick. The car still won't start, so we're worried it's an alternator problem. After 7 Japanese men helping push the car out of the road, waiting 2 hours for a tow truck and a few ice cream cones later, some friends came and picked us up to drop us off at the port. Unfortunately the seas were ROUGH. Samuel ended up throwing up, and I spent the entire time in the back of the boat out in fresh air on the verge of puking. We made it though, and it was a wonderful trip! The weather was perfect, the small log cabin us and another of the families were in (7 kids 6 and under. Whew!) was cute and the company was great. There were two identical cabins next to each other so all four families got to hang out. We visited gorgeous beaches every day, snorkeling with gorgeous fish, amazing coral reefs and even some sea turtles. I seriously felt like I was in a huge aquarium. Charity even did amazing snorkeling. I don't think she will ever let us go out without her! One night we did a shrimp broil with yummy grilled veggies, shrimp, scallops, grilled onigiri and other odds and ends. And of course it all ended with s'mores. We had such a great time! We are very grateful to be living on a tropical island surrounded by other amazing tropical islands. :) (If you're wondering about our car, the garage it was towed to started it up and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I'm praying every time I am in the car now that it won't just die again. Ahhh!)

It felt impossible to keep this girl out of the sand!!!

"How can I have s'more of something if I haven't had anything at all?"

Beach babe. You should see this girls tan line. Crazy!

Samuel had his first day of preschool the day after we got back from our trip. He has been so excited anticipating his turn to go to school, and he wasn't disappointed. He loves it! I asked him if I should do his hair before his first day of school (he usually conmplains when I forget to do his hair) and he responded "I need to be a stud muffin!" So I did his hair, and a stud muffin he was indeed. :)

Something you can find in any Japanese food stores here on Okinawa are onigiri, or rice balls or triangles. They are really yummy, and the kids liked the plain ones we had gotten for them. So I decided to try and make them myself. The ones I made were plain ones for the kids, and ones filled with salmon and wrapped in seaweed for Hyrum and myself. I really like the way they turned out and could have eaten them all! Yum!

Random Okinawa fact: They have special stickers new drivers and old drivers here put on their cars so everyone knows they are either new to driving or old, so you need to be careful around them. If you get in an accident with one of these people, it is very unlikely they will be blamed for anything, so count on it being your fault. I thought this was very interesting, but was a little annoyed the other day when an "old driver" cut me off and I felt like they felt as if they could do whatever they wanted because of their sticker. Maybe I was just having a grumpy day, but it didn't give me a lot of positive feelings for these stickers. :) So that's my random tidbit about driving in Okinawa. Stickers for the old and the new. Who would have thought?