Christmas Letter 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

We have enjoyed a wonderful year full of fun and adventure! It was our last full year in Okinawa and has really flown by! I can’t possibly summarize all of it so I’ll share just a few of the highlights! Most of these activities were made even more memorable by the fantastic friends we’ve made here in Okinawa. They’ve become our family while we are so far away! We’ve been sad to lose so many of them this year but are grateful for the technology that allows us to keep in touch with all of them and the family that we miss so much!

Some of our favorite things this year: (details on all of these fun times can be found on our blog!)

** Visit from Papa and Grandma Barb in March!!!
** Karamas: A trip with friends to a small chain of islands. We stayed in a traditional Japanese tatami room and had the best snorkeling ever! We saw huge sea turtles and even a manta ray!
** IE Island Half Marathon: Tom and Tracey ran it together!
** Trip back to the states: Lake house with the Stinchfield’s in Washington and tons of shopping then off to Utah for the 4th of July with the Rowan's, seeing old friends, going to the temple with my sister Rachel, relaxing in Park City and playing at Lagoon!
** Iheya Island Marathon: Tom ran and met his goal of under 4 hours! While on the island we went exploring and found the most amazing beaches!
** Tour de Okinawa: Tom and I trained for a participated in a 110 mile bike ride. It was pouring rain and there were insane hills but we had a great time!
**Parks - Karaoke - Beach - Snorkeling - Aquarium - Rain - Dragonboat races -Water slides - Cultural sites - Fish market - Bike rides - Races -
Hayden: He continues to amaze us with his mind and abilities at school. We were sitting around one night after dinner trying to solve some riddles and Tom and I were both stumped when suddenly Hayden blurted out the answer. I imagine it’s not the last time he’ll show us he’s smarter than we are! He took first place in the school science fair and placed second at district. He’s a reading machine and recently finished the Fablehaven series. This past year he played soccer and basketball and likes them both. Most of his time is spent creating with legos, playing computer games, doing science experiments and running around with his friends in their imaginary world!
Danica: It’s been a really big year for Danica as she has grown a lot physically and emotionally. Her confidence and enthusiasm for life has really grown. She’s doing at gymnastics and can’t get enough of her time at preschool. A while back she began begging me to teach her to read and she loves it! During the summer she learned to swim on her own and has now taken the training wheels off her bike! She spends all her free time coloring with markers and playing “mom and dad” while dressed like a princess. Last week she turned 5 and tells everyone she can find!
Alyssa: She has such a great outlook on life and approaches every new situation with a smile and sense of adventure. In August she turned 3 and in September she started preschool. Although she’s the youngest kid at the school she loves it and is doing really well. Her teachers report that is always full of smiles and hugs, constantly telling them she loves them. If it were up to Alyssa she would have me push her in the swing all day, going “super, super high!”
Tracey: I’ve had a busy and fun year with not enough time to sit and read. I was the Girls Camp leader which was a new and exciting experience. For Christmas last year I got a road bike and I spent this year learning to ride it, culminating in the 110 mile ride in November. I’ve been very busy at church, the kids schools and running my family. To stay sane I have kept up on running and exercise. I listen to audiobooks throughout the day while doing housework and love the multi-tasking!
Tom: He has spent all of his free time this year in training for one event or another. It started with just a half marathon but then he decided to do a marathon in October and the bike race in November. He was faithful to his work out schedule and succeeded in both! He’s also in the progress of getting scuba dive certified and found a new interest in racquetball. He officially turned in his separation from the Navy and will be getting out this next summer. Although he has enjoyed his time serving in the military and all he has learned he is looking forward to the next adventure in life!
We truly are so blessed and recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives daily. He watches us over always and we feel his love. It is our hope that you to have found peace and happiness in 2010.

Love,

The Stinchfields

10 Amazing Years

Happy 5th Birthday Danica!

We’ve had a fantastic time celebrating Danica’s 5th birthday! I can’t believe she is growing up so fast. She is our little sweetheart and just the nicest girl ever! Her smiles are captivating and she is so loving, considerate and caring. Alyssa quite possibly has the best big sister ever. Danica spends a lot of her time taking care of Alysss and playing with her. I can always count on Danica to help me out when I need it. Today we took a snuggle nap together on my bed, I loved it! She won't leave the house without a hug and kiss. She loves to play polly pockets, baby dolls and dress up. She loves to color, cut and draw. This year she has taken the training wheels off her bike, learned to swim and learned to read! It’s been so much fun but I wish we wouldn’t grow up so fast!

Her party was early in the month, we had a princess tea party theme with lots of little girls and two boys. She doesn’t like cake so we made a huge cookie and put candles in it- that was a big hit! We drive past the Macaroni Grill on base several times a day but never go there and Danica always asks to. So, Saturday night we finally took her there and we had a great time. The kids thought it was so fancy.... I guess we need to take them out more often! Today she got to open her presents, wear a fancy new dress Grandma sent and eat her favorite dinner of chicken and broccoli. What a great birthday!






The girls did a photo shoot with dad while they were in their new princess dresses!

Tropical Island Thanksgiving

Again this year we went up north to Camp Schwabb and stayed at the cottages on Oura Wan beach. It was fantastic. We had 7 families, tons of kids, tons of food and great fun. The kids biked, played, did a treasure hunt and just ran free. Every night we put them all to bed and gathered in one of the cottages for games until late. We pulled all the tables outside for our Thanksgiving dinner and it worked out great. I cooked the turkey the day before because we had no oven up there and it still tasted good! We had an awesome turkey bowl with real flags and some serious competition!

One of the days we went over to the Neopark and had a blast checking out all the animals and the unusual petting zoo with dogs, ponies and guinea pigs! We had a blast!

The Tour de Okinawa

Well we did it! We rode our bikes for about 7 hours and covered nearly 110 miles with some amazingly huge hills! Here’s is the break down of our Tour de Okinawa experience:

The Prep: Tom is a very talented rider and is in incredible shape right now due to his diligent marathon schedule so his training included a few long rides and biking to work on occasion. I on the other hand, had a lot of work to do to be ready for such a trek and have focused all of my workouts on biking. I would get up at 5am and ride in the dark, I would ride longer distances when the girls were at preschool and on Saturdays. I started going to spin classes as the weather got worse and just really put a lot of time into it. I went on a few 45 mile rides all alone because there was no one to go with and I needed to get it done. All along I kept worrying that I wouldn’t be fast enough (they ask that you be able to maintain an average of at least 15) or that I wouldn’t be strong enough to handle all the hills. I started doing hill workouts where I would just go up and down and up and down the biggest hills I could find. But I still didn’t know if it would be enough and started looking for someone who wanted to take my spot. Thankfully, in the end I decided I would just give it a try.

The Tour: We had great friends take the kids Friday night so we were able to go to bed and then get up at 4:30 and head up to Nago. As we got close we started seeing some people riding to the starting line and we both started to get nervous. The weather had been beautiful the entire week but of course it started to get windy and was sprinkling as we approached. Nonetheless we got our bikes ready and headed to the starting line. There were several different rides going on at the same time but we fortunately found the correct start and at 7:00 the gun went off. It was a little crazy as the crowd thinned but eventually we fell in line and started riding through the city. They didn’t close the streets so we were still subject to cars and traffic lights (it wasn’t a race so it didn’t really matter.) Tom and I were riding together for the first 6-7 miles but then he decided to race ahead to catch his friends and I didn’t want to wear myself out so we separated.

The first 35 miles: The beginning of the ride wound through the city and then out along the coast. It sprinkled a bit and was windy but the terrain was pretty flat. It was hard to navigate around people and I kept finding myself just riding leisurely behind someone unable to pass but wanting to go faster. In the end, it was probably good I didn’t push so hard and still maintained a good pace (averaged nearly 17). The first break was at 35 miles and Tom and his friends were waiting for me. We enjoyed some fruit and Okinawa donuts. So, This is Tom, the first 35 miles was pretty cake. There was this one guy that while we were going up this small hill, he was pushing his wife/girlfriend up the hill. Tracey was around them longer and said that he would occasionally flip from one side to the other so that he was using different arms. Uh, I wanted to say, thats not going to work.....There are much bigger hills than that. I just ended up hooking up with a big group of people until I was able to catch up with the rest of the group. It was windy, but bearable. No rain at that point. We passed a lot of the sites in Okinawa...it is a tour after-all.

The next 22 miles: After a short rest we mounted up and rode all together out along the coast. It was beautiful but raining pretty hard so it was hard to really appreciate the view. However, it was still fun and I was keeping up the the gang no problem so I felt really great and was having a good time. At 50 miles we had a short stop before climbing the first hill. Tom took off flying and all the rest of us made our way up the hill to the lunch stop at 57 miles. So I was glad that we stopped because it gave us a chance to bring Tracey along with us. I was really happy to see her come into that rest stop. I just kept holding my breath that her knee was going to hold out. We stopped at 50 but I was ready to get to the hill. We started the hill in a really long tunnel and I told Tracey I was just going to take off. I had done this hill before a year ago and I felt awesome. It is about a 2-3 mile climb where you go up about 650 feet. Not a huge climb but you get the altitude pretty quick. I was feeling so strong, passing people left and right. It was very motivating. The music was awesome.

Lunch was great. The best curry I’ve ever had in my life...only problem is we were all soaked and freezing! So we didn’t linger to long before mounting up again. Tom was feeling fantastic and itching to go fast so he flew out of there to enjoy a solo journey the rest of the way. He had three friends riding so I sort of stuck with them on and off for the rest of the ride. Curry=Good, but I was cold. I just wanted to get started again. It was about to start raining

Another 22 miles: Mentally I broken the ride into two completely separate rides. The before lunch leisure and the after lunch torture. I had one down and was ready for the agony. Truly I had heard nothing except that there were so many hills you wanted to die and just when you didn’t think there could be another hill there would be 6 or 7 more... I was not looking forward to it and yet I was.... could I actually do it? When I told people I was going to ride the Tour de Okinawa they all seemed surprised and would talk about hard they heard it was. So it was my moment of truth. Thankfully my super fantastic amazing husband ordered me a new sprocket cluster for my back gear... I don’t know all the technical details but I do know it was designed to make it easier to climb hills because I drop into a lower gear. So I had done all my training on a gear that only went to 23 and now I had a 27.... it arrived a few days before the ride so I had never used it but soon found myself wanting to kiss it! I powered up the hills, passing people!!! I was the girl who got left behind on all the group rides and always went home frustrated so I started riding alone... and now I was actually passing people! I even passed two of the guys I had ridden with before! I began to believe that all my training was actually going to pay off and that I was going to be able to do it!!! So, I just took off on my own after lunch. I needed to just be pushing myself and I was not sure how Tracey was going to do, or the other guys. I am glad we were able to get the sprocket on and it is something I will look into in the future as we get more serious with biking. It can totally change your ability to complete a ride. I felt great though. I stopped once for a banana but I did not wait up. It was pouring and I felt great. The music was awesome.

The rest stop at 80 miles: I stopped to refuel and met up with the other guys. While we stopped the rain changed from a drizzle to a torrential down pour. I was so cold I couldn’t stop shivering long enough to even open my snack. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was to step out from under the tent into that down pour. I really questioned the wisdom of doing it... but I was feeling great (minus the freezing part) and knew I could finish the ride if I just tried. So once we realized it wasn’t going to let up we just mounted our bikes at set off. I did not stop at 80, I broke at 84, but then went on until I was done with the race.


The next 20 miles are a blur of rain, wind and hills and more hills and more hills. The hills were huge and just kept coming. We went up one hill that last for 4 miles and went up 800 feet. The others weren’t much better. It was raining so hard there was a constant stream coming off the front of my helmet. When we were near the coast the wind would blind me. Luckily, on the up hills I could see enough to watch the river of water running down the hills and over flowing the huge gutters on the sides. Coming down the huge hills was so precarious I don’t know how to describe it. I was mostly just terrified and constantly chanting “I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids” in hopes of living to see them again. The speed made the wind and water so bad I could hardly see and my breaks were so wet I kept them on constantly but couldn’t actually stop. It was only the fact that I could see riders in front of me surviving that kept me going. I figured that if they could do it I could do it... and thankfully we all survived. I went slow, only about 21 mph down the hills, but it felt so fast in those conditions. Tom is more experienced, more gutsy and just plain crazy and was still flying down at 30 mph. I am thankful he survived! He said that several times he realized that he couldn’t stop or control anything and just had to hope that there were no cars coming as he tried to make it around the bends in the road.

MILE 100: What a glorious moment!!!! I kept rubbing the rain off my odometer so I could see it and tell how close I was getting to 100 miles. Finally, while going down a hill and singing “Livin on a Prayer” at the top of my lungs I watched it change over to 100. That song was then stuck in my head all day....it was fantastic to know I was so close!!! By then the riders were all scattered along the road and I don’t think anyone could hear my singing over the wind and the rain. Even if they could, I didn’t care at that point! I was a little out of my mind, a combo of adrenaline, terror, excitement and hypothermia all at once left me talking to the wind, yelling at the rain, singing to myself and mistaking the trees for people.... Going over 100 was a pretty cool experience, although, I really wanted to remember what song was on but I forgot already, bummer.


The last 10 miles: At mile 103 there was another rest stop but I decided to pass it by knowing that I would only start freezing if I stopped and I was feeling so good I knew I could make it the last 10 miles. I nearly missed the turn off because there was split where the riders on the two day tour went one way and the “century” riders went another. It’s tough because all the signs are in a Japanese and there was a man with a large megaphone but I could’t understand him so I just flew on past and then back tracked and asked which way to go and was pointed in a different direction than I had been going. Tom said he did the same thing, skipped the stop and nearly missed the turn. Luckily we both found it and shortly there after found ourselves climbing an endless hill. It was never ending and I kept thinking “Don’t you dare call this a century ride! If you’re going to give me a 3 mile, steep hill from mile 104 to 107 then you had better not call it a mere 100 mile ride!!!” I actually managed a few “kills” up the last hill and was so enthused at the fact that I was going to finish and I wasn’t the last one of our group! Coming down the last hill truly was insane. The wind and rain were blinding as we crossed over these amazing bridges back down into the city. I bet the view was phenomenal but couldn’t open my eyes wide enough or take my eyes off the road long enough to take it in. And then suddenly I was back in Nago. There was traffic every where and I didn’t know where to go. I finally spotted another rider and followed him to the finish line (thank goodness he could read all the Japanese signs.) As I approached I saw Tom standing in the rain at the corner and I got so excited!!! I had done it! I had actually done it! He said he was surprised and excited to see me so soon as well! Ok, the last hill was nuts, really steep as you can see on the Garmin thing. But, once I got to the top it was all downhill into Nago. It was a great feeling. It was a very poor ending, there was a scooter staff guy that was guiding me into the city. It was not a race but in my wild imaginations I thought I may be one of the first to finish and I was expecting a heroes welcome. No such luck, we ran into traffic, I went up the left side of the traffic and ended up falling over on a grate. It was not my brightest moment. I felt like a fool. But, I was trying to figure out where the finish was and failed. I passed a few barricades and ended up at the start line that said START/FINISH. Well, it was not the finish, and nobody was cheering. Here I felt like I had really accomplished something and nobody around me even understood me or cared. Oh well, I cared. Eventually I made it over to the car to change out of my wet clothing. It was an amazing feeling to see Tracey come around the corner not too long after I made it there. And she was not dejected. She was full of energy. It was a great way to finish.

The Finish: So we both made it, felt great, jumped in the car, tried to warm up, drove home, picked up the kids, ordered pizza and went to bed!!!

Seriously, look at those hills!
Tom's Stats: GPS not on at the beginning so you can't see the total elevation gain.
Tracey's Stats: forgot to start it a few times, hence the shorter mileage

Happy Halloween

After planning to be princesses the girls changed their minds at the last minute and went as Superheros. I was so excited. When I saw these costumes I had to just ignore the price tag and buy them because they were so cute. Maybe next year I'll resurrect my old Wonder Woman costume and dress up with them. Alyssa kept telling everyone "I'm Wonder Woman, and I'm to the rescue!"

Hayden has loved Halloween ever since he was a toddler and LOVES scary things, although his imagination is so active now we have to be careful what he reads and watches or he'll have nightmares! He's not sure what his costume was, just that it was scary. He had a special glow stick mouth piece that was the final touch. We went up to the Air Force base because they were doing their trick or treating on Saturday night and Hayden's good friend lives there. His friend was a mummy so they walked around telling everyone they were the"Dead Group."
We saw this bat hanging in the tree above us while the kids were up at one of the doors! Real life decorations!

On Halloween night Hayden planned to scare all the trick or treaters. He did a fantastic job. He sat back on the porch and the kids reluctantly approached, not sure whether he was real or not. As they tried to take a candy he would reach out for them. So many kids screamed and laughed. Groups of people stopped to take pictures of him to remember the fun. Many Japanese families came on base and they just couldn't get enough of him, laughing and taking pictures. The next day I was helping the kids in Hayden's class edit their stories and one of the boys wrote about trick or treating to Hayden's house and getting scared. It was a successful year for him!! Here are the girls standing inside the front door trying to watch Hayden scaring everyone outside! (Alyssa had just gone potty and tucked her skirt into her undies...to cute to resist the picture!)

On an unrelated note:

We had a typhoon hit the island last Thursday. School and work was cancelled so everyone could be safely inside our bomb shelter homes. They are ugly but they sure are safe (as long as the ceiling isn't falling in due to termites). Anyway, the wind was really going and we worried but all of the things in our yard stayed safely anchored to the ground thanks to ropes and sand bags. But we did lose a big tree. The wind was so strong and constant it ended up just tipping over and roots came up!

Friday night we got a great group of friends together and went to do some Karaoke. We had a blast! On Saturday I went on a 46 mile bike ride by myself to help prepare for my bike ride. It's a week from this Saturday... I"m getting excited! I go to spin class a few mornings a week because I"m tired riding in the dark and then I go out riding while the girls are at preschool. I hope I"m ready! Either way, it will be an experience I am sure I'll never forget!

Iheya Island: Paradise

As you know, we traveled to Iheya Island for Tom’s marathon, now it’s time to talk about the island itself. It was truly stunning and will go down on my list as one of the best vacations ever. It was very hard to find information about it in English before we went so I plan to write a detailed account of the island. But for this blog, you’ll also have to endure a travel log of the family fun we had! So I’ll start at the beginning of the journey which was actually a few weeks ago when we tried to look at the ferry schedule and realized they had pre-sold tickets (last year you could not buy in advance). So all the ferry’s were full except the one leaving on Friday at 9am and returning on Monday at 9am. We were now panicked wondering where would could stay for so long. The original plan had been to simply throw up a tent at the marathon site for one night. After much searching we found someone who helped us locate and reserve a spot at a Yonesaki Campsite. Then we still needed info on issues such as building a campfire, buying wood and ice, etc. The kind of info that is easy to get if you speak Japanese and know who to call.... luckily, Tom got a tech at work to make some calls and we got all the info we needed. So we packed the car to the brim and headed out!

The Boat Ride: We started off happy and excited to be on the ferry. Alyssa was loving the view and the fresh air. However, as we got out to deeper waters a storm picked up and pretty soon everyone was sick- very sick! The waves were rocking the boat like crazy, splashing way up over the sides. I’ll spare you the details but just say it was the longest 90 minutes of my life, wishing to die as each second ticked past. Hayden started throwing up first and spent the entire ride in the bathroom afraid to come back... luckily they place plastic bags all around the boat....ugh... once we got off the ferry I started looking for somewhere to live because I was quite certain I would never get back on that boat. (Just one of the reason I was not running the marathon again this year!)BEFORE:
AFTER:(sorry it's gross!)

Yonezaki Campsite: The campground was beautifully nestled in between several beaches on the narrow southern tip of the main island right by Noho Bridge. I wasn’t sure how we would check in but luckily the guy was expecting an American and said “Tracey San?” to which I said “Hai” (yes) and that was our entire conversation. He did some paper work I couldn’t read and pointed out some spots on the map and we headed out. When we first arrived it was rainy and windy so were pretty worried and decided to wait it out and went back to the port to each lunch at a restaurant there. We all enjoyed our Yakisoba and Kadsudon (although I was still queasy from the boat!) Then there was a break in the rain so we hurried back to the campsite. We pitched the tents on grass, set up the food canopy and could not have been in a better spot. It even had new bathrooms and showers.

Once we got all set up and headed off to explore some beaches!

The Beach: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! The water was refreshing and so clear and blue. We were the only people on the beaches and felt like we were on a private island paradise vacation (which we were!) We kept telling the kids how lucky they were, trying to get them to understand that most people go their entire lives without ever seeing such a beautiful beach, let alone having it all to themselves! We could have stayed for a week or more just exploring beach after beach...





Kumaya Cave: Great family bonding while we explored this cave down into the heart of the mountain. We had some rough spots but in the end everyone was glad we did it. To enter the cave you had to squeeze through a narrow rock opening, that was covered in little millipedes. Turns out Danica is terrified of millipedes and was hysterical as we forced her into the cave anyway. Once inside it opened into a large area full of sand and a monument about peace. At the bottom was a pathway leading deeper into the cave. We tried to get the kids to explore with us but they refused. Hayden was so scared that as Tom went in to check it out Hayden got hysterical with worry and kept yelling “Dad come back!” Being the nice dad Tom is he turned off the lantern he was carrying and scared Hayden... who fortunately laughed about it. Danica was terrified again passing the millipedes on the way out and while trying to pose for the picture at the opening but Alyssa came to her rescue and was trying to step on the millipedes for her. That’s what sisters are for.Here is the view looking down into the opening of the cave.Here is the view looking out from inside the cave.

Even after the whole ordeal there are still smiles on everyone's face as we posed for a quick picture just outside the entrance of the cave before heading down the stairs to the road below.

Iheya Light House: We drove to the top of a VERY steep hill (the car actually overheated). These pictures are the view from the top of the building next to the light house. These pictures don’t do it justice, it was really breathtaking.



Nentou Hiramatsu: This is a very special, protected tree that we visited. I can’t remember why it’s so special but we enjoyed a nice afternoon picnic at the park.


Sugahama: While driving around the island we saw this little sign and decided to go check it out. We drove down a tiny dirt road through a sugar cane field and emerged at the most gorgeous beach yet! We were there long enough to enjoy the clear water, some awesome rock climbing and jumping and then the sunset!










On Monday morning we got up early to enjoy the sunrise before breaking camp. We walked from the tent down onto the beach and I'm so glad we did! It was the perfect end to a fantastic trip!