Campout

Over Memorial Day weekend we packed up our van and headed south for a great camping trip. We started at a cute little aquarium.

In Japan when you pay for a campsite they let you use a wheel barrel to cart all your things to your site. This is a really nice feature when your site is 1/4 mile away from the parking lot. Our friends and our family were the only ones there. It might have had something to do with the gale force winds.

 Camping is even better when there are rocks to climb on!

 It was all I could do to keep up with these little billy goats gruff.

 Here are the pack horses of our adventure.

 These kids would have hiked right into the ocean if I hadn't been there. One more reason to have a mother.

Happy Birthday Jane and Helen

We had such beautiful weather this spring that we had picnics more often than not. I love not sweeping, so I am more than happy to eat outside with kids. 

Jane turned 5, and was treated to a birthday party with our neighbors. 

 Helen just turned 7, and she's demonstrating how they show 7 with fingers in Japan with her Mt. Fuji salad she chose for dinner.

Helen asked for Mango Volcanoes for dessert. I had to scour all the old Japanese thrift stores until I found an ice shaver. (To be honest, I came home with three and then had to test them all.)


Have you ever seen such a beautiful azalea?

Cherry Blossom Season or Two Weeks

Here we our scouring the beach for sea glass. The big tire tracks kind of detract from the feeling of nature, the open air, and pounding surf.

 It's really hard to convince Carl he wants to go the same direction as we do. I can trick him for 30 seconds if we grab onto the same thing.

 I'm sure that Mr. Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday could not look more stalwart and brave on the shore of their island.

 We had wonderful weather for cherry blossom viewing. It is so great that in Japan nearly all the best spots for enjoying cherry blossoms are also parks. The first picture is in a park off base.

 Here we are at another park next to our library.

 Here is our little bike gang enjoying some circuits.

 Another park. These cherry blossoms sure make going to the park seem glamorous.

 Note the small child in the background walking away from the park while his mom is taking a picture.

 Here is a picture of our town home. Ryan gets to walk this way to and from work every day. (That Cougar cuts.)

 Airplanes and cherry blossoms. I mean really, I love cherry blossom season. I can't think of anything that doesn't look better with cherry blossoms.

Everyone participated in a 1K Fun-Run. We were so excited that we trained beforehand for weeks. Mostly Ryan would come home  and say, "Time to practice running," and off we would go.

 At the run I had an epiphany. My kids only run fast when I am chasing them. So I got to join in the race so Helen would run instead of walk/trot. Luckily I had been practicing too, in the loosest sense of the word.

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.