Tokyo Disney Sea

As our time here winds down--I can hardly believe 3 years is almost over, we are trying to make the most of our last 2 months and doing everything we can.  Last week, Eric took off a day and we took the kids to Disney Sea.  Tokyo is the only place where they have it, so that was pretty cool.  We had a great time--the kids LOVED it.  It is very different from Tokyo Disney--most of the rides are based around a water theme and the big Disney show was on the water and was spectacular.  The other fun part was that we were pretty much the only non-Japanese people there.  We had so many Japanese people come up and touch the kids hair, especially Kailey--she got swarmed a couple of times.  The kids are pretty use to people wanting to touch their hair (the japanese like it because it is blondish) and tell them how cute they are.  Also, it was interesting to hear all the Disney songs in Japanese--it was a little bizarre to be on all these rides and it is all in Japanese and have like Ariel singing "Part of this World" in Japanese--crazy!!  Anyways, here are some pictures from our fun day!

Eric and the kids in Ariel's grotto

All of us on the merry-go-round

The big show on the water--it was great!

Kailey is in love with characters in costumes

This bird LOVED Kailey--held her hand and walked around with her and then kissed her

Riding in the police car!!

Setsubun Festival

This summer I started attending a class off base twice a month.  It is a small class, we meet in the bottom of a japanese apartment building and we do what is called kimekomi.  Kimekomi is a japanese craft where you make fabric covered balls and dolls (it sounds weird, but is really fun).  Anyways, there are usually about 4-5 american women and we meet with 7-8 japanese women.  Their husbands are all retired japanese navy and the women all speak excellent english.  We all sit together and work on our balls or dolls and then we eat lunch.  The japanese provide lunch and americans bring dessert.  Lunch is the best part, it is always so fun to see what they make and we eat some amazing things and we also have a lot of fun conversations.  They ask us about American things and we ask our japanese questions.  Anyways, back in february they took us on a field trip to one of the shrines in Kamakura for Setsubun festival.

Setsubun is the day before the beginning of Spring, always celebrated on February 3rd.  One of their traditions is that they throw roasted soybeans.  The soybeans celebrate luck and keep evil spirits away.  So at all the major shrines they have big festivals and bring in celebrities to throw beans at you.  Where we were we had a sumo wrestler, an actor, a writer, a weather woman, etc. that threw the beans along with some priests.  Usually the japanese are so orderly and nice, but this was the one time they weren't. What would happen is a whistle would be blown and they celebrities would start throwing beans to the crowd--as they threw beans it was wild.  I had little old men and women shoving me out of the way to catch beans--it was like being in a mosh pit.  If you get certain packets of beans you can win a prize--the big prizes were t.v.s, rice cookers, etc.  I won a set of 5 pairs of chopsticks--they are very nice.  This was one of the most interesting festivals I had been to, but I LOVED it--we had a blast.

The celebrities with their boxes of beans to throw

Getting ready to throw.

The crowd ready with their bags

Tokyo Baseball Game

I don't know why Kailey and I have our eyes closed!


A couple of weeks ago we went with some of Eric's coworkers to see the Seattle Mariners play the Hanashin Tigers in the Tokyo Dome.  We have been to a couple of Japanese baseball games before and they are SOOOOO much more exciting than American baseball games, which I find rather boring sometimes.  Japanese baseball fans are fanatics.  Each team has specific songs or chants and ALL the fans know the songs.  The games are loud, the people have plastic bats they bang together, it is just a lot of fun.  Eric and I weren't sure how the kids would like it, but they LOVED it.  Here are some pictures from our fun time!!

Ethan turns 5!!!

Ethan turned 5 on Saturday.  I can hardly believe I have a 5 year old--it has just gone so fast.  We are so lucky to have Ethan in our family.  He is such an obedient, fun boy and so helpful.  He is always helping me out and is so kind to Kailey and Cade.  Here are a couple of pictures from his fun day!

The birthday boy with his banner and hat

Opening his first present--Kailey and Cade are as excited as Ethan!

More presents!

Cade playing with Ethan's new star wars gun (that makes so much noise!!)

Ethan wanted a batman cake and this is what I came up with

We invited some friends over for cake!

Blowing out the candles!

2nd place finish and Cirque Dreams

Cirque Dreams came to the base and performed a free show.  We went and it was amazing!!  We are so lucky to have so many talented performers come and perform at the military bases for free.  Here we are with part of the cast!

I ran in a 5K on Friday and pushed all 3 kids and FINISHED and ended up getting 2nd place in the stroller division (okay there were only like 5 strollers, but they were all only pushing one kid, and I had 3!!)  Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself.  My friend gave me her old jogging stroller and I LOVE it!  Can't wait for it to get warmer so I can use it more.  So Eric's whole command ran the race, and one of the JAG's snapped this picture of us to send to Eric joking that he wasn't man enough to push the kids!  While we were running, Eric came out and took a picture of us!

Here I am in action--the kids were really good, however, a couple of times they asked, "Mommy are you running yet?"  I guess I wasn't running fast enough!!

Iwakuni

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go down to Iwakuni, which is about 6 hours away by bullet train, on the southern tip of the island of Honshu, Japan.  I went down with a friend, we had to go for a church conference and the husbands stayed home to watch the kids--it was FANTASTIC!!!  I will say that Eric has a lot more appreciation for motherhood--he told me he never wanted to be a stay at home dad and couldn't wait to go back to work!!  He did have a lot of fun with the kids.  Jessica and I went down a little early and had time to go see this really cool bridge called the "Kintai Bridge."  Originally it was made with  no nails, it was just lashed together--it was pretty amazing.  Here are some pictures from our trip.

Kintai Bridge

We rode a cable car up the mountain to a castle and there were some amazing views.

View of the bridge from the top of the mountain

Looking over Iwakuni

The castle at the top

At night

I thought this was really cool with the reflection

We also had a chance to go to the LDS temple in Fukuoka, about 3 hours south of Iwakuni.  Here we are in front of the temple.

Jessica and I in front of the temple--we had so much fun.

Christmas 2011

We had an amazing Christmas this year.  It was really nice and low-key and the kids totally cleaned up and got TONS of fun presents that are still keeping them busy (the sign of a good toy!!)  Here are a couple of pictures!

Santa came!

Kailey so excited

Batman cave

Cade just chilling!

Cade in his raincoat and Kailey's boots!

So handsome!

New church clothes from Gramps and Granny