Some randoms from this summer

Lola and I when I dressed up as geisha in Kyoto

When my cousin Adam was visiting this summer we went to a net fishing festival and this is how the men were dressed. This is just one of my favorite pictures from then.

Wade grandparents sent Lola a coloring book. She loves to draw. She always brings me a marker and crayon and says "draw! draw!"

I played in a few beach volleyball tournaments over the summer and this is a picture from one of them. She played with this boy and his sister and Mom all day. She had so much fun.

One of my best Japanese friends-Megumi. Her, Noriko, Chris, Erwin and I went to the river and watched commorant fishing one night. Commorant fishing is a three hundred year old tradition here in Japan. Men take their birds out on the boats and night with a light hanging off the front of the boat, and the birds catch fish. Once the fish are in their mouth's, the fishermen basically choke them to make them spit the fish out in the boat.
Megumi and I dressed in Yukata(traditional Japanese summer dress) as you can tell from the picture below. The above picture is Megumi on the boat.

Sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I spent three hours uploading these pictures, so as you imagine I get a bit frustrated.
Things here are the same. We are now in our last year here, and I'm very sad about it and will be upset when we leave this beautiful country. Our life here is very easy and for the most part stress free and safe, and we have made some wonderful lifetime friends. Needless to say however we will be very happy to be back in the states and closer to friends and family.

I have taken a part-time job working at Estee Lauder and I think I am going to love working for the company and this is a great place to begin working for them. I think most of the time will be at nights and on weekends(so Chris can be with Lola), but the times when I do work during the day Lola is going to be at wonderful preschool out in town where she learns Japanese and English and has a music teacher come in etc. She loves being around other children and playing, which Chris and I both agreed she needs. She loves to interact with other children and I love to see how she is picking up better communication and interaction skills. I can't believe how fast she is learning new things and how easy she picks up on things.
Other than that we are trying to enjoy and take in all of Japan that we can in our little time that we have left here in Japan. Hope everyone is doing well!