Vermont (continued)

We spent a fabulous day at the Montshire Museum. You can check it out here. http://www.montshire.org/ There were some really great experiments and exhibits. I think Papa, Uncle Jimmie, Aunt Sue Sue, and Mommy had just as much fun playing. When we were finished inside they had a great outdoor area. Many streams to watch balls float down. The boys loved the fountains.

Vermont

I think our favorite side trip this summer was our week we spent in Vermont! We LOVE Vermont! When Andrew found out that we were going, he was most excited about Aunt Sue Sue's garden. I have a boy who loves "gardening" and loves eating beets. Ethan was eating the cherry tomatoes as quickly as he could get them off the vine. And when he ran out of red ones he was quite happy to pick her green ones! :)

Father Horgan's "babes"!

While in Virginia Beach we were able to spend an afternoon with some special friends. Father Horgan is the priest who facilitated Ethan and Andrew's adoption. He also was responsible for Katie and Libby becoming John Andrew's little sisters. This great family lives in Norfolk and it was so fun to get all the kids together. I took almost 100 pictures of all the kids. Have you tried to get 5 kids to all look good in one shot? IMPOSSIBLE!! I'm now trying to organize a scrapbook of the day for Father. It is amazing to me that these children in this picture represent roughly 1/10 of the children he has touched. (not to mention all us others)





And because we love him dearly, we had to add his photo to the blog also!
This is Father with Ethan.


And with Andrew.

I'm such a loser!

I don't know why I find it so difficult to keep this thing updated. I'm always shamed in to it...thanks Tanya!!! :) The boys and I had a great time in the states. I will start with pictures from our visit to Chincoteague for the annual pony swim and carnival.

Hunter, Papa, and Andrew at the Oyster Fritter booth.


Ethan driving!


Papa and Andrew clamming! Look I've got one!!


Clamming sure is exhausting!



I'll update tomorrow with photos from another part of our summer adventure!

Anything but a haircut

This is Ethan's second haircut. He laughed through the first one but we were not so lucky this go round. After all the tears we were left with such a handsome and big boy look



We are enjoying a quiet long weekend here in Japan. I hope everyone has a happy and healthy fourth.

New Camera

Jeff took these shots of the boys last week while playing with our new camera. I look at pictures of the boys and can't believe how much they both are growing. It seems to hit me more then just watching them day to day. Why is that? We are gearing up for a fun and exciting summer. We will fly to the states on July 17 and visit with family and friends until 29 August. Until then we are enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes that Japan summer's bring.

Baby Bum

Happy Mother's Day.

I know...it's about time. In honor of Mother's Day I thought I'd add recent pictures of the boys.

The picture of Ethan is last week at the Hot Springs. The one of Andrew is his first day of 1st grade at Ikego Shogakko.

Enjoy. I'll try to update more often.

What I've done on summer vacation by Ethan

This is way more fun than a bath!



I love yummy "real" food.



My first piano "lesson".




Wagon rides are the best!!


Next up....Photos of Andrew's summer fun!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

We rode our bikes to Zushi beach and had a wonderful day!

SUMO

This past weekend was sumo day at Andrew's school. He was so darn cute in his "thong"...




He is the one with his full right "cheek" showing.




He looks so tall standing there.



In addition to the sumo events, there was a Father's Arm Wrestling Tournament...Jeff and his lanky arms did not fair well....but it was fun to watch.



It is said that if you let a Sumo Wrestler hold your infant, that your baby will grow up to be strong and healthy. As you can see we couldn't let Ethan pass up his "guarantee" of a healthly and strong future. :)

Photos

Hello All....it has been busy here. I don't have time to write but I know that photos are what you want...so here are some from last week.

It's all about the teeth

The overwhelming theme of last week was teeth. Ethan cut his first two teeth and Andrew lost his first tooth and several days later lost his second. They of course had been holding on by a thread for over a week. As you can see from the photo his new teeth are in. He actually had the two "new" growing behind his baby teeth. Andrew hates this picture. He wasn't quite awake yet and he had "bed head".




These were taken last week as well, Ethan is getting so big. Six months yesterday. I love the black and white one. What sweet boys.....

ASO SAN (Mt Aso)

These pictures were taken while we were on our trip south. Aso san is about 50 km from Kumamoto city. We stopped here on our way back to the ferry that brought us back to Yokosuka. The weather was great but Aso received 25 cm of snow 2 days prior to our visit. Andrew thought it was great. He also thought that Aso was "stinky". We took a cable car up most of the way but did have to hike a good bit (a rather steep bit) to get to the overlook.

This from an online resource.......... Mt. Aso, which lies almost in the center of the island of Kyushu, is an active composite volcano. The crater, which measures 18 kilometers (11 miles) from east to west and 24 kilometers (15 miles) from north to south, is not only the world's largest caldera; it is also said to be the most beautiful.

Lisa...I've tried to post a comment to your blog and wasn't able to. And I've not done any knitting in about 2 weeks. I've been sticking mostly to socks and baby hats these days. Small projects with patterns I know by heart. That way when I have interrupted knitting (I forget what it's like to knit uninterrupted) I can find my place easily. Also small projects allow for instant gratification.

Karen (and MA girl Lisa also)....Now that we have Clemons watch out....1st place here we come! :)

Tanya...I want to see pix of your MD purchases!

National Children's Day aka Boy's Day

May 5th is Children's day in Japan. Until recent years it was known as "Boy's Day". Tradition was to fly a carp flag for each male in the household. Now I think you fly a carp for each member of the household. I've noticed that most Japanese people on Kyushu (where the boys are from) still do it the old fashioned way (just boys). This beautiful flag set was "blackcatted" (Japanese UPS) from Andrew's baba(birth grandmother). And seeing how she's older and from Kyushu she sent a traditional set....one for each of my boys. We are the talk of the neighborhood. Most of my neighbors have out a little set(pole and carp are about 12 inches long). This set is huge. The largest flag is 2 meters long and the pole extends like 10 feet. Flying this thing the past week has made me feel like one of the "natives".


Tanya the "mystery" green knitted "item" from the last post is this beautiful handmade baby blanket (the picture doesn't do it justice) from Jenny A. She bought the yarn (don't ask I've forgotten)at Yuzawya. And thought it would be perfect for Ethan. She basically followed the dishcloth pattern until it was as wide as she wanted and then she decreased one side while increasing the other until it was the right length. Then she decreased both until the end. It is just perfect and we take it everywhere.

More April happenings

Aunt Suzie was here for the first two weeks of April. We had outstanding weather and "sakura" were in full bloom. These pictures were taken in Kamakura.




As for my failing Yankees.....it has nothing to do with horrible pitching.....it all comes down to the "curse of the babes in Boston gear". I'm convinced the Yankees would have won all four games of last weekends series had Suzie not brought this contraband in to my house!!!! So here's the photo of "high treason" at the Guerreros.