Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Sunshine and rain, joy and pain...life at Misawa continues!

We continue to stay busy both at work and on the family front.  Lots of things going on since our last update...we last finished with our night at the AF Ball.  Early that afternoon it had started raining, well that rain continued for the next 6 days...almost non-stop.  Typhoon Roke decided to pay a visit to the Misawa area.  The storm was enormous and covered most of Japan for an extended period.  The "eye" of the storm passed through our area on Thursday night, and the winds were down to about 40 mph by the time it got to us, so we made it through fairly unscathed.  The picture below is a satellite photo of the storm:



Also on Thursday the 22nd, we celebrated the life of Big 'T'.  It's hard to believe that it has been two years since Megan's Dad Terry passed away...we talk about him and miss him every day.  So we celebrated his memory as a family with champagne and Peanut M&Ms after dinner...we didn't let the girls have champagne just yet, but they did partake in the M&Ms.  Then we woke up the next morning and had some more champagne while on the phone with Megan's family who were at the cemetery doing the same.

Appropriate picture considering the big game this week

A very busy weekend ensued...on Friday night Jeff and the 35th Comm Squadron had town patrol.  This is a responsibility rotated among all the squadrons...the commander and a few members of the squadron start at 11 pm by walking around the dorms to make sure all is in order (never know what you might find).  Then at 1 a.m. the town patrol accompanies Security Forces off base to walk through the local bars...fortunately this Friday night was quiet.  On Saturday Riley had a homecoming dance.  Riley and her friend Maddy went out to dinner with Megan and Maddy's mom Tara.  Then the girls went to the dance.  They were home by 8:30 or so because "it was boring."  Jeff on the other hand went to Oktoberfest at the club which was not so boring.  After Oktoberfest, and since Riley was home to babysit, Jeff and Megan went downtown with a couple friends.  Our first stop of course was an Irish pub.  The bartender had some serious skills; he poured a Guiness with a shamrock on top formed in the foam.  The pictures below are of homecoming and our night out in Misawa:

Riley and Maddy

Headed to homecoming 2011 at Edgren High School
Homecoming dinner location.


You cook your own food right at the table...very common.

Isn't every day?


This place is all about making sure you have a plan!

Babies are not allowed to smoke or you are not allowed to smoke babies?  Still trying to figure this sign out.

How to ask for a Guiness in Japanese.  One phrase that you should know in many languages. 

There is a shamrock in there if you look closely.

We started Sunday morning by volunteering to man a water station for the base perimeter run.  The Comm Rockers sponsored all the water stations, so we showed up early and passed out water to the 100+ runners on the 8.5 mile run...besides having to wake everyone up early it was a fun event. 

So have you ever been sledding on a sunny, warm, and snowless day?  Neither had we until Sunday.  Some friends told us about a hill in Misawa's Citizen Forestry Park that you can sled down sans snow.  The hill is very steep and is covered in what can only be described as thick plastic bristles...similar to the material used for weed eater line.  So we showed up with our sleds and had a blast.  It took a little convincing to get Delaney to go down, but after one try she didn't want to leave.  We had a couple of minor accidents, but overall it was lots of fun.

Comm Rockers getting ready to pass out water.

The 35 CS Deputy Commander's wife (Tiffany) finished all 8.5 miles pushing a stroller.

The sledding hill at Citizen Park...the picture does not do it justice, it is about an 8% grade.

I don't want to grow up.


Megan's first and only ride...this run ended with a little crash at the end.

Delaney after a lot of convincing.


This dragonfly liked Delaney's brightly colored sweatshirt.

This lake was also located at the park, as well as a big campground.


Finally, the week ended with joy for some of the Phillips-5 and pain for the others as the Cowboys managed to defeat the Redskins without even scoring a touchdown.  Enough said, that is all for this week...hope to hear from all of you soon.

MVP!

1 comment:

  1. I love it!!! You guys are totally making that place home! thanks for the update. Hope things are going well. Sure miss you. I am heading to VA on the 10th of Oct. Denyse and Marie are coming to visit too:)

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