Posts Tagged ‘Heron’

This week's challenge over I Heart Faces is really neat: "photojournalism." I'm loving looking through all the submissions that are all ready up. So many interesting and touching stories!

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!

I've never submitted an entry to the I Heart Faces photography site, but I love looking at all the entries each week and have learned a ton from the tutorials and Fix-Its!

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!

We got up early to take Mom & Dad to the train station. They were here almost three weeks, but it did go by really quickly.

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.

It was more important to just hang out with Mom and Dad and the boys than to go sightseeing and take them all over Japan. Of course, since they made it all the way out here, we wanted to show them our favorite things!

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!

I love the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum. It's close and just so neat. Rhino is finally at the age where he is really enjoying a lot of the exhibits. The planes are really exciting!

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!)

Looking for driving directions to the Aviation and Science Museum in Misawa, Japan? Check them out here!

Well, our Horse Park outing didn't work out last week, but Mom and I made it out that way while Matt and Dad went golfing!

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!

Looking for driving directions to the Horse Park (Komakko Land) from Misawa? Click here!

We don't go to the beach a lot, but when we do, I love going to "Shipwreck Beach" in Noheji!

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!

Aomori is about two hours north of us. We've only been up there a few times, mostly for the aquarium. We love the aquarium! So of course we took Mom & Dad up there too! Heron enjoyed being wheeled around and watching the fish and clapped at the dolphin show. Rhino was wild and kept telling us to "hey, look!" and would get really excited.

I was hoping that he would like the hands-on tank where you can pick up little crabs, starfish, and sea urchins. He held a starfish on his palm for about half a second and squealed "oww!" and threw the poor thing! He didn't want to have anything to do with the tank and just wanted to draw on the giant dry-erase board. We watched the feedings for the otters, seals, and dolphins. Heron really loved the dolphins!! Unfortunately, Matt's favorite attractions seemed to be removed. He loved the tiny fish that eat the dead skin off your fingers when you dip them in the tank (you're supposed to!) He also really liked the bat fish but we couldn't find it.

Recently a Tony Roma's rib restaurant opened up in Aomori. There isn't really any "American food" out our way except for the occasional fast food joint (I am so sick of fast food!!) I do miss eating in a familiar restaurant. Even though I got my steak at TGI Friday's in Tokyo, stopping by the Tony Roma's was a must. Plus, Matt's parents have never had ribs! Never!! So we had to experience that.

We had Heron's first birthday party today! It was a little hot, but I guess it's a good thing that all the families that RSVP'd didn't make it. We had a good turnout of kids and babies and a good time just playing and chatting.

This is the cake I threw together in the morning before the party. I had a more elaborate vision, but it turned out cute! I made chocolate fondant, but the humidity (I guess?) made it SO goopy/drippy and it was impossible to work with. I would've added more sugar, but the grocery store was closed so I just scrapped it and frosted the cake. Heron's party was bug-themed, so he got a little buggy cake!

He had a cute bug outfit from Mom & Dad and there were bug stickers for the bigger kids and big bugs all over the floor for the little ones. We had blue, yellow, and green balloons on the floor and the ceiling to play with and some cute Japanese paper lanterns. Heron had fun crawling around with all his baby buddies! Rhino was in need of a nap halfway through the party, though.

We had some other cute treats. I made some rainbow Jell-o cups (kind of like these but without the condensed milk) with hidden gummy worms. I actually wouldn't recommend doing that. The Jell-o reacted strangely with my gummy worms and "stuff" flaked off the worms and they got really hard, too. It wasn't what I was hoping for. We also had "ants on a log" (peanut butter piped into celery sticks, topped with chocolate chips) and a variety of toddler-friendly treats. Yum!

Heron had a blast opening his gifts! He didn't quite understand what was going on, but seemed to enjoy the attention. The older kids helped him rip open his paper and play with his toys! The older kids had fun playing with Dad's cool RC helicopter. We didn't have any planned activities, just a general play time. First birthdays are the only ones that I want to invite this many people to. When he turns two next year, he'll get two guests at his party, then one more added each year!

Happy birthday to my big baby boy!!

Happy first birthday, Heron!!

I'm so glad that Mom & Dad were able to be here for Heron's first birthday! We had a great time!

I sewed up a special birthday crown for him (like I did for Rhino, but I'll be redoing Rhino's for future birthdays.) [Idea from Amanda Soule's book, The Creative Family.] I also sewed up a birthday banner for his party on Monday (idea from the same book.)

He received some wonderful gifts! He was given some cute outfits from Great-Granddaddy and GG and Pop. Matt's parents got him some adorable clothes too, as well as a Punch and Drop and some stacking wooden rings. I finally got to give him the knitted rainbow snake that I finished a while ago! Matt and Rhino and I also gave him a Walk N Roll for when he starts walking (soon!)

And, of course, there was cake!! I baked him his own little chocolate cake with my yummy chocolate frosting. Lucky boy! We tried to hold off on giving him any sugar until his first birthday, like we did for Rhino, but it hasn't really worked out. Rhino likes to share his treats! So this is the second time Heron's had chocolate cake.

He did pick the whole thing up and try to eat it like a cupcake! When it first came out, he didn't want to try the cake, actually. I took a finger full of frosting and chased his mouth around for a while until I could finally sneak it in. Then he knew what to do!  I cringe a little at this baby-chocolate-cake tradition because it's just so much sugar and we try to limit sweets. It is just too adorable though (I love this messy, chocolate baby!) and it is a one-time thing. It won't be every birthday that he gets to dive into his own cake!

The mess was so worth it. He had a blast! And cleanup was pretty easy. Once I got him in the bath, crumbs fell off him and he turned the water brown. At one time, a small piece of cake floated by him and he grabbed it and attempted to have seconds! Such a pig!