We have a crawler

Life is soooo much easier with Kyle around to pitch in. I can't say it enough, we love having him home. This week we have been "developing" a lot. Abby is talking more and more and will randomly just say words that we had no idea she knew! We give her tasks to do, such as throw stuff away, grab a specific book, shut the door, etc. and for the most part she listens and obeys. I am so relieved that she is talking more and more. Maybe she won't need speech therapy after all.

Connor also decided to start crawling this week! Every day he gets faster and faster, making it harder and harder for me to keep up with him. He is so much happier now that he can move and has more freedom. Life with 2 moving kids is quite the adventure. Kyle and I have been so tired chasing them around that we usually pass out by 8:00 at night. Yes, it is hard for me to say it but we are getting old and these kids wipe us out! I find myself day dreaming of the day both Connor and Abby are in school. What am I going to do with myself all day?!

We did a lot of beach exploring this week as well. We checked our Veedol beach with some friends. The day we went was overcast but still warm. The water was freezing but that didn't stop the kids from playing in it.  Abby loved chasing the waves and Connor loved eating the sand. Both kids passed out in the car on the way home, so I will take that as a sign that they had fun.

Yes, I have started another project. Now I am working on a heart quilt while trying to finish up the fox quilt I have been making. I don't get much time to work on my projects, but the little time I do get to "tinker" around helps me unwind after a long exhausting day. Sometimes it is nice to do something I enjoy, or have an adult interest/activity to work on. Most of my day is centered around kids, Minnie Mouse, Mac and cheese and play doh. Let's just say it's a much needed break at the end of my day.

We were going to go cherry picking down in Nambu, but decided to stay a little more local since we will be leaving for Tokyo in about a week and still have a list of stuff that needs to get done first. So we went to the town just south of us, Hachinohe. First stop was the seagull shrine. Kyle was not to excited to go to this shrine cause all he kept obsessing over were the dirty birds and them pooping on him. Luckily when we got there they had umbrellas for us to use so Kyle's fear wouldn't come true. 

It is a fun shrine right on the coast and for some reason hundreds of seagulls gather there. Abby was terrified of the birds at first but eventually warmed up to them. Same with Kyle. I saw his pouty face break a couple times and let out a smile when he saw how much fun Abby and Connor were having. My family... They are good sports. I drag them along to do some crazy stuff, and they usually grin and bear it. My motto is "when in Japan..." I just want to go see, and do as much as possible while we are here and create as many memories as possible. As cool as I thought the seagull shrine was I promised Kyle we didn't have to go back again while we are here in Japan. 

On to our next stop, sand dollar beach. Unfortunately we went too late in the day that all the shells that were left were the broken ones. But we didn't let that rain on our parade. The kids played on the beach again, and it turned out to be a fun afternoon. We ended our fun day with some ice cream cones, and drove back home. 

We finally got a second car this week as well. It has been tricky lately with us dropping Kyle off at work because he works on the flight line which has strict security. Since I don't work on the flight line I am technically not allowed on unless officially being escorted by someone who does. Basically we were hoping to only have one car here in Japan but with the tight security rules on base it was making it almost impossible. I think we are all happy with the freedom of having 2 cars brings.