surprise visit to disney

Nate and Rainey suggested disneyland one day so we up and went. The kids thought they'd died and gone to heaven!

Pirates among us

Tokyo disneyland

Around Tokyo

Asakusa, Tokyo Japan

Hanging out

Memory Lane

Walking around old familiar spots in Karuizawa and standing in front of the old house. Things have changed but it's still possible to see it the way it was.

Karuizawa

The girls and I drove with Nate and Rainey up to Karuizawa to look around the old haunts and give Rainey that visual on our family stories. It was a gorgeous fall day in spectacular Karuizawa. So much fun to walk around remembering things with family!

Nate and Rainey's arrival in Japan!

Nate and Rainey finally made it here! We whisked them off immediately to downtown Tokyo for a stay at the New Sanno and a crash course on train riding and crowd defense for Rainey. Whew!

Cynthia's class

Cynthia's class had a special pumpkin seed counting activity. They had to dig out all the seeds inside their little pumpkins and estimate how many they thought were there, then count to find the actual amount. Cynthia's had 175! (Most of the kids were disgusted by the goopy pumpkin guts...)

Making excellent Chige (Korean soup)

Yum! We added clams too and it was delicious!

Miku performs in a street festival

Our friend Miku had to perform in a street festival with her school class. She was fantastic! They had to do the dance 4 times....!

Studio Ghibli Museum

Last week the girls and I took a trip with some friends to the Ghibli Museum. That's the company that produces Totoro and many other especially famous anime movies. It's set up to create amazement everywhere you look. We did enjoy it! Photos are not allowed to be taken anywhere inside, only in the areas outside the building. For Cynthia it was a dream come true as she is the #1 fan of My Neighbor Totoro and the new movie we saw this summer, Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea. Strange, very strange.