Our escapades, exploits and adventures

Bon Odori Festival

2011-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

I had the great opportunity to participate in Bon Odori dancing this year. Practices to learn the traditional Japanese dances have been going on since June. That's also when we were measured to have our yukatas made for us. The base we live on participates in a number of local Bon Odori festivals off-base. I wasn't able to dance in the off-base festivals, but tonight I participated in the on-base Bon Odori Festival. It was so fun! So glad that my third and final Bon Odori Festival here was the one I danced in!! Thank you Japan for another great memory!

Me at the NAFA Bon Odori Festival just before the dancing began

The Giblettes and I in our yukatas

My friend and I pose to show off our beautiful bows

Sensei and I

In case you're interested in knowing what Bon Odori is, here is what Wikipedia has to say:
Bon Odori (folk dance) is widely practiced on Obon nights. Styles of dance vary from area to area, but usually Japanese taiko drums keep the rhythms. People go to their neighborhood Bon Odori held at parks, gardens, shrines, or temples, wearing yukata (summer kimono) and dance around a yagura stage.

Happy Birthday Daddy

2011-08-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the best Daddy in the world! We miss you and can't wait to hug and smooch you within inches of your life!!!!

P.S. Your wife thinks you're the greatest thing next to bottled beer (and we all know how she feels about that).

Mt. Fuji

2011-08-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

I've tried posting three times now and blogger has deleted my long Fuji story all three times, so here are the pix and I'll re-write about it later. Enjoy!

Torii Gate at entrance to trail

Getting our hiking sticks branded

Getting our sunrise stamp/brand

We're getting there

Movin' on Up!

Happy Birthday, Pop-Pop!

2011-08-09T03:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our Pop-Pop's birthday! We love him and sure hope he had a spectacular day.

It's been a long time...

2011-07-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends!

It's been a wild year...no need to catch up on all that. I will just TRY to be better about posting more.

Ready or not here they come...Our little Gilblettes are growing, learning and reaching all sorts of milestones. I am doing my best to keep up and enjoy the ride.

We recently went to Fuji Safari Park (for the second time). It's a animal park pretty close to where we live (maybe 1-2 hours). There is a petting zoo with hamsters, rabbits, wallabies and kangaroos that you can pet (check! did that). Plus Addie fed monkeys (see pic). She said their little hands tickle when they take the food (sunflower seeds) from her hand. Prior to feeding the monkeys, Addie warned Kora not to put her fingers in the cage or the monkeys would bite her hand off. Uh so, Kora would not feed the little monkeys...no matter how I tried to change her mind.

The girls also got to ride the ponies. Kora wasn't so sure about this either at first. She said yes, then no and finally yes again. She initially wanted to ride the little ponies (tiny, short ones...I don't know what breed they are, the signs are in Japanese), but she was 2 cm too tall. Very apprehensively she got in line to ride the "larger" pony and she was so glad she tried it because she loved it! She was all smiles the entire ride (see pic).

So, the main attraction at Fuji Safari Park is the drive-thru safari. There are a great number of awesome animals you can see really close-up...and feed! One enclosure boasts 80 lions!! Kora was so excited to feed "Alex, the lion"! She fed a real life lioness raw meat with a pair of tongs through the double walled grate of our safari bus...from less than a foot away (below is the lion that Kora actually fed)! We also fed bears and camels. Very cool experience.

It's our Daddy's birthday!

2010-08-18T01:25:00.000-07:00

Take 1

Take 2

Happy 3rd Birthday Princess Addie

2008-11-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Princess Addie celebrated her 3rd Birthday today with our friends, the McHughs. Thanks to everyone who thought of our Princess on her special day. We love you and miss you!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T11:55:00.001-07:00

Ensigns Addison H. and Kora A. Gilbert would like to wish you a Happy Halloween!

Princess Addison Cinderella and her court jester

2008-10-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

So our eldest now calls herself "Princess Addison Cinderella" or as she tells me, "Princess Addie my other name, Mom". She loves everything princess, ballarina, fairy, floofy and sparkly...as she describes as "all fancy up." My daughter? - um, yes. Here is little miss in her "no-white dress-up" along side her very jealous sister (this was an early birthday present from Gramma and Pop-Pop Gilbert).
For some reason in our household, the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head accessories are coveted items in dress-up for the Gilbert Girls. When Addie was Kora's age she had an attraction to the Potato Head family's glasses...Kora all on her own has also followed suit. Here is Kora in Mrs. PH's snazzy horn rimmed glasses (don't look at the mess, my house was a mess that day...it is usually always perfectly clean-Ha).

Greenlaw's Visit

2008-09-25T07:57:00.001-07:00

We thoroughly enjoyed a visit from our dear friends, the Greenlaws, this week. We miss them already! Here are the highlights (at least the ones captured!).

These pix of Colin and Kora are an attempt to capture Kora feeding Colin her yogurt...they are so cute! They feed each other and share milk and we had to scoot their chairs right next to each other or Kora would practically fall out of her chair trying to get to Colin. J'aimee and I are sure that these two are destined to be together!!

The bike helmets are so fun for the kids...they were always arguing over whose turn it was to wear the helmets!
And Addie and Maggie got their adorable haircuts! Oh the cuts turned out even better than could have been expected. We went to a kids salon that had antique Radio Flyer Fire Engine, Airplane, Taxi Cab and Police Car for seats, plus there were toys for the waiting children, too. It couldn't have worked out better!

Here we are!

2008-09-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are here! The Gilbert Girls have been busy, and haven't been keeping up with their blogging duties. We made a surprise visit to Texas in August and have been running around since. Here are some pix of some of the goings on:

This is Kora and her best bud, Jack. Kora followed Jack around the house, down the driveway (gravel road) and attempted to follow him into the pasture. The only way (excluding physical force) to convince Kora to come back was to whistle and call Jack. We now know Kora is a country girl at heart. She loves roaming around the wide open spaces - barefoot!

Addie blowing BIG bubbles in Nonnie and Be-Be's yard. You can't see it, but her "fancy house" is just to the right of Addie. In true Fancy Nancy style, Addie and Nonnie made a playhouse out of a big cardboard box complete with a door and floral curtains.

My Office

2008-08-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my office. Not too shabby at all. Bigger than I expected, even have a couch. But as with all things over here it is pretty dusty. There is nothing to really clean with. Every time I try to dust, all I do is push it around more than pick it up. Sweeping just causes the dust to become airborne again so that you can breathe it. I have two computer, well actually three. One is on the secret internet, and this is where 90% of my work is done. I have one on a non classified internet, but it has a quirk that only allows me on the internet 1 out of three days. I have not figured out the pattern either. Very random, and not yet fixable. Has something to do with mine because others have not had the same problem even from this particular drop. The third is a mobile secret computer for loading and reading electronic equipment. The window by the chair is where I put my bottles when making Sun Tea. Yes, the walls are mostly plywood with cardboard hung for maps so that tacks will not be hard to push in. It is a good place to work, just down the hall from the Tactical Operations Center.

Walking in the door to my place of work.

Where I sit and make all the magic happen, or just surf the internet when it is up.

My couch for visitors. Might be why I do not have more visitors.

Where I work

2008-08-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, this is about my work place. As I have mentioned before it is not even 100 meters from where I live. Very convenient for sneaking away from a quick nap or rest. It is surrounded by the typical concrete wall. The barriers in the foreground that are wide and shorter are called Hesco barriers. A neat invention from this war, it is metal wire frame work with thick cardboard around on the inside. Then it is filled with dirt. Very easy to transport, easy to assemble (relatively) and effective. Much easier to emplace than the equivalent sandbags. The buildiung itself is made of plywood. But there are a lot of air conditioners which helps keep it workable.

View of my commute to work. This is the driveway that was visible with the SUV in the pix below.

View from the other side, known as the front.

Inside the wall on the backside. A little gazebo for hanging out, but not during the day. The door is just behind the gazebo.

Living in Iraq

2008-08-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay. I have finally gotten the photos downloaded to share what I call home. They are called Containerized Housing Units, or CHU's. It is not a bad space at all. I have one all to myself, even though there are two beds. I have one locker with only one shelf. When I first moved in that was all I had, so it was an issue as to where to keep my clothes. I started just keeping them piled on the spare bed, not the best. But since then I have gotten a small plastic set of drawes, and Kristy sent some hooks to hang my uniform. I am not going to say it is all that cozy, but I am getting there. The A/C works well, but as expected during the main part of the day it still gets warm in the room. An ironic little bit of info, my room number is 1E2. The pictures below are just the beginning, more will come later.

The sleeping side when I first arranged the room.

The spare bed shortly after I moved my clothes off, now covered in everything else.

My bed side with decorations from home hung above it.

The front door. The dish belongs to someone else, or no one possibly.

Just past the SUV is the shower and head trailers. Not a bad walk for now.

Baghdad

2008-07-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

Well, here are some pictures from Baghdad. I had a few more, but lost the camera before I could get them downloaded. Typical Drew. Oh well. I was in Baghdad for about 12 days. It was not too bad, nothing significant happened, so that was good. It was not as hot nor as sandy as Kuwait, but there was a lot more dust and haze because of the dust. There was a lot more vehicles driving around than I imagined there would be. They kicked up the dust so it seemed like that was all I breathed. The place where I was staying was good, close the the dining hall (DFAC in Army terms) and just up the street from the largest exchange in the country. It had some good things, like lots of DVDs. But really very few snacks, this surprised me some. One of the places we visited was Saddam's old palace; Al Faw Palace. This is now the US headquarters.

This is the road leading to the front.

I am standing in front of the main entrance. I make the Army uniform look goooooood!

May be hard to tell, but there was no expense spared in building this palace. Marble everywhere, and used to be gold too. Chandelier was impressive.

Supposedly the chair Saddam sat in himself, back in the day. You can see the stain from his Soul Glow, jk.

Next post will be from my final stop. Talk to you again soon.

Addie takes two wheels for a spin

2008-07-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

Our friends, the McHugh's, had us over this evening. We had such a good time, as always. The kids swam and got to lick the brownie batter bowl. Think they like it? Maybe just a little.

Then after dinner, Addie tried out Logan's bicycle. So there may have been more than two wheels (if you're one of those people who counts training wheels). My little girl was riding a bike! Go Addie! She did so well.

Freakin' Me Out

2008-07-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

Just the other day while getting into the car at the grocery store Addie was watching a group of teenagers hanging out near our car. I didn't think much of it because she's a big people-watcher (like me). Then we got in the car and she says, "Mom, you freakin' me out! She freaks me out, Mom!" Then I realized that I am going to have to pay way more attention to the conversations around me. The next evening at dinner Addie looks across the table at Kora and says, "Kora, you freakin' me out. Kora, I freakin' you out? Yea, I freakin you out, too." At least I have comic relief!

So, what's a post without pix? These pics are about a month old, but I just came across them and thought they were cute. Addie made the mask at 'cool' (school) and Kora thought it was so funny.

Checking in from abroad

2008-07-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

Kristy got the blog up and running, and now I get to add to it. Personnally I come to the blog for pictures of the girls, but some people are wondering about what I am up to so here goes. I am at my final stop in Northern Iraq. It is near the town of Tall Afar. I arrived at the end of June after several frustrations with travel. My first stop was Kuwait were I spent two weeks waiting on my bags from the States. Yes, even the Navy losses luggage with the best of them. I am attaching a couple of pictures from Kuwait. The first is us getting off of the aircraft on what the pilot termed a cool morning, only 95F. The next is me in my Army uniform (ACU's) with weapons. We had to carry both weapons every where, which made for some sandy guns. The is a picture of one day where we had a sand storm, visibility was about 1/4 mile, and the sand stung. Typical, as half the time I was in Kuwait there was blowing sand. I will try and catch up on pictures as I go along. I lost my camera between Baghdad and here so there will be a gap. But I have a new camera and will make use of it. More to follow later. - Drew

Happy July 4th 2008

2008-07-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Just a calm 4th. Our friends, the Finn's, had us over for some great burgers, dogs and fixin's. The girls wore their "Free to be Daddy's Girl" shirts - too cute!!

The kids had a great time with their friends and even got wet in the pool. Kora was a little nervous about the other kids splashing her and her head went under once, so she spent most of the time playing outside the pool. Addie, on the other hand, enjoyed running to and jumping in the pool.

Just before the girls went to bed, they got to see some great fireworks from a nearby show.

What was I thinking?

2008-06-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Kora has been showing A LOT of interest in Addie's toddler bed. Addie was 14 months old when she went into a toddler bed. So, I decided to take the front off Kora's bed and start the transition. What the hell was I thinking? Two toddlers in the same room free to not take naps and run around and not take naps and jump and fall out of bed...and did I mention not take naps! Needless to say they are still up there playing, laughing, and running around. I've removed all toys from the room and been in there a million times to put them back in their beds (mostly Kora). I'll really pay for this right after dinner when the grouchy, tired, little farts whine until they go to bed. Oh boy, I'm a total loon.