Awase Fish Market

We went with some friends to the fish market last weekend and had a fun time checking out all the fish! It was actually really funny getting there! I called up Kristen and said, "Hey want to go to the fish market and get some fresh fish?" She said, "Yeah, I know where it's at. They have this fish auction at 8:00 so meet at our house at 7:30 and you can just follow us." I was excited because we have gotten lost a few too many times and was stoked that she had been there and knew where it was.

We went to their house and followed them a couple miles! That's when I noticed we were driving in circles. lol. We laughed and just let them lead... after 25 minutes of following them down little alley roads they finally pulled over! She said, "I am SO sorry. I really thought I knew where it was at." It was pretty funny to me. She called the friend that had taken her there and we got the right directions on how to get there! We were actually only a couple roads over from where we needed to be! We got there and checked out all the fisherman's fresh catches. The kids had a blast looking at all the different kinds of seafood people actually eat!

It was kind of a fun day. It was really rainy, but it was a great experience for the little ones! We didn't actually end up buying any of the fish because we just stayed for the auction. The fish market didn't open for a couple more hours and we didn't want to wait there in the rain for that long. We're not huge fish people... it was more to go and see what they had not acually buy, cook, and eat it! :)

Rhett and the little boys! Those are huge tuna behind them!

Hunter LOVED the little blue crab. Most of them were still alive and trying to flip over so they were really entertaining to watch!

Yummy... octopus!

Our family by the dolphin, I mean tuna! Anyone ever seen "The Cove?" lol

The little boys checking out some little fish!

Carter really loves this place! He thought it was extremely cool!

Taylor was a little more grossed out, but impressed still the same!

All 6 of the kids watching the clams squirt water up out of the bucket!

We thought they eat some weird things..... including- Stingray, Octopus, Puffer fish, Little tiny breaded fish. We also liked watching the guy cut chunks out of the huge tuna to show everyone the color of it! It was actually a really pretty dark orange red! Kristen, who eats fish, said it looked like a really great fresh catch! Cool! Anyway, we had a good time at the fish market!

These little "Monkeys" are driving me CRAZY!!!

I feel like the question in our house is.... "What are we going to do that's fun today?"

Seriously?!?

Does everyday have to be mom entertain me day?

I have been so tired lately! We don't have t.v. here and I can honestly say that most the time I love it! It makes us get out and enjoy the island, but today it would have been really nice to throw on Dora and let the t.v. entertain for a little while! I woke up with a migraine and the kids have been driving me bananas! Thankfully Rhett had the day off today and has done his best to help them use their imagination! Thanks Honey! They played super monkeys with Carter for several hours than Rhett hooked up the Gamecube for them!

The babies confused by this huge ape at the zoo!

Carter's game- Super Monkeys

Monkey- Hunter

Monkey- Ryker

Monkey- Taylor

And the stud Monkey- Carter

Happy Birthday Carter (7)

Happy Birthday sweet boy! Carter turned 7 on November 7th. I can't believe I have a 7 year old. That is so crazy to me. He seems so old and mature now! What a sweet boy he is! He is a wonderful helper and absolutely adores his little brothers! The 3 little ones get SO excited when he gets home from school. They each rush up and give him a big hug and say, "Hi Cader." He then asks me who missed him the most to which I reply, "I did... Of course!" This is pretty much our daily routine! He is in first grade and I can honestly say that I really miss this kid!

Whenever we go on outings I always wish he were there with me! I feel like I hardly even get to see him anymore! He goes to school early in the morning and by the time the bus drops him off it's almost dinner time! We do homework together than it's already bedtime! One thing that we both love is Junie B Jones books! We read together every night and have really come to look forward to this special time together reading about this naughty little girl! It has been a lot of fun!

I feel like we celebrated Carter's birthday for almost a week! He had Friday off so we went to the zoo. This would be the day that the chimpanzee decided to take some poop off the ground and proceeded to throw it right at Carter. It was seriously the grossest and funniest thing I have ever seen. I know Carter hates that I'm blogging this as he told me NOT to "faceblog" it, but I really think that when he's older he will laugh about it! The best part was that the chimp actually hit Carter right in the face! It got on his cheek and in his hair! lol. Carter looked right at the chimp and yelled, "If you dare to do that again I'll throw my poop at you." He really was TICKED! I thought he was going to jump in the cage and teach that chimp a lesson. I wiped him down with wet wipes and we enjoyed the rest of the zoo before heading home and SHOWERING. Carter scrubbed and scrubbed with soap. He was so grossed out! For the record... the poop was hard not soft and squishy! Trust me- it makes a difference in EXACTLY how disgusting this story is! :)

We then celebrating by going to the McDonalds that opened right next to our house! We have been driving by this for months getting ready for the day it would open. All the kids were so excited! I pulled up to the drive thru... big mistake! Everything was in Japanese and there were NO pictures with the numbers! I ordered a number 3 and 3 hamburger happy meals! She couldn't understand me so she told me in her VERY BROKEN english to come window. I pulled around and pointed to a menu of what I wanted. I WANTED the chicken nuggets meal and 3 happy meals. What I GOT was a big mac and chocolate shake with 1 hamburger and fries, no drink... no toy! The best part was that I paid about $15.00 for this sad meal. The kids seemed thrilled to split the fries and we cut up the hamburgers! I love that they didn't even complain, but just thanked me for the food!

On Saturday, we went to Wago a.k.a Family Land! It is sort of like a cross between a chuck e cheese and a jump zone. They had all sorts of fun little things for the kids to jump and play on. The babies favorite room was the balloon room. It was a netted off room with 50 balloons in it! They had fans blowing into the room so the balloons were flying everywhere! They spent the majority of their time in there or the ball pit. Also a favorite! They had a zip line, jungle gym, hamster wheel, trampoline, slides, and video games galore! A kids (and Rhett's) Heaven! They all had such a good time! We had some friends meet us there then we went to Pizza Hut for dinner and topped off this wonderful day with cake and ice cream back at our place!

As we're driving home Carter says, "So tomorrow is my real birthday?" I replied, "Yes, but we celebrated it today because we have church tomorrow!" He gave me a cute little smile and said," Oh good. So what are we going to do for my birthday." What a nut!

On Monday, we took cupcakes in to his class! He told me that he loved having his birthday everyday! :) Anyway, another year down! Happy Birthday big boy! I love you!!!

These swung you around and around. Like monkeys!

The balloon room! Ryker

The jungle gym. Taylor
Hunter in the ball pit! They loved to jump from the sides into the balls!

He picked out his own cake! He was so proud!

Holy crap! He's getting so big!

Botanical Garden

First, I have to apologize for all the pictures! I couldn't just pick a couple. This place was gorgeous and I felt like I had to post them all! There's your warning... this is a LONG post! :)

Carter went to the Botanical Garden on a field trip and talked about it all the time! Finally, when he had the day off we decided to go and see what all the fuss was about! I am so happy that we did! I was in Heaven! It was seriously one of the prettiest places I have been! It really made me appreciate my kids too! I love taking them places they can walk and explore this beautiful world! They are such well behaved little squirts!

While we were there I also had another great experience with the people of Japan! The kids wanted snow cones, but they cost 300 yen each. That's close to $4.00 so I opted not to let them have one! As we were walking away he was smiling at the little boys and said in his broken english, "For you a Kuwae kid discount. I give you them for 100 yen." He wouldn't even let me pay 100 yen for each. He said he was happy to see my kids smile! What a great guy to see how much the little boys wanted one and helped in making it happen. All the little boys smiled and picked their flavors while I graciously thanked him. I have had nothing but positive things to say about the people here! They truly are amazing! They would give you the shirt off their backs and would go clear out of their way to show you how to get somewhere. I can only hope to learn more from their example and hope to be the same type of person!

Carter in front of one of the many beautiful ponds!

The kids right as we came in!

This picture makes me smile. This wonderful guy took it for me. It took him several to get all of us in the picture and unfortunately this was the best shot. lol. It was pretty bright out there!

Me and the babies with the frogs!

Carter and Taylor feeding the carp! This was the kids absolute favorite part!

Ryker

Carter and Taylor in front of the fountain with their fish food!

The babies catching up after feeding the fish!

Another pond!

Zip line! Me and Carter had a blast going on it! We even sent the babies and Taylor down a couple times! Taylor mostly wanted to collect HUGE snails!

Ryker in front of a different pond!

What a sweet boy! He said he picked this for me. I gave him a huge hug and kiss then politely explained that when we pick the flowers nobody else gets to enjoy them.

So pretty! The picture don't really do this place justice!

Carter took this one!

Carter took this one! He's getting so good with a camera! I think I have a little photographer on my hands! :)

Taylor by the lily pads!

The fish waiting for some food from the kids!

The twins hanging over the edge trying to see the fish. I thought for sure I was going to have to jump in after one of them when they fell in, but was happy we all stayed dry!

Ryker trying to kiss the goat! The twins LOVE animals and were so excited to see and feed the goats!

Just saying hello!

Headed up the stairs!

Running back to the entrance! I love that all the little boys just LOVE each other and are the greatest friends! I love taking them to see new things and watching them take in the world! I am one lucky lady to be blessed with such angels!

Japan- sometimes it's weird!

Animal activists would have a hay day here in Japan! I was just thinking that the other day when we went to the zoo and saw this guy riding this elephant around to trim some of the trees! I mean, yeah it's way COOLER than a ladder, but what in the world?

Today we went to a park called Bios on the Hill.

While we were there this guy pointed to the twins and I nodded politely not really thinking about the language gap there! Then, he leaned over and placed Hunter on top of a water buffalo. I quickly stood up next to him as he placed Ryker right up next to his brother. The babies looked like death would have been preferable rather than sitting there. This HUGE crowd of people began taking pictures of these adorable matching kids with blond hair and blue eyes sitting on the water buffalo! I smiled politely and then I took my little boys down from this huge beast! I replied, "Arrigato" and we headed out to see something new! I regret that I was too nervous to leave them up there alone for a minute so I did not get a picture of them up there, but I'm sure somebody will post something on youtube! :) There were about 25 people that took about a million pictures of them.

We headed over to the section where you can feed and walk goats? Seriously!!! They have a little leash and rope so you can take them for a little walk. I learned very quickly that the babies are NOT as strong as the goats! I had thought that the rope might slip or they might drop it so I hooked it to the belt buckle! The goat took off and pulled Hunter for a few feet before I caught up to him. That NAUGHTY goat! (and NOT thinking MOM) When we fed the goats the carrots I purposely skipped right over him. That's what you get for scaring Hunter! :) Plus this little Japanese girl had accidently let go of the rope and she was running trying to catch him. lol. It was very funny to watch!

I love that here we can get SO close to the animals and the kids think it's great. but sometimes it kind of odd! I LOVE going to the zoo because we get to feed the elephant a banana and the giraffes some leaves, but the zoo is a little sad! The other day we saw that a kitten had fallen down into the goats cage and they just left it there to fend for itself!

Kids are funny- The twins favorite animal at the zoo is the chickens! Right across from the chickens they have a bear! A freakin' bear, but I can hardly get them to glance at the bear as they both yell excitedly, "Look Mom... birdies." I have got to straighten them out! :)

Anyway, we are really enjoying it here, but have just noticed that sometimes it's a bit WEIRD!!!

Nagakusuku Castle Ruins

I have been unpacking for a couple weeks now and really haven't had the opportunity or energy to take the little ones on any outings. Today I finally decided we were in much need of one! We headed out and got all buckled up in the van. I thought we would head to the tomb park that the kids love so much! On the road I saw this sign and jumped on the chance to see some more castle ruins!

The little boys were awesome! We pulled into the parking lot and had our picnic lunch I had packed. I figured the little ones needed the food for the energy to head up these steep hills! I was glad we ate before because we LOVED it there and stayed for close to two hours just checking out the old remains of this castle! The little boys were in Heaven just being able to run around! We truly have missed our outings together!

The random sign we decided to follow! :) I'm sure glad we did!

The front view!

I had a Japanese couple take my picture with the kids. It was funny because they then asked if I would take their picture with my kids! lol. I'm getting used to this, but it still always makes me laugh that people want to take a picture of them with somebody else's kids!

Large steps to the top rooms in the castle!

A bridge to the lower rooms!

Stairs down!

The little boys sitting at the top of the stairs!

Cute little Taylor patiently waiting for the babies to climb back up! There was a TON of walking and stairs. The babies tend to be a little slow and VERY easily distracted! :)

Hey Grandma, Look how big this snail is! I wanted to keep it, but mommy said, "NO!!!"
Another set of stairs to different part of the castle! It was seriously gorgeous here! We stayed forever just looking at everything! I bet it was an absolutely AMAZING castle back in the day! When you reached the top enclosure it looks right out into the Ocean!

Taylor at the top part of the castle!

We had such a great time exploring and can't wait to take Carter and Rhett back! Seriously how many people can say they've had a picnic at a castle! :)