Sara Misses Akiko

Sara is really missing her friends back in Japan. This morning she pulled out her apron that her friend Akiko gave her and told me that Akiko was sad. I think Sara was sad too...but doesn't she look cute!!!

All Tuckered Out

I couldn't resist capturing this picture of Mitch and Sara taking a Sunday afternoon nap...


They must have been comfortable because they both slept for almost 2 hours this way.....

Snow Fun in September

We stayed with some friends for a few weeks before we got moved into our new house. One Friday evening, we met up with them at one of their favorite Mexican restaurant. The kids were getting a little restless so I volunteered to take them over to the ice hockey rink. This is what we found in the parking lot behind the ice rink....

SNOW!!

The kids had a blast playing in it
RJ and his friend Kendra

Sara sitting in the ice chair that Kendra made.
RJ cooling off his bottom.
Kendra thought she would give it a try too..
Sara desperately wanted to eat the ice....

They all had a great time and were very cold by the time we were ready to head home. Maybe next time we will go up north and play in some real snow this winter...

Pretty Hair

One Sunday morning, Sara asked her daddy to fix her hair pretty for church.

So Daddy put her hair in a pony tail, tied her hat thing on and turned her lose...





The hat didn't last long...

Then it was daddy's turn to get his hair fixed pretty...
I love it when Mitch is a good sport and lets Sara make him all pretty.

Get Better Soon

Two weeks ago, Sara woke up with a tummy ache and daddy decided it was best for him to stay home with her so she could reat and get better.

When I picked RJ up from school that same day, he told me he had a card for his sister that he made.

A beautiful rainbow colored by RJ for his sister
This was the envelop that her rainbow picture came in. In case you can not read it, let me translate it for you...."I hope you get better soon".

I was almost brought to tears. I truly hope that RJ and Sara always stay as close as they are right now. I know that they will have their moments, maybe even years, but it just amazes me all the love RJ has for his sister. She is so lucky!!

I'm Back...

We have finally moved into our our place! We are so excited to finally have some of our own space and freedoms.

I will post some pictures of the house soon (they are on Mitch's computer), but I wanted to let you all know that I have internet now and plan to get caught up a bit here on the blog. Check back soon...

Driving in Arizona

I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of what is looks like here in Arizona. Returning to Phoenix after living in Himeji for a year, everything looks the same, but everything feels different. The roads are wider, the space is more open...just different.

I took this picture while driving (I was stopped at a red light) so you could see an intersection. There is usually at least one gas station and one fast food restaurant.

This is a main street near my parents house. You can see that there are 3 lanes on my side of the road, a yellow lane (it is used to make left turns in both directions) and there are two lanes on the other side of the road. Very wide compared to streets in Himeji.

While driving home from Tucson this past weekend, I wanted to take some pictures of our scenery. This is a prickly pear cactus. It is in full bloom. They say you can pick the fruit (that is those pinkish red things on the cactus) and eat it or use it to make jelly.

This is a picture of the Catalina Mountains in Tucson (about 2 hrs south of Phoenix by car).I use to live at the base of those mountains while I was going to The University of Arizona.

I love the big puffy clouds above mountain ridges.

This is the east side of the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. There said to be gold in them there mountains.

While we were driving around the Phoenix area last night I asked Mitch if there were that many mountains in the area before we left...of course there were but it seems so weird to be able to see wide open spaces.

I hope to do more blogs soon for all of you back home (in Himeji). I might be off line for about 2 weeks, but I will be back. If you haven't checked my Japan blog lately (http://merryinjapan.blogspot.com/) check it...I finally posted the rest of Tokyo.

I hope everyone is doing well....