Team Juloa: Seattle Oki Reunion 2012

It's not often you find friends who can just pick up where they left off. Even with the span of days, months, even years, these friends can still laugh, cry, and go along the journey of life with you. We often think of our Okinawa friends as family and this weekend, some of our "family" came together to spend time together in beautiful Seattle. There were four families total: the Scherdens, Grubbs, Andrews, and us. For some, it had been years since seeing each other. Children have grown, new children have been born, and we've all gotten a little older, but being back together again was like bringing the gang back together as if we hadn't even left Okinawa.

Thanks to Emily, who found this gem, we stayed in a rental house in the University District of Seattle. It was perfect for our group of four families. It was at the end of a dead end street and next to a walking trail that connected to a local park. Driving to downtown was easy and we all seemed to have plenty of space. It was ideal and look at how cute the house was (this picture was from the rental listing since I forgot to take a photo of it when I was there - whoops!):

Our family was the last to arrive late Tuesday night. All the kids were already running around the property and we introduced everyone to Ruby. She wasn't the only baby there. The Andrews welcomed a little girl, Lily, to their family on Valentine's day, so Ruby had a baby buddy throughout the trip. The two babies were really cute together and Lily kept reminding me of Ruby at that age.

Me holding Lily (just turned 5 months) and MaryAnn holding Ruby (just about 8 months) on our first night. The two girls are almost the same size!

For our first full day, we decided to do some sightseeing in Seattle. The gang headed to the Space Needle first. We arrived a little later, since Ruby was still taking her morning nap, and didn't make it up to the top but scouted out the area instead.

Once we all met up at the bottom, we grabbed lunch and then walked to Pike Place Market. The ladies had to get the obligatory market group shot. Don't we look like a happy bunch?

The girls, from left to right: Emily, MaryAnn, me, and Tritia

Although crowded, the market proved to be a great stop. We did stop at watch the fish throwers, which is always entertaining. At one point, one of the fish stand workers asked the crowd if there were any questions and Jackson, Emily's son piped in with, "how do you catch the fish?" The worker was super nice and pulled Jackson out of the crowd to give him a lesson on fish catching. It was pretty cute and Jackson was able to catch one of the famous Seattle fish. Yay, Jackson!

Jackson talking to the fish stand worker.

Practice makes perfect!

And catch!

The kids put money in the bronze pig (Rachel the Pig) at the entrance to Pike Place Market, which funds various social services.

We sampled various food items from the food stands and purchased a bouquet to bring back to our house. Sophia helped pick it out.

And we just HAD to go get some coffee from the very first Starbucks.

We were just a little excited....can you tell?

Then, we hit the park.

The kids: Jackson, Sophia, Grace, Jayce, and Kai

Me and Ruby (love those teeth on her little smile!)

Lily and Ruby sharing toys

After that, we trekked back to the cars by riding the Seattle monorail, which is pretty small (only two stops). We had to take a couple of trips in order to get everyone to the house with only three cars, so Emily, Tritia, and I stayed behind and sampled some local beer before heading back home. Ruby was there too, but she decided to take a little snooze.

That evening, we hung out at the house, eating grilled food, applying temporary tattoos and playing games.

The next day was our "local" day. There was a park pretty close to the house, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and hang out there for the day. There was a playground for the little kids...

And lots of open space for the "big kids" to throw around the disc (back in Oki they all played Ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoons and played a few tournaments on the island). We brought the disc that was sent to Noa, for his birthday, from his Oki buddies while he was deployed to Kuwait years ago.

Tritia had picked up matching outfits for the kids so that we could get some nice photos of all the kids together. Although the outfits looked great, it was quite an ordeal trying to round up a bunch of kids all under the age of 9. We were able to wrangle them together, although not everyone was happy about it. Poor Jayce didn't want anything to do with the kids photo.

We were, however, able to get a great group photo. This is my favorite photo of the entire trip.

You may have spotted a new family in the bunch. Angie, who used to teach and live in Okinawa, knew everyone in the group (except us; we met her for the first time this trip, even though she now lives in WA!) and joined us for the day. She had her two beautiful children with her and she has one on the way!

After photos, we pulled out the bubbles. The kids competed on making the biggest bubble, the most bubbles, and popping the most (Jayce, who is two, won this category hands down. He is now dubbed, "the bubble slayer").

This was Ruby's first time with bubbles and I think she is still not sure what they are.

That night, we had a Mexican feast and an impromptu dance party in the living room.

After the kids went to bed, the adults stayed up to play card games and visit. It was the perfect way to end the night.

Yesterday was our last day at the house and it mostly involved packing things up and getting out on time. The Andrews had to leave on an early morning flight and the rest of us were headed back over to the other side of Puget Sound. We stopped at Red Mill Burgers for lunch (yum!) and then rode the ferry home.

The Scherdens spent a night at our place. Grace just adored the dogs and wanted to be with them 24/7. She was finally able to get them to stay still when she coaxed them onto the chair with her.