Meet our new girls!

We adopted!

...two teenage girls from Hirosaki.

Well, for the weekend at least.

Every year our Branch hosts an English Speaking Club from a Hirosaki High School.

We decided to join in and let two girls stay with us. They come on Saturday and then leave on Sunday. It's a whirlwind of fun, broken English, pityful Japanese on my part, and all around a good time.

As I said, they arrived Saturday and the ward hosted a craft. I helped them make caramel apples (which later was to my detriment as my crown broke as I was eating one... errrgh!- anyways).

After that I took them home to meet Marie and Brett.

Brett, being the great host, showed them how to play Battleship. They were such good sports.

Later we took them mini golfing. It was hard to think of things to do because if we wanted to keep them on the American base so they could hear more English. They were really cute and fun. They taught me a few things in Japanese and I tried my best to make simplified small talk in English.

Here is Marie as I caught her trying to reset her ball.

What is this face all about? 

Marie kept calling our girls (Ririko and Arisa) "The Ladies."

Later we took them to a Haunted House on the base. It was gory. The girls said that Japanese Haunted Houses are scary, but American Haunted Houses are the MOST scary. I would have to agree that at least the one on base goes a little nuts with the blood and gore.

And then to help them recover, the next day we took them to church :)
It was really long for them, but they were such good troopers. They didn't understand a single thing, but they tried really hard to sing and listen. They had never heard of Christ before, so it was cool to be the first person to tell them about Him.
Very cool.

And I have to mention the cutest part of the weekend was when I was showing the girls their bathroom, Marie casually offered, "and you can use my pink soap if you like." Her pink soap is the Mr. Bubbles bubble bath we only break out on special occasions. What a great host she is.

We'll Miss you Ririko and Arisa! Come back anytime!

HALLOWEEN 2011

Light up the Bat Signal! It's time for Halloween!

I thought this might be our Christmas picture, but it's probably a bad idea to send out half-naked pictures of your kids to everyone you know..... but I love it so much, so don't be surprised to get it in your mail box (if we actually send them out this year).


HALLOWEEN IS SO FLIPPIN' FUN! I love it. And I am not sure if I loved it more when I was 8 and got to dress up and trick-or-treat, or when I'm 28 and dress up my kids (and make them get candy for me). Either way I'm one of those people who almost loves it more than Christmas.

Here we are at the Mall. We heard they would be giving out candy, and turns out I was wrong. Sorry Marie, at least you have the rest of the night to trick-or-treat. I like how she makes no effort to hide her disappointment in me.

Halloween was so great this year. Marie really understood what was going on (as opposed to every other year) and I'm in love with Mina's Bat costume. It was also really fun to invite some good friends over to eat dinner and trick-or-treat with us. Thanks for coming!

Here are Marie's 2 best buddies. If she's not playing with one of these boys, she's talking about the other.

Here we have a dog, a mouse, and a cowboy!

Now bring in younger siblings:
a bumble bee (sleeping), a koala, and a bat!

Marie and her buddies are all the oldest and about 1 month apart in age, and Mina and her mini-buddies are about the same age also. Yay cute-ness!

As Marie and Keaton get started they stumble upon an open grave. Marie's in shock while Keaton says, "let's get out of here!"         (they may have said that, I don't know, I was so drunk off their cute-ness).

Who wouldn't want candy from this cutie? And Mina is pretty approachable too. Also note Brett's generosity with letting people chose their candy. I was much more stingy, giving out Twix to the best costumes, and Almond Joys to the older kids who weren't really trying.

Also this was the first year we've run out of candy. Props to our neighbors who had our backs in a pinch!

So trick-or-treating was going really well until I made them stop for a picture when we saw our other good friend Mark. Keaton is all about it, but note Marie's pain.

The trip couldn't be complete without a trip to our old apartment! And we miss our wonderful neighbors and their adorable doggies!

And everyone has that one house in the neighborhood, that has the spookiest decorations...

And best treats! Thanks Jasmine!

I couldn't help but try to recreate the scene from last year. Here are Jasmine and Marie one year ago when Marie was still in "trick-or-treat training."

What FUN! Now I expect to go to everyone else's blog and see your new posts up with TONS of pictures! TONS. I mean it.

Don't make me send Mina after you.

A message from Marie

A blast from Easter past

 Easter at the Smiths.  Marie wanted to find the fastest way to find all the eggs.

All Star Game

Daddy's biggest fans came to watch him play in the base All Star game on Friday.

Every intramural softball team chose their two best players to play in the All Star game and everyone got personalized jerseys.

 
It's always fun to watch Dad play!

30 Years, Thank You

I would like to interupt this regularly scheduled travel log for some thanking. The serious kind. October 1st commemorated my parents 30th wedding anniversary! I love them so much and am proud to be their daughter. Words can hardly sum up even a tiny bit of what I have learned from them. I know they have testimonies of Christ and that their love for Him and me and my brothers gave them the strength for an incredible marriage. Also, my mom is adorable and gorgeous, so that had something to do with it to ;)

I love you mom and dad, thank you for being amazing grandparents! Here's to 30 more years.