Ed's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to Ed! Ed flew in from Oklahoma where he was doing some instructor pilot training on his way back to Okinawa. And, it just happened to be his birthday. So we celebrated with a special birthday dinner at Tuscanos Brazilian restaurant on Saturday night and a home cooked ribs dinner with strawberries and white cake on Sunday. Drew and Terese drove from Rexburg to Boise to be with us and that was the frosting on the cake.

He blew out all his candles in one breath. May all your birthday dreams come true, Ed.

Goodbye Purple Sweats!

These are my purple sweats I have worn on cold days over my exercise shorts to Jazzercise for at least 9 years! All winter I was afraid someone from "What Not To Wear" was going to grab me and put me on TV for all of America to see. They are definately not flattering and make me look MUCH bigger than I really am. I made a goal that if I could get back to 145 lb. (which was my weight when we trained for the Pioneer Trek) I would celebrate and buy myself a new pair of 2009 style "sweats." Well, I did. I reached 145 and here are the new "sweats." Actually I reached 145 a couple of times! Don't we all! Reach a goal, celebrate, gain some of the weight back, have to relose the weight, etc. So, in this picture, I have regained three pounds back, but am determined to work hard again and relose it. But, now in my new "sweats", I feel prettier and happier to keep exercising!

Paul's Birthday Party

Paul celebrated his 61st birthday over President's Weekend. Lots of fun with a longer weekend from school, Valentine's Day and Drew and Terese home from BYU-I visiting. I made him one of his favorite desserts, pear and blackberry cobbler for his "birthday cake." What do you give a guy who has everything? I chose Bald Guyz Headwipes for his sweaty head when we hike and bike ride and a certificate for a fishing license. We hike into these beautiful lakes and think, wow, we should have brought a fishing pole. Well, this summer, we are going to do it! Nancy gave him an adorable mouse pad with a picture of Jaron and Bonka doing karate and Drew and Terese gave him a Jerry Garcia tie. Jerry Garcia is a member of the band "The Grateful Dead" and Paul wears ONLY Grateful Dead ties to the temple. Happy Birthday Pablo!

Hedo Point

Okuma Beach

Hedo Point overlooking East China Sea

Hedo Point Monument

On New Year's Eve day, Ed drove Paul and I to the northern most part of Okinawa, Hedo Point. On our drive we stopped at Okuma Beach. The military owns a resort at Okuma Beach and military families vacation and enjoy their leave on this most beautiful beach paradise. The resort hosts a oceanview restaurant where we ate lunch. I ate yakisoba and loved watching the waves and the beautiful light blue color of the water.

We then continued to Hedo point where the Pacific Ocean meets the East China Sea. The view was spectacular. It was very windy but we stayed and stayed looking at the view. I couldn't get enough of the ocean and the smell of the air. The monument is in Japanese, but is very famous and we had to wait in line to get our picture taken by it.

New Year's Eve in Okinawa

New Year's Eve day, Ed drove Paul and I to the northern top of the island to see Hedo Point. It's the spot where the Pacific Ocean meets the East China Sea. It's a breathtaking view of gorgeous ocean surf from a volcanic rock cliff top. On our way back to Ed's, we stopped at a farmer's market and purchased 2 fresh pineapple for 1 yen each. We used the fresh pineapple to top homemade pizzas for our New Year's Eve festivities! Yummy!!

We loved seeing Jaron, Kimberlee, Keira and Krista having fun with the noise makers!

Smiles from Nancy, MaryAnn and Ed too.

I think we had the biggest smiles of all. What was even more fun. We flew home on New Year's Day and flew through the international date line and got to have New Year's over and over again with every time zone!! Happy New Year's everyone!!

Yes, I made New Year's resolutions. Did you?

Christmas in Okinawa

Hey everybody, we're in Okinawa, Japan with our son, Ed, and his family and our daughter, Nancy and her son Jaron. Our Christmas stockings were way cool with jade chop sticks and little Japanese dolls.

9 stockings lining the couch - Santa was busy.

Lots of Barbie - dolls, clothes, cars, horses.

Presents filled the room.

Kimmee dressed up like Grandma in her Christmas apron and hat.

Bonka got an ornament from the Kadena Okinawa AF Base.

Bonka and Grandma sooo happy to have Christmas with family.

Ed and MaryAnn prepared a fabulous ham dinner.

Jaron's favorite Christmas present was his sucker from his stocking.

Graham Cracker Houses

Wahoo! Making gingerbread houses or should I say graham cracker houses. Lots of frosting, candy and smiles.




Ed gets serious about his house. It was a masterpiece.

Ed made us his famous shish kabobs. They are to die for. The best I've ever eaten. Then for dessert, we got to eat our gingerbread houses.

Church

Sunday we attended church in Ed's ward. The church house was way cool. It is narrow and tall instead of one-story and wide. No lawn. Just a building among a miriad of similar buildings. I didn't see any English words, only the Japanese as shown in the picture. Paul and I would have missed it if we had been by ourselves. Our family helped to boost the attendance in the branch. Ed was our gospel doctrine teacher which was way cool.

Toes

MaryAnn, Nancy and I went to Cocko's exclusive spa for pedicures. I thought I was in heaven. This spa was very fancy with a marble fountain and leather recliners. First my feet soaked in lemongrass water and then my feets and legs were massaged with warm oils. It was heavenly.

MaryAnn, me and Nancy's fancy toes - custom handpainted artwork. Very Japanesy designs.


Came home and I painted Keira and Kimmee's toes and nails so they could match Grandma and Aunt Nancy and their Momma. The Anderson women living the good life!!

Table Rock

It was a beautifull day today and Paul and I had the day off work, thank your Parent/Teacher Conferences! We decided to take advantage of a sunny 55 degree day and hike Table Rock. Table Rock is 100% uphill - so 55 degrees was great. Actually, we were hot and sweaty and could have enjoyed even cooler temperatures. The views were wonderful from the top even with hazy conditions. It's fun to try and pick out landmarks and, of course, throw rocks off the cliffs. But alas, when we reached the top, Paul remembered that he was supposed to go in for his allergy shots today. We didn't throw rocks, took a quick picture and did a walk/run down to the bottom. We were probably quite a sight when bounding downhill, - his gut and my boobs bobbing up and down. Sorry to the people we passed going uphill.

Thought you might enjoy seeing Paul in pain. He gets shots in both arms once a week.

Dead Mice and Blood Sauce

It's Halloween and time for our annual Dead Mice in Blood Sauce party. Our guests chose their dinner from a menu and then had to eat what they had circled!! Dead mice, blood sauce, gangreen delight, new arrivals, osteoporosis bones, two varieties of brains Uncle Paul's special collection of little blue shirt toes and coffin nails.










Who's this eating little pink toes? I bet it's Bonka. Ever wonder what Bonka does with his toe collection? He saves them up to eat on Halloween.










What's this? A witch's cauldron of severed fingers. Hmmmm, they look like Irene's -complete with beautiful long fingernails. Tasty.














Irene's fingers were a great hit. Trying to reafix a severed finger back onto my hand.

Lori brings "New Arrivals". All of our names on the tombstones in Cloverdale Cemetery. Dirt and worms brings on a whole new meaning.

After our creepy dinner, we gathered round to watch our favorite BSU Broncos win another football game. Go Broncos. Touchdown!!

Happy Halloween from Bonka and Grandma!!!