Trip to St. George

After Shane's conference in Las Vegas we headed up to St. George to spend 2 very quick weeks with our families. 2 weeks was definitely not enough time!!! Luckily, thanks to all of our siblings who traveled into town, we were able to see EVERYONE in BOTH of our families! We had a blast! I didn't take as many pictures of our families as I would have wished, but here are a few that I got.

Grandma Atkin's massive Chicken Coup. My mother has turned into an amazing Chicken Lady. She has over 30 chickens whom each lay 1 egg a day. She is one busy women.

Tia and her cousin Weston who is only 2 months younger than her. I love how nervous they both are to be sitting right next to each other. Their eyebrows were cracking us up.

Tia tried to swing Weston, but he still gave her those furrowed brows.

Grandma Atkin & her baby chickens

Weston was hilarious. He absolutely loved those baby chicks.

Has anyone ever seen a 2-legged dog before???

Look no further...meet Bubba, my parent's dog. He's amazing...2 legs haven't slowed him down one bit!

Hanging out with cousin Casey.

It was really cold while we were in St. George, but one day the sun finally came out so we headed over to Fiesta Fun and rode the bumper boats.

This is Shane and Jayden soaking Aunt Rachel and her beautiful hair (after she had JUST gotten ready). You are a trooper Rachel--thanks for putting up with us. We love you!

4 very cold and wet people.

(Rachel, Rick, Shane, & Jayden)

No mercy from Uncle Rick (my little bro) who is trying to pop a water balloon on Jayden.

Tia sure loves her Uncle Rick...even if he pops a water balloon all over her leg.

Shane is just one of the kids :)...that's one reason why I love him so much!

Tennis Lessons from Dad

Grandma Atkin got the kids these cute little rackets so Shane gave them their first tennis lesson.

I love Jayden's intense facial expressions (click on the pictures to see).

Way to go guys...you both did awesome!

Kyle's Birthday Party

(Kyle, Chase, Audrie, Alisha, Emma, Jayden)

Audrie, who's been my best friend since middle school, lives just 1 block away from my parents. It's so fun to be able to catch up with her each time I'm home. Her son Kyle is one of Jayden's friends. We were lucky to be there on his birthday. Here are the kids making their own personal pizzas. Jayden had a blast! Thanks Audrie!

Isn't this awesome...Audrie made this sweet tank cake for Kyle's Army party.

Brooke's Visit from Switzerland

(Audrie, me, Brooke, Bonnie)

This was so random, but my really good friend Brooke happened to be in town from Switzerland the same time we were home. I was so excited! She moved to France, got married and has been there ever since (12 years I think). She and her husband currently live in Switzerland and have an adorable little boy). The last time I saw her was 5 or 6 years ago so it was so fun seeing her again.

Stacie's Baby Shower

(Audrie, Stacie, me & Teresa-Stacie's sis.)

Best Friends from High School.

I am so glad Stacie's shower was while I was in town. I loved seeing her pregnant and catching up with everyone. She is having her first little girl next month and I am so excited for her. Good luck Stacie...you are going to be a great mom!

Kaylee's PIRATE Birthday Party

Jayden and Kaylee (one of his best friends-and girlfriend :) from California). Kaylee's mom and I were bestest friends while in California and it just so happens that they moved to St. George to live with her in-laws during her husbands 4th year of medical school. It was so fun being able to see them again also. We really miss you guys!

All of the little pirates.

Pin the Patch on the Pirate

Walking the Plank

Treasure Hunt

The Treasure

Aren't my friends such amazing cake decorators?! Kaylee's birthday was a blast! Thanks ReAnn!

Grandma & Grandpa Andrews' House

These next two videos are just the kids playing around...but I knew Jayden & Tia would want to watch them over and over so I'm posting the videos for them.

Tia and the trampoline.

Jayden spinning out on the sport court.

Leaving St. George

These two were absolutely exhausted after 2 very eventful weeks. They loved it and still talk about it!

OH....I can't forget to mention how fun these places where:

Oh how I miss Target...till next time...I will love you forever!!!

Also, I have to say THANKS to whoever the secret friends were that left these sweet flowers and treats for us when we got back. They made us very happy! THANK YOU!!!

Nagano Snow Monkeys

If you watched the Olympics and saw the commercial with the snow monkeys...this is it! If you didn't get to see it click here to watch it. It's in Nagano, Japan about 4 hours north of where we live.

Shane and I took the kids up there the first weekend in February and it was snowing like crazy. Thanks to some great neighbors who had lots of snow gear we were all bundled up and prepared (80% of the people on the bus tour were just in jeans and coats).

It was a 30 minute hike up the mountain to get to the monkeys (with kids it took more like 45 minutes).

Luckily a friend let us borrow their sleds. We pulled the kids up the mountain and back - it was quite the workout, but way better than carrying them the whole time.

This was Tia in the 5 minutes that she actually liked the sled ride...she had a REALLY rough time with the cold, but at least it gave me a chance to hold and cuddle her for the following 2 hours on the bus ride home while she slept. She usually doesn't like to be held or cuddled, so I was in heaven.

This little dude was just chillin' outside the little shack where people could take safety from the snow and warm up a little.

I couldn't believe how close they would let us get to them. A couple of times WE had to move off of the path so that the monkeys wouldn't run into us. It was crazy!

All the little dots that look like rocks under the bridge and down the hill are more monkeys. There were TONS of them everywhere.

We all wished we could jump in those hot springs with the monkeys and warm up ourselves.

Here's a little video I took:

Even though it was freezing cold, and the ride home took us 7 hours instead of 4 (because the blizzard shut down all of the freeways) we are so glad we went. The experience was worth it. We will definitely go again...but hopefully not during another blizzard :)!

Cynthia & Iron's Temple Sealing

What a special day this was! In January I was able to attend our friends Cynthia & Iron's Temple Sealing in the Tokyo Temple. It was so beautiful! I cried because I was so happy for what it meant for this family. They were sealed to each other that day for TIME and ALL ETERNITY! Isn't that amazing! As they continue to live righteously they will be together as a family FOREVER...even after this life! I know this is true and I am so grateful to be sealed to my husband and children FOREVER. I love them so much and I know that our relationships won't end at death.

Cynthia & Iron are both from China. They moved to Japan for Iron's job. They have only been members in this church for 1 year now, but they have the greatest testimonies ever. I love them so much and am so glad they are here!

They were also sealed for ETERNITY to their sweet baby Brooke that day.

Here's everybody that attended their sealing. These are their friends from Zama/Atsugi (another base here) and from our Branch here in Yokota.

Thanks Cynthia & Iron for letting us all share that special day with your family! We love you guys!

A late post...

I just found these pictures and realized that I forgot to post them. Cynthia got Jayden this cute Japanese cake for his 4th birthday. It was very yummy and cool looking! We all loved it--thanks Cynthia & Iron for being so thoughtful!

As you can tell...Jayden was super excited!

Doesn't that just look delicious? Even the little sign was edible.

Ikebukuro's Sunshine City

For Martin Luther King Day (2 months ago) we decided to go on a day trip nearby. We went to a place called Sunshine City in Tokyo.

Sunshine City opened in 1978. Sunshine City is Tokyo's oldest city within the city with the 240 meter tall Sunshine 60 skyscraper at its center. The complex features an aquarium, observation deck, museum, the Sunshine Prince Hotel, a Namco theme park, offices, convention space and lots of shops and restaurants.

The Aquarium

Our friends, The Collins, came with us. To hear about our "fun" adventure on the drive to Sunshine city visit their blog to read what happened. We had a great time with them...despite the rocky trip there :) Thanks for making it an exciting day!

Huge crabs!

Tia, Jayden, & Brentlee. Of course they had to have their faces pressed right up to the glass. If they could have gotten closer they would have.

Jayden had a blast running with the huge stingray.

Observation Deck (on the 60th floor)

Isn't Tokyo crazy? I still can't believe we live here!

This is how they really feel about having their pictures taken.

Namco Food Theme Park

Sunshine Namja Town is an indoor theme park by Namco, the creator of Pacman and many other arcade games and leisure products. The theme park recreates Tokyo alleys of past decades and features among other attractions food theme parks about gyoza, ice cream and chou cream.

I don't know how to explain this except that it's like an indoor carnival and all the food is the same kind, but just different varieties of it. We had to go and at least try it because it's unique to Japan and it sounded fun.

The Namco cat greeting us at the entrance. He was a little freaky.

Gyoza Theme Park Here's a picture of all the different owners and their gyoza (water dumplings) specialties.

Gyoza Alley

We had no idea which one to choose so we chose the first person that didn't look scared to let our kids in their shop. The Collins and us eating our gyoza.

I liked these gyoza because they were flat and skinny. I don't like ANYTHING with too much stuff inside it!

We had to take a picture because this little Japanese lady was so darn cute!

I loved this! They had pictures of all the owners on the wall above their shop. I thought it was awesome! I want one of Shane & I in our home so that the kids know who's the boss :)

Ice Cream Theme Park My little brother Rick would have loved this. We did this for you Rick! I wish you could have smelled this place...it was awesome!

Shane & Jayden's choice.

Mine and Tia's choice. I couldn't pass up a cute skull flag and a chocolate castle.

Tia loved it!