Lola playing with a little Japanese girl in Tokyo tower

Watching the baboon show in front of Tokyo Tower

Us at the top of Tokyo Tower

At the top of Mt. Fuji-a truly enlightening experience

Station 5 with Chris and Lola before I started my hike.

Lola and I in a sushi restaurant in Tokyo

She ate a blue crayon!

A bunch of us after eating nabe at a restaurant a sumo wrestler owns

3 Falls

Sorry its taken me so long to update. Thanks to blogger.com for automatically keeping any updates you are working on, because I have been working on this one for 3 days. Every time I update a photo our internet goes out, so I've just been doing it when I have time.
As you can tell we have all climbed Mt. Fuji now, well except Lola of course! Chris has climbed it twice, and I have climbed it once. There is a saying in Japan... " You are a fool if you never climb Mt. Fuji, and an even bigger fool if you climb it twice"
I think I have to disagree with the second part, I would climb it again in a heartbeat. I basically climbed it by myself, and wouldn't have had it any other way. I got to go at my own pace and just have a nice quiet peaceful climb.
Lola is getting so big and is talking soo much. We think that she believes she is a movie star. Everywhere we go she says hello and bye bye to everyone(as she does her pageant wave), and if they don't speak to her she looks at them like they are crazy! She hasn't said any full sentences yet, but does speak phrases. She says help me, bye bye time, and a few others, and copies (or attempts to) everything we say! She is also coming right along with potty training. She is starting to tell us when we are out places that she needs to go potty, and while we are at home she is usually pretty good about going.
Congratulations to Heather and Roger on your engagement!!!!!
Love and miss everyone!

some Lola pics

Lola in front of the Tori gate to Miya Jima
yay!!!!

me and Chris in Fukuyama-beautiful scenery!!

I like this picture BC you can see how long her ponytail is and shows her chubby cheeks!!

Trying to figure out how to get her car seat belts on

Just hanging out in the bathroom-probably about to get ready for bath time

Big brown eyes & chubby cheeks

Uncle Adam and Lola

Kyoto

Kiyomizudera Temple-

This temple is up in the mountains and has a wonderful view of Kyoto, it's one of the most famous spots to view Kyoto, as well as on the top ten places to see in Kyoto. There is a little spot at the top that has two love rocks, and they say if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed you will meet your soul mate. There were a group of school boys at the top who were holding each other's shoulders walking from one rock to the other. Behind the line of boys were two other boys, who we couldn't understand, but got the gist of what they were saying. They began to start the walk, and then stopped shook their heads and seemed to say "no, no we don't need to be in love", and then started laughing and making fun of the other boys. It was very funny!!

Kinkakuji/Golden Palace-

Perhaps the most famous spot in Kyoto. It was rebuilt, I believe in 1955, but was originally constructed in 1397 by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu who was part of the shogun (basically old Japanese government) It was then converted to a Zen temple after his death. His grandson attempted to build a silver palace, but the silver was never actually put on the outside. It's not known if it was lack of money or interest why it was never finished.

Chris, Lola and I in front of the Golden Palace

The second day in Kyoto we went to dress up as Samurai and Geisha. Well technically I dressed up as a Meiko, which is a woman training to be a Geisha. I could not believe how heavy the outfit was, and how many layers it took.

This was the outcome. We had professional pictures done as well, but they allowed us to go outside for ten minutes to take our own pictures. They did a fabulous job!!!

Adam,Me, Lola and Chris

I thought this was a beautiful street. It was located behind on the street behind our hotel.

This was the entrance to one of the Shinto shrines. Not anything specific I just like the picture.




Kyoto was a wonderful trip, and the one place I really wanted to visit in Japan. It's the old capital of Japan and there is so much history and culture to experience there. These are a few of the pictures, but there were many more. The other pictures do not do the city or places justice, and the most amazing places we saw we could not take pictures of. In case anyone wants to look them up on the internet here are some of the wonderful places to see in Kyoto

Nijo Castle-one of my favorites. In order to warn the shogun and his guards of people entering, when the floor is walked on it sounds like birds chirping. It is impossible to walk across the floor without it making a sound. The temple itself was built by the founder of Edo Shogunate in 1603, and the original structures still stand. The artwork from the period can also be viewed on the walls and doors.

Sanjusangendo-I think my second favorite temple. Inside the temple are 1,001 statues of Kannon (the goddess of mercy). The statues are absolutely breathtaking. Here is a link to the history of it, as well as pictures. We could not take pictures inside, and these of course do it no justice!!Take note of when the statues were built!!
http://www.taleofgenji.org/sanjusangendo.html

Ryoanji: is a Zen temple near the golden palace. The famous rock garden was very peaceful. I could have sat there for hours, and can see why philosophers do. We have a picture but again it does it no justice and just looks like dirt!

We went to Gion Corner which is a complete tourist trap, but we had the opportunity to see 5-10 minute shows of the most popular entertainments from old Japan. We got the opportunity to listen to gagaku, see Ikebana made, take part in a very very simple and short tea ceremony, watch No(a play) and watch traditional dances and puppet plays. It was definitely worth going to!!

a few travels

A shrine inside one of the Buddhist temples at the top of Mt. Miya Jima. I thought this was beautiful.

Lola playing with the bunny at Hachigamine park

This is how they harvest oysters in Japan. The bamboo sticks are hanging down off docks out in the middle of the water

This is how Lola hiked up Mt. Miya Jima-this was all Chris' idea!!

Trying to get Lola to play with the little penguins but she had no interest! I wanted to play with them more than she did

Diggin for Gold!

Lola about to go down the slide @ Hachigamine Park

Being silly in the tub-she likes to show off in case you can't tell!!

Hiking up Mt. Miya Jima

At Miya Jima island-1 of 5 World Heritage sites in Japan

We have been so busy since my last update! We spent a few days in Miya Jima-thanks to the Marine Corps!, we went down to Sasebo and Fukuoka this past weekend, we had Friendship Day on May 5th(an annual event inviting all the Japanese on base), a lot of our friends are leaving so we've been really busy with them, and we have made some new friends recently too that are new to the island. These are a few of the highlights from the past month or so. I realized that I haven't posted many pictures of things in Japan so I will start doing that, and it seems our internet is doing well again so hopefully I can post pictures weekly again.

My cousin is coming this upcoming week and we are taking a few trips so hopefully we will have some great pictures.

words

So I have to do a bit of bragging---
Any day now I'm expecting a full sentence to come out of Lola's mouth. She is just blabbing away. She says shoes, Mommy, Daddy, Abby(the dog), that(as she points, basically asking whats that),bug (ladybugs)and some more gibberish that to us is words. She has an animal book that she loves to look at a million times a day! If we ask her what different animals are she can tell us, she knows ladybugs, puppies,ducks, birds and sometimes butterflies. And since we are right here on the air station she knows planes of course! Every time one takes off she points to the sky and attempts to say plane.
She has also started learning her body parts-she knows her head,nose,ears,belly, feet, and mouth/teeth. If we ask her if she has stinky feet she smells them! I know it sounds weird but it started out with me picking on her saying she had stinky feet so now she knows what that means!
Since she can't always say what she wants I have taught her sign language, and she is able to sign drink, food and more. She also knows how to cleanup, but of course that doesn't always go as planned.
Chris has eased right back into work as usual, and I started classes back this week. We have a busy spring and summer ahead with lots of visitors and trips planned. I will keep you all updated even if not with pictures.(our internet connection is terrible in case you haven't picked up on that yet!)
I can't upload pictures right now, so I figured that I would update you all on what she's doing. Sorry to seem like I'm bragging, but I realized that most of you don't know what is going on with us since I've been so bad about keeping in touch lately.

finally new update-sorry!

I know everyone has been anxiously awaiting pictures and I aplogize. Our internet is in and out all the time, so its been just as frustrating for me trying to post as it has been for you all waiting to see some pictures. I do not have the pictures from the day Chris got home yet, but when I get them I will try and post them. These are just a few pictures that our internet allowed me to upload, I tried to post more, but it wouldn't let me. I will try again in the morning though.

Anways-everything has been great here. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and gorgeous as always. I have some wonderful pictures. We plan on going this weekend at night so hopefully we will get some more.

Lola is growing it seems like by the day. A few days ago I looked at her and she did not look like a baby anymore, she's all toddler! She is living up to her sassy name, and attempting to say more and more everyday. She will just start blabbing off, no sentences yet, but Im expecting it anyday now.

I just finished a semester of school and start another next week. ugh!!

Other than that things are quiet. We have lots of little trips planned for this spring and summer, and supposedly have lots of people wanting to visit!!

hope everyone is well!love and miss

Commorant fishing boat with the cherry blossoms and festival in the background

The three of us at the Cherry Blossom festival at the Kintaikyo bridge

In the rain waiting for Da-Da to get home from Iraq. Of course the day he arrived it was pouring down rain and cold!!

smiles!

This is what it looks like outside our front door due to the painting

And this is the sign-it's all Japanese me doing the work

You can see her back teeth coming in-you have to look hard though

can you tell she's feeling better?!

Just got out of the bath tub-one of her favorite things to do!

I guess she was soo full she needed to lay down for a second

R.I.P. Karen

Karen, My Dad and Lola-summer 07-one of my favorite pictures!

She was "taking care of business" in this picture. She had the 3 wheeler backed up in a corner!

Yummy apple

I'm sure most of you know, but if you don't-our family and the world lost an amazing woman last week to a terrible freak accident. It has been a hard time for everyone. She was an amazing inspirational woman and will be greatly missed. The top picture is of her, my Father and Lola last summer. We have all learned so much from this and she will be forever rememebered in our hearts.
Other than that I don't have much to update, I am just sooo busy. I started back to school full-time and am busy keeping up with Lola and all of our activities here on base. I will try to get some more pictures up this week. Love and miss you all