Highlights of 2016

New year...same resolution.  Here's hoping that I can be more consistent in blogging our day-to-day/month-to-month life.

Here's a rundown of the highlights of last year:
January:
After traveling halfway around the world for the holidays, Troy and I weren't quite ready to plant our feet on solid ground.

I headed to San Diego to be with my old roommate, Jonnelle, and celebrate her mom's life.  It was a bittersweet occasion but I'm glad that I was able to go and support her.

The following week, Troy and I headed to Orlando for Brett's wedding.

We hit up Universal Studios Orlando the day before the wedding.  The morning started off with a straight up torrential downpour.  We got suckered into buying $10 ponchos but it paid off because the park wasn't crowded at all.

 

 

We definitely spent our fair share of time at Diagon Alley and it did not disappoint!  We tried all types of butterbeer - regular, frozen, and hot.  I think my favorite was the hot one.  Too bad you can't find it here in CO when it's crazy cold outside.

Brett and Emillie were married Jan. 16 in the Orlando Temple.  It was a beautiful day for a wedding and we're so happy that she's a part of our family.

Troy and I pretending to be secret agents.  It's pretty believable, right?!

February:
After 5 weeks of traveling we were finally ready to settle down.  We did a quick day trip to the mountains and had fun tubing.

 The older 2 liked going down the hill.

 Dylan was happy to be dragged around in the tube.

 But had second thoughts after doing one run.

March:
We celebrated D-man's 2nd birthday.

 

He is so much fun to be around and he loves spending time with everyone in the family.

April:

 

 

My friend, Stacie and I ran a half marathon.  To quote from my FB page "Miserable doesn't even come close to describing today's race. From rain to snow to pelting snow and wind and a ridiculously muddy course we finished."  The race was called Beat the Heat and it lived up to it's name.  Crazy CO weather-you never know what you're going to get.

Snow totals from the storm that we ran in

 May:
This was the start of a crazy few months.  At the beginning of the month I decided to begin the facelift to our laundry room.  What I thought would be a quick, easy 2 weekend project quickly consumed the whole month.  3 weeks without a washer and dryer is way to long!!!

 

Who knew that a washer could provide so much entertainment

We celebrated Connor's 5th birthday!  He is my thoughtful and sweet little boy and definitely knows how to play the middle child card!

Troy and I headed to Ogden, UT to run the half marathon.  Like last year it poured rain.  Even more than last year but thankfully it wasn't quite as cold as it was.  I was able to redeem myself and PR'd-1:58:39 exactly 2 minutes faster than last year.  Troy PR'd as well and even shaved off 9 minutes from his previous best-2:04:33

Memorial Day weekend, Troy and I headed to St. Louis for his co-workers wedding.  Hands down the funnest wedding reception we've been to besides our. :)

By the end of month we had one of these in our backyard.  We loved using it throughout the summer!

 June:

Brooke and Connor finished up their school year.  They both had fantastic teachers.  It's always bittersweet to say goodbye to another school year.

Once school was out, there was no time for relaxation.  The first weekend was filled with a race, 2 piano recitals, and a dance recital.

I got to run one of my favorite races with these lovely ladies.  I had my best 10k time-53:53:60.  Maybe one day I'll be able to break 50...

After the run, I had my semi-annual piano recital.  Then Brooke had hers.  Her piano teacher and I swap kids.  Best decision not because Brooke and I didn't work but because I was a lousy teacher for her.  I wasn't consistent and she has really excelled since she's been with Andrea.

Finally to cap off the day, Brooke had her dance recital.  She did great and she loved getting all dolled up!

The second weekend we headed to CA to celebrate my mom's retirement.

 

 The kids loved spending time with their cousins.

 We hit up Knott's Berry Farm and had a blast.  Brooke rode her first real roller coaster and loved it.

 After 35+ years of teaching I think my mom will be enjoying her retirement!

We stayed in CA for a week and it was so much fun spending time with immediate and extended family.  We had a family gathering, went to Knott's Berry Farm, the beach, and swam in the pool.

It wasn't down time though once we got back.  I volunteered to cater Taylor and Bethaney's wedding which was the last weekend in June.  The week leading up to it was filled with trips to Costco to price check and buy food and to food prep.  That Friday, June 26 we got to celebrate their wedding.

 

On the menu: Chicken Caesar salad, Chinese chicken salad, strawberry poppy spinach salad, fruit skewers, marshmallow pops, and cupcakes.  Not too shabby for my first time feeding a ton of people.

The next day we all (including the newlyweds) piled in our car and headed to Lake Powell for a much needed vacation/honeymoon.

Stay tuned for the back half of 2016...

Tokyo in a BIG Nutshell-Leg 4

How are we already into the middle of July?!  My goodness, these past couple of months have flown!

We flew into Tokyo Christmas Eve.  On the airplane we were seated 2/3/3/1.  I was the lucky one to have my own seat.  Connor was seated between Taylor and Brett.  They didn't realize that he wasn't buckled until we landed and braked hard and he slid right out of his seat.  It made for a good laugh.

Our trip from the airport to Shane and Heather's proved to be eventful.  We caught a bus from the airport that took us to a hotel that is near Shane's apartment.  We had to take 3 taxis to get from the hotel to the apartment.  Heather talked to the lead driver and gave him the address and proceeded to tell the other 2 taxis to follow.  They agreed.  Heather got into the lead taxi with Jackson and Brooke and started to take off.  For some reason our taxi (the middle one) just sat there for 30 seconds as we watched the taxi turn the corner.  Troy and I were dumbfounded as I'm sure Taylor and Brett were as well.  We proceed to go.  We turned the corner and Heather's car was no where to be found.  Our guy decided to turn right and drove for a bit.  Meanwhile, Troy and I are exchanging confused glances.  Finally we ask the guy if he has a phone we could use using the universal hand gesture for phone.  They guy looked at us as if we were crazy.  We finally stopped at a light and Troy hopped out and went to the other cab.  The driver was younger and understood Troy's hand gesture.  We were able to call Shane and get the address.  Our guy said that he knew the way and started driving again.  We turned down an alleyway and he came to a stop.  It was not the right place.  Thankfully the other cabbie knew where to go so he took the lead.  Our guy did not know how to follow and we got caught at a light that he should have made.  Thankfully by then we were only 2 turns away from the apartment.  What was supposed to be a 10 minute taxi ride ended up being at least 30 minutes.  Heather came out to settle the bill and told the guy that she would only pay a certain amount because that was what she had paid her cab driver and they were suppose to follow.  Our guy was so offended that he threw her money and then some back at her.  She ended up make $30 that night.  Score!

The cityscape looks slightly different than Hong Kong. 

 

 

Shane and Heather were so kind to take care of Christmas for us complete with stockings for all the kids and adults.  The kids were thrilled that Santa remembered that they were in Tokyo and not in Colorado.  The remainder of the day was spent chilling around the apartment.

 

Saturday, we hit up a local park in the morning.  The kids were thrilled to be out running around freely.  Later in the afternoon we biked over to the Tokyo Tower.  Dylan caught naps anywhere he could including the front seat of a bike!

We hit up this small crepe stand twice while we were in Tokyo.  I really liked their savory options with pizza sauce

We finished off Saturday with a bike ride to the local ramen place.  There was a slight mishap with a bike and me.  I'm not very confident when it comes to riding bikes around people.  I have spatial issues.  Add that with riding at night, on a sidewalk shared with pedestrians, and a motorized bike with an empty kid seat on the handlebars and back and it made for the perfect storm for me.  It's customary to share the sidewalk with bikers and pedestrians.  A lady past me going the opposite way on foot.  I scooted over to give her some space and collided with a guard rail.  The wind was knocked out of me and I made a horrible guttural sound.  It took me, what felt like an eternity, to catch my breath.  Everything seemed in tacked but my rib hurt.  We checked later and there was no visible bruising but for the amount of time it took to heal we guess that I fractured it.  Nevertheless I couldn't let a fractured rib get in the way of tasting Japanese cuisine so I hopped back on the bike and rode to dinner.  It did not disappoint!!!!  I wish we could have stayed longer and ramen hop all over Tokyo.  We even ordered our food from a kiosk then handed the receipt to the cook.

 

Vending machines could be found all over Tokyo.  We found drink (including hot chocolate), ice cream, cigarettes (flashback to the 80s), beer, etc.  The kids were excited to spend all their coins at the machines.

Sunday, we went to church.  Half the clan biked while I opted to ride with Heather.  Didn't want to have another run in with a guard rail.

Monday, we navigated through the streets of Tokyo and headed to the Aquarium.  It was a bit flashy but not surprising.  The kids had a blast and oohed and aahed over all the sea creatures.

 

 Tuesday, we rented a minivan and took a drive into the mountains.  Good thing Troy had Shane to follow or else I don't know how successful we would have been driving on the other side of the car on the other side of the rode.  Troy only hit the wiper switch a few times.  We went to hot spring in the mountains.  Interesting...they had several hot tubs that were scented.  Some of flavors were chocolate, sake, wine, green tea, and coffee.  I opted to stay in the regular, mountain spring water.  We even paid $1 to have fish nibble at our toes.  I paid $1 to keep my feet elevated above the water.

I wish I had taken a picture of Hong Kong's metro system.  Seems like a piece a cake compared to Tokyo.

 

Wednesday, we trekked around using the metro system.  We stopped at Harajuku and went shopping down a crazy crowded street.  Very interesting and unique experience.  It made for great people watching.

Like I said before, I wish we had more time to try all the different foods.  I don't even know what these are called but they're like ebelskivers with seafood added to them.  They were pretty tasty but I wish I knew exactly what I was eating.  We went to an udon noodle place and it was delicious.  They even had a different spin on carbonara that was delicious.

Dylan held onto that balloon all the way home.  Had to have been at least a 15 minute ride.  He loved it.

Dylan loved being able to ride on the bike whether it be in the front or the back.  It was quickly decided that for the safety of children (and myself) that I would not transport any of the kids.  What a relief! 

Our last meal in Tokyo was on New Year's Eve.  Oddly enough a lot of the restaurant and quick eat places were closed but there wasn't any big hoopla celebrating the new year.  Anywho, the place that we were going to get dinner was closed which was a big bummer.  It was a curry place and I remember that I was really looking forward to gorging myself.  We ended up finding a place...good ol' 7-eleven.  Yup!  Good ol' 7-eleven to the rescue.  I can't recall if they had slurpees but they had a variety of food and it was actually good.  We loaded up and brought it back to the apartment and filled ourselves.  It was delicious. 

Tokyo was a blast!!!  I expected Tokyo to be similar to Hong Kong as in the hustle and bustle of people but really it just felt like a downtown.  I don't know if it was just because we were there over a holiday.  I do remember it being very quiet whereas Hong Kong is a blast to all your senses; sight, sound, smell.
Stay tuned for our return home!!!!!