Lots of Pics!

I have lots and lots of pictures I've taken since I got my new camera!! So I put them in several collages! Enjoy!! 

This last Saturday Logan's class had a little get together so we went and hung out with them for a while. We played this ladder game (forgot what it's called) and it was me and Morgan against Logan and Mike. And guess who won the game on the last throw?!! MEEEEE!!! (In the bottom right is a pic of the winners!)

After that, we met up with Scott (Logan's bro-in-law). We went out to eat for the first time at a place called Zero One and it is probably the best place we have eaten at here in San Angelo. Then we went fishing! This is like the fifth time we have gone and the first time anyone has caught anything - so we know it is possible! Scott caught a little Blue Gill. Poor Logan still has only caught a branch. (I think Logan's face when he opened up the box of worms was great!)

We found a new location hoping to have better luck around dusk. I didn't get a pic of it, but we saw a musk rat swim by! I thought it was a beaver it was so big! One thing I think is amazing about my camera is being able to adjust all the settings. Below, the bottom right pic is what it looked like at the time with a flash and the top right pic was taken right before when it was just as dark. The only thing I changed was the shutter speed and ISO to take in more light and voila! You can see without the flash!! (Look at that face on Logan! lol! I caught you looking!)

Poor Logan is the only person I have to take pictures of most of the time. The other night he was watching some funny YouTube videos while I got some cute pics. I love it when he starts laughing really hard! (You know Logan really loves me when he lets me take pics like this.)

 So here is another fun camera trick! Writing with a flash light! It takes a little practice but here are some of the good ones! The shutter was open for ten seconds and while it was on the tripod, I ran in front to write out the words. Sorry if I didn't get your name in... my flashlight died.

 Okay! Here is the last batch of random pictures! National Doughnut Day is on the first Friday of June each year so I got a little box and had to wait ALL day for Logan to get home and then we ate almost all of them!! On Monday, my new shoes came! I love them! They are Merrill barefoot shoes. They are made for you to be able to run and hike in and then you can jump right into the water with them on! They are going to be perfect for walking over sharp lava flows and then jumping into the ocean to snorkel when we are in Okinawa! The pictures of me are just me playing around with my camera.

Today, I decided to make bread! I don't think I'll be able to take our food storage with us so I'm trying to use some of it up now! Twenty cups of flour later, I have 5 loaves of bread! All the honey wheat is done (two in the dutch oven like above and two in bread pans for sandwich bread) but the sour dough won't be ready until tomorrow morning. I can't wait!

New Camera!!!!

I got my new camera today and LOVE it!!! It is so fun taking pictures with! I'm still learning all the buttons and stuff but here are some of my first shots! Which ones are your favorite?

Best Brownies I've EVER made from scratch!!!

These are actually the really little ants zoomed up-close.

Our apt (we are the bottom right).

Bug House

I feel like there are a billion bugs always in my house!!! Last night I walked around the living room and swept up over 16 rollie pollies that were just walking all over - not to mention all the dead ones that are always behind my couch. Today I found a HUGE dead spider and named it Aragog. Logan gave its eulogy ("Farewell, Aragog, king of arachnids...").

Also last night I saw something above the front door. I didn't remember there being a spot there so I asked Logan to check it out. He was like "I bet it's a moth...oh wait! Anna come check this out!!"

So when I got up closer I could see that it was actually a baby gecko!!!

 He was so cute! He must have come in through the front door with one of us. I looked it up and he is called a house gecko. Makes sense to me considering that's when we found him!

 I got out a jar and put some of the mesh cabinet liner under the jar ring so he could have air.

He was fun to look at and watch crawl up the sides. They have the most amazing toes! Then, before bed, Logan said I had to let him go so we took him to a nice place outside in the bushes and said good bye.

Oh, yeah. We had another animal encounter last Sunday on our way to church. Logan stopped to save a turtle in the middle of the road that was over a foot long! The turtle thanked him by peeing all over his leg! lol.

Weekend Date

I've been kinda wanting to go get a sonic shake for a few months and every time we passed one we weren't hungry or didn't have time. Finally, this last Friday when Logan got home from work, he needed to fill up the car with gas so at like 12:30 at night we finally got some! 

It wasn't Braums, but it was good one time fix.

On Saturday, Logan came with me to do some grocery shopping and then we went fishing! It is one of his favorite things to do here even though we have never caught anything. Well.. that's not quite true....

We sure caught a big branch this last time we went! It struggled and fought us but we won out in the end!

I love this pic!

Kadena Research!

Since we got our assignment to Okinawa, Japan (Kadena AFB) I haven't been able to stop researching! I have so many questions! If you want to know more about it too, then read on! This is a summery so far with what I know and where I found the info - mostly personal notes but some good info.

• http://www.kadena.af.mil/newcomersinformation/index.asp - This is the Kadena AFB website that has lots of info on what to expect when moving there. 
• https://www.usps.com/ship/apo-fpo-guidelines.htm - When we get there we will get a mail box like a PO Box but for the military. This link will explain how to mail us! 
• http://okinawahai.com/ - This has been the best site so far giving real experience of military personnel moving to Okinawa! I could read this day and night! 
• http://www.toriimwr.com/ - This is where I plan on living everyday when we move! 

So far, we have learned that we cannot bring our car or washer/dryer and will have to figure out what we want to do with them. All accompanied personnel has to live on base unless there is no room, then housing helps find you a place in another military housing unit or off-base. We learned that Logan will have a 3 week training in Florida before going to Japan - still don't know if I can come or when. I know that I will have phone and internet capabilities. I learned that there is a military beach called Torii Beach and it is fantastic! There are three LDS military branches. 

Other things I'm still figuring out are: what company to use for cell phone service (SoftBank, AU, Docomo) and how much it is going to cost to call the States; what kind of cars are available and what kind do we want to buy while we are there; We have never done a military move. What do I need to get ready, what should we move (or what can we move) and how long it will take to get our stuff. 

I'm sure there are more questions that I don't even know I need to ask yet but I feel good knowing that we still have time to figure them out. 

Houston Trip

After finding out where we are moving on Wednesday (chant* Kadena! Kadena!), we got to finish off the week by going to Houston for the long Memorial Day weekend. We stopped at Chipotle's in Austin on our way through and then went to the temple on our first day in Houston. 

It was a beautiful day and we took some pictures while we waited for the next session to start.

The Houston Temple is set up just like the Albuquerque temple inside. It was wonderful starting our trip off with it. It had been a while and I think Logan and me both thought this was one of our favorite parts of our trip!

After the temple we checked into our hotel and grabbed some dinner before going to see Iron Man 3 in 3D. Don't we look cool!

I took this picture the next morning while Logan was eating breakfast and waiting for me to get ready.

Saturday we saw Star Trec and shopped at the outlet mall! Logan was really great the whole time we were shopping! I know it is not his favorite thing but he followed me around the whole time and was nice enough to let me buy some new clothes! (I will miss my Banana Republic when we are in Okinawa).

For dinner we ate at Rudy's because it is supposed to be real Texas bbq. It was good. My favorite part is that we took the peach cobbler we got for dessert and drove down to Galveston and ate them as we walked on the beach. From where we were, you could see Pleasure Pier and all its rides lit up.

Sunday was beach day! I hate to spend too much money when we are on vacation so we decided that after going to church we would play on the beach for free. I sprayed us both down with spf 100 and we drove out to Galveston. I new it would be busy because it was a holiday weekend but it was crazy getting there. Unfortunately, we spent most of the trip sitting in the car but once we got there it was a lot of fun!

We found a less crowded beach further down the cost and had a lot of fun playing in the waves and eating the picnic we brought. The water was really warm even if it was not very clear (It made me excited for when we can go to the beach any time when we are in Okinawa!). 

We had to drive back on Monday but before we left, we hit up a place called Niko Niko's. It is a Greek restaurant in the middle of down town Houston. We heard that they had Donor Kabobs (like Europe) and we weren't disappointed! They were pretty much the same and tasted so good! It was the favorite thing I ate on the whole trip!

After lunch, we went to Ikea and got a guest bed for all the company we are going to get while living in Japan and had a safe and uneventful drive home.

Logan's Job Drop

It was a long wait to get to Logan's Job Drop night but we made it! Logan has been working so hard in the program and it has really shown. I don't mean to brag or anything (actually I do) but right now he is second in his class and that is really good considering the people in his class and is probably the only reason we got our number one choice!  

The way a Job drop goes, is that they make all of the classes wait in a different room and then call one in at a time to tell them what they got. They have the civilians and Guard decide how and present them (they already know where they will go after this unlike us). The worst part was that we were the last class and had to wait over an hour (you can see how this was making Logan feel above). Finally, it was our turn.

The way our class found out was that they put together a slide show with funny facts about where they were going and then let them guess. Here is a video of Logan's. I love his fist pump at the end every time! (It's not Hawaii).

It is hard to see his slides on the video so here is what we saw. I giggle every time I see Logan's face in a kimono.  

We are so happy and excited to move to Okinawa Japan! It is like a dream come true for me and I am so glad that Logan will be doing a job that he wants to do and I'm sure he will enjoy! We have learned that there is a lot to learn about moving overseas (more on that coming in another post soon) but we are up to the challenge!

I love this boy! 

Here is a pic of Logan's Class:

Class 130226B