Goal Digger

Most people who know me know that I worked for lululemon (#dreamjob).  Working for lululemon was more than just selling stretchy pants and working out, it was a place where I was able to grow & develop not only in my career, but also in my personal life.  It played a major role in the person I am today and for that, I will be forever grateful.  A big part of lululemon culture was centered around goals.  If you walk into a store you will see these goal sheets filled out by all the staff & ambassadors:

Write out your goals and share them with the world!  I vividly remember my first goal coaching session and having some major "ah-ha!" moments.  I left feeling so pumped and frickin excited about my life and what I was working towards.  I also remember struggling hard with my goals when I was pregnant with Nora.  I was feeling pretty lost and unsure of what the future looked like - I just couldn't create a vision for my life in 10 years.  I had no idea what life with a kid was going to be like, we didn't know where Jonathan was going to end up after residency, I didn't know if I would even go back to work after my maternity leave ended.  So many questions and no answers.  I finally just set my goals aside and decided to focus on the present for awhile: let me see what this new role of motherhood would bring me, what living overseas would look like.  And that's what I did (for almost two years).  In that time I really I figured out what kind of parent (and person) I wanted to be, what my values were, what kind of life I wanted to have.  Fast-forward to January 2017 and I was SO ready to get working on creating my goals:

A lot of them I've already put a check mark by (this blog, hello!).  I've been running consistently with Nora every week.  Running with a stroller is serious training, on the rare day that I do get to run solo, my pace is faster than it ever has been (even back when I was training for my first half marathon!).  We've already taken one trip this year, have a second booked (hello Maui!), and the other two are in the works.  The others - photography class & sewing machine - it sounds silly, but it's scary to put those out there.  It's more than just words, now I've put it in writing and sent it out to the universe, so I have to act on it!  My parents got me a camera for my birthday last year and I've been playing around with it non-stop since I got it (pretty much just pictures of Nora, duh, she's the cutest!), but I would love to learn more about how to use it, learn about lighting, and all the other fun things that go along with photography.  Annnnnd the sewing machine.  I have so many friends that sew and I'm always in awe and so inspired by what they create.  I also love to buy Nora handmade items (I'm all about #shopsmall and supporting other moms) and would love to be able to make something for her (and me!).  Finally, taking time for myself - probably the biggest goal I have for myself this year.  I haven't been consistent with this one, but I'm working on it.  I love spending time with Nora and rarely want to leave her (we're both attached, what can I say), but it does me so much good to get out of the house once a week and take time for myself.  It may be going to get a pedicure, going for a run or having a girls' night, having that time away for myself is so important.  And now that I've put them out there, I need everyone to hold me accountable!  

  

I'm still working on my 10 year vision and my 5 & 10 year goals, but I think this is a good launchpad for where I see our life going.  So what goals are you working towards this year?

Taipei

One of our goals for this year is to travel {at least} four times.  We have so many places we want to visit and explore while we're here, four trips a year might not even be enough!  Since Nora is still pretty young, we want to keep most of our trips relatively close - like three hours flights or less.  For our first trip of the year we headed to Taipei, Taiwan!  Unfortunately it was cold & rainy the whole time we were there, but we didn't let it slow us down.  All I can say is thank goodness for good rain boots! 

Da'an Forest Park

Our first day we explored the neighborhood where we were staying.  Let me back up a bit though, as soon as we were pulling into the airport in Okinawa, I realized I forgot to put the Ergo in the car.  Cue a major "oh crap moment!"  We knew we would be doing a lot of walking and trying to wrangle our spirited 18 month old can be a challenge to say the least.  But kids always surprise you.  Nora did so great walking through the city, holding hands when we crossed the street, staying on the sidewalk.  It's amazing what a few months can do for a child, how much they grow up in such a short amount of time.  We were so impressed!

 
This was Nora's first time seeing squirrels (there aren't squirrels on Okinawa) and she was pretty curious about them.  These were some seriously friendly squirrels too!  If we had any food on us, I'm sure they would have eaten out of our hands.  

Day two we hit the Taipei Zoo and Taipei 101.  Our animal loving girl loved the zoo!  Every time we would start to walk away to another animal exhibit, she kept saying "more, more" and wanting us to stay where we were.  I think her favorite was seeing the elephants. 

This just made me giggle :)

Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world from 2004-2009.  It was so cloudy and foggy from the rain so we weren't able to get the beautiful, sweeping views of the city, but it was still amazing!  The elevator ride from the 5th floor to the 89th is one of the fastest in the world - we were up in less than a minute! 

For our last day, we took the Maokong Gondola up the mountain to check out the tea village and explore.  Again, it was rainy & foggy, so we didn't get great pictures, but it was a nice ride up and we didn't have to wait in a long line to get up there (a lot of friends said they had waited over an hour!).  There wasn't much to do once we got off at the top, but the scenery was beautiful and we just enjoyed walking around (and Nora splashed in lots of puddles).  

Waiting for the gondola - all the locals in line with us were swooning over Nora  

We had planned to check out the national park that day as well, but with all the rain, we figured it might be a bust.  So we ended up finding the coolest market (that's the only way I know how to explain it) called Maji.  It had tons of restaurants and shops (I even found fresh pressed juice - yay!).  We ended up staying there the rest of the day. 

Nora's first carousel ride 

Just a cat in a purse, aka, Nora's dream.

Even with the cold & rain, this trip was great.  It was so wonderful to see how well Nora did compared to our trip to Kyoto a few months before.  There were no meltdowns and she really went with the flow.  I can't wait to keep traveling with her!

Kyoto

Our first trip we took since coming to Okinawa was to Kyoto, Japan back in November.  It's a quick flight, around two hours.  We planned our flight time around nap time and it was perfect!  Our busy girl slept almost the whole flight!  We knew we wanted to visit Kyoto in the fall to experience all the fall colors & temperatures that we just don't get in Okinawa.  The scenery (and weather) did not disappoint!

On our first day, we visited the Fushimi Inari Shrine, famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates.  It was packed full of tourists and locals alike: the tourists taking in the beauty of the gates and the scenery surrounding us.  The locals, dressed in traditional kimonos, headed to the top to pray.  We didn't make it all the way to the top (you know, toddlers...), but the time we did spend here was amazing!

That afternoon we checked out Kyoto Imperial Park.  We got there pretty late in the afternoon and parts of the park were closing (and it was getting dark), but we were able to explore the grounds and just run around.

On our second day, we took the train to Osaka (about an hour away) to check out the children's museum.  Although it was a lot of fun and there was a ton to do there, I think it was just a little too old for Nora - she wasn't able to fully appreciate everything there.  Maybe we'll go back when she's a little older.  She did stand in the front entrance forever just watching all the balls go through each mechanism:

Afterwards we hopped back on the train and headed for Iwatayama Monkey Park (aka Monkey Mountain).  Home to Japanese Macaque Monkeys, we knew our animal-loving girl would be in heaven.  I don't think I realized that it was an actual mountain that we had to hike to get to the top where the monkeys were.  Of course I was in inappropriate footwear (my trusty Chucks let me down) and Nora insisted that I was the one to wear her up the mountain.  But we made it and it was awesome!  Not just the monkeys, but the view from the top.  

Of course, a trip with a toddler wouldn't be complete without a total meltdown by said toddler.  She did not want to leave those monkeys.  I get it, they were awesome and I was sad to leave too.

But here's the deal: traveling with kids can be hard, and those meltdowns are enough to make you want to throw in the towel and never do this again.  But you can and you should!  Just like anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes - and as she continues to get older, traveling with her will get better.  Of course there will be bumps along the way and new problems will arise, but we are all better for it.  I'm not going to let a few meltdowns stop us from seeing the world.  There were so many things on our must-see list while we were there that we didn't get a chance to see.  We will definitely go back (maybe every year we're here!) so we can take in as much as possible!

Here We Go!

When we found out that we were moving to Japan for three years, I knew I wanted to start a blog - that way our family and friends could keep up with our adventures.  Fast forward to over a year later and still no blog...When the new year came around I began writing my goals for 2017 and starting a blog was at the top of my list.  So here we go, I'm diving in and committing to writing at least once a month (hopefully more!).  A friend said to me, blogging is like a journal of sorts, a way to look back and remember your adventures.  This is such an exciting time in our lives and I want to make sure we have these memories for years to come - a way for Nora (and Jonathan & I) to look back and see what life was like in Japan.

Getting ready to board our flight from Seattle to Okinawa

We have definitely settled into life on the island.  We live in base housing - I wasn't so sure about living on base, but we've been so happy here.  It's such a great community and we love our neighbors.  There are plenty of kids and people are always outside playing or hanging out.  The base we live on is also super close to the beach (like only a mile away!), and we take walks or ride our bikes to the beach regularly.  One of my favorite things about Japan so far has to be all the amazing parks.  They are all unique and so different from parks in the US.  Our goal while we're here is to visit as many parks as possible!

Treehouse Park

Pirate Ship Park

It's hard to believe that we've been here for almost eight months.  I feel like we've seen so much already, but we really haven't even scratched the surface!  We have a lot of travel plans over the next two and a half years, I'm looking forward to sharing our adventures with you all!

Until next time, cheers!