Swimming Lesson Victory

Yeah, Kyle Did IT!!! He is now officially in Level 3. He has been working really hard all summer and his hard work finally paid off. He's moved on from Level 2 and will be moving up to Level 2 in two weeks when we come back from our trip to Mt. Fuji and surrounding area.

Kyle loves to swim and he is like a fish in the water, but they kept holding him back in Level 2. They weren't sure if he had the endurance required for Level 3. He kept at it though. We are very proud of him. Notice in the pictures he's no longer wearing ear plugs and his headband...his tubes are both out and are no longer required. Let's keep our fingers crossed we are done with them and he has a good winter!

These pictures were taken last week. I've been a little slow down loading my camera and updating the blog. Sorry!

My little studmuffin!

Family 5K

Well we did our first Family 5K Run/Walk last night. By family, I mean Don ran the entire thing, I stayed with Megan and Kyle who were supposed to walk with me but instead took off running at the gates so I ended up running part of it anyways. I'm just not a runner, it hurts my knees. I can speed walk just fine. Kyle was running and crying, "I want my Daddy", trying to catch up with Don who was long gone. So the kids and I ran/walked to the water station then turned around and on the way back mostly walked back, Kyle was so tired by then. I told Don he when he finished he had to walk back and get us. I wasn't sure if Kyle would make it or need help carrying back, and we all know I can't lift the little Kahuna.

Don only met us about the last 1/2 mile. The kids did really really great. The race started at 7pm so it was getting really dark, but there was no heat and hardly any humidity, it was only 80 out so it was perfect. On the way to the waterstation when Kyle was still running it was cool, he was one of it not the youngest actually running and everyone was giving him "high 5's" and going "good job buddy", so he was excited about that. After Don caught up with us him and Megan jogged back to the finish line. I walked with Kyle until the end and the last few hundred feet I made him run over the finish line, he was crying and saying "my feet are broken" but everyone was clapping and yelling "GO KYLE". He made it at 44 minutes and I think 12 seconds. Not bad for his first race. We just wish we had our camera or they took pictures. But I was already carrying my wallet, keys,2 t-shirts (for entering) and a water bottle. What did Don carry: Nothing. Now, if we still had a stroller no problem, but I was not about to add a camera and try and run and walk. I already had my hands full. So instead here are pictures of us from when we got home. Don had to carry Kyle for a while home.

Also, when Kyle woke up this morning I had to give him motrin, he was limping so bad his feet hurt. I should have remembered it last night. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy 15th Anniversary

WOW!!! I can't believe it's been that long already. Today, Don and I celebrate our 15th anniversary. We were married 15 years ago in Washington in my Uncle David and Aunt Carolyn's Backyard of their house overlooking the Olympic mountains.

We went to dinner this past Saturday night at the Wellington's Restaurant at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo. The kids stayed with Miss Emma. They had a blast. We dined in pure elegance. Don ordered off the main menu with a tomato and mozarella salad and prime rib. While I had their 6-coure Mediterranean course, which was awesome. My favoirte was the appetizer and dessert. The phillo dough stuffed with feta cheese and sundried tomatoes and the baklava served with coffee. Don't get me wrong the roasted chicken dish with green olives, garlic, potatoes and veggies and other items were good too. The salad was interesting it was artichokes, red onion, yellow peppers, kalamata olives, orange slices and a vinagrette. It was good. Then Don didn't order dessert and they brought out these homemade dark chocolate truffles rolled in cocoa powder...aah HEAVEN!

Megan Update...She is doing great. She's fully recovered and back to herself. She's eating, playing, running (we did a family 5K last night to be covered later). She's gone a couple nights in a row now where she hasn't woken up crying about her throat so I think we are good.

Recovery Update - Day 4

Megan's recovery from her tonscillectomy is going very slowly! Yesterday, I had to put in a call to the doctor as my last threat to get her to drink something. Three ice pops (the skinny tube ones that you buy in a box of 200, not anything big) were not going to cut it. I knew her throat hurt but she just was not taking in enough fluids. That did the trick! Between the time I made the phone call at 230pm and after Dad came home from work she around 530pm, she drank 1 cup of carnation instant breakfast drink. Then we got her to drink another cup, so she atleast finally had some fluids in her. She was looking extremely pale. We were afraid we were going to have to take her to the ER to put an IV in her. She definitely can be stubborn, like her mom.

I put her on the scale this morning she has lost 2 lbs. She has eaten a ice pop, 1/3 of a container of a jello cup and 1/3 cup of carnation drink this morning. So hopefully the day is off to a better start. I've tapered her pain meds down to only 3 times a day. She still complains her throat really hurts to swallow. The ice pops really freeze her throat. The child has a free for all pass on ice cream and refuses to eat it, sherbert or push pops. She says swallowing it hurts too much.

For those that have asked, she had her tonsils removed as well as her adnoids for a few reasons the main being her sleep apnea like breathing at night. She was a loud snorer since she's like 2 or 3. We've taken her to the ENT since 3 and they've treated her with nasal steroids. She has allergies so they've treated that, she sleepwalks, and she sleeps 10 1/2 hours a night and still wakes up tired. However, the biggest thing is she would sleep at night snore and then stop breathing for a second or two then really catch her breath and start snoring again. It was kind of scary. When the ENT doctor looked at her he said her adenoids were big but when he took out her tonsils they were much larger than he could see on the scope and glad he got them out, they were really blocked by her adenoids and he just couldn't see how large they were. Eventhough she's in pain now, despite the moans of pain at night, her breathing and sleeping is much quieter already. So it was a success!

Surgery Day for Megan

Well today, Tuesday, was surgery day for Megan. She had her Tonsils and Adenoids out. Megan and I arrived at the hospital at 6am while Dad stayed at home with Kyle until he could drop him off at daycare when they opened at 7am. Her surgery was set for 730am.

Megan was happy she could play with her DS to keep her occupied before surgery. Here she is after she changed into her hospital gown. She was not excited with the fact that she couldn't wear any undies.

Thank heavens for the DS, it kept her mind off the upcoming surgery. We were in our room where she will come after she has come out of recovery.

Here we have been wheeled down to the OR holding area. The anesthesiologist has just come in and explained to her, I and Popo what will take place once she goes into the OR. We are still waiting for Daddy. He showed up about 15 minutes later.

The surgery was about 30 mintues. Everything went well. We were only away from Megan for about 45 minutes before we were allowed back into recovery. We could hear here screaming waking up from the anesthesia. She was a wild women. She wasn't as hard to control as Kyle, but the girl has a set of LUNGS!

Now, we are back up in our original room. We spent about 30 minutes or so in recovery. Megan slept for a good hour as soon as I crawled into bed with her.

Her throat was really sore. We are pumping her full of Tylenol with codeine every 4 hours per docs orders to minimize the pain. She is eating popsicles and sherbert. Only cold things for the next 2-3 days. The popsicles are easier than swallowling juice. She was a trooper.

We finally got her home about 12 noon. She read some books, I took a 1 1/2 hour nap, and her and daddy did what they do best ........Star Wars!

A Weekend in Tokyo

We packed our bags and drove to the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo Friday night to spend the weekend filled with swimming and sightseeing. It was a weekend for Megan to get her mind of her upcoming surgery on Tuesday. We waited what seemed like forever for Don to get home from work on Friday, luckily I talked Kyle into taking a nap on Friday after swimming (which he rarely ever does anymore, thank goodness the heat and swimming tires him out). With directions and toll money in hand we braved the open Japanese roads. The first time we went to the New Sanno we went by Train. We were doing excellent getting their until it said "at the OI toll pay 700 yen", we were on the Shuto Expressway, which we hadn't been before, trying to get to Rainbow Bridge and the sun was starting to set and all of a sudden we see an exit off of the expressway that says "OI" we started wondering is this our exit? Do we get off or do we stay on and the OI Toll will be straight ahead? Since you have like 10 seconds to make a decision on the roads here, Don swerved to the left and we got off. In my limited Japanese I tried to ask the Japanese man at the toll booth were we on the right way to the Rainbow Bridge? We showed him our directions. He said 700 yen please. We paid him our 700 yen and then he pulled out a map, had us pull over and told us we had got off the wrong exit. Luckily, Don could understand the map. We drove up the road about 1/4 mile and there was another on ramp with a toll bridge which was the one we were supposed to get off on, we hopped back on paid another 700 yen to go through the tunnel and we were back on course. We made it over the Rainbow Bridge to set in Tokyo traffic for about 20 minutes. We finally arrived at our hotel about 730pm, checked into our room on the 7th floor and ate dinner about 8pm which is so late for our family. The kids were upset that there was no pool that night, but we made up for it the rest of the weekend. Here are some pictures from our weekend in Tokyo.

Saturday morning after swimming and breakfast we took a train to visit Meiji shrine. It was about 90 degrees and humid on Saturday. They had a iris garden there but unfortunately they had already bloomed and were gone. The Meiji Shrine is one of Tokyo's biggest shrines and was established to honor Emperor Meiji. While we were there a Japanese couple was having a traditional Japanese wedding in Kimono's. The bride wore here Kimono and then her bridal Kimono. The guests and bridal party would keep following them back and forth through the shrine. Kyle asked one of the Japense if they kissed and she said "oh, no!". There were lots of tourists taking pictures, even other Japanese so I didn't feel bad.

These are empty casks that are used to fill Japanese sake.

Here are Don and the kids under a Torii Gate on our path to the shrine.

Here we are cleansing our hands before we enter the shrine.

Here is the Meiji Shrine built in 1920.

Here are pictures of the wedding ceremony. The one on the left is the bride and groom. The bride before her wedding kimono. The ones that follow the bride is wearing her wedding kimono and a picture of the wedding party that follows her back and forth, it seemed like every 5 minutes they walked from one side of the shrine courtyard to the other. The picture is a little fuzzy, everytime I went to take a picture of her someone always walked in front of my camera.

After visiting the shrine we went back to the hotel for some much needed food and swimming. Then off again to visit the Tokyo Tower. The Tokyo Tower is 333 meters tall. Interesting fact...It is taller than the Eiffel Tower which is only 320 meters. We went right as the sun was going down and got some good shots. Although, everytime we got up somewhere high for a view it's always so hazy/smoggy we never get a view of Mt. Fuji, which was the case this time too.

Here is a glass window they have in the floor. I had both Megan and Kyle (eventhough they were scared they were going to fall through), sit on the window so I could take their picture so you could see the bottom of the tower.

The view at night was great. Aren't these pictures Don took Awesome?

A visit from an old friend

I got an email from a friend of mine that I met in Hawaii that her and her family would be in Tokyo for a few days and could we get together? Well, of course! How many times does someone actually come to visit you when you move overseas? Laurell and I met in I believe it was Quantitative Methods class at HPU (Hawaii Pacific University) while working on our Masters' Degree back in 1996. We figured the last time we saw each other was when I lived in Virginia and she in Maryland where she lives now, so it's been about 6 years.

Here are some pictures of our 4 kids. From left my Megan 8, Laurell's son Boone 9, my Kyle 5 and Laurell's oldest son Jack 10:

We went on a ferry cruise of the Sumida river from Asakusa to Hinode Pier. It passes 12 bridges in Tokyo. We all had a great time. We had a great time catching up. My kids enjoyed meeting Laurell's.

Jogashima Island

We spent a hot and humid Sunday at Jogashima Island. We spent 4 hours walking along the rocky shore, climbing rocks, looking for shells and sea glass, having a picnic lunch and enjoying the water and the lovely sticky heat.

Here are the kids after lunch. We just made it down the hill and the rocky climb to the beach.

Luckily, mommy remembered to bring swimsuits. Well actually we had left the house I made daddy swing back around so I could grab them. Here are Meg and Kyle splashing and cooling off, the water was like bath water.

Here is another picture of the kids splashing in another inlet but look in the second picture and see what was swimming with them......a baby octopus! Mommy freaked and made them get out of the water after it squirted at them.

Don and Megan climbed to the top of this cave, it was a slippery little climb. Don had to lift her up. Kyle chickened out and I was just taking pictures. I wasn't lifting him up there. Don decided to chill out while the kids dipped in the pools of water.

The kids excited we made it up from the beach. By the way can anybody read the sign, it's in Kanji? Now we had another climb to the top of the park. It was now really humid and quite a climb. What trooper! Kyle and Megan practically ran the enitre way up.

Here are pictures of a Japanese lighthouse. Looks more modern than our traditional lighthouses.

After our day at the beach, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant right outside the base for dinner. Yes, believe it or not they do have Mexican restaurants in Japan.

The menu is in English and Japanese.

Here is Kyle enjoying his Mexican dinner and Melon soda. Meg and Daddy hamming it up for the camera with a full belly.