Thursday, August 19, 2010

Japan Day 10!

-Lunch at Youcata
-Shopping for last min items
-Kimono party!








Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Japan Day 9!

Day 9 we went to a theme park with Ryoko and Megumie. It was so much fun! They had a great water park so we spent the first part of the day there going on slides, watching surfers, chilling in the wave pool and enjoying sun! We took a bus there! It was a long bus. Good thing we had some fun!

While we were in the wave pool one of the employees walked us out these awesome things to tie on our sunglasses so we didn't loose them. Only in Japan would they care enough to bring you something so you wouldn't loose your glasses. When we told him it was ok, we were fine without them, He made it clear it wasn't an option! So funny! Love it!
Japan is so conservative and really likes to keep things looking good, that includes others your looking at! Check this sign out that was posted all over the park! If you have tats cover them up! Totally different that the US.
Hitting the roller coasters and coming to the close of the day! It was really fun but we had been in the sun all day and were tiered and Poor Whit got such a bad migraine.

I was thinking that this was the ride home, but it was actually the ride there.... I know I started off tiered!
We all got a bit of sun! Poor Cyd was fried!
Poor Cyd's Feet
Whitney's legs and Cydne's legs! It just hurts to look at it, even now!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!



Japan here I come! Well Kirsten (my sisters good friend) and I have headed to Japan! We left early Sunday afternoon and spent 14 hours on airplanes, 3 hours on trains and then 30 min in car... but we are here!

Let's start form the very beginning of this adventure! Kris was nice enough to take me to the airport. We got the girls ready for church so that as soon as they dropped me off they could head back to church. The ride was going well until Kris pointed out Molly's funny little face! She had kind of a pouty face. Totally thinking she was kidding I just kind of playing around with her. I asked her why she had that face on. Then the water works started. She was so cute! "I'm just sad because I'm going to miss you! and she just kept crying! not the trying to be dramatic hysterical cry, just the trying to hold it back, but tears roiling down her face. That's when I started! It's been hard trying to get things settled to head to Japan, but now that it was here I knew I was going to miss them like crazy! And Molly's tears were not helping. I got a little teary myself. It was hard to say good by. Molly was not feeling well, which I know added to her sensitivity and my feeling guilty. Once at the airport I met up with Kirst and we checked our bags and headed up to board. Other than the a REALLY rocky landing in Tokyo the flight was uneventful and long. We had attempted a sleeping pill in hopes we would sleep all the way to Japan.... no such luck. I think I slept a total of 2 hours at the beginning.
Once we landed in Japan and made it though customs and got our baggage we headed out and got some train tickets to take us to Tokyo. You would think coming into the Tokyo airport you would be in Tokyo... Nope! So we made it to the train, just down in the basement of the airport and were off to Tokyo and from there we had to catch the Shinkonsen, AKA the Shink or Bullet Train. The amazing thing that we noticed right off the bat was that Japan is so clean! Once the train got there they cleared it and then cleaned it, the same with the Shinkonsen. Navigating our way though Tokyo station was CRAZY! When I got the instructions from Kat on how to get to Nagoya, being as Tokyo is not my parents area so they couldn't pick us up, were to follow the signs and gave us two numbers one for the mission home and one for the mission office... After about an hour we got to Tokyo station I was still not 100% sure we were getting off on the right stop, 95% sure, but I didn't want to get off the wrong way. Up to this point we had asked a few people for help and they were all very nice. There was a man standing by the door with us and I just asked him..."Is this the right stop for us?" while showing him my tickets and then outside, knowing he would most likely not know what I was saying so thinking adding a little charades into the mix would help out. He looked at the tickets and in his perfect English said "ya this is the right stop." He was so nice. He asked if this was our first trip to Japan and told us how safe it was. He said you can ask anyone anything and feel safe. We decided to take it a step further and ask him where to catch the Shink. Once we were getting off the shink he said... Here follow me I'll take you there. HOLY COW! Can I tell you how many millions of people there were and here I am with my two HUGE bags, Kirst is caring my huge carry on, my biggest bag was for my mom, with all of the stuff she had requested. So here I am trying to pull these 40+ lb bags and follow this guy, who by the way had to help me up the stairs with my bags, through all of these millions of people. I have never seen so many people in my whole life in one place! This nice guy walked up right up to where we put in our tickets to make it to the platform, and then he told us goodbye and turned around and went back the way we came from, and we had come quite a ways! While we were waiting for the Shink I looked at Kirst and said, knowing my parents were going to meet us at Nagoya station. I said... If that station is anything like Tokyo we will never find them! She agreed! Once On the Shinkonsen we were both really tired and trying to stay awake. I could see poor Kirsten's head bobbing. We spent 2 hours on the Shinkonsen and while I was looking at the back of the seat I saw a map like picture of the Shink and noticed that there was a phone on there. Kat had said that there ware phones all over the place and to just call when we get here, but I hadn't not seen a phone since we got off the plane, but I wasn't really looking either. Kirst and I were just trying to make one train after another. So sitting on the Shink seeing that there is a phone on the Shink I thought I would give it a try. So I found the phone and then realized that it only takes phone cards, which I didn't have. So I turned around to go out of the phone booth and couldn't figure out how to get out! I was totally stuck. Oh I think I was just really tired and didn't have a clue of what I was doing! I finally just pushed really hard and got it opened. Once we made it to Nagoya station we decided to head out and just wait. As we were walking I saw a girl wearing cute short and as I looked closer I realized that she was totally a guyjin (foreigners) then I realized that it was Whitney! Hooray! I yelled and then I yelled again and then Kirst and I both yelled and then she turned around. She took us to the other side of the platform where mom, dad, kat and the AP's were. Oh it was so fun. Again for the second time there were tears. I gave my dad a hug and that's when it started! Oh it's so good to be here with them and see where they are living and what they are doing and meet all of these amazing people that I keep hearing about! We drove back to the mission home had some cereal and talked and headed to bed! Oh I'm so glad that I'm here!

Lake Powell

Oh I know I say this every time I blog about a Lake Powell trip, but I totally love that place. It’s so amazing! We started off kind of rocky. I was trying to get the house cleaned before we left and then we decided to try packing ALL of the food for this trip… We typically don’t pack all of the food, but we thought we would try it. It worked out great while we were there, but to pack for me, two girls, pack the car by myself and pick up Kris from work on time and hitting the road, oh and having stuff to keep the girls busy for the 7 hour drive. Packing and the food was just a little more work that put me over the edge. I think next time we will simplify again and go back to shopping in Page. We had such a good tip. The girls loved every single second. We spent a lot of time in the water, so warm it felt so good, we did a lot of boat rides, and this was Stella’s Favorite. Lot’s of playing at the beach and Molly loved the beach and swimming. Kris’s dad was also nice enough to let us take the ski trainer. The first summer we took Stella she was not so fond of her life jacket and the boating was not her favorite thing to do, but she LOVES it so much now! It’s so fun to watch my girls love Lake Powell more and more every year. I can’t imagine our lives with out it honestly. The girls love everything about it! Stella even got to the point where she would swim, on her back from the beach to the boat. She is so cute! It's so fun to watch these girls and see them fall more and more in love with this amazing place that Kris has grown up loving and that I have loved form my first time there. Lake Powell will forever hold a special place in all of our hearts.












Learning to Water Ski




Oh this was such fun to watch the girls “Water Ski” for the first time. Kris’s dad got this water ski trainer for little kids and when we went boating with Kris’s parents and Jody and her family. We got there a little after everyone else had been there and Becks had already been on the trainer. So it didn't take much to get her on there!
She wasn't sure that she wanted to do it alone so after Beckham had gone one more time with Cory holding on the back of the ski, Molly decided that she was up for the challenge… with the exception that Cory would hold on to the back. Cory was such a good sport. Molly loved it. Cory was so good to hold on until Molly told him he could let go. Oh she loved it and it was so cute! Stella was in the boat and kept asking to go so she was next. She loved it just as much! They were so cute! I hope they grow up to love water skiing as much as their dad! I love this video of Molly… she is totally talking to her invisible or pretend “Friends”.

Laundry Room

Oh I can’t tell you how crazy I would go every time I would have to do laundry or Kris would do it!

It looked a little something like this…



My laundry room is small and there isn't much room, but some of the things that were driving me crazy were…
1- I hate the huge piles of dirty laundry all over the floor when I sort them. Then they sit there until the laundry is done, sometimes that is faster than other times. So you have to look at the piles, step over the piles and most often times resort the cloths after the kids dig through and play in them when you get 2 seconds to go to the bathroom (once a day).
2- Once the cloths got folded they would sit on the couch until they were put away. Mine usually ended up shoved in a corner of my bedroom or dresser. Because I have had to put away 3 peoples clothing. If they get put away before the kids again go though and drag them from one end of the house to the other, while you're helping someone else go to the bathroom.
3- My laundry room was so not working for me. I had a counter on top of a bunch of draws that I didn't really have use for, nothing was in there and the cupboards were dark and the room was just boring!

I was tiered of it not working for me! So I went to work! I love it! I know this is not the dream fore everyone else, but this is my dream laundry room for now!

I, yes I did the demo work. I pulled out all of the drawers and counter top, Kris did have to help me lift them outside. We painted the cupboards white and I wanted a bright happy fun color for the laundry room…Orange! I love it! It took two cans of paint to LOVE it, but I LOVE it! I got my baskets form Wal-Mart and the wheels as well. I glued them on with E6000. And vela! Rolling laundry baskets!

I got a board from Home depot and painted it white to add a folding table. Kris anchored it to the wall to make for a sturdy folding table. I Put my trash can in by my bins and then I recovered the shelves with fabric for extra flair and color. We had new shelves cut as well to add more shelves and the mirror added a pop that that room needed! So know that it’s all done how do I use it?






The clothes are all taken downstairs (often just though down to the bottom of the stairs by everyone, It works for me they end up where I need them and everyone thinks it's cool to though there cloths down the stairs) That's where I collect them and sort them into the proper bin. Then, when I have time I can just throw a load in and I don’t have to stair at the pile of dirty clothes. As soon as I pull the clothes out of the dryer I fold them and they go right up on the shelf (everyone has their own shelf) When we have time (this is often on the job charts for everyone to put away or help put away there cloths, depending on how much help they need) we come and get our clothes and then we each can put away our own clothes when we have time (some need more help, but they can wait until I can help them and the laundry is not sitting on the couch for them to unfold time and time again before it gets put away!
Oh this totally works for me and I love it! These small changes help me save time and effort! I really do love this new laundry room!