Strummin' & Singin'

July 2005

The kids all wanted guitars one year...so Christmas arrived and guitars were found under the tree.  This is one of my favorite pictures of Ryan with his guitar.  It was summer 2005 on Okinawa at our Kishaba House.  He was just walking around after church one afternoon strummin' his own tune and singin' his own song....

Contemplating

While living on the itty bitty island of Okinawa, we were able to go to Peace Prayer Park on several occassions.  It is a beautiful park that tells the tragic story of what happened on this Pebble In The Pacific during the horrifying years of World War 2.  The park also depicts how the Okinawan's and the Americans rebuilt this Tropical Oasis and have joined together in peace and forgivness.  There is a wall, well several walls, in fact rows and rows of walls, simular to our Viet Nam Wall, listing all the names of those lost during the Battle of Okinawa.  I love this picture of Ty, it was a VERY HOT, HUMID day and we had just looked at all the names engraved on the walls.  We were with a couple other families and i was talking to my friends when i glanced over to check on the whereabouts of my children, there was Ty, sitting in the grass leaning against one of the walls.....he had asked a billion questions throughout the day and i think this last part with all the names had just kind of overwhelmed him in the moment.  He kept asking if each name meant that person died in the battle.  He has always been my sensative child and by the end of the walls, he just needed to sit a part from everyone and process all of it in his 5 year old mind.

Ty taking a moment to think it all over....

Ty earlier in the day before we got to the walls

HOURS To Do......Seconds To Destroy!

While living on the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Ca. the entire neighborhood had worked for HOURS on Jorden's latest puzzle.  We had it in the garage and everyone just randomly worked on it for several weeks.....the sand....the blue....the shadow.....the house.....sooo much of it looked the exact same!  We were nearing the end!  I took a picture of Ed putting in the last piece! We were all excited at finishing it and talked about glueing it and framing it to hang in Jorden's room or the garage.....well.....while we were out in the front yard talking and doing whatever, Thing One and Thing Two got busy!  What had taken weeks to finish was one obliterated, sobbery mess in what seemed no time flat! Yes, there was drool on many of the puzzle pieces as we tried to gather them all together.  Those two little rascals had not only detroyed it but had thrown the itty bitty pieces EVERYWHERE!!!!  I think they even ate some pieces as there were some missing when we eventually put it back together again in a different military house, on a different military base, in a different country.....Okinawa 

The Finished Project

Ed putting in the last piece!

Thing One & Thing Two....GUILTY!!!

Teach Me Jorden, PLEASE!!!

While living on the little island of Okinaqa Ryan became quite aware of his big brothers skaeboarding abilities.  Ryan had wanted Big Brother Jorden to teach him how to skateboard from the time he saw Jorden jump the stairs.  He loves to watch how fast Jorden goes and how high he gets in the air!  He thinks the wipe outs are pretty cool too!  He wanted Jorden to show him how to jump in the air and flip his skateboard and land back on it.....Jorden did his best....

Jorden watching Ryan

Ryan Jumping!

Ryan thinking he did it!