So I am SOOOO behind on the blog, but am rededicating myself to it--I have been such a slacker. So there still are so many posts I need to catch up from Japan. Our last several months there were a whirlwind!! My brother, Brandon came to visit us and we did a ton of fun stuff with him. The most notable, for me, was that he, Eric and I, left the kids with friends and went on a trip to Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima Island--it was spectacular. I have tons of pictures, but will catch up on those later.
The kids and I left Japan a couple of weeks before Eric. We had to pack all of our stuff up the beginning of May to start shipping it here to Spain, so there was nothing in our house and the kids and I decided to fly home and spend time with family. We ended up being in the states for 6 weeks. We flew from Japan to Seattle and the plan was to spend the night with my really good friend, Shari, and then we were to fly out the next day to St. Louis. However, as we were landing in Seattle, Kailey threw up all over the plane and when we walked in the door at Shari's house she threw up again and continued to throw up for the next 24 hours (it was kind of a rough flight!!) Shari ended up calling the airline for me, I had lost my voice, and we pushed our flight back a couple of days. It ended up all working out, Kailey was fine after 24 hours, and then we had fun hanging out with Shari and her family, and my sister Brooke, who lives in Seattle, spent the weekend with us. We had a blast!
Next we flew to St. Louis, where we spent 3 weeks. We had a great time in St. Louis with my parents and did TONS of fun stuff! Here are some of the highlights:
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| Went and watched the dirt-burners--remote control cars. |
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| Papa built a water-launched rocket with the kids--a HUGE hit!! |
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| This thing went SOOOO high--landed on the roof a couple of times and in the neighbors' yard, etc.! |
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| Went to the zoo |
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| Botanical Garden's chinese exhibit |
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| This dragon was made out of plates--amazing!! |
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| Playing at the sculpture garden |
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| The Nature Center |
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| We went fishing a couple of times--had a great time! |
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| One of the many fish he caught |
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| Aunt Brooke chasing us |
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| Playing in the water |
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| Playing with cousins--Kailey and Teagan are best buddies!! |
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| Cade and Landon fixing the bikes |
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| The girls working on their tan |
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| Tio teaching them the sprinkler dance |
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| Celebrating Kailey and Uncle B's birthday |
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| Grant's farm--petting the goats |
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| Papa feeding B |
We had a great time--my whole family, minus Aaron got together, it was so wonderful to see everyone!!! We had such a fabulous time--it was hard to leave!!
