Eisa Festival 2011

The main reason for this post is to show you Erin's prize that she won throwing darts at ballons.

Meet Mike. We wanted to call him Ike, but we alrady had one of those. But they both sound identical, so we thought Mike and Ike would be a nice duo.

Obon 2011

In case you forgot, this annual celebration lasts 3 days, and welcomes back the ancestors to the island. The Eisa dancers and Taiko drummers parade around the streets for 3 nights from about 8:00 pm to 2:00 am. They came past our house about 11:30 pm this year. So we went out to help them welcome.

Taking a break...

While they took a break, I filled in on the sanshin, the 3-stringed instrument. How hard could 3 strings be, honestly? I don't think I impressed...

Bri filled in for the clown while he was on break. She was most impressive.

Our little neighbor boy Hiroya, with the Eisa clown.

Tell me if this procession wouldn't get you out of bed if it came by your house at midnight...

Birthdays...

1 week...


2 weeks...


3 weeks...


1 month... Big Dip Day!!


2 months...


3 months...

July 20, 2011- I shall call him... Mini-Me

The night of July 19, 2011, around 10 PM, Holly's water broke. So we executed Operation: Little Man and called the designated babysitter, Rachel, daughter of my secretary at work, to double-time it over to our house to stay with Erin and Brianna, who by this time were overcome with joy and excitement- due to babysitting by Rachel, and being hours away from being big sisters. We were at the US Naval Hospital in less than an hour from breakage. Holly's all smiles here, but wait 'til you see here a couple hours from now...

I'm all smiles too, on the outside, but inside I'm dreading what lies in store for me... I've got a long night ahead. The thought of all that labor weighs heavy on my mind...

The little one finally arrives after several hours, Isaac Brian Bailey entering mortal existence at 0443 JST, weighing in at 8.5 lbs. Picture censored for the sensitive viewers at home.

And I am spent!

Oh, alright, Holly did a bit of work too. Here she is looking lovely, but exhausted, and happy. Thank you Holly for bringing us our son! He does look a little Japanese, doesn't he?

Fortunatley, he decided to be born on the 20th, which happens to be "The Big Dip" day of every month, where you get a double scoop for the single price at Big Dip. Oh yeah! We will be celebrating monthly.

Here's Erin, the big sister.

Here's Brianna, the little big sister.

Silence of the Lambs?

Erin likes the butterflies at our house...

Fishing

A bunch of people from work chartered a fishing boat. We were after tuna and mahi-mahi. There were 7 of us and we brought back about 70 fish. So it was a pretty good trip. I only puked once...

Look at this cute tiny flying fish that flew into our boat.

Tuna are very fun to catch. Wow can they fight. And they're not bad kissers either.

I'm not sure what these are, but they were pretty tasty. Looks like I didn't bring enough sunscreen.

Here's the hauls for the day. A couple of mahi-mahi, and a bunch of tuna and bonito. Not a bad day of fishing.

Okuma Resort and Hiji Falls

Up north about 1.5 hours from where we live is a little place called Okuma, aka paradise. Well, maybe that's exaggerating, but it's pretty good. It's an Air Force resort. This is our first trip of many to there, so there will probably be some more posts coming up...

Our 5-star accomodations...


This trip was early in the year so we didn't spend much time on the beach or in the water. But we took a little hike up to Hiji Falls. Very beautiful with a nice waterfall at the end.



Some of the local wildlife along the way...


This guy brought new meaning to the name "daddy long legs". This is a close cousin, goes by the name of daddy-ridiculously-long legs.

Dragon Boat Race Festival 2011

aka Naha Haarii... As legend goes, this tradition dates back a ways to when groups of fishermen raced against each other in a ritual intended to ensure a good catch during the fishing season. Now they just do it for bragging rights I guess, and as an excuse to have a festival. It's held annually at the beginning of May. The boats are pretty neat and now a days the Americans have several teams that enter the race.


Holly and the kids + Courtney Kendrick enjoying some of the local fare...

Brianna enjoying some of the local entertainment...

Erin as well...

And what dragon boat festival would be complete with out the three little pigs show?

Long time, no blog...

Well, after a long hiatus, I decided I'd better get back to blogging. A lot has happened since the last blog. It's been about 10 months. I'm sleeping less these day due to a tiny ~16 lb. bundle of screaming, puking joy, but hopefully I can climb back into the habit of posting regularly. The hard part is going to be catching up, but hopefully after that, it won't be to hard to stay on top of it. So, without further adieu, here goes...