He's Coming to America!

I think the word "Proverbial" is super fun to use and had the perfect opportunity to use it this morning

Mick walked out of the house when the taxi pulled up to take him to the shin station which would take him to the Tokyo airport which would then take him to Los Angeles and then onto Omaha, a full 35 hour trip from beginning (taxi cab) to end (my Mom and Dad's house). (Are you still wondering why we haven't come back with the kids for a visit yet?)

He came back in seconds later and said, "I need my passport."

To which I responded:
"The next time you snap at Audrey for not having her backpack ready to go in the morning, remember that the apple doesn't fall far from the proverbial tree."

To which he responded:

"I have seen the err of my ways and am trying to help her to be more like her smart Mother than her dumb Dad."

To which I responded:

"You're such a smart, smart man!"

Enjoy him ,Omaha! He'll be there in 24 hours!!!!!

Cormorant Fishing - July 2011

For my Mom's birthday (this last Saturday, October 1st), I'm going to try and get some pictures up from their visit this last summer! We had such a wonderful, wonderful time and the time went so fast! We did lots of stuff, saw a great deal of Japan, and just soaked up our Grandma and Grandpa time!

My friend Kathy Goode kept all of the girls one Saturday so we could go to the Kintai Bridge and go on a Cormorant Fishing trip.

We boarded the boat and went out about 50 feet from shore and sat there for about 45 minutes. We were so puzzled.

But we laughed and talked and rejoiced that the girls weren't with us and took some pictures and enjoyed the beautiful scenery!

Did I mention how glad we were that the girls weren't with us? THANK YOU Kathy!!!

Then the boat came back in and we thought "That was it????" but luckily there was an American on the boat who was married to a Japanese woman and he told us that it was just a break and we would go out again.

Mick was no dummy.....he jumped off and bought a few Asahi beers and we were ready for round two!

There was still a great deal of sitting and wonderment and more beautiful picture taking.

Look at how long that fishing pole is!

And then FINALLY, we were rowed over to another part of the river and we saw some smoke and then a few boats came around the bend and lo and behold....there were the cormorants!!!!

One of the comorants caught a fish right away and here is a picture of the fisherman when he pulled the leash around his neck to stop it from going down its throat and then he grabbed it out of his mouth and threw it on our boat.

I know it's strange. Just go with it. It's an anchient fishing method.

There was a whole explanation about how the older cormorants are in the lead (very hierarchial) and when a cormorant dies it has to be reported to the Department of Whatever of Japan. Very interesting!

There's a fish being thrown by the cormorant fisherman to the tour boat behind us.

Quite picturesque and very Japanese!

And IN YOU GO cormorant bird! Back to your basket!

Interesting day and have I mentioned that I'm glad the girls weren't with us? :)

It was fun to see this centuries old practice though!

Father Daughter Dance

Mick took Audrey and Olivia to his 4th Father Daughter Dance on Saturday. Two in Charlottesville when Audrey was in 1st and 2nd grade and one in January of this year for the Girl Scouts with Audrey. This was Olivia's second Father Daughter Dance. I'm not sure how I almost forgot the "Me and My Guy" Girl Scout Dance in Spring 2010 with the Girl Scouts and the fabulous Disco Ball Daddy and gorgeous 70's girl pictures! Well, with all of that experience, it was still a very exciting "getting ready" time!

One of my best friends "Miss Mary" Mahoney, who was a hairdresser in her life before kids, came over and did the girls' hair.

As you can see, the end result was positively BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Our GREAT friends, the Goodes (Get it? Ha!) went with our handsome Daddy and beautiful girls, so we had a photo shoot at their house.

And as you can see by the little blonde head at the bottom, there was a little girl that wished she could be in the photo too!

A backstory on this outfit is really sweet and funny! When we got here, I bought these cute jeans at the Thrift Store for Gigi. Kathy, (the GREAT Goode Mom) saw them and said, "I had a pair of jeans like that for Ariele and I held onto them for the longest time and when we got here, I finally decided to give them to the Thrift Store. :) 

And now look at Ariele, Audrey's beautiful, GREAT best friend!!!

Brad, GREAT, proud Goode Dad!

Julia is Olivia's GREAT best friend. :)

And finally, here's our handsome Daddy!

What a lucky Dad! And lucky daughters!!!!

We think, by Audrey's pose here, that she may want to wear heels to the next one! :)

Olivia and Mick won the Dance Contest! I called my friend Megan, who was there at the dance, and she said, "Like Mother, Like Daughter! Olivia is out there cutting a rug!"  There were a bunch of Moms there who took pictures and over the next week or so, they're planning on posting them to a shared web album, so we can order some. I'll post the link when we get it!

The littles weren't dressed for the formal picture, but who could resist to take it anyway? What a lucky guy to have four such beautiful, sweet girls!

And they're lucky too!

We LOVE Father Daughter Dances

and hope that we have

many, many more to come!

Thanks to my friends Nicci Aikey and Megan Coletta for organizing this for our unit!!!