Our First Week

Starting on Monday, Ryan and I had to attend an Area Orientation Brief / Inter-Cultural Relations class. The girls were not able to come to the class with us, so we had to take them to the hourly daycare here on base. I was very nervous about leaving them and of course worried about it all weekend. On Monday morning we set out for the daycare, but we told Kaylee that she was going to go to school like her cousin, Caroline. I was hoping she would be excited about it, which she was at first...until we got there and she realized that we were leaving. She cried every morning after that and it seemed to get worse as the week went on, but she would always say she had fun. She even said she made a friend, MacKenzie. They get to play outside twice a day which she loves to do, and she did some arts and crafts including making her Daddy a Father's Day card. Abby was a little fussy the first two days, but I belive most of this was from lack of sleep and a lack of schedule. By day three, she seemed to really enjoy herself. I would come during my lunch break to nurse her and she would be sitting in the floor playing with toys and smiling at the other babies. I've even notice that at home now she seems more content playing with her toys, instead of wanting to be held 24/7. Other than Kaylee crying when we left her, the daycare thing worked out nicely.
During our orientation class we were told about the different things here on the base and then had two days of lecture about living in Japan. It actually was very interesting and we are so excited about getting off the base and exploring Japan. Ryan's looking forward to bathing nude in the hot springs here in Japan and having a wild monkey massage his back. We'll see if that actually happens...I won't believe it until I see it...and I'm not sure I want to see that! On our last day of orientation we had our driving class and written driving test...which we both passed!! We have the driving portion of the test tomorrow (Monday) morning. I hope we can remember to stay LEFT! I'm excited about getting my Japanese liscense, but I'm not ready to drive off base...they have some crazy rules here and I'm just not that brave yet!


We did find a car in the lemon lot, and in case it's not obvious, the lemon lot is where out-going PCSers sale their "lemon" cars for a good price. We found a Toyota Ipsum, which looks kind of like a small mini-van. I personally think it's really cute! I wasn't expecting to meet a lot of people during our first week, but we have and everyone has been so welcoming. We have meet several families with small children and I'm excited that Kaylee and Abby will have lots of kids their ages to play with.
I even met some girls who like to scrapbook and went to a "Stampin Up" party where we spent the evening talking and making greeting cards.
We've been doing a lot of walking this week, mostly because we can't drive, but the weather has been nice and it gives us something do. This hotel room gets real small very quickly, and Kaylee gets bored fast! We have spent a lot of time at the playgrounds and strolling through the Exchage. We do have a small kitchenette in our room, but I like to think of Chili's as my kitchen this week. There is a chili's right next door to the lodge and we have eaten there several times. There is a hand full of other restuarants on base too. We haven't been off the base yet, but we're looking forward to experiencing the Japanese cuisine very soon...except sushi...don't think I can do that one!