Still Alive and Writing

Once again, I feel the need to apologize for my tardiness in writing. Well, I suppose tardiness would imply that I have actually written, so perhaps I need to be apologizing for the absence of my writing, rather than just the tardiness of it. Although I am writing now.... I had a concerned friend e-mail me wanting to make sure that we were alright, since she hadn't seen anything on the blog in so long. So, I thank you for your concern. We are all fine, and have been back in Japan now for 2 weeks, after a very long time away from home. As it would be nearly impossible for me to relate all of the details of our trip (by impossible, I mean that it would at least take more time than I am willing to spend at this computer at the moment), I will simply give a summary of our travels, and post a few pictures (which is really what you want to see anyways, I'm sure).

I believe that the last time I wrote, Kaiya and I were still in Okinawa with Hyatt. Since then, Kaiya and I flew on a military flight with our friends Ellie and Sadie, across the ocean to Whidbey Island (via Atsugi and Alaska), spent 3.5 weeks in Langley, Canada with my family (with a few days down in Seattle with Hyatt's family and a couple of days in Kamloops with Lisa and Jeremy in that time) followed up by 2.5 weeks in Hawaii (a week on Kauai with my parents and a week and a half on Oahu with the Salvadors), and completed with a couple of days in Yokota, Japan, for good measure. Hyatt was able to meet up with us in Hawaii, and we had a fun flight back from Hawaii to Yokota on a big miliary plane where we sat in jump seats along the side of the plane and were able to take naps on the floor.

The update on Kaiya is that she turned 4 months on Sept.22, and on her birthday she rolled over from her tummy to her back! She followed up that amazing feat with a belly laugh the very next day, and now we are just working on getting her to crawl:) She almost rolled over from her back to her tummy, but she did not move her arm out of the way, so it does not count yet. Kaiya is reaching for things like crazy, and loves her playtime mat that Lori and Virgil got for her when we were in Hawaii. She's also a big fan of her baby bjorn carrier now that she can face outwards and watch everything going on around her. The comment we hear about her most often (besides that she has long eyelashes that usually only boys get) is that hse is very alert. As long as she's in a place where she can see what is going on, she's a pretty happy little girl! We got her one of those baby einstein play centers the other day, and were amused to find out that she is not tall enough to touch the bottom of it yet, so her legs just hang in space... yet she did figure out how to spin herself around in it using her hands instead. What can I say? She's a genius:)

Also new is that Hyatt is now 29 years old! For his birthday we had a campfire by the lake, with a little frisbee tossing, followed up by hot dogs and s'mores galore, and some guitar playing by Hyatt and Chris. As you can tell by the pictures, it was a little cold.

Now for some pictures...