Amy surprises Carson by coming back to Utah

Amy has a best friend Carson that she has known since they were babies. Even though we have been in Japan they are still best friends. When we were coming home Amy did not tell Carson when we would be home and wanted to surprise her and her sister Dusty. When we got to the airport we called her mother to let her know that we were here so that Amy could come and surprise Carson and Dusty. And surprised they were!!! Carson's mom had a hard time keeping the secret from her.

Dusty going to the door at 10:30 pm and 

wondering who it could be at that late hour.

What a fun surprise for her.

Still friends even with the long distance from each other.

Amy waking up Carson to surprise her

and what a hug.

Amy thinking of all the fun they will have together

 and Carson so excited to see Amy again.

Amy, Dusty and Carson together again at last.

Taiwan

The view from our hotel balcony

One of the beds in our room. 

It looks big but it is between a twin and full size.

The open market. Cars and people

trying to go down the street.

The fun (ha, ha) food that you can buy. 

We really liked the frogs.

The elementary school children painted the cows.

There were a bunch of them in the airport.

The school children also painted the hats. 

They had the hats all over the airport too.

Amy and Josh crashed in the airport after the long flight from Taiwan to LA.

Madrigal Dinner

Amy had her Madrigal dinner for school a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun to go to and they all did such a good job. Amy was a princess. I tell her once a princess always a princess.

This is the quartet of people that she sang with. They sang Child of the poor and they did such a beautiful job.

Christmas with Nicholas

Nicholas has been here for the last 2 1/2 weeks for Christmas and we have had so much fun with him here. Here we are at Okuma riding bikes around the resort.

Smash Mouth

On Saturday there was a free concert at the beach and smash mouth was the guest group. We got there and went to the restaurant to get something to eat and they was a bunch of people in there. Someone came out and we asked if they were open and they said that they were not at the time. As we walked away mark told Josh that that was the group smash mouth so Josh went back and asked if that was who they were and when they said yes he asked for there autograph and they agreed to giving autographs and pictures. After the show they also did a meet and greet and would let you go and get a picture with the whole band so Amy was in one of the pictures with her friends and the other was with josh. Notice that they look like wet rats. Well that was because it started raining during the concert and it was really coming down hard. The concert was outside so needless to say we were all drenched. It made for a fun 45 minute ride home. lol. As for the other picture of Mark and Josh in front of the truck. Well we went sight seeing for the day and stopped at a beach along the way. The beach was just closing but they allowed us to go in anyway and just look around. The beach was beautiful!!! As we were leaving we saw the truck there and it had a Utah liscense plate on it so that is why we took the picture of the truck. Now how cool is that?!!? It made us feel close to home. lol...

Soba Party

When we got back to Okinawa heideko wanted to have us come to her house for a soba party. this is Heidiko's house with her family and all the food. Heideko is the lady that came to our house when we were here last time for English class. I did not realize how much I missed her until we went to see her. It was a great night

Farmer's Market

a bunch of the girls from the branch went to the farmers market this week and had a blast.

Ryuko Mura

This is at a really fun place and after the dancers are done with there program they try to get as many people from the audience to come and dance and Tammy and Josh were the only people that would go and dance with them.

Manza Point

The hotel there is where Pres. Clinton stayed during the G8 summit when we were here the first time. This spot is a beautiful spot to go to

this is another picture from Manza Point

Curry House

This is one of our favorite places to go and have curry. The kids had no school so we decided to go and have some fun for the day. We were hoping that since there was waves at the sea wall that there would be a bunch of surfers but no surfers that day.

all of us having fun eating and watching the waves

Car & Van

our new van. it is called the super limo. it is a toyota

this is our car. it is called the cube. I absolutely love this car! Tammy drives the car and Mark drives the van. The scary thing is that amy now has her drivers liscense and is able to drive and she loves the car as well.

Amy Homecoming

Amy's date putting on her flower for the homecoming dance

What a beautiful girl getting ready for homecoming. thank you Jayne for sending the dress express mail. We got the dress back from alterations that day just before we had to get ready. I was hoping that they would iron the dress and as you can see they did not. Amy was anxious to get dressed before I could iron the dress.

Heidiko

This is the lady that would come to our home every week for English and dinner with 3 of her darling grandchildren

This is Heidekos grandson. He is 2 years old and you should see him do the Okinawa dancing. It is so cute to watch him and he really knows what he is doing. He is using chopsticks for his drum stick. this dance is really done with Teiko drums and we love watching it.

this is heidekos gradaughter. she is 3 months old and you should see the hair on this girl. She has a mowhawk and I bet that her hair is over 2 inches long on top. She can also put her hair behind her ears. She is so cute!!!

Our House

This is Josh on top of what Mark calls our flintstone house.

Mark and Tammy under our new cabana in the back yard with our new table and chairs
We got a new table to bring with us and after using it only one time we realized that we needed to have something to protect it. Being here in Okinawa the shopping is not the best so we had a hard time finding plastic to go under the table cloth so since we did not want to make any more spots on the table we decided to have a picnic in our front room. Great family bonding time.

Sea Wall

Amy and Josh standing on the sea wall. this is one of our favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon is to go to the sea wall and go for a walk and listen to the water.

Bert's birthday party

We went to Sam's by the sea a really nice restaurant on the ocean. He is our shrimp cocktail that we got and it was so cool.

sports day

Here in Japan they have a sports day holiday. We went to Heideko's nursery school and watched the kids do there racing and dancing. they are between the ages of 2-6 and it is so fun to watch them. They are so cute.

Here they are doing a relay race where they run around the field and pass the stick. They were all so proud of themselves. All the kids here are 2-6 years of age

This is traditional Eisa dancing. There is a real art to this dancing and so much fun to watch.

More dancing.