Changing our view of the world

We haven't had time to post a blog in a really long time.  Things have been super hectic since January. Ella made her first trip back to her country of citizenship and spent some time with Grandpa Tomcat before he passed away.  She also got to visit with her other grandparents and some of her aunts and cousins.

She even saw her first snow!  I'm not sure she liked it too much.

March to May are a blur between working and keeping up with Ella.


In May, Trish made her fourth visit to Okinawa for Ella's first birthday and Ella started playschool.  On her first day, she waved good bye to Mom and Dad, so I guess she was ready to go to school.

In June, Dawn, Heather, and Amanda came to visit.  We did a lot of sightseeing and snorkeling with them.  We all really enjoyed having them here.

And so our Okinawa chapter comes to an end with Kris accepting a Visiting Professor position at the University of Tampa. We move to Tampa in August and things are happening pretty fast.

The MISE lab had a going away party for us, which was great fun. It is hard to believe we are saying goodbye to our Okinawa family, but I'm sure we'll see them again someday.

Domo arigatoo gozaimashita. (Thank you for everything!)
Mata ne!

Happy Holidays

It is hard to believe that Ella has already had her first Thanksgiving and Christmas! Kris is on break from teaching, and it is nice to have some free time. We've spent a lot more time together as a family the past two weeks. We've made chocolate snowballs, strung popcorn and decorated the Christmas tree with it and paper ring garland. We even found Ella her very own Christmas pickle! We've had a lot of fun this holiday season, complete with two turkey dinners.  For both Thanksgiving and Christmas, we cooked a whole turkey in our new hand-me-down oven.  They were small turkeys, but they were delicious.  The leftover turkey sandwiches were especially delicious!

Ella has four teeth and loves to eat some squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She likes green beans, too, but they're not her favorite!  She is rolling around the apartment and sitting up by herself these days too. She'll be crawling any day now.

We got together with the old lab for Christmas Eve and had a great time.  Ella had so much fun that she fell asleep at the party.

Ella got lots of new toys and a great new bathtub for Christmas. She loves everything so much that she can't decide what to play with first. (Of course, she initially settled on the wrapping paper.)

Below are a few more photos of Ella from the past month or two.

Happy New Year!
We hope to see y'all in 2014!

Jerry and Whiteman in Okinawa!

For the first time in 32 years, Jerry

boarded a plane. This time is was bound for Okinawa!

It took a grandchild, but the Whites finally made it for a visit. Upon their arrival Ella was very tired but happy to get some sugar from Nana and Ol' Grandad.

We had a great visit, which revolved mostly around eating.  Nate and Kris were both working a lot, but we managed to fit in some sightseeing.

Jerry was happy to figure out chopsticks the first morning they were here.

Ella really enjoyed spending time with Nana and Ol' Grandad.  She was usually smiling, even though she got her first tooth while they were here!

Not only did Jerry overcome her fear of flying, but she also rode on a giant ferris wheel!

We also went to the beach and Shuri Castle.

And of course, more eating...okonomiyaki and ice cream!
Whiteman even made some new friends.

T$ meets Ella

Tricia made her third trip to Okinawa to meet Ella this week. We had a great time and Ella really likes T$!

We pretty much spent the week eating. We had some Teppanyaki steak, King Tacos, Pizza, Sushi, and Sashimi!

And of course, we got nine scoops of ice cream on the 19th, where Tricia went into the 25 degree Celsius cooler to check out the ice cream first hand.

We did manage to fit some exercise into our schedule. We did a lot of walking and even played some racquetball, which Trish was a pro at.

Trish and Ella spent a lot of time together at the apartment too. It was a bit cramped with Trish sleeping in the kitchen, but we managed.

As usual, Ella was very popular wherever we went.  I'm not sure if Ella or the locals are more excited to meet each other.

We had a great visit and were sad to see Trish go, but we are looking forward to our next visitors. Mom and Dad White are coming in a couple of weeks!