Trick or Treat

Guess I am slacking a bit....

For Halloween this year we decided to go to Tucson and go Trick-or-Treating with some friends. RJ and Sara decided to be Japanese and wear their yukatas ( a summer style kimono).

RJ



Sara

The gang of kids we went with

It didn't take Sara very long to figure out how the night was going to work...walk to the door, yell "Trick or Treat" and receive a bunch of candy. It was great! She loaded up her bag then had mommy carry her back to the house.

We had a great night. Thanks Trina and crew for letting us go with you! We had a blast!!

Casa Grande Ruins National Park

For the Veteran's Day holiday (November 11) we met up with some friends in Coolidge Arizona to visit on of our National Parks. Apparently AZ has the most National parks out of all the states.

The Great House is believed to have been built hundreds of years ago by the Native American tribe called the Hohokams.

Another part of the compound near the Great House. Cheryl and i were collage roommates. RJ and Nathan are about 2 months apart in age and Sara and Jacob are about 5 months apart.

The kids trying to fit through a door way. The Hohokam people must have been very short.

Another room on the compound

This picture is a hard to see, but this is believed to be a Ball Court. Apparently a ball game was played here and the losers were offered up in a religious ritual.

a closer picture of the Casa Grande (in Spanish, casa means house and grande means big)

While we walked around the grounds, RJ and Nathan were answering some questions so they could become Junior

Answering questions

Getting ready to be sworn in as Junior Rangers

Our proud new Junior Rangers!!

It was a great day! We all learned a lot and had fun with our friends! Thanks Cheryl for meeting us!.

You can read more about this place at http://www.nps.gov/cagr/historyculture/index.htm

Triple Scoop of Fun

The other day after church, RJ managed to get Daddy to give him a ride on his shoulders. Sara was not too happy about that so she asked for a ride. Mitch thought it was best to give both of them a ride....

Smash...Crash...

We have officially started reconstruction on our new home. The kids got to help Daddy smash up the old tile he pulled up on the downstairs...
I think the hammer was heavier than Sara...

RJ loved smashing...

and crashing all the tile.

That room was finished last weekend. They have the other half of the down stairs to pull up and smash. Oh the joys of children....

My School

I finally remembered to take some pictures of my school. I teach 7th grade (1st grade Jr High for those of you in Japan) math at a Middle School (7th & 8th grade). Most of our school is single story, but we have a new library building that is 2 story.

This is the front office and staff parking lot.

This is the remodeled cafeteria.

Our small copy room

the one Riso machine that no one uses and it is put back in a corner. (in Japan we only used Riso machines and they worked great!)

The patio area just outside the cafeteria. The students can not eat out there, but they do play games there during their lunch time.

The inside of the cafeteria. These tables fold up and are put away during the day time. Sometimes they have school dances in here.

This is me out in front of the school on Halloween. We were able to dress up for Halloween so I thought it would be fun to wear my Yukata. The students loved it and asked all kinds of questions about life in Japan.

That is all for now. Maybe I will take more pictures later and post them.