A great way to end the week...

Friday night Alison and I headed out to Kim and Devon's (from church) to watch their kiddos for the evening. First of all, they live in an amazing place, practically on top of the ocean. So beautiful! The kids are great and we had lots of fun! It was such a great way to end the week! We ate pizza and did everything from watch Prince Caspian to sing and dance the Hokey Pokey. lol Alison got it on video but thankfully she refrained from posting it! I wouldn't want to give away my childish side! ;) Samuel was a bit camera happy...the following pictures are all ones he took!
We were taking a break from the craziness that was Friday night!
Matthew felt the need to get into as many pictures as possible and Emma is sportin her peace sign.

Then on Saturday Alison and I decided to go down south to the Peace Memorial Park. This was the main battleground for the Battle of Okinawa during WWII. Outside were the walls filled with names of those whose lives were taken as a result of this battle, both Okinawans and US military. It was something to be in this place, walking through the exhibits from the war and the Okinawans life under US rule. Hundreds of thousands of people died during this time, most of which were civilians. While, for the most part, the tension is not present today, it did not take away from the fact that we felt very "out of place" and "responsible" for the tragedy represented in this memorial. This was a very humbling experience!

Here is the view from the top of the grounds at the memorial. The building below is the memorial museum.

From outside the peace park

The purpose of the entire park is to promote permanent peace in Okinawa. They had a children's exhibit near the exit of the building and inside the room was this huge globe with pictures of children from all over the world, representing different countries, and in the shape of the various land masses.