And this was 2012

January

 

 

 

 

February

 

 

 

 

March

 

 

 

 

April

 

 

 

 

May

 

 

 

 

June

 

 

 

 

July

 

 

 

 

August

 

 

 

 

September

 

 

 

 

October

 

 

 

 

November

 

 

 

 

December

 

 

I know these pics don't cover our adventures to Colorado, China, Kyoto, Fuji Safari Park, the bazillion zoos and aquariums, etc. that we took in during 2012, but these are us.  In real life.  Pretty darn good stuff, if you ask me.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Stir Crazy

Why, oh why, does it have to rain on the weekend and be the start of a giant Japanese holiday week?  We asked ourselves that question many times today as our kids drove us bonkers.  The rain prevented us from doing anything outside and there is no way we were going to entertain any indoor activities out in town due to every other Japanese person getting ready to celebrate the New Year.  We stayed inside, played a lot, didn't nap nearly long enough, and just waited for the day to end.  Perhaps bowling on base is in our future tomorrow?

I know this picture has NOTHING to do with our day, but I came across it while I was organizing some electronic files and I had to share.  This was taken at our "photo booth" at the SRF Children's Christmas Party.  It is sad that the best family picture we took all year was when we were being goofy.  Oh, well.

Two years and counting

It was two years ago today that we stepped foot for the first time in the Land of the Rising Sun.  We didn't really want to come to Japan and were told that we'd "love it there and not want to return."  That may be true for some people, but I can tell you that it didn't turn out that way for us.  We don't hate it here, and we've had some good times, good travels, and will leave with some good memories, but, no offense to our Japanese host country, we very much are looking forward to returning to the States sometime in the next year.  I'm not sure exactly where we'll end up, but if there's a Target, Chick-fil-A, Panera, and Home Depot somewhere nearby, we'll be set.  We miss the conveniences that we were used to, and we miss the open spaces that just don't exist in Japan.  There are some very nice people here who've taken good care of us, and we'll keep in touch with a few of them.  My job here has been very good, and I can only hope that my next job is similar.  But overall, we're very anxious to move on to the next chapter of our lives sometime in the next 12 months.

It's been a busy couple years for us and here are a few highlights for us:

1.  Arrived 29 December 2010.
2.  Bought our first BMW car (used, 10 years old).
3.  Experienced a major earthquake.
4.  Subsequently, experienced some quasi-hysteria leading up to evacuations for Amy and RJ.
5.  I visited Nagasaki and saw Ground Zero for the A-bomb that was dropped in 1945.
6.  Amy and RJ got to spend about 7 weeks in Colorado.
7.  We were reunited in early May 2011.
8.  In late May 2011, we moved onto the main base.
9.  Sold our BMW and bought our first minivan.
10.  Ryleigh was born in October 2011.
11.  We went to the Sapporro Ice Festival in February 2012.
12.  We took one long vacation and all came back to Colorado for a visit to family and friends in April 2012.
13.  In August 2012, we traveled Beijing China for a 5 day visit.
14.  RJ started preschool in September 2012.
15.  Amy's parents visited December 2012 and we all went to Kyoto.

I'm sure the next several months will fly and we'll have some more interesting experiences (we'll be sure to update you on everything here in this blog), but we are looking forward to being in a much closer timezone to most of our family and friends in about a year!

-Jip

Ryleigh "Fingers" Mosman

Ryleigh's iAnything obsession continues. She has discovered where the camera is on my phone, the Touch, and the iPad and has become quite adept at taking pictures. Most of her pictures look like RJ's when he first started taking pictures:

But, there are some others that are interesting, cute, and almost artsy:

Ryleigh has also found FaceTime. We didn't know this, though, until two 4 am (8 pm our time) phone calls to my parents. The worst part--my parents were peacefully enjoying their first night's sleep in the States after a very long day of travel from Japan.

Sorry, Papas! We've disabled FaceTime for now.

Now, I wonder what else Ryleigh will figure out how to do?

Bye, Papas!

We took the Papas back to the airport today. We were sad to see them leave. We were all grateful they came to visit and such a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. We're sorry that they got the bug traveling around our house, but hopefully a little R&R when they return will be the final step in returning to full health--after the readjustment to Mountain Time, of course.

While waiting for the Papas to check in, we wandered around the main terminal at Narita. The kiddos had a few sweet moments, including this one.

On our way home from the airport, we decided to take the Aqua Line, a tunnel that goes under Tokyo Bay. But, I tried to outsmart my iPhone's map and took us a little different route to the Aqua Line than we had taken before. The highway we took was lined with scrap yards, construction material companies, and other things that we seem to see all the time in the US but seem to be hidden in Japan. We even saw a Winnebago Dealership! And then we happened upon this:

Yup. That's a QVC Distribution Center. Crazy, huh?

We were talking with my Mom this morning and realized that we have been blogging for a year today. Maybe in the next few days, we'll have to do a little review of our previous posts!

Fish and sharks and turtles and stingrays...

We decided today to go to Enoshima Aquarium for Bob's and Jo's last day in Japan.  It'd been over a year since we were last there despite RJ asking several times over the past 12 months.  He loves the aquarium, and I think that Enoshima is by far the nicest one we've seen so far.  We didn't take off until after lunch so that the kiddos could sleep on the hour long drive there.  Once there, we took in the tanks/sights and then watched the dolphin show this afternoon.  Even though the wind was a little cold when we were outside, it was a beautiful day.  The kids had a great time, as did we.

Here are some photos from today's adventure.

RJ peering into the massive Main Tank.

One of several stingrays that RJ ID'd as either the Mom, Dad, Baby, or Brother to all the others.

The turtle came in several times for a good look, but RJ wouldn't get any closer to the glass.

Ryleigh had no fear and enjoyed all different animals.

Here she is below the stingrays.

Here she is marveling at the Blue Jellyfish.

I'm not sure why my face is scrunched up (maybe the sun?), but what's a visit to a sight in Japan without a put-your-head-in-the-hole picture?
 

A very nice day today!
-Jip

Merry Christmas

What a lovely Christmas we had! Thank you to all who spoiled our children and us!!

We enjoyed opening gifts, a yummy breakfast, a phone call with Jip's parents, lots of play, and, if I do say so myself, a fantastic lunch/dinner. It was soooo wonderful to have my parents here--thanks for joining us in the Land of the Rising Sun, Papas!

We hope your Christmas is Merry and Bright!

Christmas Preps

It was a busy December 24th for us! First, Jip, RJ, and I played elves and delivered Christmas tins full of goodies this morning. After a quick run to the commissary, lunch, and naps, we decorated cookies for Santa.

The last doors on the Advent calendars revealed Christmas jammies.

Then we put a key out for Santa.

Poor Ryleigh is sick again. She puked on me -- twice -- after dinner. She nursed well and seems to be sleeping comfortably, so maybe she is finally done. Hopefully RJ and the rest of us can skip round 2. Jip and my Dad were feeling a little rough off and on all day, but we're crossing our fingers that everyone feels great tomorrow.