My submission is about saying goodbye, from my in-laws' visit out to us last month. They came out here to Japan for a couple of weeks to see us and the boys (to meet Heron for the first time!) We had the best time together and I wish we weren't so far away and could do it more often.

The time went too quickly and before we knew it we were saying goodbye at the train station. These are two of my favorite photos from that morning. Matt hugging his dad goodbye and Mom not wanting to let go of Heron. I can't stand goodbyes!

Tell your story this week over at I Heart Faces!

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I saw that this week's challenge is "Got To Wear Shades" and one of my favorite recent photos popped into my head! I just took this one of Heron not long ago when the boys were out playing with bubbles. I just picked up matching sunglasses for them from Toys R Us and they get such a kick out of them! Heron takes them off and puts them on again (or tries) over and over!

Check out my cutie! (And you can see Rhino in the reflection, too!) Excuse the bit of food on his chin!

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I haven't been to the doctor yet, but according to this test and my calendar, we should meet Baby #3 on April 25, 2011!

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We hadn't visited a Buddhist temple while they were here, so we stopped by the one on the hill by the train station. We went inside and it was dark and quiet and I felt like we shouldn't be there. It was peaceful and very pretty.

They had to take a train to Hachinohe, then get on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo, then take the Narita express to the airport. Then a 14 hour flight back. It's a lot, but they made it there just fine!

I love the Matt & Dad hug. And Heron's squishy cheeks!

It was so great to have them visit! I'm really thankful that they could make it all the way out here to spend some time with us.

Rhino had a hard time with their leaving. He sat on Matt's shoulders yelling "Grandpa, waaiitt!" (Both Mom & Dad are named "Grandpa" apparently. He just didn't get "Grandma.") Then in the car he cried for Grandpa to "si-down" and kept trying to hand the seat belt up to nobody. It makes my heart ache to see him so upset to see his grandparents leave! We'll miss them, too.

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We ate at Noodle House Marumiya (a.k.a. Cheese Roll). We had ramen, yakisoba, beef dunburi, and (of course) cheese rolls! Yummy! Matt and Rhino (coincidentally, dressed alike) waited for their cheese rolls.

We tried a lot of different restaurants. We had Pepper Lunch at the mall, Cheese Roll, yakiniku at Viking, this place (I can't remember the name!) for delicious yakitori … Rhino loved this place because he could crawl under the floor between the table.

I seem to get sick every time we visit with Matt's parents. I think it's them!! This time wasn't so bad, but I did get some bug for a few days.

We were planning on going to the Tanabata festival right out the main gate, but I really, really wasn't up for it. So Matt took Rhino and Mom and they had a good time! Rhino ran through the streamers, rode Thomas the Tank Engine and a mini-carousel, and they took in the sights and got some cute pictures. I've never been, but hope to go next year!

This is an illegal picture. You can't take pictures in the Universe (Japanese grocery store!) That's okay, though. Matt's parents are rebels! Rhino likes to drive the Hello Kitty car all over the Universe.

We went to the awesome cake house, Shiroi Mori. Delicious! Here we are hanging out on the couch at the table. I had a delicious chocolately, nutty, crunchy cake slice. Rhino had some awesome chocolate cake. Heron wolfed down some custard … and I don't remember everyone else's. It was all delicious, though! One of our new favorite places in Misawa!

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Heron had a good time, especially playing with sound waves. So cool! I can't believe with as much as we've gone here, we never went upstairs with all the awesome electricity and weather displays.

Everyone loves to watch the slow-motion multi-camera videos of themselves jumping. I think Rhino mostly likes the countdown to the jumping!

The playground there (Sky Park, I think they call it) is really cute, too. Rhino almost liked riding these rails, but just for a second. I'm glad that Mom & Dad could join us on a trip to one of our favorite local spots. It's just too much fun (and educational!)

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Of course we got a ride on the giant roller slide in! I rode with Heron on my lap and he loved it. Rhino got his foot stuck at the top of the slide so he wasn't too happy a lot of the way down!

We fed the horses some carrots (100 yen for a cup)!

And Rhino had his first horse ride! I thought 2 was too young to ride a horse, but look at him go! He loved it and didn't complain at all! The men who walked him around talked to him and pointed things out. When the loop was finished, they told Rhino to touch the horse's nose, its mouth, it's ear, talked to him about the horse (I'm guessing — it was all in Japanese!) and had him give the horse a kiss (yuck?) It was sweet! And look at my big boy on a real horse!!

Rhino climbed the big horse slide and rode some play horses. Heron liked riding on the wooden horses, too! And We had some delicious ice cream to beat the heat before we left.

It was such a fun day! All the excitement and heat really wore Rhino out, though!

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We all enjoyed some ice cream and pocky! Heron is such a piggy!

The boys seemed to like the boat ride. It's almost an hour and makes a loop (round trips from Yasumiya only. The Nenokuchi ferry is only one-way.)

It was peaceful and beautiful and not nearly as sickening as our last boat tour!

All throughout the trip a lady was telling us about things over the loud speaker, but unfortunately we couldn't understand any of it. Some days I wish I was fluent in Japanese! I'm sure the lake is interesting and she had a lot of neat things to say, but we just tuned her out and took in the sights.

We drove back through the gorge on our way home and stopped for some waterfall photos. I love all the beautiful falls throughout the gorge!

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We showed up and there were a ton of cars and people everywhere! We got out of the van and someone tried to hand us trashbags and gloves. Apparently there was a big beach cleanup! Usually I'm all for volunteering for these sorts of things and felt bad turning down the bags, but we just came to run and play with the boys and look for sea glass (technically, that's trash and we were picking it up!)

Rhino would wade in the surf and run from the waves. Heron took his first little dip in the ocean (well, I guess this wasn't actually the ocean — Mutsu Bay is on the Japan Sea.)

We found quite a bit of sea glass — even Rhino helped! He would walk along the water with me and then point — "pretty!" — and pick up a little piece for me.

We were worried about the weather because shortly after we left it started sprinkling. Then when we got to Nojehi it was really coming down. As soon as we stepped foot on the beach, it cleared up and became a beautiful day! I loved our day at the beach!

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We went out to Magnums, a nice restaurant here on base. It seems to really be the only place to get steak (other than the commissary!) I don't really eat steak often, especially since moving out here. I don't know if Magnums is a truly amazing restaurant or if it's just been so long since I've had a steak, but it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Yum! We shared an appetizer, enjoyed our dinner, didn't pick food up off the floor, wipe faces, scold, go for eight potty trips, or order off the kids menu. I love going out with the boys too of course, but this was a great break! Matt is so sweet, too. He got me flowers and was all nervous!

We went out to the Shimoda mall after. We were planning on seeing Toy Story 3 at the theater, but when we got there we found that they were only showing it in Japanese.  Often they will play some American movies and just subtitle them with Japanese. Well, that wouldn't work. We saw a poster for Inception, another movie they were playing at the time, but hadn't ever heard of it. Really, I feel like we live under a rock a little bit. Well, we gambled and bought Inception tickets — and I'm glad we did! We both really enjoyed it!! We got another surprise as well. We were expecting to pay 1,800 yen per ticket (right now, about $21 — This is why we never go to the movies!) Because we were watching the last showing of the night, tickets are only 1,000 yen. Hooray!

So we used our extra yen downstairs at the arcade. Usually we go for the photo booths, to let Rhino bop the crocodiles, and to play giant Tetris. Matt decided to try his hand at one of the stuffed animal gambling games (with the big claws!) with no luck at all. They're trickier than they look! So we found other rip-off games that you try for prizes. They have the ones that rotate and you scoop up little gems or chocolate coins or something, then drop them onto a moving shelf. The shelf should push little prizes into the hole, hopefully knocking over a stack or pulling a weight with a jackpot attached to it. We didn't have much luck there, either. It was fun, though! We're not really gamblers and that's essentially what these silly games are, but it was silly and exciting.

We got home late and everyone was asleep. The boys behaved for Mom & Dad (Heron was a little sneaky with the stairs and would look back and giggle and beeline for the steps.) We're thinking now that we should get a sitter once a month and have a regular date night!

Thanks, Mom & Dad !!

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