Hawaii . Hale Koa

We pulled the kids out of school a little earlier than their Spring Break so we could get to Hawaii to be with Mike during all of his testings and procedures.  The first week was spent in Waikiki at the Hale Koa so Mike could get all his testing done at Tripler hospital.  We slept in almost everyday, swam at the pool, played in the sand at the beach, and snorkeled in the ocean.  The kids loved taking turns riding the ocean bike with grandpa and burying each other in the sand.  We even saw a few of our friends from Japan while we were there.  The girls and I pampered ourselves and got our nails painted which was fun.  What is there not to love about swimming, eating, and relaxing in beautiful surroundings and eating at yummy restaurants like PF Changs and The Cheesecake Factory? The first week was rough for Mike but being in a warm and relaxing environment totally helped.  We were blessed to have Mike's dad there with us.  For the most part Mike was in good spirits and he tried to do as much as he could with the kids but I could tell that he was struggling.  The kids don't know how good they have it.  Their dad would do anything for them, including pushing through his pain and discomfort just to spend time with them on the beach.  Over the course of the week Mike had another EGD, a colonoscopy and a pill cam.  The EGD and colonoscopy put him back in the OR but he seemed to recover better this time from the EGD.  The pill cam showed that his bowels might have been perforated.  It's too bad that all they said he could do was wait until it healed on its own (6-9 months).    

Slices of Life . March

March 6, 2013

Andrew's Band Concert

Today was Andrew's spring band concert. The 6th grade band played Constellation, Gentle Winds, Arrival at Normandy, and Achievement. It was fun watching him up close play the trombone. I was super impressed by how well this beginning band sounded after having only played for 8 months.

March 8, 2013

It was a very windy day so we headed over the zipline park to fly kites. We had just bought the girls two new kites and they were super excited to try them out. Much to their dismay, flying kites was harder than they thought. We did have some success but even so, Abby preferred to fly her kite little kid style by running around with the kite only 5 feet out on the string.

March 10, 2013

It has been fun being part of the Yokosuka Ward. I was in charge of taking a photo of all the members of our ward that were at church today.  I took the photo in the park across the street from the building where we have church and it was super windy.  Not everyone was there but this is about how big our ward is on a weekly basis when the ships are out to sea.  

March 21, 2013

Abby has been taking swimming lessons and she has become more confident in the water. Her favorite thing is jumping in the water from the edge of the pool. She even surprised me by jumping off the diving board to her instructor.

March 24, 2013

This is the best time of the year in Japan because there are cherry blossom trees EVERYWHERE. I can't ever get enough of their beauty. Even in our little town of Shonantakatori the streets along the Seiyu are lined with beautiful cherry blossom trees. We are lucky to live so close to all these beautiful trees. The kids have really enjoyed playing under the canopy of the cherry blossoms in the park across the street from our house.

Cherry Blossoms

It has been an amazing experience to live close to so many beautiful cherry blossom trees while living in Japan. The park across the street from our house has the most beautiful trees that bloom with light pink cherry blossoms. Since this would be our last spring in Japan we decided to take advantage of this beautiful day to take family photos. We will really miss these trees when we move back to the United States this summer. Today was a special day indeed.

The Holtoms Visit Japan

We had family from Virginia come to visit us all the way in Japan. We were excited to see the Holtoms and show them around the Tokyo area. We wish Mike had felt better as he really wanted to be the one to show them around. As it turned out he was bed ridden so Abby and I became the tour guides for the week while my older kids were still in school. 

M O N D A Y 

Today we went to see the Big Buddha in the main shrine in Kamakura. We paid the extra 50 yen to go up into the Buddha which was really neat. Although the ramen shop was closed we still enjoyed some delicious traditional Japanese noodles. We ate at the awesome Udon shop down the shopping street in Kamakura. It was delicious on this particularly brisk morning. We loved watching them cut and make the fresh noodles and fry the vegetables for our tempura.

T U E S D A Y

It was a bit sunnier today so we headed up to Yokohama by train.  We had anticipated exploring the Cup of Noodle factory but it was closed on Tuesdays...go figure.  We headed along the boardwalk between World Porters and the main center of Yokohama and enjoyed the cherry blossoms there.  Then we headed to the top of the Landmark Tower to see the incredible view of Yokohama.  

T H U R S D A Y - S A T U R D A Y

We all said goodbye to Mike as he got on the bus to take him to the airport to catch a flight to Hawaii.    I was grateful to his dad who already had plane tickets to fly into Narita that day.   He was able to arrive in Narita and then hop on a flight with Mike to Hawaii to be his escort as he was in pretty bad shape.  I needed to stay with the Holtoms as they required an active duty military person to stay at the New Sanno hotel in Tokyo.  It was hard to not leave with Mike but I knew that he was in good hands with his dad.

During our weekend up in Tokyo we explored Meiji Shrine where we actually got to see a newly married couple walk through the inner part of the shrine.  That was awesome.  We also went to Shinjuku Park to see the cherry blossoms.  It was quite a site to behold.  We let the kids run around then we all had ice-cream.  We ventured over to O'Daiba with the Holtoms but split midday so they could do a little more exploring.  The kids and I spent the remainder of our weekend in the hotel pool.  

M E I J I  S H R I N E

S H I N J U K U  P A R K