Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was great this year!

Jeb started the day off with a game of flag football.


The feast was great



I cooked way to much food

The kids had fun

We had some missionaries, some single Airmen, and our neighbors over. It was our neighbors sons first Thanksgiving. I think he enjoyed it!

Then like last year I invited several families over for a pie party. It was a great time.

I made 13 pies, and people brought over some of their own. People had lots of fun eating as much pie as they wanted.

Our last Thanksgiving here, a bit bittersweet, and so much fun.

Okutama in the fall, I love Japan

For Veterans day we took a drive up to one of our favorite places, Okutama. We knew it would look beautiful with all of the fall colors.

It was a quiet ride up to the mountains.

The weather was perfect

We went exploring along the river. This bridge we walked on was so neat!

Look at its support, crazy!

These Japanese guys were hiking around also and loved the girls, giving them gifts of candy.

Doesn't it make you wish you could go swimming? The water is to cold for that. :)

We love driving around on the little roads

Have I mentioned I love how beautiful Japan is!

"Mata ne"

Mata ne or "see you later" is better to say then Siyonara, because Siyonara is a permanent goodbye. So to our good friends we made here in Japan, the Wilson family who moved away, we say Mata ne! We will miss you.

The Wilson's last night here we went out for dinner and ice cream.

Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun. We had a trunk or treat at the branch. Harley was a great Mary Poppins, Niyah a beautiful bride, and Gena the cutest bug you ever saw!

Our nice neighbors joined us for the fun and we were so glad they came!

Gena seemed confused at the first trunk when I told her what to say, the second trunk she was more willing, then by the third trunk she was ready to go full speed ahead! She understood, if she said "tweet and Tank You" (treat and thank you) She would get candy. We couldn't get her to stop.

In this video its a bit dark but you can see her pushing her way through, and if you listen close you can hear her say Thank you! SO CUTE.

Kawagoe Festival!

We enjoyed going to the big festival in Kawagoe or Little Edo.

We enjoyed lots of festival food.

Well some of it we may have passed on. Although it does smell delicious.

Who can pass on these bananas though?

The floats were so neat

This dragon was so fun. It bit the girls head, I think it brings them good luck. Everyone cheered and laughed when Gena cried.

Around this point I started to notice that Gena was getting her picture taken ALOT!

This is Gena trying to make the Japanese peace sign for her many photographers.

Then we bought the girls one of these candy covered fruit

Then Jeb stepped into a handmade knife store. I waited outside with the girls because it was so crowded inside.

As you can tell Jeb had the camera with him taking pictures of knives. Meanwhile I was outside where The girls were attracting the attention of many Japanese photographers. At first it was cute them stopping to take their pictures. Then they kept taking pictures, then more of them came, until I was surrounded by a whole circle of Japanese people taking pictures of the girls. It started to make me nervous, so I started to try to move the girls away and after a few more minutes they took the hint and slowly dispersed. Finally Jeb came out of the shop unaware of all the attention, Yuck, it was just uncomfortable.


The rest of the festival was fun, the floats move around the street then when they would cross paths they had to "battle" by trying to get the other floats drummers to lose their rhythm.

Love the little kids in the parade

Then we were ready to go home, it was very crowded by that time and it was very difficult to get out of the city.

Then time for a short train ride home.

All in all it was a great time.

Here is some video to get a feel for the fun