Last Sunday after church we headed down to Yokosuka to say bye to Derrick before he left for the ship again for almost 2 months. I was so prepared with lunch, dinner and breakfast foods so I would not have to buy anything especially on Sunday. I figured things that are cold would not have to stay out too long, plus we got a hotel room on base that I could just put the stuff in the fridge. Well my plans did not work out the way I was hoping they would. A lady called the cell phone while I was at church (luckily it was not during sacrament meeting) and asked if I would drive her down so she could drive another car back up. When the guys left there were not enough buses so people had to drive their cars down. I told her I would drive her, which is at least a 20 min drive back depending on traffic. It is usually longer than that to get home, luckily we found a shortcut that I saw other people from church taking home. It sure is nice, but you have to be careful because it is a 2 way road but only 1 car can fit down it. Luckily the japanese people are use to it and will stop and wait for you to back up with no honking or getting upset. by the time I got back to base I had to wait for that lady, then wait for another lady to drive her car back. When we were almost to the Yokosuka the lady with me got a phone call from her husband telling her it will be at least a few more hours and they were still waiting for the trucks to get there. Here it was almost 2 and we had a few more hours to go. The other ladies had no problem with it because they just went shopping, but since it was sunday I didn't and decided to take Cole to look at the water. That was fun and he really enjoyed it. while we were walking by the water I heard a splash. I looked up and saw more people walking and I thought they threw something in the water but I did not see anything. I kept looking out and I saw a jumping fish. It would swim under water for about 15 feet then jump about 10 feet. That was kind of cool.
I finally got a call from Derrick saying he was done. By this time it was around 5. He came off the ship wearing a jacket and it was pretty warm. Come to find out he was drenched because of sweat and he was worried that they would not let him off because his shirt was a different color.  We would have had enchillidas for dinner but I could not check into the hotel room till 3 because it was not clean so I had the food sitting out in the sun since 8:30 that morning and did not want to risk getting sick. I also had eggs for lunch or breakfast. I would have put it in a cooler but the one we did have was used for a squadron picnic and it got lost. We have no idea where it is now.
It was fun to spend that extra time with him before he had to go. I had to get out of bed and get Cole out so I could bring Derrick to the ship. I don't like that part because it is like saying the final goodbye. I felt bad for Derrick because he was already sore from carrying everyone elses stuff he also had to take his 2 huge bags when I dropped him off.
I like to stay there to see the ship leave so I would keep watching out our window but never saw anything. I decided to get ready for the day and while I was in the shower I heard a little bang noise. I had no idea what it was. I figured it was probably Cole doing something but he was not crying so I figured he was ok. A few minutes later he came over to the bathroom and said, "mmm good" I looked at his face and saw white stuff on it. My first thought was oh, great he got the enchillidas open that were left out all day long. I hope he does not get sick. He came back again and said, "so good." I had no idea what he ate. When I got out of the shower I looked over at the table and he had taken all 4 eggs we had (that I was not sure if they were good), cracked them open on the table and was eating raw eggs. He even used a fork to crack the eggs open, luckily he did not see the knives that were pretty close to the forks. All I could do was laugh at him because of his reaction then see what was so good.
I had to check out of our hotel room around noon and as I drove pass the birthing where the ship is, I noticed it was still there. It is usually gone by 9 or so in the morning, so I was a little confused. I did not want to go home so I stayed a few more hours, looked around in the stores since their's are so much bigger than ours, got gas and windshield wipers. I drove by again and it still had not left. I did see 2 destroyers go out then come back in and that really messed me up. I ended up talking to a lady and said they were not sure if they were going to pullout or not because of a typhoon coming our way. Derrick ended up calling me and let me know they were waiting to hear if they were going to get off for a few more hours, but he was not sure if he would beable to get off because he was on duty. when he is on duty he has to stay on the ship. A few minutes later he called back and said he could not get off at all. Not fun for him and hard for me. I was in the same place practically, everyone else was getting off but not him. That was hard, but at the same time I think it was a blessing because I would have travelled home in the dark, with it pouring rain.
It was nice to be together for that short time. It is always hard to say bye to him but this time it was easier because I knew this was the last deployment here in Japan, so I have been very excited about that. Now the time while he is gone just needs to fly by.

Finally some pictures from Singapore. It was a great opportunity to be able to have our whole family visit another country that we do not live in. Sentosa Island is the southern most point of continental Asia.

The other day I decided to make some rice krispies because we had all the stuff for it, which does not happen very often. I got our marshmellows and started the slow process of melting them. I kept waiting and waiting and they would not melt. After about 5 min I thought something must be wrong with the marshmellows. They were soft and we had used them before to make rice krispies so I could not figure it out. One thing I could think of why they would turn out the way they did was because the marshmellows were so old. They were only from April. They never went hard so I figured it would be ok. I also had a quick idea of it being due to the humidity but I have made rice krispies before and never had this problem. I also thought it could have been the name of the marshmellows. The name of them was "campfire marshmellows." I remember that Derrick and I did use those marshmellows to make rice krispies back in april and they melted fine then. that is why I thought it was how old they were. Needless to say the rice krispies never got made and we had to settle for something else.

EARTHQUAKE and TYPHOON

Tonight I was sitting on the couch just playing with Cole and all of a sudden I heard the sliding door rattle and the floor was kind of shaking. It did not last too long, but a few seconds later the shaking started again. This time it lasted longer and I could see things shaking and moving. It was scary for me and my heart was beating pretty fast. It made me think of what I need to do to be prepared if anything did happen. I remembered I had 2 cases of water but they are in the car. We do have some food but not enough. that is mostly my fault because I have not been to the store since we got back from Singapore a few days ago. We are also on a typhoon watch. It is actually a tropical depression but they are just giving us a warning just in case it is more than that. Oh the adventures with mother nature we have. Oh, I almost forgot to write but the earthquake was south of Tokyo on some island , it measured a 7.1, which I am so glad was there and not where we live.

This first picture is how Cole was before the fireworks started the other 2 are how he was almost the whole time the fireworks were going on. I managed to uncover his head for some of them but he would keep it covered. I would talk about the colors and he would peek out occasionally to look at them, but not very often at all.



















Cole hiding his head

Here are more pictures from Fuji Safari Park with the kangaroos (notice mom petting it). It was so much fun and we got lucky because it did not rain at all (even though it was very cloudy) until we were walking to the car and it started to pour.

I love the picture with the water and the reflection. Cole loved running through the water and was drenched when we left. This was the day after mom and dad got here, it had been raining and we made it out when it had stopped for a little bit.
Dad wanted to make a train cake with Cole, which he loved. Cole took the food coloring and put it right on the cake so when dad put the frosting on it changed the color of the frosting. Cole loved doing it along with mom and dad.
The other pictures with the kangaroos are at Fuji Safari park. You would not believe this, but mom actually touched a kangaroo.