Japan Update!

My posting has been pretty sporadic this last month and it will continue to be so until we all get settled in Japan. But I will try to post what I can with some updates and hopefully some bookish things too.

I'm heading to Vegas this next weekend with my friends for one last hurrah! I'm so excited. My devoted H is taking the week off and getting stuff moved and watching Gabe. He is so sweet to let me have this last little vacay with my friends.

Then the week after that it's off to Japan for a week to find a home. The agency working with us has picked out various apartments within our family range and most look pretty neat. They are small--so we will be heading back to apartment status for two years but they look nice and we're all excited.

As for my kitties. My oldest, grumpiest, and most needy cat Frodo will either be staying with my mom or my friend for the first 6 months and then my mother-in-law will take him the rest of the time once she moves back to Oregon. So I'm feeling a lot better about that. I'll miss my cats to so much. My friends and my cats, those are the hardest things about this move. But I'm trying to be positive and am looking forward to our new adventure!

We even sold our Toyota Camry this week for a good price and am now driving around in a rental VW Jetta :) We're signing our rental agency this next week to get our place rented out and taken care of while we're gone. There is still a ton of packing to do but we are getting it done slowly but surely.

I've been putting together a little airplane kit for Gabe. My friend sent me an article from Parenting.com on 50 Ways to Entertain a Kid on an Airplane. A lot of the suggestions are for toddlers, but there were plenty of ideas that still fit Gabe's age.

And when I get anything in Japan, the top of the list will be this adorable Totoro bed ;) And if you don't know what I'm talking about you need to watch My Neighbor Totoro pronto :)

Easter!

Due to our chaos of moving to Japan next month...Easter wasn't quite as festive as I usually like to make it. So I didn't get my Spring flowers planted or my fun decorations up.

But we did manage to color eggs, homemade even! We delivered the basket with time to spare.

Vinegar, food coloring and water! ta da!

Gabe got a special box from his Aunt Jean with pirate eggs galore!

Every year I make crepes for Easter. I invited my family over for crepes on Saturday and then made them again Easter morning at our friends' house. Shortly after we hid the kids (or the dads did) and let the kids go on an Easter egg hunt.

I would have to say despite not getting it all done the way I would have liked, it turned out to be the best Easter yet!

Vacationing at Zion's!

Last month we headed down to Zion National Park with our wonderful friends Stacie and Dan and their two kids. Taking vacations with friends is the best way to do this! Highly recommended for the future.

Here's a panoramic pic I took of the surrounding area!

Here's the rock I was talking about!

Killer squirrels that live at the park. They have huge signs around with a man's hand completely bit from a killer squirrel--freaked us all out! Don't feed them!

It really was beautiful down there!

We did it!

All the kids did really well! Some of the hikes were two or three hours and while they did complain a bit, overall they enjoyed the scenery and playing!