Kite Flying take two...

So after the disaster that was flying our home made kite. I decided to buy a little kite and go fly it in the park with Terra today.
Such a great kite! It was up in the air in less than five seconds. Terra was excited, and I was happy to get a picture, so I gave her the string roll and told her to hold on tight, reiterated that it should be held on tight and then reached down to grab the camera.
By the time I was able to get the camera out of my pocket, the kite was free. I'm guessing she had just let go, and the kite took off. We ran after it, but it got caught up in the trees and then broke the string. I'm not sure where the kite ended up, but it was an exciting 10 seconds of flight.
Ahh well. I still grabbed some great pictures of her in the park. Stay tuned for kite attempt number 3.

Pictures from Kite Flying Adventure 1.0 It was not a successful mission, version 2.0 is yet to come.

Presidents Day

Good Morning!
Today starts the long holiday weekend for Presidents Day. It is great to have some extra time off. We are planning for a nice calm weekend. On the agenda is a nice walk in the cool weather, and possibly making a kite to go fly in the park. I'm hoping that we can get it off the ground at least.
Other than that it looks like it is going to be pretty laid back. Mary and I went to a Yakiniku restaurant on Valentines day, which is a "cook your own food" place. They bring you out strips of meat to grill, and vegetables. They also have little foil packs of things like mushrooms and butter, and asparagus with bacon. It was very good, and we all had a great time. Terra even cooked a few batches of food, our little munchkin chef.
Terra has been bringing home a bunch of songs that she learns in school, I was just treated to a rendition of "Wheels on the Bus" and she loves to sing "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" before she goes to sleep. I need to get a few of them on video for posterity.
Other than that, not too much to say. I realized that this month should be a brewers busiest month, since it is "Fe-BREW-ary" but I don't have anything planned. Ahhh well. Next year.

If we get any great pictures of Terra flying a kite, I'll be sure to put them up.

CCNA Security

It has been an interesting couple of weeks here at the Bryan house. After spending the better part of a month studying, I was able to finally test out and receive my certification for CCNA: Security. Which gives me another three years before I have to re-certify. It isn't a great big deal, but the test was challenging, and I'm gratified that I've got that out of the way. Mary is applying for a few jobs, which hopefully will give us the extra funds to travel a bit more. But for now we are not planning anything.
We made a trip to the beach yesterday and got a nice red neck to show for it. Terra managed to dive into the frigid water, so we stripped her down so her cloths could dry out. So she was running around rolling in sand dunes getting sugar cookie coating. Fun times.
After that we went to watch a Roller Derby scrimmage, which got cut a little short due to an injury of the "the girls poor ankle was flopping around" type. Further reinforcing my happiness that Mary isn't on skates anymore. Don't get me wrong, I was quite a fan of the whole thing, but there was always the chance of a serious injury.

Anyhow, nothing major to discuss! Here is a picture of Terra for your troubles.

Spring too soon

Spring has sprung early here in Okinawa. Today is February 3rd, it's sunny and 69 degrees outside. This past week went pretty quickly, nothing of importance to report. Yesterday we rode our bikes down to Yaka beach and remembered why we dislike the sun.

Sakura Matsuri

Cherry Blossom Fesitval, Nago 2013.

So today we ventured north to Nago City's Cherry Blossom festival. This event was added to our Okinawa "must do" list last year but when we first attempted to find the park we failed and ended up doing something else. We visited a dam I think. This year I was determined to find better directions and make it to the festival location. TA-DA! We found it at Nago Castle City Park. One would think that, just judging by the name alone, the park would be awesome. Well, sadly it wasn't that great. Don't get me wrong, the walk up the mountain was nice but there was very little outside panoramic views to see. There were a few shrines and a neat bridge but no playground equipment or any real place for a child to run around and play. As to not waste the 450Y it cost on the expressway I was determined to see all we could. We trekked up the stairs then up the mountain. There were hardly any trees in bloom but the weather was great and the views were nice. After the hill-acious climb up we sat for a bit, fed Terra a snack, and then turned to retrace our steps. The thought of lunch at the bottom of the stairs kept us going. One thing that I have just learned to accept with Japanese festival food, its terrible. Most of it is overcooked and overcooked about 20 mins before you order it. However, I found a stand that sold chicken and cheese as well as beef empanadas. I bought one of each and Terra picked out a fried delight but after biting into it she found it was not to her liking. Paul saved the day with chicken yakitori. After eating lunch and walking around for a bit with a very ill-behaved 3.5 year old, we called it quits. At least we got a nice walk out of it. Needless to say I don't think next year we will return. Oh, and I got peed on by that little green bird.

Orange Lollipop

   Long Weekend:

      Since Paul and I have decided to delete our Facebook accounts we thought it only fair to revive our blog. We do like telling family and friends about our happenings so this made sense. 

      We don't have too much going on lately. Terra is really enjoying going to "school." She has a friend named Nina. We are also going to a birthday party this weekend, I'm really hoping she'll have a good time.

      Paul's CCNA Security class is officially over, he'll take the final exam on Wednesday. *fingers crossed* After two weeks of hellacious stress and six months since our last treatment, we are going to indulge at a Spa on Tuesday. Looking forward to that!

     We have recently started watching a BBC show called Wartime Farm. It is included in a series of documentaries where a few historians and "-oligists" revive and live for one agricultural year at a English country side farm. This installation focuses on farm life for English farmers during WWII.  We've seen three previous seasons and each one makes me want to move to the English country side. Paul continues to shoot my dreams down but maybe my persistence will pay off. 

     So that's about all for now, stay tuned for updates. Peace and love to you all!