Getting Ready for Christmas

We spent the entire day today making super yummy Christmas cookies...eggnog cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread men, and even Garbage pail cookies (we aren't sure why they are named that....maybe it is because they have everything in them.....cake mix, chocolate chips, candies, nuts, and even potoato chips). The kids had so much fun rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies...we usually cheat and buy the premade sugar cookies that you have to just put on the cookie sheet and bake. Not this year....we went all out and bought the premade tube of dough that we just had to roll out and cut. Who knows....maybe next year we will even make our own dough! We had a fun time and the kids loved playing in the flour.
So, cookies are made, tree is decorated, presents are wrapped.....and we all snuggled up to watch It's a Wonderful Life together tonight. All we have to do now is wait for Santa!

Leaves are Falling.....and Falling.....and Falling....

We weren't sure what Fall would bring here in Japan....but as it turns out....it is quite beautiful....with lots and lots of different colored leaves. The problem is that the little Japanese men are our raking them up as fast as they can fall....they even use their leaf blowers to blow them out of the trees so they can rake them up before they make a mess. The kids were lucky enough to find a few piles to play in.....but take notice of the big sign behind where they were playing.....

Super Star!

Christian played his first season of Flag Football this fall. He proved to be quite a star player....scoring 2 touchdowns and making some good catches! I think he was most excited about his trophy/plaque. Here are a few of the pictures.....

Harlem Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters came to Yokosuka and the kids had a great time watching all of their silly tricks. It was a very interactive game...they pulled lots of kids onto the court....including Carson. He wasn't very excited though....in fact, when the guy picked him up and ran off with him he wasn't very amused and he started crying. Poor guy! And I wasn't even quick enough with the camera to get a picture! The kids were amazed by The Tank....he was over 7 feet tall!


This is our friend Daniel....he was a lucky guy and caught one of the balls and was able to get it signed by all of the players.....

Kenzie's field trip....

Mrs. Chamber's fourth grade class had a great time at Enoshima Aquarium. One of the perks of being a stay at home mom is that I get to chaperone the field trips. The drive to the aquarium is a beautiful one....along the beach and through Zushi city. It was the first time since we moved here that we were able to get a great view of Mt. Fuji. It was so majestic....so awesome. If you look carefully you will see the snow capped peak! What a view.....never mind the goofy kids in the picture....what can I say....they are fourth graders!

Here are some pictures of Kenzie and her buddies on their field trip......

Here in Japan it is considered cool to put two fingers up (the peace sign) during pictures. Everytime you see a little Japanese child getting their picture taken they have two fingers up.....silly.........This is Kenzie with Zushi beach and Mt. Fuji in the background (the peak is behind the clouds)......

Happy Birthday Carson

We celebrated Carson's 4th Birthday on November 30th! We had a great time at the base bowling alley...we bowled, ate cake and pizza, and spent some great time with our friends!

This is Carson and his best friend Jacob..........

Grandpa Bob comes to visit!

November brought our first guest since our move to Japan. We were so excited for Grandpa Bob to visit....even though it was a super quick visit....just 3 days! We kept him very busy....we visited Odawara Castle...

went to the first of Christian's flag football games.......

and we even decorated our Christmas tree...... We had such a great time! Thanks for everything Grandpa Bob!

We can't wait for the rest of you to come and visit!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween at Disney!

Greetings! We just returned from our trip to Disney Tokyo. We had an amazing time! We spent two nights at the New Sanno Hotel. It is a pretty nice hotel that is owned by the US Military but it sits smack dab in the middle of Tokyo. It was awesome. Great rooms, great restaurants, great pool, great staff. We (us and the Whites and their 4 boys!) all loaded up and headed out at 6:30 Thursday morning. The hotel is only about 1 1/2 hours from our house but it feels like it is soooooo far away...it was almost like being in America! We checked into the hotel and headed straight for Disney Tokyo. Despite the unbelievable crowds, we were able to hit most of the rides. Remember, we are in the land of little people so the height requirements for the rides are significantly shorter here in Japan than in the states. In fact, Carson was tall enough to ride every single ride at Disney......Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain....etc. We spared him from Space Mountain but we did take him on Big Thunder Mountain......he loved it! He is a Conway after all......and we are like adrenaline seeking roller coaster junkies! We couldn't believe the crowds....the Winnie the Pooh ride had a 110 minute wait at one point if that tells you anything. Luckily, we strategically planned out our day and took full advantage of the fast passes and we were able to do a lot considering the crowds. We all wore our Disney shirts and despite the masses of crazily dressed Japanese folks, we still stood out. People were dressed so crazy. It was hard to tell if they were doing it because it was Halloween, or if that is just how they normally dressed. We had a good time looking at all of the outrageous costumes. We all watched the Haunted Halloween Parade and ate lots and lots of popcorn......caramel, chocolate, soda, honey, and just plain old regular salted popcorn. We passed on the curry popcorn though! Popcorn is the treat of choice at Disney, you find popcorn stands at every corner. They honey flavoredwas my personal favorite, and wouldn't you know it was next to the Pooh ride! We were planning on spending two days at Disney but we weren't up to facing the crowds two days in a row. So, on day two.....we all wore our matching pumpkin tshirts that we hand tie dyed and decorated.....and we headed to Harajuku.....a busy shopping district in the middle of Tokyo. It is known for the outlandishly dressed teenagers. But, before shopping we made our way to the Meiji shrine. It is one of the busiest shrines in our area. It was Halloween night and it seemed that they were gearing up for some sort of night time festival. It was sort of spooky! We had a really great time and ate dinner at a yummy Thai restaurant. You should have seen their face when we asked if they had a table for 11! We were so proud that we had successfully navigated through Tokyo using the trains and subways! Most of all......we drove around and didn't get lost. It is sort of like driving in New York City.......but you are driving on the wrong side of the road and none of the signs are in English! You can imagine how fun that was! Well, here are some of the pictures of our adventures......enjoy!

Kenzie in front of the Tokyo Disney castle.
Carson and his best friend, Jake!

Here comes trouble.....The Conways and the Whites

Conway kids at the New Sanno pool

A little Japanese girl after a religious ceremony....she was happy to pose for us.

Entrance to the Meiji Shrine
Kenzie and Calvin in front of the lanterns....notice the homemade tie dye pumpkin t-shirts.
The Tokyo Tower....modeled after the Eifel Tower

And my personal favorite......We found the Pearly Gates! They aren't in Heaven after all!

The pizza box fit.....barely!

Last weekend we decided to try out the Japanese version of Pizza Hut.....it is called Pizza La! We see the men riding around on their little scooters delivering Pizza all the time but hadn't been able to order Pizza due to the whole language barrier thing. But....we came up with a plan.....we were going to circle what we wanted to order on our little flyer and take it over to our neighbor. Now, this was a feat in itself...trying to figure out what to order based on picture....you just never know what you will get. They have pizzas with shrimp, octopus, squid, eggs, mayonaise, and who knows what else. We settled for what we thought looked yummy. Two large pizzas....one with onions and ham and one with pineapple and chicken......we hoped. So, being the brave mom that I am, I stayed home and sent the kids over to the neighbors house.....they handed our neighbor our cell phone (they call them Kay-ty's here) and the flyer and smiled really big hoping that she would understand that we wanted her to order for us. She got the message and she ordered our Pizza for us. About 20 minutes later (they take food service very seriously here and are alway very prompt) the Pizza La! guy was standing at our door with two very amall Pizzas....but wait a minute, we ordered two large Pizza's......what happened? Well, in the land of little people and rice everything is smaller, including their Pizzas. The only thing that isn't small is the cost of things. Two large Pizza La! pizzas set us back 6,400 Yen. That is almost $62 in America. No worries though, we saved some money because it is considered disrespectful here in Japan to tip.....so we handed over our Yen and got our two very expensive pizza's. They were pretty yummy, but different than American pizza. Luckily we picked some good ones with no surprise ingredients. The main difference was that the pizzas didn't have a tomato based sauce, it was more like a white cheesy sauce....but yummy nonetheless. Despite the smaller pizza size we still had issues putting our smaller pizza box in our very small Japanese fridge! But, with some skilled rearranging and cramming we finally got the pizza box to fit.....barely!

Finally FALL!

The weather has finally started to change. The last few days have been blustery and cool. The airconditioners have been turned off and windows have been opened. It is so wonderful! Our adventures have been few and far between since school started but will hopefully pick up now that the weather is cooler. We do have a big trip to Tokyo planned for Halloween weekend....more on that later.

Fall activities are keeping us busy....Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts have started. Christian and Carson will be playing football, and all three of them start Awana (a church club) tomorrow. Sadly though, all of these fun activities require us to make several trips to the base a day. It is a lot of driving (about 40 minutes each way) but it is good for the kids to be involved in some "American" activites. We are getting used to driving on the wrong (left) side of the road and don't really have to think too much about it anymore...but don't get me wrong....we have made a few mistakes....good thing nobody was looking!

Well, here is a picture of Carson in his fall uniform. Yep, they don't wear jeans here......they call these "short pants"....it is what they wear through the winter. Don't worry though....he won't get too cold because he will wear his knee high socks once it gets really cold. Won't that be attractive? He doesn't seem to mind the uniform....after all, all of his friends wear it too. We kind of think it is cute!

Earthquakes, Typhoons, and Spiders.....oh my!

Hello everyone! Things here in Japan are going well! School is in full swing and the kids seem to be settling in quite well. We had a very interesting weekend. Friday night we had 7 kids at our house.......CRAZY!!!!!! We had our 3, Kenzie's friend Jennifer, and 3 of the boys from the White Family. The White's finally had all of their household goods delivered so we had the 3 younger boys over for a sleepover so their mom and dad could get some unpacking done. We had a really great night with all of our houseguests! To make things even more exciting......we experienced our first real Typhoon Friday night and early into Saturday morning. We pulled down the really cool metal shades that protect the windows during a storm, we moved the bikes and scooters to a safe place.......and we prepared for the worst......but it was actually no big deal....some rain.....some wind.....and that is about all. But, it was exciting nonetheless. Then.....Sunday morning we experienced our first earthquake. There are baby earthquakes here almost everyday but we have never noticed them...until Sunday. At 7:17 in the morning I was woken (I know...I know......can you believe I was still sleeping in at 7:17) by shaking and rattling. By the time I awoke from my sleepy stupor and realized what was going on, it was over. It was a 4.9 magnitude earthquake....not so big....but big enough to notice. It was sort of exciting....but not nearly as dramatic as you see on TV! So....how many people can say that they experienced an earthquake and typhoon all in one weekend?
Then..... just the other day I encountered a very very very big spider in a parking garage on base. Now....I know what you are thinking.....it is like one of those fishing stories where people say that their fish was 18 inches long when it was really only 8 inches.....but I am serious.....this spider was as big as my hand. I don't know what it is about Japan....they have the smallest people but the biggest critters I have ever seen. Now, this spider wasn't especially mean or dangerous looking.....but it was big.....big enough that I didn't even try to kill it....I just calmly walked around it. Yuck!
So, we had a very adventurous weekend here in Japan.
Hope you all have a great week!

Carson's Boo Boo

First, let me just say that if you have a toddler in your house.......you should make sure to secure your dressers to the walls. I have heard this over and over, and have even considered doing it.....but now, I think I will actually do it. Carson decided to climb on the dresser at 6:00 in the morning so he could chat with his brother who was on the top bunk. Needless to say......it didn't end well.......Carson and the dresser had a bonding experience as it toppled on top of him, trapping him underneath. That would have been bad enough, but piggy bank shrapnel became lodged in his forehead....ouch. He is a little trooper and is recovering quite well. Here are some before and after pictures.

BEFORE......My brave little guy even managed to muster up a smile in the midst of his trauma!

AFTER........

Here he is sporting his 15 new stitches......notice the chocolate donut remnants by his mouth....bribery for him being so good in the ER!

Enoshima Aquarium with the Whites

We made a day trip to Enoshima Aquarium with our friends the Whites. You should have seen the look on all of the Japanese people's faces as the 10 of us (Calvin was in San Diego) loaded the train. We had a great day. Here are a few of the pictures.......

(Nathan, Christian, Jacob, Kenzie, Daniel, Carson, and Ben)

Oh how I wish I had an explanation for this one.....this Japanese gentleman was wandering throughout the aquarium....we still aren't sure why he was all dressed up....but the kids sure got a kick out of him.

First day of school.......

Kenzie is an official 4th grader....an upperclassman in the Elementary School ranks!

Christian started first grade..............

and Carson started back at Kurihama Yo Chien after a long summer break.......