Sick Day - Yuck!

This morning Ben and I were supposed to go to his art show at school. Unfortunately he had the stomach flu last night so we had to cancel our plans. I even had a babysitter for the babies! Jane was so helpful though and took pictures of Ben's artwork that was on display. I am so disappointed we missed the event but happy we got pictures!

Ben loves to hold the babies and today really wanted to hold both of them. He did a great job although we ready pretty quickly to put them down. They love to watch their big brother and have him hold them!

Ben was up most of the night but you would never had known it throughout the day today. Kids are so resilient. I was so tired but he wasn't! Finally I got him to lay down for a bit this afternoon and once he did he immediately fell asleep! Hopefully this was the 24 hour bug and the babies and I don't get it!!!!!

Yesterday I took the babies to the park before we went to pick Ben up at the bus stop. Last week we had gone and Michaela wanted to put the babies in the swings. We did it and they had such a great time I thought it would be fun to go back and do it again.

I put them back to back so they both stayed in there pretty well. The only problem was that Nate was looking straight into the sun.

I eventually put Nate in the other swing so he didn't have to look into the sun any more!

Jane let me borrow her bath seat and I ordered another bath seat for the babies. The second bath seat came in yesterday so all three kids got to bathe together last night!

Both babies love to kick their legs and Nate loves to lean over and splash his hands. It is pretty funny!

It came!

I had my heart set on getting a mother's ring right after I had the babies. The problem was I had something very specific in mind. Well while we were in Hong Kong visiting Johnson and Co I started talking to one of the ladies and she came up with a design they could make in their shop right there! It came yesterday!! It has diamonds (Ben's birthstone) and rubies ( the babies) all around. I love it!!! Merry Christmas, Happy Valentines Day, Birthday, etc... to me!

Ben and the babies watching Kung Fu Panda for the millionth time!

Dinner!

I just had to post a picture from dinner tonight. Nate and Piper were especially messy. They both have stuffed up noses so more was coming out than going in. Plus Piper had to be fed some prunes to get her system going - if you know what I mean. I also tried my hand at fruit smoothies and both Ben and the babies loved them. I'll have to make them more often.

Penguin Åquarium - Nagasaki

On Saturday Jane, Denise and I loaded up the kids and headed to the penguin aquarium in Nagasaki. It was a bit of a drive but it was really cool to see so many penguins up close!

The outside of the aquarium.

Part of the aquarium was inside and part was outside. It was sooo cold outside but pretty smelly inside!

They were pretty friendly! This guy kept coming up to the glass and looking at Ben.

Outside - those are fake penguins in the background!

Brrr!

We actually got to pet a penguin. He was pretty soft!

The pen for the petting of the penguins.

They had a beach right there where penguins were playing in the water!

There they are!

No flush!

Coloring.

This was about the time I knew we probably needed to go. Ben was getting ancy and the babies were getting fussy!

Time to eat! Bye penguins!

Bye Daddy... See you when the sun gets up

Well Grant left yesterday for another couple of months. I don't know if this time was harder or easier than last. I thought Ben understood what was happening but when he got off the bus he immediately asked where daddy was. This time I chose not to drop Grant off at the ship, instead he drove in on his own. Maybe we need to actually see him get on the ship to understand it all? Ben and I are both in a bit of a funk but I'm sure we'll slowly get into our routine and get on with things. We'll miss Grant terribly and count the days until he gets home in the meantime we'll try to have a little fun!

6 a.m. Wed. morning... It was strange, all three kids were sound asleep until Grant started to go downstairs to eat breakfast. It was if a radar went off with each one that daddy would be leaving in a few minutes and they all woke up to say goodbye.

Lake Nodake and Omura Dream Farm

Well unfortunately Grant will be leaving again soon so we felt like we needed to get out and do things this weekend. We have been having a tough time with the babies at night and I was so tired today but after getting a little cat nap this morning I was ready to go. Due to a late start we decided to stop at Omura Dream Farm first to get some lunch. Well there were three tour buses there when we got there and when we walked down the hill a bunch of people were by the restaurant playing some sort of feather hacky sack type game. I talked to one of the ladies and she said they were Chinese and Japanese students getting together???? Anyways - we weren't allowed to eat at the restaurant due to all of these people.

Once again tons of adoring fans. I think the babies got their picture taken about fifty times throughout the day. I really don't mind it I just wish that sometimes we could be anonymous.

Since the Omura restaurant didn't work out we had to find another place to eat. We went ahead and drove up to Lake Nodake. I stopped in the general store to see if they could tell me another place to eat. We walked around the lake and found a really cool restaurant. Look at their neat drink coasters. They were real leaves!

The restaurant was in a rustic cement building behind someones house. I think it was a mother/son who owned it. The mother immediately came up to the restaurant when she saw us walk up and played with the babies while her son fixed the food. Everything was in Japanese although the mother and son could speak pretty good English. I think we were both a bit hesitant at first but it was one of the neatest places I have eaten since we got here.

We were given mikans (Japanese type tangerines) as a type of complimentary appetizer instead of bread/chips/popcorn etc. They were yummy! I think Ben ate four before our food came.

We had burgers and homemade french fries.

The restaurant is the building in the back.

Lake Nodake Park

Every time we go to the lake we hear race cars and see signs. We explored by driving down a teeny tiny road to the race track. I originally thought Grant may be able to take Ben there but not once I saw it. It was actually super fast little go carts. The guys had on professional uniforms and helmets. I think my Dad would like this place!

Zoom! They were fast!

Super Dream Circus

On Saturday we ventured down to the Super Dream Circus. This was advertised as a magnificent acrobatic show where you can feel China in Sasebo. There were not very many people there but they are here for a month and a half and do three shows each day on the weekend and two each day during the week so I think their attendance is really spread out. The first act was o.k. It was a lot of guys dressed up as monkeys jumping around and some guys dressed up like the three wisemen. They spent the whole time talking in Japanese and acting some thing out - I have no idea what!! After intermission it was more entertaining. They did tricks on the trapeze and even had a dog dressed as an elephant. Even though it was Chinese - it was still soooo Japanese! Very interesting...

The circus tent! The tent is right on our way to main base so we pass it constantly. Now I am guessing Ben will be asking to go back every time we pass by it.

Waiting for the circus to start. We were put smack behind a school group. There were barely any other people there but in typical fashion, we were all squished together. One of the school teachers gave Ben a piece of candy. I think the Japanese kids eat a lot of candy because everywhere we go Ben gets candy from people.

Peace Papa

The babies did pretty well until towards the end. They were tired and probably a bit bored. Piper wanted to sleep but couldn't get comfortable in my arms plus she didn't want to miss out on anything.

This guy was dressed in some weird mask thing and kept doing little waves with his arms. It was kind of creepy. In the back are the three "wisemen" characters. One had a pig snout.

This three circle thing was neat. The guys were dressed up in transformer looking gear and got that thing moving. They were doing tricks on the outside of the rings too.

So after the show we walked outside to a circle thing where kids could pay about $5 for a try at it with the clowns. I think the clowns are from Colombia. I thought they were going to do a tight rope show but they didn't. I don't know if being a clown is more prestigious???

Of course Ben wanted to try it.

There he goes. Once again Japan obviously is not worried about liability. Ben was put with the clown who appeared a little more worried about the kids. The other clown was doing yipees and walking backward.

There he is at the top.

The little boy who went after Ben was about ready to cry when he went around. I'm not sure where Ben gets his boldness but he sure does keep us on our toes!