Tia & "5 Little Speckled Frogs"

I was going through all our pictures and videos and weeding out the duplicates, etc....when I found this funny little video.  

Tia was almost 3 years old.  It is amazing how young she seems compared to now (she's 4 1/2 now).  I just want to eat her up in this video.  The kids can't stop laughing every time they watch it.

5 Little Speckled Frogs

Moving Day

I can't believe this is already happening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  2 weeks ago this was the scene outside our house.

They used LOTS of tape...

...TONS of boxes...

...and MANY rolls of thick, brown, cardboard paper.

Now all of this is on its way to Colorado.  

Totally Random Side Note:  While the movers were packing us out I was shopping for a funky LITTLE Japanese Couch (I had been looking for 2 months already).  I really wanted a red one, but found this little brown one at a Recycle center for super cheap.  I was so excited because I HAD to find one before they packed everything up :)  I got it back just in time.   I can't wait to see it again...I'll probably use it in one of the kids rooms for a reading corner or something.  

It's been a Bitter Sweet couple of weeks.  We are super excited to start a new chapter in our life, but are going to miss all of our dear friends we've made & this wonderful country of Japan.

Kyoto 2011

September 2011

I forgot to post our Kyoto trip that we went on last year.  I know it's super late, but I need to have it on our blog so that we can remember it.

Everything about the trip was awesome...except that I was in my 1st trimester of pregnancy and was feeling pretty crappy.  Poor Shane had to deal with me not wanting to eat ANYTHING but being STARVING!  I couldn't make up my mind on food, so I was a crabby apple.  Other than that...the trip was great!  Kyoto is a beautiful place!

Fushimi Inari Shrine

This place was SO cool!  It had thousands of torii gates lining the hills.  The kids had a blast running through them. 

Can you see the trail of torii gates?

I loved that all the tops were different sizes and shapes.

Just in case you are not sure how to use a "squatty potty" :)

Ryoanji Temple

This is Japan's most famous rock garden.

Shane is teaching the kids about meditation and "inner peace":)

The kids were practicing "inner peace".  This was extremely hard for our 2 VERY active children.

Bamboo Groves

Broken Umbrellas

The day before we went to Kyoto, we had a typhoon rip through Japan leaving lots of wind behind.  Our umbrella broke in Kyoto from the strong wind before we could even use it.  We started noticing umbrellas EVERYWHERE.  To keep the kids busy Shane had them count and search for broken umbrellas.  If you ask them today, they would tell you it was their FAVORITE part of the trip...searching for BROKEN UMBRELLAS.

In one night we found 26 umbrellas.

By the end of the 2nd night we had counted 62 broken umbrellas on the streets of Kyoto.  This is really strange for Japan because the streets and sidewalks are usually always clean.

Searching for a Hot Spring

Our hotel did NOT have a hot spring, so we went out looking for one...we FAILED miserably!  We thought we'd hurry and walk to a hot spring around the corner without umbrellas.  Well, we walked and walked & the rain started coming down harder and harder.  Eventually we found the hot spring which was CLOSED!  All we did was get SOAKED and then came home.  It was disappointing, but luckily we were able to laugh about it.

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion)

What a BEAUTIFUL place!

Nara

Before we went into the temple Shane stopped to buy some deer food.  While buying the food the deer started BITTING Shane in the butt....seriously!  The kids and I were laughing so hard we didn't know what to do.  Actually, there wasn't anything we could do (because we didn't want to get bit), so I just held my kids and took pictures.

Shane holding the deer back with his umbrella.

This is right after he opened his umbrella at them a few times....they still wouldn't go away.  Finally someone else must have bought deer food and they went away.

Todaiji Temple

The hole in this post is supposed to be the size of the big Buddha's nostril.  Random huh?!  There was a huge line of people waiting to crawl through it.

Kyoto Tower

We love looking out over cities.

We found these guys on the roof of Kyoto's Train Station.  They had glow sticks and were dancing to music & doing a light show.  It was actually pretty cool.  When they were finished they gave Jayden & Tia the glow sticks.

Last Tokyo Trip

Legoland

Kingdom Quest ride.

Miniland (Tokyo)

Shibuya - can you see Hachi the dog statue on the right?  This is also known as Tokyo's Times Square.

Tokyo Tower, & Rainbow Bridge.

At night.

Sumo Tournament

Asakusa Temple

Imperial Palace

This is the mall Legoland is located (DECKS). 

Lego Academy

We ran into our friends, the Ropers (they are the one's who told us about this place).

Building a barge.

Tia and Summer Roper.

I can't imagine building one of these!

Shane and Jayden building their race cars.  They wouldn't build them together because they were competing against each other.

The race.  I don't even know who won!

Lego Friends

While Shane & Jayden spent 1 hour building and racing cars...Tia and I built houses & played in the girly Lego section. 

Life-size Lego's.

Legoland was a lot smaller and different than we thought it would be, but the kids had a BLAST building things, watching the 4D movie, playing in the play place, riding the Lego ride, and looking at Miniland Tokyo.  It was a good day!

New Sanno Hotel

 This was the view from our hotel room in Tokyo.  

 If you look closely you can see the steeple with Moroni on our LDS temple.  It's been really nice having the Tokyo LDS temple so close to our military hotel (just 5 minutes away).

Kazuki's

 Our neighbors, the Salmons, introduced us to this yummy noodle shop in Tokyo.

The tasty noodles and Gyoza (pot stickers).  We will miss this place!

 We love how Tia eats her noodles :)

Napoli's

 There's a little gelato ice cream store not too far from the LDS temple (and the noodle shop).  We love it!  Jayden loves the Mango (because it has NO milk) and I love the cookie n cream one (that's not what they call it though).

One happy, sweet baby!  We love this kid!

Jett started "really" laughing for the first time on this trip.  He's been laughing and chuckling for a while now, but we heard some good belly laughs on this trip. We did not get the big belly laugh on this video, but this was pretty close.