We made it

Ashlin and I said our goodbyes to my parents and grandparents and cried like babies leaving Sunday morning. Flew to Chicago where we met up with Drew. From there we went to San Francisco, CA. Where we rushed off one plane and ran to the next just barely making it in time for our flight to Osaka, Japan. This was the lengthy part of the whole flight. We where on this flight for 10 hours. We occupied our time with movies, naps and food. They feed us two meals during this flight and they had plenty of different drinks ( tea, water, cran-apple) thru out the flight. Once off that flight we had another flight to Okinawa. We all where so tired. All three of us slept the entire flight to Okinawa. We arrived here at 9pm where we met up with our sponsor who took us to our hotel at the Westpac here on base. We were so ready to just be settled in a place with all 8 of our luggage bags. (Don't suggest traveling with that many bags, a two year old and a car seat). Needless to say our backs and arms where killing us the next morning.
Tues. we were up and running bright and early. Drew had to go fill out paper work with his command. Ashlin and I hung out at the hotel and slept for a couple of hours here and there. Jet lag is not fun. But we are adjusting! Wednesday Drew and I went to a Newcomer Orientation where we learned a lot about what to do and not to do on the island, the Japanese Culture, Activities they have for families here on the island and tons of other things. Ashlin went to the child development center to play with her friends and she really enjoyed that. Got a lot of her built up energy out. Last night Drew's sponsor took us off base out in town to a shopping area. It had lots of restaurants and shops to browse through. Some American stores were there and some Japanese stores. We enjoyed getting off the base and seeing a little of what is out in town. We also got to see the beach and put our feet in the water. While we where there we got to see the sunset by the water and it was gorgeous. (I will send pictures shortly)
Today is Thursday and Drew is now getting his drivers license when he is done I will go and hopefully get mine. Hopefully after that we will get our van and we will be free to go ride around and see more things here on the island. Can't wait!!!
Well that is an update on what we have been up to for the past couple of days.
We miss everyone and hope all is well. We still don't have phone access!! Drew is working on getting us cell phones for here.
Love
Heather, Drew and Ashlin