April!

Im back! 

Sorry to sound so repetitive when I say…we have been so busy this month and I know I have been MIA once again. I wanted to wait until we we got through all of our events so I had a lot to update you on. Every weekend in the month of April we had something to do so here we go…

This month I started teaching english to 6 different Japanese students of all different ages. One of the wives in my squadron, and a wonderful new friend of mine, is leaving to move back to the states this summer and has passed along her classes to me. I do private lessons with each of them, mainly in my home for an hour a week. I have loved every second of it and I am so excited to teach them and also learn from them at the same time. 

April 4 we had a baby shower for my sweet friend Liz. She and I met back in Virginia Beach before coming to Japan, and I can honestly say she has made my transition so wonderful. Since she has helped me so much I couldn't wait to throw her a baby shower with 2 other wives in the squadron. It was small and intimate and absolutely perfect. We can't wait to meet baby girl Murphy in May! 

The next day was Easter Sunday, and after watching a favorite pastor online Will and I went to play golf with a few other couples. The weather was beautiful, including the amazing Cherry Blossom trees, and we had the best time even though the golfing wasn't something to brag about. I guess if you can't play well, at least look the part? 

Cherry Blossoms trees on base!

April 11 was a random Thursday that myself along with 3 other wives decided to head to Tokyo. We went to eat lunch at the Max Brenner Chocolate Bar in Omotesando Hills. It sounded pretty harmless and something we could handle no problem, but to say we had too much chocolate in an understatement. Spontaneous girls trips to Tokyo are way too much fun…

Chocolate Milkshake...

3 Chocolate Fondue Set 

Nutella Chocolate Crepe

Chocolate overdose!

April 17 was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Will and I went with 2 other couples to Tokyo's Robot Bar. There is no way I can begin to explain this show. It was the most bizarre and wonderful production with loud noises, tremendous Robots and neon lights flashing everywhere. I took some pictures but I recommend looking it up on the internet and seeing if you can find some videos. These won't do it justice…

Totally normal

The next day we had an event called Zama Crawl. Every year our squadron, along with other squadrons, get together and go house to house in full costume depending on the theme. Its really just another reason to get everyone together and have a good time because…why not? The theme this year was Back to the Future and the costumes were great. Will decided to be crazy Doc Brown from the movie and I was a glow in the dark futuristic woman with my other friends. (Not really sure how we thought of it.) We started at 4pm and didn't get home until midnight…we were exhausted but it was worth it! 

Futuristic Women

April 20 was the start of Badman Week. Every spring we have a week of sporting competition between squadrons on base. It is mainly for the guys but the wives got to play dodgeball against each other. Will played flag football and Softball on Monday, and golf on Wednesday. I played dodgeball on Thursday and sadly both the guys and the wives won nothing. If you know my family you know that we don't take competition lightly so I wasn't too thrilled but we still had a lot of fun. 

Little muddy...

Best Golf attire

I did not buy him that shirt

Lady Diamondbacks!

You done listening to our busy month yet? 

Well theres more…

Wednesday night of badman week we had an Airwing cocktail party. The theme was super heroes and our squadron decided to go in unison as Super Diamondbacks. We all ordered capes and got creative in our own ways. 

The last night of Badman week is the Badman Ball. I am always looking for a reason to dress up so you can imagine how excited I was to go! My husband didn't look half bad himself…

I can't believe another month has come and gone. We have made so many incredible memories already and even though deployment is less then a month away, we will continue to make more! I would be crazy to say I'm not a bit anxious about Will leaving, but he continues to remind me to live in the moment and not think about all of that quite yet. (Way easier said then done!)

We miss you all SO much and love that we can feel connected to you through this blog. I promise to keep you updated as best I can even though there will be a lot of emotions going on here the next few weeks. Pray for us as we approach this huge change in our lives! 

xoxo, 

Caroline and Will 

Guam Trip!

Hafa Adai everyone! 

This means "hello" in Chamorro, the native language of Guam. I have had an amazing few weeks relaxing on that beautiful island and I'm going to try and get through this post without crying since I'm now back in Japan.

Wills squadron traveled to Guam for training purposes. They use an island off of Guam for bomb practice and fly most every day to get ready for deployment. Now if you have never seen or heard of Guam, let me help you find it on a map since it is microscopic. 

Will left for Guam on Thursday March 5 and will be there until the 30th. Now, one of the perks of being a Navy wife is having the option to use a flight called Space A. This stands for space available and means exactly what it sounds like. Its a free flight for wives and families and you basically show up to the terminal on base, in hopes you can grab an extra seat on the plane of your destination. On Monday March 9, myself along with 2 other wives in the squadron got on a flight headed straight to Guam. It was only a 3 hour flight and it was FREE! How does that even happen!?

My friend Katie and son Joshua headed to our plane!

So while we are on the subject of things being free…the squadron all got their own rooms at the Westin in Guam for…drum roll please…

FREE! 

The Westin was so nice and was directly on the beach. For those of you who are really hating Winter right now and do not want to be jealous, I advise you to look away at these next few pictures. 

Guam is commonly called "an ugly Hawaii" and to be honest I get it now. The beaches are amazing but if you venture into parts of town it does surprise you. Luckily if you know me at all you know I was parked on the beach everyday, so that didn't bother me one bit. 

Wills schedule was all over the place, as usual, but for the most part he was on base a lot. This left me on the beach, in the sun, relaxing alone….darn. 

With 2.5 weeks of details and pictures, I'm going to try and condense the trip as best as I can. 

1. We snorkeled in front of the hotel a few times and also a place called Gab Gab Beach 

2. We saw beautiful sunsets on the beach and from a place called Two Lovers Point

3. We celebrated Wills 26th birthday at a restaurant called Roys with incredible food 

4. My friend Morgan and I went on a Sea Turtle tour…amazing!

5. Got to experience some more fun and interesting people watching!

My friend Jess with the Pineapples

Maybe some honeymoon pictures?

Wednesday March 25 I went back to the airport in hopes of catching a plane back to Japan. When we got to the terminal we saw that every other wife had the same idea and most had kids with them. This took up the Space A seats pretty fast, and to be honest I really wasn't going to be too upset getting stuck in Guam for a few extra days. After missing the first flight out we heard that there was another flight leaving later that day. Since I was already packed up and at the airport with no transportation back to the hotel, it only made sense to go ahead and leave. We made it back to Japan later that night. Leaving Guam the temperature was in the 80's and getting back to Japan the temperature was 45…no thank you. 

Overall the trip was amazing and went by far too fast. Never in my life did I ever think I would travel to Guam! The more I miss home or wish I was back in the states, I remind myself of these amazing opportunities that I have been able to experience. Guam was never on my list of places to travel but I am so thankful that I had this chance to see it. Also being able to see Will everyday was a plus being that May is approaching and deployment is coming! 

My first Space A experience went great and this summer some wives and I are going to travel to Okinawa, Japan and Seoul, South Korea for some shopping! Being a military wife can actually be fun sometimes! 

Love you all!

Caroline and Will 

February Wrap Up

February has come and gone. So crazy how time is flying! Will and I have been in Japan for 2 months now which is mind blowing. Heres a February recap and wrap up…as always we have been pretty busy! 

Valentines weekend Will made reservations at an Italian restaurant in the city of Yokohama. He knew I would love this because I will eat Italian any day of the week. I was thrilled to go and to having a night away from fried rice or ramen is always a plus! Yokohama is only about a 30 minute train ride so getting there was super easy. The food was amazing and the view was incredible. From dinner we took a taxi to the Landmark Tower down the street which is 69 floors high. We took the elevator to the observation room at the top and what we saw was amazing. I hate that you can only see it in pictures because they honestly don't do it justice. 

Had to beg Will for this picture

After a wonderful first Valentines day/night in Japan, we decided to keep the fun going by exploring more places that weekend. Sunday afternoon we got on a train and headed to the town of Enoshima. This town is south and is where you will find the beach! We were so excited to see sand and the ocean, it had been way too long for us. The aquarium is also on the beach so being the tourist we are, we did that first.

Oh hey ray!

Enoshima turned out to be so fun. After the aquarium we walked across a bridge and up a hill where there were food and clothing vendors everywhere. At the top of this hill there is another Shrine known as the Jinja shrine. We didn't get to walk through it this time because we got there too late, but that will happen in April and will be on another post soon! Regardless, it was still beautiful from the front and we already look forward to heading back this spring. 

After a fun-filled, exhausting weekend its only natural to go home and relax all week. Right?

Wrong.

On top of all our busy weekends of travel, Will and I decided to MOVE OFF BASE! We found a house we loved in the neighborhood where all of our friends in our squadron live. Luckily we didn't have any of our furniture yet so the move wasn't all that bad. More of the issue is the goose chase the housing office sends you on to get all the correct paper work finished before your move.    Our furniture shipment comes in this Wednesday, March 4 so once I can make this house look like a home I will put pictures up and give you the tour. 

Since we now needed more furniture pieces, Will and I made the trip to IKEA. You think Charlottes IKEA is big? Ya'll, Japan IKEA is on a whole other level. It is absolutely huge with furniture everywhere, but in the most organized way. Its unreal in the best way. We got a few good pieces for the new house, and someone had a little too much fun I would say…

On our way back from IKEA we got a tad bit lost. We knew it was bound to happen at some point, and being that IKEA is an hour away I really wasn't surprised. We saw what looked like a good place to eat so we pulled over to get some food and figure out where we were. Turned out to be a great decision! 

Guess which ones are the Americans

The food here was probably the best I have had since living here. We had delicious Ramen and football sized Gyoza all for under 20 dollars! Jackpot. I love that living in Japan and getting lost here just means more adventures and wonderful surprises. What a cool life we live. 

This next week is going to be busy as well because Will leaves for the Island of Guam this Thursday for training. It is so exciting because I am going to go as well and get some sunshine, but its also a little bittersweet because this means deployment is on its way! Please pray for safe travels and for peace as we lead up to experiencing our first deployment this May! I can't wait to write my next post because it will be from Guam with sunshine, sand and the ocean. Also known as…paradise. 

Love you all,

Caroline and Will