Some bad news! :(

Well, after 7 1/2 years of marriage, Rhett and I have decided to split up! I will be flying back to the states with the little boys sometime next month and Rhett will fulfill his commitment with the Air Force here in Japan and then hopefully find a place to practice nearby so he can see the little boys as much as possible. Rhett has 2 1/2 years that he still owes so it's going to be very hard on him for he won't be able to see the boys but only a couple times a year :( We are not getting divorced at this time, but we have decided it will be for the best to live separate lives for awhile. We are both great friends and will remain that way. We also both love the little boys so much! Rhett will continue to be a HUGE part of their lives whether or not we are together. I'm sorry to family that this is how I'm letting everyone know, but it has been a rough emotional ride lately and it's easier to just tell everyone at the same time! I plan on coming back to the Hurricane/St. George area and starting a new chapter in the boys life there. I hope that everyone will wish us both luck with this difficult journey we have ahead of us! It will be very hard on both of us. I will be a single mom taking care of these four boys, and Rhett will be all alone in Japan with no family or friends to support him :( He will miss the boys terribly!!! And they will miss him. Keep Rhett in your prayers because he will need all the help he can get dealing with the loneliness.

Rebecca and Rhett Olsen

Nago Butterfly Museum

Sorry still catching up-

We went here the same day as the aquarium! I seriously thought it was pretty cool. The others were all a little disappointed. There were really only 2 types of butterflies here! I would have loved to see a little variety, but still thought it was a pretty neat place!

The little boys HATED it! Carter, Taylor, Hunter, and Ryker were flailing their little arms around so fast trying to knock them out of the air. To them they may have well been killer bees or bats! They were pretty terrified! Carter and Taylor ran right through it and waited for us at the other side! lol. This just made the place even more fun for me! It was funny to watch their reaction to something I find so beautiful!

I still made the babies try on the nectar hat though. They were nervous, but I wanted a cute picture! When I asked Carter.... he just said, "Heck No!" Oh well, we had all the kids with us, but only the ones that don't dare to disagree with Mom got documented! :)

Brave little Ryker with a butterfly on the hat!

Sweet Hunter!

If that butterfly only knew how close to death he was. :)

Ryker by the water afterwards- By far the highlight for all the boys!

Carter Moment of the Week-

Carter- "Mom don't I look sick?"

Mom- "Why, are you feeling okay?"

Carter- As he shakes his head. "Mom, sick like I'm cool. You know like tight?"

Mom- "Oh yeah, you look super cute in that shirt."

Carter- "Oh man, I'm going to ask Dad!"

When did my barely 7 year old turn into a teenager?

And when did I become so uncool? lol.

The Churaumi Aquarium-Okinawa

So while the babies and Taylor are peacefully taking a nap. I thought I would try to play catch up a little on the blog. We actually went to the aquarium several weeks ago. The aquarium is up past Nago which is just over an hour away from us. We packed everybody up one Saturday and hit the road! The drive there was really pretty. It still amazes me how very green it is here! I guess after living in the desert for all those years I'm not used to green being in my daily life! I can say though... that I do miss that red dirt sometimes! :)

The kids LOVED this place. It's sort of like a mini Seaworld! It had a little dolphin show. Then this huge aquarium with lots of different tanks. Our favorite tank was the tank that had the stingrays and the whale shark in it! Carter could have watched that whale shark all day long if we had let him. :)

The twins also really loved this place. They were so amazed at all the different fish and grabbed my cheeks to show me each and every one of them. They loved to get right up to the glass and check them out! The shark really got them excited! :)

Our favorite tank!

Rhett heading to see the manatee's with the boys! I thought of you Mom. I almost jumped right in with them. They weren't mating of course! The male had his own tank! :)

I love this picture of Hunter! So in awe at all the fishes!

I believe Melanie labelled this picture correctly when she said, "Talk about Angels with horns."

Hunter pointing something out to Ryker.

Carter, Taylor, Lily, and Gunner in front of the whale shark outside!

The four little ones that didn't want to stop long enough to take a photo! Twerps!!!

This is one of the whale sharks in the tank! Carter seriously thought this was the COOLEST fish EVER MADE!!! It was pretty awesome, but the killer whales still have my top favorite! :)

Oh and Rhett-- You ROCK my world! thanks for all the help with the kids this day! I was a little overwhelmed, but Rhett was a great helper! Sometimes when we go places he turns into one of the kids! ;)

Awase Fish Market

We went with some friends to the fish market last weekend and had a fun time checking out all the fish! It was actually really funny getting there! I called up Kristen and said, "Hey want to go to the fish market and get some fresh fish?" She said, "Yeah, I know where it's at. They have this fish auction at 8:00 so meet at our house at 7:30 and you can just follow us." I was excited because we have gotten lost a few too many times and was stoked that she had been there and knew where it was.

We went to their house and followed them a couple miles! That's when I noticed we were driving in circles. lol. We laughed and just let them lead... after 25 minutes of following them down little alley roads they finally pulled over! She said, "I am SO sorry. I really thought I knew where it was at." It was pretty funny to me. She called the friend that had taken her there and we got the right directions on how to get there! We were actually only a couple roads over from where we needed to be! We got there and checked out all the fisherman's fresh catches. The kids had a blast looking at all the different kinds of seafood people actually eat!

It was kind of a fun day. It was really rainy, but it was a great experience for the little ones! We didn't actually end up buying any of the fish because we just stayed for the auction. The fish market didn't open for a couple more hours and we didn't want to wait there in the rain for that long. We're not huge fish people... it was more to go and see what they had not acually buy, cook, and eat it! :)

Rhett and the little boys! Those are huge tuna behind them!

Hunter LOVED the little blue crab. Most of them were still alive and trying to flip over so they were really entertaining to watch!

Yummy... octopus!

Our family by the dolphin, I mean tuna! Anyone ever seen "The Cove?" lol

The little boys checking out some little fish!

Carter really loves this place! He thought it was extremely cool!

Taylor was a little more grossed out, but impressed still the same!

All 6 of the kids watching the clams squirt water up out of the bucket!

We thought they eat some weird things..... including- Stingray, Octopus, Puffer fish, Little tiny breaded fish. We also liked watching the guy cut chunks out of the huge tuna to show everyone the color of it! It was actually a really pretty dark orange red! Kristen, who eats fish, said it looked like a really great fresh catch! Cool! Anyway, we had a good time at the fish market!

These little "Monkeys" are driving me CRAZY!!!

I feel like the question in our house is.... "What are we going to do that's fun today?"

Seriously?!?

Does everyday have to be mom entertain me day?

I have been so tired lately! We don't have t.v. here and I can honestly say that most the time I love it! It makes us get out and enjoy the island, but today it would have been really nice to throw on Dora and let the t.v. entertain for a little while! I woke up with a migraine and the kids have been driving me bananas! Thankfully Rhett had the day off today and has done his best to help them use their imagination! Thanks Honey! They played super monkeys with Carter for several hours than Rhett hooked up the Gamecube for them!

The babies confused by this huge ape at the zoo!

Carter's game- Super Monkeys

Monkey- Hunter

Monkey- Ryker

Monkey- Taylor

And the stud Monkey- Carter

Happy Birthday Carter (7)

Happy Birthday sweet boy! Carter turned 7 on November 7th. I can't believe I have a 7 year old. That is so crazy to me. He seems so old and mature now! What a sweet boy he is! He is a wonderful helper and absolutely adores his little brothers! The 3 little ones get SO excited when he gets home from school. They each rush up and give him a big hug and say, "Hi Cader." He then asks me who missed him the most to which I reply, "I did... Of course!" This is pretty much our daily routine! He is in first grade and I can honestly say that I really miss this kid!

Whenever we go on outings I always wish he were there with me! I feel like I hardly even get to see him anymore! He goes to school early in the morning and by the time the bus drops him off it's almost dinner time! We do homework together than it's already bedtime! One thing that we both love is Junie B Jones books! We read together every night and have really come to look forward to this special time together reading about this naughty little girl! It has been a lot of fun!

I feel like we celebrated Carter's birthday for almost a week! He had Friday off so we went to the zoo. This would be the day that the chimpanzee decided to take some poop off the ground and proceeded to throw it right at Carter. It was seriously the grossest and funniest thing I have ever seen. I know Carter hates that I'm blogging this as he told me NOT to "faceblog" it, but I really think that when he's older he will laugh about it! The best part was that the chimp actually hit Carter right in the face! It got on his cheek and in his hair! lol. Carter looked right at the chimp and yelled, "If you dare to do that again I'll throw my poop at you." He really was TICKED! I thought he was going to jump in the cage and teach that chimp a lesson. I wiped him down with wet wipes and we enjoyed the rest of the zoo before heading home and SHOWERING. Carter scrubbed and scrubbed with soap. He was so grossed out! For the record... the poop was hard not soft and squishy! Trust me- it makes a difference in EXACTLY how disgusting this story is! :)

We then celebrating by going to the McDonalds that opened right next to our house! We have been driving by this for months getting ready for the day it would open. All the kids were so excited! I pulled up to the drive thru... big mistake! Everything was in Japanese and there were NO pictures with the numbers! I ordered a number 3 and 3 hamburger happy meals! She couldn't understand me so she told me in her VERY BROKEN english to come window. I pulled around and pointed to a menu of what I wanted. I WANTED the chicken nuggets meal and 3 happy meals. What I GOT was a big mac and chocolate shake with 1 hamburger and fries, no drink... no toy! The best part was that I paid about $15.00 for this sad meal. The kids seemed thrilled to split the fries and we cut up the hamburgers! I love that they didn't even complain, but just thanked me for the food!

On Saturday, we went to Wago a.k.a Family Land! It is sort of like a cross between a chuck e cheese and a jump zone. They had all sorts of fun little things for the kids to jump and play on. The babies favorite room was the balloon room. It was a netted off room with 50 balloons in it! They had fans blowing into the room so the balloons were flying everywhere! They spent the majority of their time in there or the ball pit. Also a favorite! They had a zip line, jungle gym, hamster wheel, trampoline, slides, and video games galore! A kids (and Rhett's) Heaven! They all had such a good time! We had some friends meet us there then we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and topped off this wonderful day with cake and ice cream back at our place!

As we're driving home Carter says, "So tomorrow is my real birthday?" I replied, "Yes, but we celebrated it today because we have church tomorrow!" He gave me a cute little smile and said," Oh good. So what are we going to do for my birthday." What a nut!

On Monday, we took cupcakes in to his class! He told me that he loved having his birthday everyday! :) Anyway, another year down! Happy Birthday big boy! I love you!!!

These swung you around and around. Like monkeys!

The balloon room! Ryker

The jungle gym. Taylor
Hunter in the ball pit! They loved to jump from the sides into the balls!

He picked out his own cake! He was so proud!

Holy crap! He's getting so big!

Botanical Garden

First, I have to apologize for all the pictures! I couldn't just pick a couple. This place was gorgeous and I felt like I had to post them all! There's your warning... this is a LONG post! :)

Carter went to the Botanical Garden on a field trip and talked about it all the time! Finally, when he had the day off we decided to go and see what all the fuss was about! I am so happy that we did! I was in Heaven! It was seriously one of the prettiest places I have been! It really made me appreciate my kids too! I love taking them places they can walk and explore this beautiful world! They are such well behaved little squirts!

While we were there I also had another great experience with the people of Japan! The kids wanted snow cones, but they cost 300 yen each. That's close to $4.00 so I opted not to let them have one! As we were walking away he was smiling at the little boys and said in his broken english, "For you a Kuwae kid discount. I give you them for 100 yen." He wouldn't even let me pay 100 yen for each. He said he was happy to see my kids smile! What a great guy to see how much the little boys wanted one and helped in making it happen. All the little boys smiled and picked their flavors while I graciously thanked him. I have had nothing but positive things to say about the people here! They truly are amazing! They would give you the shirt off their backs and would go clear out of their way to show you how to get somewhere. I can only hope to learn more from their example and hope to be the same type of person!

Carter in front of one of the many beautiful ponds!

The kids right as we came in!

This picture makes me smile. This wonderful guy took it for me. It took him several to get all of us in the picture and unfortunately this was the best shot. lol. It was pretty bright out there!

Me and the babies with the frogs!

Carter and Taylor feeding the carp! This was the kids absolute favorite part!

Ryker

Carter and Taylor in front of the fountain with their fish food!

The babies catching up after feeding the fish!

Another pond!

Zip line! Me and Carter had a blast going on it! We even sent the babies and Taylor down a couple times! Taylor mostly wanted to collect HUGE snails!

Ryker in front of a different pond!

What a sweet boy! He said he picked this for me. I gave him a huge hug and kiss then politely explained that when we pick the flowers nobody else gets to enjoy them.

So pretty! The picture don't really do this place justice!

Carter took this one!

Carter took this one! He's getting so good with a camera! I think I have a little photographer on my hands! :)

Taylor by the lily pads!

The fish waiting for some food from the kids!

The twins hanging over the edge trying to see the fish. I thought for sure I was going to have to jump in after one of them when they fell in, but was happy we all stayed dry!

Ryker trying to kiss the goat! The twins LOVE animals and were so excited to see and feed the goats!

Just saying hello!

Headed up the stairs!

Running back to the entrance! I love that all the little boys just LOVE each other and are the greatest friends! I love taking them to see new things and watching them take in the world! I am one lucky lady to be blessed with such angels!