Tia's 1st Dance Class

Tia recently started a dance class and absolutely loves it! I love watching her get so excited.

Let me warn you...there are a lot of videos of her dancing. I apologize, but this is our journal and we want to have all of these memories, so I have to post them all :) Plus, I thought her girl cousins in Utah would love to see her dancing...these are for you girls (and all the aunts, uncles, cousins, & grandparents of course).

Our little dancer.

This is what we call the "SHHH" dance. Tia's legs are spread out so wide that she can't even do the dance, but it doesn't stop her.

Look at Tia's face in the mirror...she's so excited!

"Naughty Toes"

We love this one because Tia will randomly practice it in her car seat while we are driving.

She tries so hard to do what the teacher is doing.

"Walking the line"

"Galloping"

Tia's dance class and their favorite stuffed animals.

Tia and her teacher Ms. Helen.

Okutama Roller Slide

For Memorial Day a few families from our branch drove for 2 hours (about 35 miles) to go to this Roller Slide in Okutama. The roads were tight, and very curvy, but it was SO beautiful and worth it.

We thought this was a neat looking temple at the top of a hill, but it was actually the starting point for the roller slide we went on (see the white slide coming out the right side of it-that is about 1/3 of the slide). We had to hike up the hill each time we wanted to go down it. We definitely got our exercise that day!

Here are the 5 families and the missionaries that went.

The beginning of the slide.

The Elder's and their friend at the beginning. These 3 were nuts!! They probably went down 100 times. We would all wait and let them go before us because they would get the roller pins going really fast.

Shane and Tia half way down the slide.

Adyson, Tia, and I.

Our family at the end of the slide.

Jayden modeling the gloves we all had to wear.

And here's the video Shane and Jayden took. Enjoy!

We stopped at Lake Okutama afterwards. It was extremely peaceful and beautiful.

We will definitely be returning to this place.

Tokyo Trip 2 - Shibuya & Harajuku

For Mother's Day Shane reserved a few nights at our military hotel in Tokyo. We had a really good time as a family, besides the fact that the kids CRIED practically the WHOLE time. They weren't feeling well (so it wasn't really their fault this time). Our luck was just not with us on this trip...oh well...we still managed to have a good experience.

New Sanno Hotel

The kids get SO excited every time we go to this hotel.

Shibuya

We made a quick stop at the Shibuya train station. It is well known as the Times Square of Tokyo (I wasn't able to get a really good picture of how crazy it was).

While there we had to get a picture with Hachi...

If you haven't seen Hachi yet, it's a really cute, true story that took place at the Shibuya train station here in Tokyo. It's a good, clean movie.

Harajuku

Visiting Meiji Shrine.

Takeshita Street.

This is where teenagers go to see the new hip fashions and other crazy stuff. It's almost impossible to walk down with a stroller. We didn't quite fit in :)

While walking down this street we saw many girls that looked like this...

...I have no idea why (borrowed this picture from Wikipedia)!

Near the New Sanno hotel

(and Tokyo LDS Temple)

We found this fun little ice cream shop that I really like. We went there both nights we were in Tokyo just because I love it. I also love that they have a non-dairy Mango ice cream for Jayden. He was pretty excited to be able to eat the whole thing and not get a belly ache.

Yummy Yummy!

Children's Hall Museum

We went back to Shibuya on the second day because it was raining and we had to find something in doors to do. We found this great Museum that was FREE and we all absolutely LOVED it!

There is a wood working shop in the basement where each kid made 1 craft.

The kids each picked this cool "hooey stick" to make (watch video below).

The kids went fishing.

Played on lots of toys.

Made origami with a cute little Japanese man.

And my favorite part of the day was...

...the Human BODY Maze

Can you see the eyes? You climb up through the "big mouth" to get inside. I'm not sure where the nose is???

You can see the uvula up front after you climb up the mouth. And then you have this little hole near the back of the BODY which is called the "poo poo hole" :)

And...here is my favorite part....

...you exit the whole maze, between the two feet, through the "BUTT TUNNEL" which even has little flaps on it! I just love the Japanese!

The kids had a blast playing in the music room.

And when we left we had to pay an arm and a leg (about $18 for 2 hours) to get our car out of this parking garage. They don't even need your car keys to take your car. Don't ask us where it goes...all we know is that it came back to us when we put our ticket in the machine and punched return. It was awesome!

(skip forward to 0:45 )