Tokyo Disney

As we were feeling sorry for ourselves for not being able to take a hop, we decided to make everything better by going to the "happiest place on Earth". Yep, you guessed it- Disneyland! Tokyo style that is. :) We had a great time and were amazed at how many adults we saw wearing Disney hats. I think there were more adults at Disneyland than children. Even TJ had to wait for a group of 20-something women to ride the Dumbo ride, before he could get on with Erik. :) We successfully wore Erik out and as soon as we entered the tunnel on the train ride- he passed out. Fun, fun, fun! PS. Did we tell you we woke up the next morning to Erik talking about "purple teacup, Daddy spin wheel, wheeeeee!"?

Me and my Daddy!

Erik loves hanging out with his Daddy. Clearly, Erik is going to follow in TJ's footsteps and idolize his father. :) Luckily, I'm not the jealous type.

Our snow trip

Here are some more pictures of our snow trip to Shiga Kogen. Erik loved the bus ride and pointing to the "big snow".  Erik and his friend Quinn tried to make a snowman, but all they could make was a mound of snow. :) I love the picture of Erik laughing because he is not supposed to have the remote control. Enjoy!

SLEDDING!!! WEEEEE!!!

So, is it bad to send your 19 month old down a hill, on a sled, all by himself? Since Erik decided "no Mama" when asked if he wanted Mommy to get on the sled, I decided to let him go by himself. Hee Hee. :) Check the video out- oh- and there were no tears. Just a big grin afterwards. Too bad we didn't get video of when he hit the arched poles and caught about a foot of air. That was priceless. :)

Bowling

Erik loves to bowl. Every day he wakes up and says, "bowling ball?" and "Jack's ball". When we drive by the bowling alley he yells, "Bowling!" from the backseat of the car. We thought you might enjoy the video of Erik bowling. :)

The Lights at Showa Park

At Christmas time Showa Park has a huge light celebration. We had a great time looking at all of the displays. Erik liked to look at all of the lights and especially liked to wear his "Pooh gloves". 

Erik is a Big Boy

Erik is getting so big. For real. We thought you might enjoy this video of him going down the slide all by himself. Maybe it is time to have a new baby, because apparently Erik is all grown up now. :)

9 years of Wedded Bliss!

Husband earned many points on our anniversary! He arranged for a Japanese friend to make reservations at a fancy Japanese restaurant called Kurouchaya. If anyone knows TJ, you know that it was a big effort for him to arrange things in advance and not leave it to the last minute. The restaurant was so cool! We took off our shoes in the lobby and in house slippers we were led through an old looking big house to our private room. Our room overlooked a water wheel and plenty of Japanese maple trees. Dinner was extravagant. It seemed like a 17 course meal- just take a look at the pictures. The best was the "river" fish that we cooked, whole, on a stick. After a lesson from the waitress on how to eat the fish, TJ and I dove in and tried it! Oishi! (Yummy for those who are lacking in Japanese.) We had a great night and are still amazed that we have been married for 9 years already.

1st Haircut

So, if you know TJ, you know that he likes his hair short. What I didn't expect is that he wanted to take Erik to the barber so soon. He really doesn't have any hair yet. There were a couple of strands that were longer than the others- but who could tell? Really? Anyway, husband took the baby for his first "trim". I thought you might enjoy. :)

Kyoto

Well friends, TJ finally came home! Yeah! We decided to take a trip to Kyoto to celebrate and initiate him back into the world of sippy cups, diapers, and no napping. Out time was spent visiting Nijo castle, gawking at the Golden Pavillion, hanging out at some huge temple that we still don't know the name of in the Gion district, going up to the top of the Kyoto tower, shopping at the huge 11-story mall that was attached to the train station, and spending an evening with a maiko (apprentice geisha). Cool, cool, and more cool. :) The Shinkansen (bullet train) was everything we thought it would be, namely fast. Overall, it was a fabulous trip and we are so happy to have Daddy home.