Kintai Bridge with my Mom

When my Mom was here, we mostly did every day stuff and we showed her small town, rural Japan, with a trip to the local mall. We were going to do more, but she got really sick (they thought it was the flu) and she said we would do more when she and my Dad come (HOORAY!) in June.

Our big "real", what you think of when you think of Japan, trip was to the Kintai Bridge.  I wanted to make sure to get these on the blog! 

This is one of the boats that they use for the cormorant fishing July - September.

There are a freakish amount of stray cats around this area.

Everybody wanted a picture with Grandma!

First Audrey!  :)  Do you see all of the bridge's arches behind them?

Then it was Olivia's turn!

Then finally Claire! We got all of the girls out of school early to go on our field trip!

Audrey loves having her picture taken. She should really be a model! :)

The best place for the bridge shot.

Me and Mom and my extra appendage. ☺

The Iwakuni Castle. We didn't make it up there. When Dad comes!

There are sooooooooooo many cherry blossoms there and they were just starting to bud. It was so beautiful when they were all out! I'll get pictures of those up later!

Then we walked around behind the bridge, which is even more Japanese'y than the bridge.

That's Claire in her little yochien uniform top right.

This is what you think of when you think of Japan!

And of course toriis.

And white snakes? BLECH! I did NOT go in here and never will!

This is a temple. We saw a man come up and pay his respects or pray or whatever it was that he did. You clap three times and bow or something. (I should really know more, but I don't...sorry!)

These are memorials or prayers of some sort, outside of the temple.

And more prayers. I pray that Mom and Dad come back again and again!!!! I miss them!!!!!!

Their trip is June 22nd - July 20th. We're going to take an ITT trip to Osaka and go to the Kaiyukan aquarium and then stay in the Ark Hotel which is in the "bustling" shopping and entertainment district of Osaka. The next day we go to Kobe and then back home. I'm relieved that we have a planned "real" Japan trip for them! I don't want to just show them the base and the Kintai bridge (no matter how lovely it may be!).

Thank you so much for coming Mom! It was so wonderful to see you and spend time with you, but it helped the girls adjust by having you here. Having them get excited about their area to show it off was a huge turning point for us. I love you and miss you!!!!!!!!!!

Easter Morning

Mick had a sudden trip to Okinawa that he needed to go on Easter weekend, but the girls and I still had a fun holiday! (But don't worry Mick, it would have been much more fun with you!!!!!)

The girls were so sweet and excited looking for the eggs and their baskets.  Audrey helped me hide the Easter eggs the night before. This was my favorite one she hid.

She turned the freakishly heavy pig that I bought at the Officers' Wives Club furniture auction in February on her back so she could balance the egg. :)  The Kokeshi dolls on the next step of the tansu are a pretty Japanese craft. Olivia's is the little girl on the left. It is decorated with the September flower. Mick gave the next three. From left to right is February (Valentine's Day), April (our anniversary) and December (Christmas). Lay money on a May one for my birthday! :)

 And then, in true Easter miracle fashion, I got the four girls dressed pretty and out the door for 8:30 mass! They all were so pretty, but we stayed afterward for coffee, juice and doughnuts and left in the nick of time for Gigi's meltdown in the car. I ran her upstairs and put her down for a nap and before I got downstairs....the girls had changed out of their Sunday best! The littles had on the matching brown dresses from a few Easters ago that Mick's Mom had sent them. Bummer!

So, this is all that I have of Easter morning!  It was a hectic one!!!!!!!!!!

She was much more excited than this picture shows, I promise!

This is really the level of happiness and excitement that was happening in our living room!!!!! ☺

We're hoping Mick gets home today. "Showtime" for the Space Available flight is in one hour. We miss(ed) you Daddy!

Easter Egg Coloring Extravaganza

Ready?

The girls wanted to wear costumes! :)

It was Gigi's first dress-up outfit!

Set?

I love my neighbor Mary! Thank you for having us over!!!!!

Christine didn't like dresses or skirts, but now loves to play dress-up. We call it the "Claire Factor."

COLOR!!!!!!!

Gigi concentrated really hard and did a great job!

She loved the ones that had the wraps on them.

When you live far away from family, your friends are your family! 

Thank you Mary for having us over! ☺

Eviction Notice

Mick started the joke years ago that if we could put our house up on wheels to match our yard, we would. This house is no exception.

The other day Mick counted the number of "wheels" that we have. 50.

A few days ago we got an "Official" notice that a few of our bikes weren't put away.

That's Mary, my neighbor, writing a P.S., but she got interrupted.

 Then today I came home to this on our front door.

I called Mick in a bit of a panic, but he said, "SUSAN! I'm sure that's Mary!" Which is was. She got me good. I TOTALLY and COMPLETELY fell for it.  :)  I don't know how I missed the "juice boxes" part.

I then checked my e-mail and Mary had sent me this message. 

Hey Susan,

I saw that dreadful notice on your front door and I hope you're not too upset.  Gosh, if you got evicted they might put you in one of those horribly pretentious houses in the fish bowl, and I know that's just not your style.  Anyway, good luck with that.  Let me know if you need help with day to day yard clean-up.

Your friend,

Mary

I sent the scanned copy of Mary's "Eviction Notice" to my friend Megan and she wrote back that it was soooo funny, but how did I not get that it was a joke with so many typos? And I answered....there's just so.much.truth to the second notice. ☺

But aren't our flowers pretty?

We were practically the only house in the neighborhood which didn't have a little garden so Mick planted this for us last weekend.

I must say that all but 4 of those wheels get used and those four (two old bikes) are sitting beside my car to be taken to the Thrift Store. So we're down to 46 wheels. :)  (To be fair, that includes two strollers and one of those strollers has six wheels total. That makes it totally reasonable, don't you think?)

As you can see, we take ourselves pretty seriously here. ☺

(Caveat: Let's be clear that we're making fun of the Wagoner family here. 
Because even when the Japanese English is Engrish, at times, it is leaps and bounds better than the 10 words (wondering if I even have that in my repertoire?) that I know of Japanese.) ☺

Sunday Dinners

Mick is in charge of Sunday dinner and it's always delicious! 19 out of 20 (39 out of 40?) times it is steak, potatoes, usually two different salads and bread. Lately Audrey and Olivia have been complaining "STEAK AGAIN?!?!?!?" like he's serving them liver and onions. So the past two Sunday steak nights he has made them, special order, a steak quesadilla while serving the rest of the regular meal. :) One doesn't need to be an investigative journalist to find out why I am so happy that Mick Wagoner is my husband and Daddy to my four girls! He's such a keeper!!!!!!!!

Audrey and her BFF Shaina

Audrey's best friend here, Shaina, moved away to Hawaii on Wednesday. It was very, very sad and we miss her already! The night before she left I asked her Dad to bring her by for some pictures. They are pretty much the same....I just kept snapping because I wanted to make sure they had one that they both loved and wanted to frame. Which one is your favorite?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 (And yes I know Shaina's eyes are closed, but she was doing it on purpose and I still liked it!)

8

9

I think 3 is my favorite. But I love 4 too.

Miss you Shaina!!!!!!!

Gigi - Cute Baby Extraordinare

The fourth baby is loved just as much as the first and is just as cute! :)

But the 4th baby gets things like lollipops at 17 months when you wouldn't have thought of such a thing for the first baby! (THE HAIR! The lollipop kind of got in it!)

Cute butterfly out of the bath!

Another difference...the fourth child gets three sisters who absolutely ADORE her! :)

What's better than having owning your own jumpee? That's right! Having your neighbors own one! (Thanks Mary and Chris!)

She's a brave little thing...with an Easter egg on her bottom.  I made these overalls for Olivia and Mick was so patient with my weekend long project, but at the end he said, "Perhaps next time it might be more cost effective to purchase them for $75 on eBay." :)

Where did Gigi go?????

Here she comes!!!!

PEEK-A-BOO!

You are loved, my sweet baby Gigi!!!!!!!!!!

Gigi's First Bike Ride

We're so happy spring has finally sprung!

Thanks Miss Adele for our new bike helmets! :)

Great smiles, but also showing you our new minivan. The cars are kind of disposable here. The Japanese do not like crummy cars on the road so every two years you have to get it "up to speed" for a thing called JCI. Our old one would have cost more than it was worth to get it done, so we sold it to someone to dispose of it part by part (for a cool $150) and got this one for $4,000. I'm loving having a door on each side of the van! :)

It takes a pretty confident man to ride a pink cruiser!

Then Audrey and I went down to show Olivia at the park, intending to just drive by and ring the bell, but Gigi threw such a fit that we had to stop and play!

Hooray for Spring!