Purikura

I know we are NERDS, but we had to introduce our kids to the Japanese Photo Booths (or purikura) sooner or later! We are going to have a fun 3 years with these things - they are EVERYWHERE!

Camp Zama to Yokota Air Base

We are now at Yokota Air Base (our home for the next 3 years)...Yay!!! Our last few days have been very productive. Here's the rundown...

Driving to Yokota Air Base

Here are those tiny 2-way roads that I was telling you about. There are no lines down the middle of the road because it is too narrow to divide it in half. Notice how all the cars are driving on the shoulder of the road. I'm not a big fan of driving in this yet...especially while sitting on the opposite side of the car!

The Housing Office

Our driver took us straight to the Housing Office so that we could finally work on finding a home. Here are the kids waiting while dad went in and did all the dirty work.

Miss Tia and her 3 loves of her life: her binkie, blankie, & giraffe. The binkie is going as soon as we get settled!

While waiting for dad to come out of the housing office Jayden asked me to take these pictures! Can you tell he was bored?

*WE FOUND HOUSING*

We are really excited!!! We got the exact town home that we wanted! It has 3 bedrooms and is already renovated. Yokota is currently in the process of renovating all their homes. We will be able to move in on August 10th (there's still a family in it right now that's moving next week). So, hopefully we'll have pictures in a few weeks.

Our Luggage

Here it is! This is what Shane & I lugged from St. George to Yokota. Since arriving in Japan we have had to drag this through customs at the airport(in 3 different carts), across the terminal, from one bus to another bus, up 3 flights of stairs, from our 1st temporary apartment to our 2nd temporary apartment, down 3 flights of stairs, into a van, and up an elevator to our 3rd temporary apartment. And we still have 1 more move left. We learned our lesson...we will DEFINITELY pack lighter next time!!! Don't you love how our two kids are still buckled into their car seats? It was the safest way to unload without them running wild:)

Our 3rd Temporary Housing The Kitchen/Front Room

The "family" bedroom. We all share this room. Tia's in the crib, & Jayden's in the bed until it's time for us to go to bed...then he is moved to the couch in the front room.

Jayden on his pull-out in the front room.

It's been great, but hopefully this is our final TEMPORARY housing.

Just Having Fun

It's rainy season right now so the kids haven't been able to play outside much, but today there was SUNSHINE--for a little while! We went to this awesome park and the kids had a blast! They still ended up soaking wet, because every tunnel had puddles of water in it. They loved it though!

An awesome spider web jungle gym.

As Jayden was swinging on this and giggling he said... "Mom, this thing is PERFECT for me." He absolutely loved it!

Another Fun Park

The kids love the parks on base. They are huge and there are tons of them. Here's a slide at the one we found today. It was so fun that we went twice today and Shane & I had to go down it a couple of times. It's just like a conveyor belt.

Shane's New Car Yay...we have a car! It's a 1995 Honda Civic with only 35,000 miles on it. These older cars are still in great shape because the Japanese take really good care of their cars. It's perfect for Shane to drive to work and back for the next 3 years. And it was EXTREMELY inexpensive-I wish we could buy cars for this cheap in the states!

We had to leave both our cars in the states--sad:(! But, everyone that is stationed here just buys really cheap cars to get around with for 3 years. Now we just need to find a mini-van for the kids & I.

We Made It!

We arrived in Japan a couple of days ago and are finally over jet lag enough that I can stay up and blog :). I feel bad because there isn't much to blog (we have not yet reached our final destination), but I thought I'd at least post the few pictures we have.

We had to go to another base (the ARMY base) to do Shane's In-Processing (Orientation), so that is where we are. A shuttle bus will be picking us up tomorrow morning and then we will head off to Yokota Air Base and start working on housing.

Anyways here are a few pictures of our last week.

ON OUR WAY TO MEET SHANE

So, this is what my stroller looked like in Las Vegas. Where are the kids you say??? Well, as you can tell there was no room for them in the stroller. I carried Tia and Jayden was attached to the stroller with a strap so that he wouldn't get lost. I carried on 5 bags, a car seat, a pillowcase stuffed full of blankets and 2 kids (thanks to some very kind people that helped me get this all on and off the plane). We normally don't travel this heavy, but it was the only way to get all of our remaining stuff to Japan! Our next move will definitely be a lot different!!!

And THANKS to my sweet parents who drove us to Las Vegas, helped me check in, tag all of our luggage, and then helped me get all of this stuff up through security. I would have been a mess doing it on my own! Wait...I was a mess...I bawled my eyes out when they left me at security! The poor security people didn't know what to do. I did finally get it together and made it to the gate:)! Our flight to L.A. went extremely well and we arrived just in time to go meet dad at his gate.

The kids running to greet their dad as he was getting off of his plane in L.A. (he's behind all those people somewhere).

2 happy kids with their dad (after 6 weeks of him being gone)!

THE FLIGHT

Considering we had tons of luggage and very excited kids the flight went extremely smooth. When we arrived at the terminal in LA the Japanese employees behind the counter noticed us and our large, heavy load (by this point we had 7 carry-ons plus all that other stuff) and asked us if they could switch our seats to the bulk head seats (which gave us tons of extra room). The extra space was awesome!

The kids only slept a little, but thanks to their toy bag...we had a fun time).

Even though it was quite the clean up, these push-pops sure kept the kids QUIET & busy.

Thanks Aunt Shanna for wrapping some of their new toys...they had a blast opening them on the plane.

We LOVE glow sticks! When the kids weren't sleeping (and the whole rest of the plane was) these kept them very entertained. Thanks again Tera!

JAPAN

Here's us at the Fish Pond on Camp Zama (that's the ARMY base that we've been at for the last week). It's amazing how AMERICANIZED it all is! They have everything (i.e. regular milk, Burger King, Subway, & even Oxi Clean-that's one thing I CANT live without).

VENTURING OUT

All we have to do is walk out the base gate and we are right in the middle of a Japanese city. We've had a great time walking around (well, I don't know if you can call it great-we were almost hit a few times on their tiny roads:0), taking the trains, and eating their food. All in all - we are really excited to be here!

We found this little store with yummy noodles & curry. It only cost $5 and fed both Shane and I. OHHHHH do we love this food!!!!

TEMPORARY LODGING Our 1st Room We were put in this single room for the first 2 nights. It was pretty tight, but we were all so tired that it didn't matter.

We were then moved to our 2nd Room(2 bedrooms + a kitchen/front room) The kids room.

The Kitchen/front room...and Jayden giving me a nice punch!

Shane & I's room.

The other night I was sitting at the kitchen table and looked over and saw this...

For those of you that know our kids...you know that this is not normal. They are usually fighting or bugging each other, but I think they're realizing that this is all they've got right now. We still break up lots of fight, but are starting to see more kind moments between them.

Today we had an orientation meeting that both Shane & I needed to attend, so our kids went to day care for the day (their 1st time ever). As I was walking towards the playground at the end of the day I could not find them anywhere. All of the other kids were playing on the play sets, riding bikes, etc. (which my kids love to do)...but where we're Jayden & Tia? Finally I focused right in front of me and this is what I saw...

Look closely at the center of the picture (click on picture to enlarge)...Jayden and Tia are holding each others hands through a fence (that divided his class from hers). When I got up close enough I could hear Tia bawling and Jayden was trying to comfort her. Yeah...I was bawling by this point also! I had to hold her for the next 10 minutes to calm her down. Jayden told me later that Tia was sad that she couldn't play with him. She was really happy to have us all back together as a family. I am so grateful for families and I love mine with all my heart! Thanks Jayden & Tia for being so sweet!

P.S. Shane & I both passed our Driver's Licence test and now have a Japanese Driver's Licence.

Off to Japan!

We are headed to Japan tomorrow and just wanted to say BYE to everyone! It's been so fun seeing those of you here in Utah...it about killed me this week saying goodbye to all my family and friends. I haven't cried this much in a long time! We love you all SOOOOOOO much and will miss you more than you know! Hopefully we'll be up and blogging again real soon! Please keep in touch and come visit us if you can :)!

Veterinarian in the Military

Amy has asked me to post a blog entry (my first) as to what a military veterinarian does. I tend to get numerous questions in regards to what I will be doing as a veterinarian in the US Army. So here goes:

Of all the branches of the military (Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, etc.) the Army is the only branch with a Veterinary Corps which in turn services all the other branches of the military. This is why we are going to an Air Force base in Japan even though we are Army.

The primary mission is to provide medical and surgical care for government owned animals (military working dogs, police and patrol dogs, etc), civilian pets on base, public health (ie. food safety and defense), and some humanitarian service missions such as providing veterinary care to underdeveloped countries.

Here are some pictures I found:

There are approximately 450 active duty veterinarians serving worldwide and then some additional reserve unit veterinarians. For our assignment in Japan, I will be running the veterinary hospital on base. I hope this answers some questions. Let us know if you have any more.

-Shane

My 31st Birthday!

Kamas Birthday Party with The Andrews

While in Kamas for the 4th of July, Shane's sweet family threw me an early birthday party. It was perfect-thanks everyone!

Everyone (except for Tera who's taking the picture & Shane who's in Texas).

The beautiful birthday cake that Tiana (Shane's sis.) made me.

WOW-That's a lot of candles!

I needed a lot of help to blow out all those candles.

When I got home from Kamas there was a package from my sweet husband with these beautiful things in it! I absolutely love them...thanks Shane! Didn't he do a good job...I can't even pick out jewelry.

My BirthDAY

I wanted to take the kids somewhere fun on my birthday, so I took them to the Fiesta Fun - Family Fun Center. Now doesn't that just sound fun :)he he! My sister, 2 brothers, and best friend Audrie came (Audrie had to leave before I started taking pictures). We all had a blast. Here are some pictures.

Casey and Jayden playing on the arcade games.

Bumper Boats

The Whole Gang.

Caelan & Jayden

War Time

Aunt Angela taking Tia for a walk so that she wouldn't fall in the water while I was taking pictures of the Bumper Boat Wars. Thanks Angela!

Give Tia a bag of something to eat and she is a Happy Camper!

Miniature Golfing

Jayden would WALK his ball straight to each hole and then putt it in.

We miss you dad and can't wait to see you soon!

My brother James, sister Launa, her husband Donn, and their son Casey.

Jayden's Team (Caelan, Jayden, & Conner). I really think he thinks he's as old as them!

My sister Launa had this YUMMY cake made.

And then ordered 31 flavors of ice cream from Baskin Robbins 31 Choices. I was totally excited about this. That really made turning 31 fun!

Thanks everyone (from both families) for making my birthday so special! I love you all so much!

And then here are 2 totally random pictures from my birthday:

Jayden snuck into Grandma's room and decided to SHAVE for the first time! I think he learned his lesson...as you can tell he wasn't very excited to take a picture of his little mistake! We couldn't get it to stop bleeding, so he had to wear a band aid which covered his entire lower lip...poor kid!

And here's just a cute picture of Tia sleeping sideways in her crib. I love pictures of sleeping babies. I think Jayden has a billion of them.