Field Trip

Eisa Dancers and Drummers

Hunter with the Ox they use for farming

On Tuesday, Hunter's class went to Ryukyu Mura. It is a place where you can see all the ancient Okinawa villages, pottery factory, and brown sugar factory. There was also some Eisa dancing, a lion dance and the parade of royalty. The place was interesting and short to walk through so that is why the kids enjoyed it. It did start to rain towards the end of the field trip but we were inside by then.


Joe is now in CA getting ready for the Marine Triathlon Championships. He flew there from England where he competed with the All- Marine running team against the Royal Marines. The Royal Marines won this race but will come to the U.S. to compete again in the Marine Corps Marathon. The race in England is only a half marathon. Joe wasn't very pleased with his time, he thought he could do better, but he did run it in 1 hour 20 minutes. Next up for him (once he gets home) is a short triathlon on June 14th.

Mrs. Rawls 1st grade class

We have been getting lots of rain lately. Rainy season is here and typhoon season starts June 1 and ends in Nov. We had a hard rain the other night and I got up in the morning to find worms in my house! The doors on the houses don't have good seals and it was raining so hard and so long that the worms came in the house. My neighbor told me this is normal. Only 5 worms made it in but I had to get them out myself. Everything always happens when Joe is gone (I'm sure a few of you remember the mouse incident when Hunter was a baby!!I know my dad does) Anyway, this time it was just worms!!

A Stitch in Time....

Let me catch everyone up to date on the excitement in the Galvin household. On Monday night, Joe was packing his bike up to take to the triathlon in CA. He was trying to get the peddle off of his bike to put on another bike. Needless to say, it was on VERY tight. He pull and pull and then I heard mumbling and the light flick on in the bathroom (it was 10:00PM). I go into the bathroom to find Joe pouring water on his wrist and blood just following out of his wrist. As a good Athletic Trainer, the first thing I asked him was if he got blood on the carpet! I looked at it and determined that he should go and get stitches. So I call Jo-Elle (I am really going to miss her when she moves) and she came to sit at the house while we ran to the ER. Our "quick trip" to the ER lasted 5 hours. We arrived back home at 3:30 AM with 5 stitches and still more packing for his trip.


He finally got the peddle off, finished packing and went to bed. He will be competing in England in a half marathon this coming weekend and hopefully will be doing the triathlon in CA the next. He is still waiting to hear the final word on if he is going to the tri so he packed like he was going! I am very tired but was able to get him to the airport, grocery shop, pick up the kids from school and cook dinner, now I think I will go to bed!!


Soccer is finally done. Both boys had their end of the year party and got their trophies. They will be signing up for baseball in June. The end of the school year is coming, lots of field trips to chaperon. I have no new pictures because Joe didn't want a picture of his wrist taken so here are more from Family Fun day!!

Family Fun Day

Last Saturday was Family Fun Day at Cherry Blossom Preschool. It was a day of games and food. It was held on base, which was a good thing since Brody had a 9:00 soccer game. It was a hot, humid day but the kids didn't seem to mind. Brody was on the white team (hence the color of his hat) and Hunter was allowed to join in too. They had an obstacle course, tug of war, kids walk on parents feet, and a blanket race (the child sits in the blanket and 2 adults run with them in it). There was alot of food too. Since some of the kids are Japanese and the teachers too, there was alot of Japanese food. Joe was in heaven. Apparently, the boys like rice balls because that is all they ate along with some chu-chus (they are like the frozen otter pops).

After the family day, we went to Hunter's soccer game. By that time it was extremely hot and humid. Brody played with an umbrella during the game (he was suppose to use it to block the sun but some how he used it as a bucket and was putting dirt in it) Hunter had some nice assists to help his team to a win.


That evening, I went out to a surprise going away party for our neighbor Jo-Elle. For those of you who don't know, Mike and Jo are from MI and went to Western MI. Since Joe and I went to Central MI there is alot of trash talking going back and forth between houses. They are moving this summer to go to Quantico, VA for a year. We will miss them and their twin boys (age 2) but hope to meet up with them again at another duty station. Joe has always worked the air side of the Marine Corps and Mike is a C-130 pilot so hopefully this will work out. Anyway, we went to a Karaoke place where you get your own room to sing, so the only people that can hear you is the people who came with you. It was alot of fun and I think we all went home hoarse from yelling the songs instead of singing them!!Not the most appealing shot of us but it is all I have.


Joe has made the Marine Corps running team again and will be traveling to England soon. He will be running a half marathon. Hopefully, he will make the triathlon team and travel to CA for the championships there. If he does make the tri team, he won't be back to Okinawa until the beginning of June. We are use to having him gone over the Memorial holiday and proud of him for his accomplishments.

Winding Down

Finally, the end of soccer is coming. Last weekend had Joe and I at different games (different bases for that matter) to watch the kids. I stayed with Hunter and Joe made the trek out to Camp Courtney (30 min. one way) to watch Brody. Hunter's team is very good and have many talented players. They are very discipline and do what the coach tells them. After the game, which they won, the other team accused the coach of hand picking his team and stacking the field. Of course Hunter hears this and turns to ask me if his coach is cheating. At practice on Monday the coach explained that the teams were already formed and all he had to do was pick the group of names he wanted. No one got to hand pick the teams. I think Hunter feels better knowing this because he hasn't said anything since.

Brody played the entire game on Sat. He scored a goal. Actually, the other girl kicked it and it went off Brody's leg and into the goal, so we count that as a goal. On the way home, he asked Joe if they could go to Building 1 (where Joe works) and go work out (there is a mini gym in the basement). I guess all that running around didn't tire him out enough.


I spent 2.5 days power washing the driveway and sidewalk. It was a very long boring process. I did forget to put sunscreen on one day and I am still paying for that. Joe helped a little but once I got into the groove I didn't want to be interrupted. I was ready to quit after only doing a quarter of the driveway but that would have looked really bad. I never want to see a power washer again. I think my hand was stuck in the trigger pull position for awhile. I did take a break on Friday to go and have cocktails with the ladies (AKA "The View" according to Joe - he says all we do is talk about nothing, just like the show). It was a well deserved break.

We have family fun day coming up this weekend, along with 2 more soccer games and one race for Joe. Talk to you next week.

"The View" is (l to r) Trina, Gretchen, Chris, Laurie.
Trina and Laurie have kids in Hunter's class and all of us live within 3 houses of each other. This was taken on Easter Sunday before the egg hunt.