No Swans at the Swan Park

Maybe it's a good thing, from what this plaque illustrates...

Anyone know when they arrive? Supposedly, there are 1000 swans who come to Shimoda, the town next to us, as a stop-over on their flights south from Siberia. Magra and I took the kids there hoping to see them because it happens in the fall - but there were NO swans there! Luckily, the Shimoda park right next to the swan pond is really fun and beautiful. We had a great time and then went to the pond and fed the ducks!

Back Home

We arrived back in Japan last Wednesday, so it has almost been 2 full weeks. Magra has traveled back with us and I was thankful to have the help along the way! This trip included one plane trip from Dulles to Narita, a train ride from Narita (the airport) to Tokyo station, a bullet train ride to Hachinohe, another train ride to Misawa, and a taxi to our house. Whew! It was actually much easier than it sounds. Let me break it down for you:

Plane Trip
GREAT. We got a whole row of seats (1 extra) so the kids could lay down and sleep next to eachother. Very helpful since they slept for much of the trip. When they were not asleep, they were either watching movies or playing with new toys. When we arrived in Japan, everything was fine until I was getting the baggage onto 2 carts. That's when I heard Katie coughing (she was on my back in an Ergo carrier) and felt my back go warm and wet. Yuck. Katie threw up her rice and seaweed all over my back. All I can say is praise God I cut my hair this summer - clothes can be changed, but hair is difficult to wash in an airport bathroom! And also praise God we weren't quarantined for swine flu! I changed her, loaded all the stuff with throw up on my back, trekked to the baggage delivery counter so we could send our luggage to my house instead of carry it, then changed and went downstairs to the train station.

Trains
Both kids fell asleep on the hour long train to Tokyo station. When I say asleep, I mean they were like, middle-of-the-night-there's-no-waking-either-kid-up asleep. SO, in rush hour, I had Katie on my back and was carrying Hayden. I got my workout that day. We switched trains and got on the bullet train where the kids awoke for a little while, then fell back to sleep. We switched trains in Hachinohe and they were awake on the train to Misawa.

Home
When we arrived home, it was a little after 11 PM here. The kids were SO excited to be home and see all their toys!! They stayed awake playing until around 2 AM. Then, they had showers and went to bed. Hayden really was fine from night one. Katie, on the other hand, woke up at 4 one morning, then midnight another (like, for the DAY), 5, 6, and now seems to be settled and awake at 6:30 most mornings. Hayden is a 12 hour sleeper, so whenever you put him down, you can count on him like clockwork. What a blessing. The first week or so, the kids could not stay awake through "Daddy Stories" - bedtime stories Jim recorded on our computer, much less our Bible reading and prayers. This is what would happen halfway through the first Daddy story:




We are so glad to be back. Thank you for your prayers!

Last Hurrahs in Virginia

We are now settled in Japan but before making any entries about our return trip, I thought I would wrap up Virginia. We had one last visit to Deep Creek Lake, which was awesome as always but even more fun because Jim's brother and girlfriend were also there! More people to chase the kids around. We also fit in a trip to the Baltimore aquarium with Jen Jen and her kids (of course - they sort of stalked us all summer - ha!) and Susan with her two little ones. It was a blast and was so nice to be able to say good-bye to my dear friend in person. I had a last get-together with all my teacher friends from when I first started teaching at Irving. The only difference between then and now is 9 kids! Ha! What a fun time. One of our family nights was actually a sad one as we all gathered to say good-bye to our family dog, Kuma. It was a sweet hour we spent with him - all of us cuddling at one point on the floor with him and a million biscuits given. We were thankful to have been able to have closure before leaving for Japan, especially for Magra. Our last hurrah was "Christmas in August" with my family. The children exchanged presents and we even had traditional Christmas dinner with all the fixins as well as pie for dessert. Ahhh.

We had so much fun in Virginia and were thankful to pass the time quickly with wonderful friends and family. Here are a bajillion pictures of the last fun times we had.

DCL:





Baltimore:





Last night with Kuma:


Fun with Irving Friends:


Christmas in August: