Thanksgiving 2009

Our good friends, the Tillman family, shipped us all the ingredients and the recipe to make these fun and festive turkey treats. Rylee had so much fun putting them together and eating them....delicious!!

Thank you Tillman family!!!

Thanksgiving day at the park, so beautiful!

Mioko and Avery

We shared Thanksgiving with several of the other OAPs and a few Japanese families. It was a lot of fun!

Aimie and Rylee

What a great spread!! It was all so delicious, just like home!! Many people went to great lengths to find some of the traditional Thanksgiving fixins. We had to special order two turkeys, turkeys are nearly unheard of in Japan. Thanks to my mom we had cranberry sauce and stuffing. And others were kind enough to share their shipped stash of canned pumpkin and French's onions. You really don't know how good you have it, until you don't have it anymore!!

Chris and Becky

Hana and Heather

Avery insisted on using chopsticks to eat her Thanksgiving dinner...too funny!

Hana and Avery

Rylee and Aimie and I being silly!

Now we're being princesses.

Salam and Laarni both had baby boys in the past month, Congratulations!!

After stuffing ourselves with good food we drove out to Twin Ring Motegi race track to watch a hot air balloon lift and fireworks show. But, due to the wind they could not do the hot air balloons. It was still fun to watch!

Mioko and her niece Kana came too. Avery sat in my lap and covered her head with her blanket the whole time. The darkness and the loud sounds of the fireworks were too scary for her.

Annie and Garrett also came to watch the show.

It was a great fun filled day!! We have so much to be thankful for!!

Utsunomiya Marathon

Annie, Tada and I ran in the Utsunomiya Marathon, just the 10k, on November 15, 2009.

It was a beautiful day and an awesome experience. This was my first time to run a 10k and I actually managed to run the whole thing.

Annie is my closest friend here in Japan and it was so great to share this experience with her. Annie came to Japan at the same time as us, she is an engineer for Honda.

Tidi doing some serious stretching!! She's funny! Tada is also an engineer at Honda and a friend of Annie's.

I finished in 1 hour and 6 minutes. Out of the 275 women that ran in the 10k I finished 173.

October 2009

Avery showing off her "new" converse shoes (aren't hand-me-downs the best!)

Thanks Aunt Carmen and Uncle Boo your gifts just keep on giving.

The swine flu is on the rise in Japan and Rylee's school has now required that all students wear masks. We found some cute Hello Kitty ones for her to wear.




One evening Avery refused to get in the tub for fear the water would hurt her ouchies on her knees. So we threw her in the sink instead. She had so much fun, I couldn't believe she actually fit!

Lunch with my English class

I tutor a group of five ladies twice a month, the Lady Goose Class. They all speak English very well, I teach conversational English and it is so much fun. For class one day they wanted to take me to an authentic traditional Japanese restaurant. It was very interesting and very good!

tempera, rice and miso soup

Sushi, sashimi and several other things that I could not recognize or was unformiliar with. It was all really delicious though.

The four course meal took about an hour and half and the ladies sat on their knees the whole time. I lasted about 15 minutes and gave up.

from left: Ako-san, Mariko-san, Masato-san, me, Lily-san, and Satoko-san

(san is Mr. or Mrs.)

And yes, I am a giant in Japan!!

Nomikai

Chris and I attended our first nomikai (a dinner and drinking party) together. We shared a great evening with several of the other OAPs.

Arnufo, Dinorah, and Matt. They came to Japan the same time as us. We have shared a roller coaster of emotions together as we experience Japan.

Larry and Katie Hughes. They also came to Japan the same time as us.

Big Echo is a Karaoke place in Utsunomiya. Karaoke is very popular in Japan and it is way more fun in Japan. They know how to do it right!

So silly!

Just wanted to take a picture of the lovely necklace my sister Stephanie and my friend Kerri sent me as a "Thank You" for sharing our Japan experience with them during their visit in August. I love it!

Happy Halloween

The Friday before Halloween Rylee took treats to her Yochien class. Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Japan and Rylee wanted to share the American holiday with her school.

I stayed up late decorating Halloween sugar cookies for Rylee's class. Much thanks to my Mom who shipped me all the ingredients!

This is Avery in front of Chibiko-land daycare. On the Friday before Halloween Avery's daycare had a Halloween party. Like I stated before, Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Japan, but it's not unheard of either. You can find some Halloween decorations at stores and even some costumes. But neighbors do not typically participate in "trick or treating."
Avery attends Chibiko-land daycare once a week for a couple hours. She loves it and it's a nice break for mommy :)

My two little kittens!

They loved playing with their tails.

All ready for trick or treating!

Another OAP mom, Heather Cabral, organized a "trick or treat" in her neighborhood. She went to 300 homes passing out fliers about the Halloween tradition of "trick or treating" and asked families to participate. She had an overwhelmingly positive response.

This is our little group from left: Logan, Rylee, Miya, Hana, Avery and Gabriel. We had a beautiful evening for "trick or treating." It was a lot of fun!!

This is Origa and Ieri, they are sisters. Origa attends the same Yochien as Rylee and Ieri and Avery are the same age.

Little Logan with his Dad, Steve.

A few of the Japanese kids from the neighborhood.

Hana, Rylee and Origa had so much fun together!

"Trick or Treat"

This was Avery's first time to really participate in "trick or treating."

This is Teki, his parents lived in Ohio for 4 years. He was so cute!

So excited!

We had to wake Avery from her nap for "trick or treating." She was a bit grumpy at first.

The two little ones, Miya and Logan. So CUTE!

I love the banana in the pocket, too adorable!

Avery just couldn't wait to dive into her treats!

Avery and Gabriel with the giggles!

We shared a very happy Halloween! It really was a great experience, almost just like being in the states. Only real difference was the candy, we received a lot of rice crackers.