Moving Along

That's a whole lotta passports!

We all have both of our passports now, so we can officially fly around and into wherever we need.  

 Things are still moving along.  

~We all have our medical clearances from the US and from Okinawa.  

~We received our "area clearance" this week - so I guess we are officially-officially allowed to be there.  

~We have been assigned a sponsor, who sets up our PO Box for us (which Shawn just informed me we now have :o),  they make our lodging arrangements for us until we have a place to live, will pick us up from the airport and tote us around until we have our SOFA drivers licenses (Status of Forces Agreement - a common term for a military issued drivers license permitting service members and families to operate vehicles in the country), and who is basically our first contact for our new duty station.  I contacted the wife through email and they live out in town and have two kids (6 and 4) and one on the way.  She also told me I could friend her on Facebook :o).  It's nice to have someone there right now that I can dump all of my questions on!

~We are hoping to know our flight itinerary very soon....Shawn is calling to check on that today.

I just realized that our first set of movers are set to be here in.....wait for it.....25 days!!

I think our most pressing "worry" is Wrigley.  

Look at that face!

Who wouldn't want him?

He's a great dog, well trained, house trained, crate trained, lazy....

We absolutely know this is a huge thing to ask of anyone (let alone most people that don't even want or like dogs).  We are the ones making the decision to not bring him, but as we've said before, feel that it is the best decision for everyone.  

We do have a family that is willing to take him for the three years.  She is the friend of a distant relative, whom we've never met, and we really just don't feel comfortable about it.  We are hoping that in just under 3 weeks, one of our loving family members will agree to take him.....because that's when he's going to be dropped off in Indiana and then it's up to you all to figure it out :o).  We are now even thinking that once we get housing (hopefully pet friendly housing, but it is very limited and we've already told the government we weren't bringing a pet, so now even more unlikely), we will have a family member fly him over to us.  

We don't know.  There have been and will continue to be lots of prayers for this situation.

Dance Fusion

Amelia's dance recital was this past Sunday afternoon.  This was her third session clogging and she's going to miss it.  She would have moved up to the next class in a few weeks (and her teacher even said she could come until we leave).  Amelia and the other little girl on the far left were the only ones to have danced before, so the performance was a little rough around the edges.  They all had a great time and I love watching them all have so much fun!

 Amelia getting her award.

 Amelia and Ms. Crickett

Speed Demon

For two years we have been trying to get Amelia to ride her bike.  She has done it a couple of times and never fallen or gotten hurt.  But for some reason, she has not wanted to and more than once she's asked us to put her training wheels back on. 

Sunday, we tried to get her to ride yet again. 

There were tears shed and she wanted us to leave so no one was watching her.

So, Shawn told her that before she could play with her friends any day after school this week, she had to practice riding her bike in the backyard. 

Monday came and it was freezing out(freezing for CA), with wind gust near 30 miles and hour.  I told them they couldn't go out and play, but Amelia reminded me that "Dad told me I had to practice riding my bike". I told her to go out back and immediately she rode off out in the yard.  She didn't struggle or fall once!  We went out front to solid ground and she was off.  She never looked back!  It was as if she had been practicing in secret for those last 2 years.

 Now that's all she wants to do and the last 2 nights we've been able to finally take family bike rides!

(Good thing we still have Caleb's old yellow bike because I think she's already too big for her purple one.)

Back to School

2 weeks of sleeping in, staying up late, playing with their neighborhood friends - outside - all day long, has made for a rough first half of the week back to school.

They're so sweet when they're knocked out!

(P.S.  Look at how cute Wrigley is too!  Hint, hint!)

Easter Weekend

Friday night we colored Easter eggs.

 Saturday morning, we headed 1.5 hours north to a little Danish town (I think I said Dutch in my previous post) called, Solvang.  We wish we would have known about this town before now, because I think we would have visited this place quite a bit.  

 The best thing about Solvang was that our friends, The Plots, were meeting us there!  This is the bakery where we ate breakfast.

 After that, we walked the town and stopped in a few shops before eating lunch.

 After lunch we headed to a cute little park to play for a couple of hours.  

 Before we said our tearful goodbyes, we grabbed a snack of pretzels and sausages (they had veggie ones!).  We are going to miss these friends so much!!  We're thinking about retiring wherever they retire :o). 

Easter Sunday, we headed to church and then over to our next door neighbors for an Easter egg hunt and dinner.

This is our last week of Spring Break.  We're hoping for a beach day, but the forecast looks pretty chilly and overcast.