How did our parents do this? Just google it!

Somehow Jason got it in his head that we needed to fly a kite with Colton. I actually think I mentioned it one day in passing, but I never thought it would become his ultimate goal in life. After finding out that the stores on base didn't have any we began our search of the Japanese stores. We brought up a picture of a kite on our cell phone and asked them if they had any in stock. Oddly enough, the picture we found had an article about how Japanese people invented kite flying more than 2000 years ago. We thought for sure we would find one after reading this. Wrong again. The Aeon didn't have them, San A or Makeman. We waited about 3 weeks and checked back at the stores on base. We can't really ask any of the workers, mostly Japanese people,  at the base stores for help because whatever you ask for (if they don't know the word) they just say they don't have it. Very frustrating. After a little searching Jason found a kite! I don't think he's been so excited about something in his life!

That weekend we went over to our friends' house with a back yard. Jason was dead set on flying kites in the back yard. They tied the string onto the kite and took the boys to see if they could do it. My friend and I made some sangria, poured ourselves a glass and let the entertainment begin. I should have video taped it, but I was laughing so hard that I didn't even think of it. Our grown husbands were running around with kites dragging behind them in the grass. Colton didn't even care enough to watch. This ensued for about 30 minutes without one ounce of success. After the neighbor came out and told us how ridiculous our husbands were they decided to call it quits. Oh, I forgot to mention. There wasn't one breeze. Not even a  little wind. We chalked it up as that being the reason for no kite flying and let the BBQ begin.

The next day was a little windier and Jason wanted to head to the beach to fly the kite. We packed everything up and headed to Araha. Again, my husband was running around dragging his kite in the sand trying to get it to fly.

We decided to google it. "How to fly a kite." Turns out he was doing it all wrong. So we tried the new way. One person holding the handle and the other about 60 feet away holding the kite. Of course I'm on the dangerous end, holding the kite, waiting for the wind to pick up. Finally we got the kite into the air only to have it come dive bombing down on me. Luckily I have the quickness and got out of the way the many times I could have been killed. After getting my hands on the kite I realized that Jason had tied it so that the decorative side of the kite was facing upward. I then realized our problem. I untied and retied the kite so that the flames were facing us when it would be flying (if we ever got it to do that). We had a little more success this way, but again, it just wasn't windy enough. No matter how bad Jason wanted to fly a kite, it would just have to wait until the wind kicked up.

The following weekend we went kite flying again. It was windy. Seriously windy. We thought for sure we would get our kite to fly! Jason left before me to get down to the beach so I jogged to try to catch up to him. I got to the beach and Jason and Colton were no where in sight. I called Jason to see if he had gone somewhere else. Nope. He was about a block away when he realized that the kite string had come undone and was wrapped all around the stroller wheel. He should be down there in a few minutes. I think this was a bad omen.

Finally we get to the beach and start our flying. It's working!!! We are flying a kite!

 

Colton thought it was a blast and was dancing every time the kite got up into the air. Daddy wanted to Colton to hold the handle and do the "flying." Well, he was not interested in that and abruptly put the handle down. Needless to say - he kite went sailing away toward the ocean, I was watching the kite fly through the air with my head looking upward oblivious to what was happening on the ground. I look down to see Jason running down the beach after the kite shouting to me to grab it. I do a belly-flop onto the sand and grab a hold of the handle when the kite comes crashing down, nearly dive-bombing an Asian family with small children. We're lucky we didn't have an international incident!

 

 

 



After laying out in the sun and getting all the seaweed off of Old Faithful I'm sure she'll be ready to fly again soon.