Things To Consider

T minus 10 days and counting till we are officially on vacation...well...a vacation, in that, we don't have classes.  The 1st week of vacation (12th-15th), the girls will be at camp & Jerry will be off climbing Mt. Fuji.  This means Joshy & I will get to hang out... I am trying really hard to think positively about this!  As I sit here dreading thinking about it, I have come up with a few things I MUST plan ahead for.

Groceries:  I need to have the fridge/pantry stocked before everyone takes off because Joshy cannot stay alone nor can he go shopping with me.  (Empty stores, maybe, but the stores will likely be PACKED because of the Obon holiday.)

Entertainment:  We will be meeting friends at the national park not too far from us for the summer light up.  This will be FUN, but I cannot feed Joshy any of the festival foods because of risk of germs/bacteria.  I need to think of things I can take from home or come up with a different option.

Morning Walks: UMMMM... I usually leave Joshy either sleeping or watching TV with his sister - that won't be possible.  I will either need to take him out with me or walk indoors.

Code Browns:  Because I do not have a sense of smell, I will need to be diligent about checking.  I also need to start praying now that blowouts are at a minimum because I won't have any extra helping hands to keep the ever present "helpful hands" from helping...er...finger painting...er...UGH!

OK - I am tired of thinking about it.  I am looking forward to vacation - no classes - but I am not looking forward to having the family scattered.

LORD give me extra strength!

And 

Please pass the coffee & chocolate!  

Coffee, Cream, & Oreos

There are just days when you need Coffee, Cream, & Oreo...so to make life interesting we obtained a long term supply.

This is Oreo, Bekah's new baby parakeet.

This is Coffee & Cream, Kei's new finches.

Bekah got Oreo about a week ago.  Kei has been wanting a bird, but still had a hamster.  Sunflower, the hamster, died of old age a couple of days ago.  Kei didn't want a parakeet, so chose finches.  Now we have added 3 birds to the family ~ we will see how that goes.  

Sea To See

We took a chance and headed to the Sea to See the city fireworks.

As usual the fireworks were amazing!

To avoid the SEA of people we kept Josh in his WIKE.  I also left after 45 minutes (not quite the 1/2 way point).  This allowed me to get Joshy home without fighting through throngs of people.  It also got us home only slightly late for evening meds.  We could See part of the lights all the way home.  I could have gotten some amazing reflection shots, had I not had my hands full.

Gotta LOVE Kashiwazaki fireworks!!

Mt. Asama

The biggest reason we headed to Karuizawa last weekend was so that Jerry could climb a mountain.  So while the kids and I were hanging out at the cabin, doing a little hiking, reading, & relaxing.  This is what Jerry was doing!

*Photos stolen from Jerry's facebook album.

The rainbow picture was due to condensation of stream from Mt Asama!  

The climb was beautiful, but grueling   It took Jerry several days to get back to normal.  It is not something I could handle, so I am glad he took lots of pictures, well over 100, that way I can enjoy the sights without needing to climb the actual mountain!   There was one point along the trail, about 3 hours into the climb, where they were able to see the 3 tallest mountains in Japan, including Mt. Fuji.  I might be interested in attempting that much of the climb... someday.... say once I can climb a mountain closer to home without needing to take the cable car down ;)

Escape

Jerry has been wanting to climb Mt Asama with a fellow missionary, Isaac. I had a choice, send Jerry off on the train and hang at home with the kids for 3 days (4-5 hours one way by train + the climb is a good 10-12 hours = not a 1 day undertaking!) or load up the car and find a place to hang out while the boys climb.   Mt Asama just happens to be very close to Karuizawa, where we vacationed in May.  Yeah, you see where I am going, right?!?

Saturday morning we loaded up and headed toward Nagano.  We stopped in Ueda to check out the castle ruins on the way.

Then we went on to Karuizawa.  We couldn't get the same cabin we had last time, but we were still able to rent a very nice cabin.

Saturday evening, Jerry & I took a short walk.

Later that evening I sent my intrepid mountain goat climber off to Isaac's.  He spent the night there since they were striking out around 6am.

The next morning, while Jerry & Isaac climbed Mt. Asama, I drug the kids & another missionary friend, David, off on a hike.  We were not successful in following the trail, but we did have a nice hike.  I know where we made the trail error, so next time we will try again!

We then chilled at the cabin; reading, resting, playing, attending an English worship service at Union Chapel...  I even let Joshy out on the deck.  This was the FIRST time in a year and 10 months he has been on the ground.

The mountain goats climbers made it back to the cabin about 7pm; tired, dirty, hungry, but happy!

We spend another night at the cabin before heading home Monday morning.  It was a nice get-a-way!