Happy Japan Day!

Our favorite activity on base is Japan Day. In fact I would say that our kids wake up as if it were Christmas, shouting "Happy Japan Day" at the top of their lungs. Here we are walking over to Japan Day events. You may not be able to tell, but the cherry blossom trees have a slight pink hue to them and are getting ready to bloom.

 This year one of the new booths at Japan Day was learning how to use chopsticks. Evidently peanuts are a good way to begin, but I would not want to put one in my mouth as is.

 The girls got to choose a character to write in Japanese. Jane is excited for spring and choose "cherry blossom".

 Helen, on the other hand was reveling the Japan-ness of Japan Day and learned "Japan".

Ryan tried to break it to the kids that they don't celebrate "Japan Day" in Tennessee.  By the looks on their faces, you'd have thought he'd just told them that Christmas was cancelled next year too.  After much discussion, we agreed that we could have Japan Day in Tennessee next year, but we have to come up with all the activities ourselves and invite our friends.

After talking to my sister about the challenges of keeping Carl busy in safe activities, she recommended a ramp to send cars down. To date, Carl seems to be more interested in putting himself down the ramp or swinging the ramp around the room. But at least he's cute about it.

Hong Kong

In March we got to go to Hong Kong to visit my mom and dad while on their mission. We had a great time. Somehow we managed to find all the most fun things to do.

Here we are trying not to get blown away by the wind in front of the Church Office Building.

While my parents were in a meeting, we went next door to the 46th floor of an awesome skyscraper. You can see the Church Office Building down below to the right of Helen. It is the brick building with grey accents and a spire. I thought it was super cool to be up that high, but there was talk of tingly feelings in the stomachs of some in our family.

We loved riding the ferries to and from Hong Kong island. They were so short you didn't even have time to get seasick or "straight"sick as the case may be.

It warmed up nicely for our trip out to Lamma Island. The girls and Grandpa had a great time putting their toes in the water and digging in the sand.

After hiking up and over Lamma Island, we made it to the other port town for some fish and chips. Yum! Here I need to mention that with so many adults, each kid had a buddy they walked with every day of the trip. It's hard to know who was the favorite buddy, I had to give Jane a peanut m&m one day so she would go with me. I'm just not as great as Grandma and Grandpa.

Ryan and I went to the Hong Kong temple one night while mom and dad had fun with the kids.

I told the girls that I would get them new sunglasses on this trip. Are there even words for these spectacular numbers? Two are Hello Kitty and one is a bunny. Based on their smiles, I think we found the right ones.

Here we are at a museum with Ming Dynasty pottery pieces displayed under the glass floor.

Mangoes + shaved ice + sweetened condensed milk + mango puree = 1 MANGO VOLCANO + 3 happy girls

We were really brave and ate BBQ poultry as seen in the picture below. It was good, even if in color tones we are not used to.

It is always a good idea to keep track of your hands at all times. You never know when you'll get bit.

A Visit from Mom and Warren

We were so fortunate to have a visit from Mom and Warren last month.  They made the grueling trek of multiple planes & trains to get way up here during the coldest weather we've had in a while.  We showed them around base, ate some Japanese noodles, shopped at our favorite Daiso dollar-store, and then headed to Tokyo for some more fun.  Here we are "chillin" outside the Misawa train station as we started our trip south.

In Tokyo we first visited the Tokyo LDS Temple.

Then we toured the Imperial Palace Gardens.  The trees there were just beginning to get their spring blossoms, and made for some great photo-ops.

When we travel, we have assigned "buddies" to avoid leaving anyone behind.  The only tough part about a visit from Grandma is trying to decide who gets to be her "buddy"!

After miles and miles of subways, trains, and endless stairs, our fun in Tokyo was through and we caught our flight to Hong Kong while Mom and Warren flew back to the states.  We'll miss them, and can't wait to see them again in the US.

I can't finish without showing you this great view of Mt Fuji that Michelle caught from our plane window.  Living in Japan just makes you love volcanoes.