Two typhoon weekend

Last weekend we had our first typhoon of our Okinawa experience. It was actually pretty amazing that we made it this long without one considering we pretty much live in typhoon alley, but if one wasn't enough, it was quickly followed by another just 2 days later. 

Friday night, we went to dinner on the west side and watched the storm roll in as the sun set. It was pretty incredible.

I was a little nervous about preparing for the storms. Some of our neighbors who have been here for several years said that it is not terribly uncommon to lose power for up to a week. And when this category 4 storm showed up on the radar, I just prayed that we were prepared!

 We filled our bathtubs with water and pulled everything from our patio into the living room. I can't even imagine winds strong enough to blow around a grill, but we watched some videos about previous typhoons that had cars rolling around the parking lot. So crazy.

 Saturday was the perfect lazy day. It was sort of nice to have an excuse to just be home together (when the storm gets bad enough we aren't even allowed to go outside). We never got to the "emergency" state but we were in caution pretty much the entire day.

Rowan is getting really fun to read with. He definitely has favorite books (Moo Baa La La La, Brown Bear Brown Bear, and Where's Baby's Belly Button to name a few) and is starting to "help" turn the pages :)

 Hung out in bed and pretended it was cold :)

Rolled around on the floor and got caught up in blankets :)

Tried out new fruits that I found earlier in the week at the farmers market...it was too pretty not to buy! Dragon fruit :)

It was delicious and really the coolest looking fruit ever! It sort of tastes like a pear kiwi hybrid.

Then we did some more cuddling and napping...I LOVE that he has become more cuddly in the last few weeks!

The storm turned out to not be as bad as we thought and was really just a lot of wind and rain, but nothing worse than we've experienced before. We also finished hanging frames in Rowan's room and his room is ALMOST complete, I'm loving it. 

Sunday was a normal day but we knew that another typhoon would be hitting Monday, so we reevaluated to make sure we were ready, baked some cookies in case we lost power :) and filled up both tubs with water.

That morning, Grant had to go in to work, but they were sent home less than 2 hours later. So, we got an unexpected super lazy 3-day weekend :) There were some good waves (this picture really doesn't show it) and there were actually surfers out that morning (and the bay we live on is usually pretty calm).

Grant and I decided to go out in the yard during some of the good wind and rain. It's still really weird to have it look so cold and rainy yet realize that it's still really warm outside!

Rowan actually really liked the weather, especially the wind. We didn't take him out when it was too crazy but he had fun with the mist and breeze. This category 4 storm actually turned out to be pretty mild. Winds reached 150 mph up north, but weren't terribly strong down here. Everyone seemed disappointed and it would have been cool to see some crazy weather, but I'm just so grateful it wasn't bad enough to lose power, etc.

 He could barely keep his eyes open with the wind and rain...this picture sums it up pretty well :)

I'm glad we finally experienced a typhoon since they will be a pretty regular part of our lives for the next 3 years. Although I'm sure I'll never feel totally prepared, it's good to have some emergency essentials stashed away and realize how much fun we can have all cooped up at home as a family :)