Off to the Philippines & October Dinner

Shane took off for a humanitarian mission to the Philippines last week. He's super excited! So far he has already met a lot of really neat people and next week he gets to help the Philippine military vaccinate a bunch of their animals. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon. All I know is he's having a blast and I'm LOVING SKYPE! I love being able to talk to him face to face even when he's in another country. Technology is super cool!

Here are some pictures of his last night home. We already miss him like crazy but are really excited to see him in a few weeks. In the meantime we have had family in town to help the time pass. It has definitely helped! Family rocks!!!

We had a "Welcome October" dinner. I don't know what that is...we just made it up at the last minute. I needed a fun way to give the kids their Halloween PJ's and thought that this would do the job. I was inspired by my sister-in-law Tera who ALWAYS celebrates each holiday in so many fun ways. She's amazing! I decided I would start with Halloween, so here's my small attempt on celebrating the month of October. We had an all orange dinner and opened some gifts (Halloween cereal & Halloween fruit snacks for the month). We also gave the kids some Halloween PJ's that have been SOOOO fun! I got them online at Old Navy a month or two ago. Anyways here's our goofy family celebrating October.

About 5 minutes before dinner we all made a VERY POOR attempt at finding orange clothes to wear. We realized that is one color that none of us have in our closets. I'm embarrassed to even post this picture but it's part of the memories so I have to :/

Our "Orange" dinner.

This was our first year to do this so I wasn't too creative. Hopefully next year our dinner will get more interesting.

Then we frosted pumpkin cookies. Yummy!

And changed into our Halloween pajamas...

...that glow in the dark...super cool!

(Side note: the PJ's actually glow all night long. We all slept in the same room at a hotel this week and it was way freaky every time I woke up in the middle of the night and could see them both glowing in their beds.)

The morning Dad left the kids had a blast....

...playing Legos with him....ALL morning long!

Have fun dad! We MISS YOU like crazy!!!

First time...

Today was our (EVERY one of us) first time to ever spray paint our hair. Boring....I know...but we turned over a new leaf today. The base had a party celebrating kids and TIA had no fear and walked right up to the spray painting booth and asked them to spray her hair. The rest of us needed more convincing, but by the end of the party we had all done it.

One of us washed it out of our hair within the first 10 minutes of being home. I won't name names but it wasn't me or the kids :) he he

Thanks Tia for helping us all have a great time!

Backwards Day

This post is for Tia. She had the opportunity to fill in at a pre-preschool 2 days ago (she's does not normally go to one) because a child was absent. The class just happened to be celebrating backwards day on that particular day. She was SO excited because 1) she got to go to school like her big brother and 2)because she was able to do something totally silly. Here are some pictures for her to look back at and remember that silly day.

Do any of you have your kids look back through your blog? For the last two years Shane has been sitting with the kids once or twice a week and looking through our blog together. My kids will LAUGH their heads off for hours looking at silly pictures and watching videos that they think are hilarious. It is so fun to watch them bust up laughing as they remember fun experiences! We love it! Plus, it helps motivate me to keep the blog going.

This is my attempt of trying to do her hair backwards (and upside down).

Tia in 30 seconds

I curled Tia's hair the other day so I wanted to take a picture (I rarely get around to curling her board straight hair). I asked Tia to just stand and smile for me and this is what I got...all with in a couple of seconds...

(This one is my favorite! I love the stance and the furrowed brows.)

We are always on our toes with this one. But how can you not love that little face?!

Hiked Mt. Fuji - wahoo!!!

We finally conjured up enough guts to climb Mt. Fuji. For the last year we've heard everyone on base share their stories of hiking it, how awful it was, how people get altitude sickness and can't finish it, how people die on it each year, and how it is something that you MUST do before you leave Japan. Sounds exciting huh...only if you're crazy...right! I can't believe we wanted to hike it. I was REALLY tempted to change my mind, but I'm glad I didn't. To be honest I'm just glad I didn't die! My goal wasn't to rush up the mountain and see how fast I could climb it...it was merely to survive...and I did - YAY!

Here are a few facts about Mt. Fuji:

1. It is the 2nd tallest single standing mountain in the world (12,388 ft) and tallest in Japan.

2. It's an active stratovolcano with the last eruption in 1707.

3. It's considered one of Japan's holy mountains.

4. Mt. Fuji is frequently depicted in art and photographs.

I like this picture of Mt. Fuji because it pretty much sums up how our hike felt...straight up and barren (once you past that tree line it is NOT very pretty).

Getting ready to start (4:30 a.m.).

Are we sure we want to do this???

Our group at the starting point (5th Station - 5:00 a.m.).

We arrived just in time to see the sunrise as we started hiking. It was so beautiful and peaceful....a perfect way to start our hike.

The incline is quite steep during the hike so there were endless switchbacks to traverse. Luckily there were numerous stations or "huts" along the way selling food, water, oxygen and services to brand your hiking stick. It was nice having so many places to rest, puff oxygen (the altitude changed so quickly that we were all short of breath), and eat a few snacks.

Shane above the cloud level.

Just when we thought we were getting close we would look up and realize we still had FOREVER TO HIKE :(

One of the locals burning a stamp into our hiking stick. Each station had a different stamp. This was a HUGE motivation to keep us going. All we wanted to do was reach each station so we could decorate our our sticks with all the stamps.

A Japanese mountain man that we met along the way.

Still having fun :) It was like a really long date. We loved it!

The entrance to the summit....WE MADE IT!!!

This is us and our friend Bryce.

Looking down from the summit. If you look closely you can see some cities in between the clouds. You can also see the switchbacks in the bottom right corner.

Here we are looking into the crater at the summit. It is a mile around the perimeter.

Our whole group at the summit. What a great feeling!

The switchbacks down were so steep that it was easier to go fast and basically "ski" down the mountain.

We had a great time and the people we were with were really fun and entertaining. Thanks everyone for an exciting day.

P.S. The whole thing (up, hanging out on top, & back) took about 13 hours. We were in no hurry...like I said before the goal was to survive...not break any records :) It was nice because no one was stressed out or in a hurry...it was a very fun and laid back day.

Shane's excited to hike it again next year, but I think I'm good. No need to do that again :) I'm going to check that right off my list.

Let me explain this video or it will make NO sense at all.

As we drove through the entrance of Mt. Fuji the road had grooves on it that made it sound like a song. Kind of like when you run off the freeway and it makes that loud noise (to tell you that you are going off the road)...well these grooves were spaced so that it played a song. On the way down the mountain I tried to video it. You can't see anything except for us in a dark car, but listen and see if you can hear the song. We don't know what song it is, but it is still fun.

Pretty cool huh!

Fussa Tanabata Festival

A few weeks ago the city outside our base had a big summer festival. The sisters in the Japanese ward (who meet in the same church building as us) offered to dress the sisters in our branch in traditional summer kimonos (Yukatas) so we could attend the festival in traditional Japanese attire. It was a blast. The Japanese sisters were all so cute and friendly. Even though only 1 of the 18 sisters spoke English, we had a great time. We all fell in love with those sweet sisters that served us that day. It was such a special experience for all of us.

The Japanese sisters dressing us in the Yukatas.

My Yukata. Aunt Tiana...the dragonflies reminded me of you :)

One of the sweet Japanese sisters teaching us about some of their traditions. She's the one who put this whole thing together.

This was my favorite part of the morning. The Sensei on the left was teaching us how to go to the bathroom while wearing a kimono. It was really cute and funny.

The Japanese and American sisters.

Our family at the Tanabata Festival in Fussa city.

We ate everything we could...and it all came on a stick.

A banana dipped in pink chocolate and covered in sprinkles. Tia was loving it!

The kids played this fun Japanese game. They were given a little plastic scooper with paper lining the middle of it and were allowed to scoop as many balls as they could into a bucket until the paper broke. Jayden went straight for the big ball and the paper broke just as he and Shane scooped it in the bucket. Tia was able to pick up 1 scoop of little balls before hers broke (the workers were kind enough to give Tia a few extra balls for trying). It was fun!

I don't have a clue what this thing was, but it was so friendly we all wanted a picture with it. It looks like a green banana to me :).

(Norma, Becky, & I)

Here are some of my good friends from the branch.

Thanks Becky for letting me borrow this picture from your blog :)