Okinawa, Japan

At the beginning of June we were lucky enough to travel to Okinawa, Japan to visit Tori, Oz and the kiddos!  We were so excited to see them, especially how the kids have grown up since we saw them 3 years ago.  We have missed them and it was nice to be there for two weeks!  We loved having the combination of being on an American military base while experiencing the local Okinawan culture.  We were actually giddy that our first meal was at the base food court and we ate cheese steaks with a Mt. Dew (I'm such a classy girl at heart!)  Oz has taken up photography and we all went to the beach one night to take some shots...we were also eaten alive by mosquitos, which seems to be a theme with our travel!  

Joey has grown by feet and is somewhere between boy and teenager.  He loves to talk politics like Grandpa Greg and strut his stuff at the pool.  He also loves his video games and to talk about girls and is very particular about his choice of clothing!  He was ordained as the 1st Counselor in the Deacon's Quorum while we were there and is an overall good kid.  We loved just observing him. 

We would really like this view and gazebo in some future home!

One of my favorite things about Japan were all the different kinds of cars and trucks.  They were all pastel ice-cream colored and little square boxes.

The first few days we were there the kids were finishing up school.  We were able to attend Joey's and Jonners' awards assemblies, where they both received awards.

Jonners really cracked us up!  He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up, and I have no doubt he will do it!  He is super-smart and very literal.  Jonners loves video games and Uncle Jeremy's advice on life.  He keeps his most prized possessions in bed as he sleeps. He loves to eat cheese and loves bean burritos and is always hungry! He is a lot like his Dad!

One night we got great ice cream and they had some fun flavors, like purple sweet potato!

Abby is always thinking and her brain is always on full throttle.  She was the fiercest competitor at any game and wants to be a marine biologist or a horse trainer when she grows up (no doubt due to Uncle Jeremy's brainwashing as a baby.)  She is a great artist and likes to be in charge.  Abby is a good swimmer and such a cute girl.  She doesn't like wearing frilly things, but still likes to dress like a girl.  Her and Olivia just got their long hair cut to donate to Locks of Love.

Livers was so much bigger.  I was remembering the first time I met her, she was a baby and was barely walking.  She is 9 going on 19. She likes to sing pop style and is good at it too.  She is very social and very passionate about everything.  

  

One of the best things about Okinawa was the food.  I could have had the authentic ramen noodles every day, but didn't want to kill our hosts.  The noodles were chewy and in a golden miso spicy broth. I still am dreaming of eating them again!  They also had the best freaking fried rice that came in a skillet and you mixed it together.  My favorite was the garlic pork fried rice...so delish!  I didn't order this pasta but thought it was funny with its combo of pasta, soy sauce, butter and spam.

Our favorite restaurant was Arashi's.  They call it the "ticket restaurant" because you order your food from a vending machine looking thing and they deliver it to your table.

Jeremy and I celebrated our three year anniversary while we were in Japan.  We stayed at this fun hotel for a night on the water and had everyone swim with us in the hotel pool.

The one disappointment about Okinawa is that there wasn't one single reference made to Karate Kid II. I was so sad not to see the Mr. Miyagi's village or those little drums that the people twisted during the big fight scene.  This was the one thing that I saw, which I am guessing had nothing to do with Karate Kid II.

One day we went to the American Village shopping, which Jeremy was thrilled to do as you can see.

I am sad that I didn't take more pictures, but it's always a sign of a good vacation when you forget to take pictures!  This is when we left the first time, but embarrasingly, we missed our flight (which was the day before.)  How did it happen you may ask?  I have no idea, but we were able to extend our vacation two days and fly out later, after a 5 hour delay at the airport.  We loved visiting the Kirkham family and miss them already!

Roses in Bloom

Our friend Jeff Jackson came to Paris after we were in Sicily.  We went to Parc de Bagatelle at prime rose blooming.  I am not a huge rose fan, but they were lovely and had hundreds of different varieties.  

We were also able to celebrate Ashley's birthday with a yummy chocolate cake.  Happy Birthday Ash!

How cute are they....I can't tell you how slow they were walking, it must have taken them an hour to get home after their market trip.

These are some recent pics of my perfect niece Eloise...asleep with her little doll, and sitting with Gram.

Sicily, Italy!

 I can't believe that I got to go to Italy for the second year in a row for my birthday trip!  It just worked out that our good friend Jeff Jackson was going to be in Sicily and invited us to join him for a trip around Sicily - how could we pass that up? Here is a pic from our plane of Mt. Etna.

Ok - long story short: Jeff got to Sicily a few days before us, had a car accident in the rental car, man on scooter ran into his car, police took away Jeff's license, we had to change the reservation to Jeremy's name, it took a while, it all worked out, no one was injured!

Our first stop on our 5 day road trip was a city known for their ceramics - Caltagirone.  They were getting ready to celebrate a festival in honor of Mary.  There was a large set of stairs that we walked down and then subsequently back up ( it wasn't as bad as it looks.)  All along the stairs were ceramic shops and at the bottom was where we had lunch: delicious pasta with pistachio pesto.  You just can't beat the food in Italy!

 The flowers were in a particular design for the festival and the people process from the bottom to the top holding a statue of Mary up to the church at the top of the stairs.

When we were done in Caltagirone, we drove on windy, country roads to Agrigento.  Our hotel was right on the water, which was fun.  (We had a mosquito battle in the middle of the night when Jeremy opened up the doors for a little breeze.  We heard them buzzing around our faces and found them eating us for dinner even under the covers.  In the end...we won and they died!)  We immediately went for gelato as a dinner appetizer!  In this area they serve gelato like a normal ice cream (dish or cone) but their specialty is in a brioche bread.

Our dinner was delicious, but this particular appetizer was the best orange I have ever tasted in my life. It was so flavorful and wonderful with the onions and pistachios!

After dinner, the boys got another gelato - when in Sicily...

That night, we took a ride up to the Greek temple ruins to see them all lit up!

The second day we went back to the Greek temples to walk around them.  It was pretty awesome, until I heard something rattling in the bushes - a snake!  "I don't wanna see a snake" became my favorite tune to sing walking around the temples.  There was also a great view up there of the surrounding area.

All of Sicily had tons of almond and olive trees.

Later that day we headed towards Sciacca and had a delicious new treat - panelle.  They were fried chick pea squares and it was fun to see Jeff with all of his friends from his mission - they still remember "Elder Jackson", or fondly "Jackson."  Jeff also had us taste some pistachio and almond honey brittle, yum!

It's no mystery why the Italians can afford to eat so much pasta!

That evening we stayed in a hotel that had sulphur pools.  Jeff and Jeremy tried them out and it turned Jeremy's wedding ring a copper color for a good month!  It was stinky too.

The next day we headed up to Erice, a mountain town with a really cool castle on the top.  Unfortunately, we froze a bit because some big clouds came in and we were so high up.  We also bought some fun souvenirs in the stores.

After we left Erice, we headed to Palermo.  Palermo is one of the biggest towns in Sicily.  We walked through the big food market and had fun looking at the seafood especially.

The final scene of the Godfather was filmed in this opera house!

The next day we drove to Taormina, which was one of my favorite places.  It was another town on top of a mountain on the coast.  We parked in a garage and then took a bus up to the top.  We found this very frightening abandoned car here.

As soon as we got up there, we saw a wedding in the center square.

One of the big things to see in Taormina is the view and also the Roman amphitheater.  I was just wishing we could've seen someone like Andrea Bocelli that evening singing there.  It would have been even cooler!

Just another project I would like to do someday!

We ate at this restaurant with the best view.  We just kept commenting on how lucky we all felt to not be working and be eating here that day.  It was gorgeous and the food was delicious!

 The last day we went to Syracuse to try and get Jeff's driving license back.  Luckily, he was able to by the some miracle!

There is a natural fresh water spring with papyrus growing just a stone's throw from the salt water sea.  I bought a little souvenir and something for my grandmother at a store here out of the papyrus.  The lady in the store showed us how she handmade the paper from the papyrus.

We were lucky enough to have Jeff come and stay with us in Paris for the next week.  He got to go to the French Open and tour around the city.  We loved all of his efforts in  planning this trip and had fun all being together!