Riding Lessons Update

I am so very proud of how well Clara Grace is doing! This last weekend she had her 3rd lesson. She is very focused in this activity, looks forward to it all week and does just as she is asked. She is working hard on the up/down rhythm and kicking to keep Kudo moving. Her teacher had her do some riding with one hand. She was rather excited the first few times out to the stable, but on Saturday she was very calm walking around feeding carrots to the other horses. Charles and I agree that this just might be her "thing".

I thought I would take a shot of Zach watching the lesson. That is right, he is eating which is one of his favorite things to do.

Here she is riding with the hand stretched out as her teacher requested.

Zach Walking

I thought you might enjoy a clip of Zach as he began walking. He is doing so well in such a short period of time! He sometimes resorts to crawling, but he is now running around 90% of the time on his feet.

Friendship Day 2010

Friendship Day is a huge event each year upon MCAS Iwakuni. The base practically shuts down, school is out, and roughly 250,ooo Japanese nationals come aboard the air station to celebrate. I was signed up to help man the girl scout booth for a spell so the kids and I set out on foot (as there is basically no other way to get around on the base this day) to check it out. Friendship day includes an air show, lots of vendors selling food and wares, bounce houses, car displays, and live music. Since there was an air show, Charles was working, in fact he was in place in the even there was an emergency. Here are the few pictures I managed to snap before my camera died. Clearly I didn't do a good job on charging the battery. Clara Grace did get to do a few of the kid things as there was a little train and all the bounce houses. She got a snow cone while I indulged in steak on a stick. Our girl scout booth did well selling the cakes we made. All in all it was a good day. Unfortunately, Charlie will never have Friendship day off due to the nature of his job though. There is nothing that screams fun so much as an inflatable sinking Titanic.

Zach is FINALLY taking a few steps!

Zach is now taking a few steps. Three nights ago I was dressing him for bed when he took about three steps toward me, giggling. It was the sweetest thing and he continues to do it but only to get to me or Charlie. He will be standing, and slowly lower himself down and start crawling. It is only a matter of time before he completely takes off though.

Clara and Kudo

A fellow teacher told me about a stable nearby where Clara Grace can take horseback lessons. We accompanied the family last week and Clara Grace was able to ride a horse around the corral. This weekend we started her lessons. She'll be going each Saturday. Today was sort of a trial, but it went well so I placed an order this evening for all of her apparel. Hopefully it makes it here before next Saturday, but if not the bicycle helmet and leggings will work again.

Why you do not want to eat whipped cream from our house...

The pictures tell it all.

April 2010

Well, I realize I have allowed a good month to pass since my last post. The time has really moved quickly and it didn't seem as though I would have many pictures, but was I ever wrong. As it turns out, we have been busy and these pictures are just a small peek into what we have been up to.

First, there was Easter. We went to an Easter egg hunt sponsored by MCCS which pretty much handles all retail here on MCAS Iwakuni. It was really nice since we live on the fourth floor of a mid-rise and had to do the egg hunt on Easter Sunday in the apartment. Above, you will seek Zach participating in his age group. He picked up one egg and was quite pleased with his find. He was done. We walked back to Charlie and Clara Grace.

Clara Grace was able to pose with the Easter Bunny, which looks a bit creepy to me but it always does.

Before the hunt...

Checking out the loot

Clara Grace's Easter basket

Zach's Easter basket

Uh oh...do you notice something? I goofed on the size when I ordered Zach's Easter basket. It is MONSTROUS in size and dwarfs Clara Grace's, which is quite large as it is. I have a plan to remedy this for next year and Clara Grace was so pleased with her goodies that there was no big issue.

In other news, we had a big milestone...Clara Grace lost her first tooth! It happened very quickly. She noticed it was loose at school and was very upset until she understood what was happening. That was Tuesday. Friday evening we ordered pizza and out it came!

Don't you love all the grease and crumbs on the hand?

April is also the Month of the Military Child, which was cause for this small festival.

There were plenty of bounce houses...

games...

crafts...

and treats.

They had balloon animals, door prizes, and entertainment too.

Here are a couple of shots of us just around the house. Zach loves the swiffer so I had to find a new hiding place for it. I wonder if this means he'll be a clean freak? I can only hope!

Clara Grace just hamming it up for the camera! What a hoot!

Her girl scout (Daisy) troop took a trip to Hello Kitty Land with their earnings from selling girl scout cookies. It was really cute but quite a long trip since we got on the bus at 6am and got back to the apartment by 11:45pm.

Her troop at the entrance

Clara and Emily

Emily and her mom, Junko, that helped me out a great deal with rides I couldn't get on due to Zach's age.

This was a parade we watched while eating lunch. Very nice and we were quite close.

They invited children in to dance at the end.

Zach

AWANA also wrapped up.

In addition, we made a trip to the aquarium. I'll have pictures soon I hope. I forgot the camera so am waiting for the family we went with to send me some of the pictures as they were kind enough to snap a lot of shots of us. It was quite eventful and even had a dolphin show.

We also found out that Charlie will be having surgery. It has been very drawn out, and there is a long story associated with the glitches in scheduling and all, but the pertinent information is that he will travel to Yokosuka (spelling?) May 27th and will have surgery on June 1st. Due to the distance, they will not let him return to Iwakuni until June 11th to make sure he is on the mend and has no infection, etc. He was told that between healing, physical therapy and all that it would take a full year before he was back to "prime" condition.

Although there were lots of other activities, this is a fairly decent update for the month. I know I promise this all the time, but hopefully I'll update more frequently.

Until the next post...