The Green Goblin!

Yes, we have another minivan. This is our 1994 Toyota Lucida, aka the Green Goblin. It's great... for a minivan. ;-) It has a sunroof, a moon roof, captains chairs that spin all the way around, sonar on the bumpers so you don't hit anything while you are parking, it is sea foam green... Best of all, the ac and heat work.
That is our tower in the background. If you look very closely, two balconies above the roof of the van, you can see Megan sitting on our balcony in a pink shirt and yellow pants! (You may have to click on the picture and enlarge it to see her.)
PS - Minivans are tangible evidence of evil.

Maddie Hanging Out

Maddie loves to be outside.  She knows how to open the doors that lead to our balcony, last night, she just sat in her little pooh chair and watched the world below....she's such an old person sometimes.

Megan lost her tooth (she ate it)

Megan's tooth finally came out.  Unfortunately she didn't know it at the time and she swallowed it.  It's all good though, the tooth fairy totally understands!  

More pics from Japan.

Here is Megan in front of our tower, notice all the cherry blossoms down the street?!

Here are some more cherry blossoms, this is across the street from our tower.
Cricket with a cool hair do.
Here is Paul putting down some flooring.  Notice how helpful the girls are?  What would he do without them?
Megan gave up, there is no helping dad sometimes!

We Crashed a Japanese Wedding!!

Okay.... so we really didn't crash it...  We visited a temple in Kamakura and it just so happened that there was a wedding there in public at the temple.  Isn't she a beautiful bride?!!  While we were watching the wedding, several Japanese people who were also watching began to crowd around the girls and asked to take pictures of Megan and Maddie, our little models.  They could sooo easily be models here.
We walked around Kamakura, took pictures, tasted Japanese fare from street vendors, had our first ice cream here, and just had a really relaxing and enjoyable day being tourists. It is so neat to feel like you are on vacation and be tourists everywhere you go!!

PS - I'm able to upload pics again. Did you notice?! So, you'll be seeing a lot more of us and Japan soon!!!

PPS - Paul was with us. Really... He was just having fun with our new camera - we love it. We had to get a new one because our last one was run over by a taxi!! Ooops!

Not able to upload pictures

Ok, so for some reason, I'm not able to upload pictures to the blog....it's been that way for some weeks now. If it continues, I'll search for a new way to get pics to people. We've been doing great. Paul enjoys his new job so far, he's really important, doing a really big job...I'm not sure what it is, but it's great! I know he likes the people he is working with.
Megan started school a couple of weeks ago, she loves her teacher and has a new friend. I think she gets shy like me, and is slow to make friends, she'll get there.
We've been exploring the surrounding area, we went back to Kamakura today, it was so neat, we could spend all weekend there, a lot of little shops and restaurants.  We went to a shrine and saw a Japanese wedding that was sooo neat.  While we where there, Cricket got her picture taken by about 5 or 6 different people, we where the only white people around.  It was a bit weird, but not as much as you would think.  Everyone was really nice, we had a great time and plan on going back soon.

Megan and the camera

On our new computer, there is a camera built right in. We got the computer late last night and Megan has so far taken about 500 pictures of herself. Here are a couple.

First Meal out in Japan

We ventured out into Japan today, outside of the base! We rode the base bus up to the front gate and walked right on through, like we knew what we where doing. Our plan, to check out the local yokles and find a place to chow down. So we walked around, taking in the sites, it was a bit different, almost nothing was in English, it was all in Kanji (a type of writing). We saw a couple of places, only one ramen place (they have an orange lantern haning outside of the door). We finally saw a place we though we could go into and eat. Mc Donalds. Yep, we are total sell outs. But even that was a bit scary, again, no English, but there were pictures. Oh, and you don't hand the money to the person, you put it on a tray and they take it. So after out meal (the cashier carried our tray for us to the table) we walked our way back to the base. All in all, pretty good for our first time out I think!

Hopefully we'll be able to post pictures soon, we need to upload the software to our new computer, take care!

What goes well with bacon? BACON!

Probably last post for awhile

So our computer is being shipped over this Thursday and this will be the last post for awhile, at least a month. I'll leave you with some pictures.

Cricket found someone's Hershey Kiss, the big ones that come in a cardboard box.
She likes chocolate.
She ate right through the cardboard and foil to get to the kiss. She is totally my daughter.
And she turned 1 the other day.....I just can't believe it.
She's so awesome! I love you Cricket!

Caves

Both of my girls seem to enjoy caves. Here is Cricket in her cave, inside the house, in a cleared out cabinet. She loves the place and would eat in there if I let her. Please don't mind the huge mess on the counters... it's Paul's fault. Megan's cave is a bit more sophisticated. Paul built it from the butt ton of snow we've had this year...

Cute Picture

This girl will eat anything.

Thanksgiving pig out. I mean dinner. (but really, it was just a pig out)

Where's my food? Seriously mom, stop taking pictures and load up my plate, I'm starving over here!
Get away from my drumstick, I'll knock you upside the head with this thing if you don't back off.
THANKSGIVING TOTALLY ROCKS! A holiday where all you do all day is eat or think about eating....it's offical, I'm in heaven.
FeeDee, get the stuffing off your face. Next time use your spoon, not your fingers.

Thanksgiving prep

Notice Megan with the sharp object in her hand?
Notice Paul with the non-hazardous mass of cranberries?
Yummy!!!! Man, am I a great cook or what? Ok... so I didn't do all of it... Megan did the sweet potatoes and Paul did... well, he did everything else! I did help though... Notice the olives in the background? Well before I "helped", there were too many for the bowl and there was a threat of overflow. Ok... I basically drank wine and bugged the poop out of Paul. I know my strengths and I play to them. :)
Yippie! No more slave labor! Dad, can I leave the kitchen yet?

One Week

Here is Megan last week. Note the sleevesless shirt, capri pants, warm sunshine.

Here is Megan this week. Poor kid!

Cricket Walking

Here is a short video of Cricket walking (just for you mom!)

more pics

San Diego Trip

Here are some pictures from our trip to San Diego. We had a blast, went to Sea World, the Zoo and did lots of sightseeing. Megan and Gracie are now BFF! Maddie fell in love with Charlie, who was so sweet to her, giving her kisses and food!