happy birthday, darling

i am beyond blessed to share this life with my incredible husband. i'd say our life together right now is nothing short of chaotic, constantly busy, always moving - we often high five each other with responsibilities so we can each do our own thing and still keep the plates spinning in our home. many days we feel like ships passing in the night with little time to just be together. there are always things to take care of, tasks to complete, meals to cook, baths to give, adventures to seek, work to be done (walls to paint)....yet he remains patient with me and encourages my ambitions. he shoulders the role of father to three babes under four with joy and amazing confidence. he keeps things centered when things being to spiral out of control. he gives me strength and balance when i start to fall apart. and no matter how out of whack things sometimes seem, he helps me remember to laugh about them later.  we're so proud of the work he does when he is away from us and impressed by everything he accomplishes.  and what a blessing to us, he has the incredible ability to leave work at work and be fully present when he is home with us. i'm so thankful for the gift this man is to my life. i'm so blessed by the family we are building together.  and i'm still so in love with this most-handsome boy i met 12 years ago at the university of illinois.  happy birthday to you, wonderful reid. i love you and will always cherish every beautifully chaotic and often-ungraceful adventure we embark on together with our babes in tow. thank you for holding my hand in life's journey and walking the road together.

my loves

happy birthday to daddy!

enticing curtis with cake: hard to believe he'll be having his own first cake here in a few months!

7 Falls

today my husband sent me out on an amazing photography adventure with our local photography guru and my friend, danielle. several of us packed into two cars and whipped through the winding roads of the japanese alps to our destination: an uphill hike to see and photograph the waterfalls.  the air was crisp when we arrived which felt like such a luxury after the hot and humid weather we've had since our arrival. as the season begins its shift to a short autumn, inevitably ushering in winter soon after, we're trying to take in as much outdoor adventure as we can squeeze in. soon we'll be simmering soups and getting creative with ways to pass our winter days.  i must admit, i really am looking forward to experiencing all four seasons after being oh-so-spoiled with san diego weather since 2004. it really was a lovely day and i was quite grateful for the chance to just turn off my momma brain and enjoy new friendships, incredible scenery and dabble with some creative photography. not only did my husband send me off with a smile and his always charming "don't worry, i've got the dad gig covered" attitude, but he also went grocery shopping with all three babes and baked his own birthday cake with pete before i returned home. this man is such a blessing to me.

Hiroshima

five of us at Hiroshima castle

our family of five boarded the 9:30 am train from iwakuni to hiroshima. the weather was perfect with blue skies and crisp air that turned warmer after lunch.  we had a few maps and our iphones to figure out the way and we literally just set out and let the day unfold.  outside the train station we bought some gyoza (dumplings) that were wonderful and then went out into the beautiful city of Hiroshima. first stop was Shukkei-en Gardens - just breathtaking, peaceful and a perfect first stop for us. it was surrounded by high walls so the backdrop of the busy city literally melted away as soon as you walked through the giant iron doors.  the kids enjoyed following the winding paths and feeding the huge coy fish in the garden waters. before leaving, we enjoyed some delicious udon and soba noodle soup with seaweed (wakame) and rice balls (onigiri). we also each got hot tea and the kids enjoyed some orange juice while reid and i savored some delicious iced green tea.
after lunch it was on to the next stop: breathtaking Hiroshima castle. what a view. we were running short on time and energy with lots of sights to get to in the afternoon so we opted not to enter and explore the museum within. next to the castle was a beautiful shrine where we stopped to enjoy ice cream and watched a bride and groom arrive and a mother with a new baby in what we would call a white christening gown depart - blessings to everyone. made me smile, it was a place of giving thanks and receiving blessings and hope. then more walking across the city, through the hustle and eventually arriving at peace memorial park.
the message of the memorial was honoring the lives lost and looking to the future with hopes of world peace. every beautiful memorial really carried that message gently to the world, reminding us of what took place and begging us to never let it happen again.  as soon as we arrived, i experienced a shift in energy from that of the city: this was a quiet and serene place, a place with a serious message to be considered. while we appeared to be the only american family in the park at the time, there was never an indication that we were unwelcome: in fact, i think it is appreciated and important to the japanese that we come to the park to hear the message and honor the lost souls. i was particularly impacted by the children's memorial: to think of anyone's children in such a horrific, chaotic, fatal moment in time is heartbreaking, but when you are standing there, holding the hands of your two children and carrying the third on your back, your momma dna starts to tingle at the thought of trying to protect your children from something like that. i can't even imagine what it must have been like for anyone that day - but especially the mothers. i had goosebumps when my children rang the children's memorial monument bell. as the bell tolled, it was like they were communicating to those lost children - an unspoken pact that they would do their part to make the world a better place for future generations.
we wandered on and took in the rest of the monuments and ended at the memorial hall, a place where the names of the known victims were etched in the marble walls of the underground dome. as you exited, their names and faces were projected on tv screens. its one thing to honor the lost souls of that sad day, but when you have names and faces to put with the lives ended so abruptly, it puts things even more deeply into perspective. regardless of what was happening in the world at the time. regardless of what was dictated by the necessity of war. regardless of who was right or who did what wrongs....the innocent lives lost by the bomb will forever be a tragedy i carry in my heart. and seeing this place, feeling the energy of this place, hearing the message that seemed to buzz in the air and fluttered into my heart as we walked there certainly changed me. i'm grateful for the experience and for the opportunity to pay tribute. i'm grateful for the opportunity as a mother to bring up these children of ours with hope for a peaceful future.
after the peace park, we boarded the lovely hiroshima city street car and ended up right at the train station for just a 150 yen each. all sapped with energy and filled up by a beautiful day of sight seeing, we got everyone fueled up for the trip home and boarded the train at 5 pm. by 6:30 our children were sleeping soundly in their beds. another beautiful day in our adventure in japan. thank you to reid for being an incredible husband who doesn't mind the slow progress, occasional prone children having fits on the sidewalk, multiple potty breaks at the most inconvenient times and the constant flow of snacks required to keep everyone functional....i appreciate so much that he is onboard with trying to see as much of this beautiful country as we can while we are blessed to live here, regardless of how young our three children are. xoxo

double-decker bike racks

loved seeing this older woman stop quick on her bike to feed the pidgeons

yukata clad japanese ladies enjoying the tea ceremony at Shukkei-en Gardens

Shukkei-en Gardens

feeding giant coy at Shukkei-en Gardens

climbing rainbow bridge at Shukkei-en Gardens

fall is in the air

visitors posing atop rainbow bridge at Shukkei-en Gardens

noodles

the most perfect baby ever award goes to curtis xoxo

noodles

mommy helping lady bug drink her soup and wakame (seaweed) bits after eating all the noodles

tori gates outside hiroshima castle

water and stone wall surrounding hiroshima castle grounds - right in the middle of the city

loved watching the incredibly talented artists painting the scenic grounds of Hiroshima castle

beautiful shrine adjacent to castle

beautiful Hiroshima Castle on a perfect early fall day

taking a break after walking all morning - they really did great considering what we asked of them. thankful we borrowed an umbrella stroller from friends: our heavy jogger would not have been conducive to hauling up and down the steps at the train stations to get to the right track. this was perfect and the big kids took turns riding while curtis enjoyed the ergo carrier ride on mommy's back all day.

a bride and groom emerged from a car at the shrine next to hiroshima castle just as we walked past. fascinating - i could have stayed all afternoon to watch the events unfold.

Genbaku Dome-mae (Atomic Bomb Dome) incredibly beautiful and overwhelmingly sad reminder of the tragedy and loss of innocent human lives.

five story pagoda monument

children's peace monument: surrounded by japanese, my blonde children rang the bell under the children's peace monument as a way to honor those babies who never grew up. it was really an emotional moment for me to agonize for the mother's who experienced this tragedy so long ago.

thousands of paper cranes are brought to the children's peace memorial every year in remembrance and mourning

atop the children's peace memorial

flame of peace with dome in the background

memorial monument for Hiroshima, City of Peace (Cenotaph for the a-bomb victims)

about this time, betsy got some serious sass in her step and decided this was the best way to get all the way across town to the train station for our journey home. we soon decided it best to ride the hiroshima street car to the train station; we had all had enough walking.

pete taking in the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims: we talked a lot about treating others with kindness and how our decisions can hurt other people. of course, the subject of nuclear weapons is a bit intense for a 3 year old, but we tried to convey the basic message without the sad details

names and pictures of the lost lives scroll on the monitors

parting view of the dome as we boarded the streetcar: hope for a peaceful future

lunch with Pete

earlier this week, reid and i had the pleasure of enjoying lunch at peter's school along with his classmate's parents. we were invited to arrive at the school just before lunch and were asked to bring our slippers as well as chopsticks and a cup (very standard here to bring your own, they don't really do plastic silverware and disposable anything which i adore, yay japan).  we changed into our slippers and left our shoes by peter's cubby (which i was proud to be able to read his name in katakana after writing it so many times on all of his things) and went down the hall to his classroom - i sure do love the way his eyes light up and sparkle when he sees us arrive to his school. :) moments later the teacher made some announcements which we listened to intently without understanding a word (just do lots of smiling and watching for context clues) and then were treated to the class singing a song with several verses - each verse was the same words but sung in a different way (super loud, super soft, etc) and had hand motions to go along with the words. we were so impressed with peter, it was very evident that they had been practicing - he knew all the words and all the motions (not sure how much he understood of what he was saying, but he was saying the same thing as his classmates).  now that he's been there a month and a half it seems the routine of his school day is sinking in and he is starting to tune in to what is happening.  he's even started using a few japanese words at home (hello, please, his teacher's name is involved quite often - and he tells betsy to "stop it!" in japanese....he also tells us things like "we have to wait until everyone has their food to eat, that's what we do at my school"). then we marched down the hall to the lunch room and were treated to a japanese meal at teeny tiny kindergarten sized tables and chairs.  before entering the lunchroom everyone took off their room shoes and slippers - most of the ladies had on teeny invisible socks under their slip on shoes, but i was glad to see a few other were barefoot (i didn't want to be the one breaking the no barefoot rule or something).  we do lots of watching and imitating to be sure we aren't violating protocol when we are out and about. its really fun to figure everything out - and really here, its a "do not deviate" kind of society so its pretty easy to figure out the right way to do things because everyone follows the rules.  i had trouble folding my long legs up under the table so i know reid must have felt awkward, but it was fun to see what his daily lunch is like. once everyone had their plates but before we ate, a few of the students took their turn to lead everyone in a blessing. thanking the ladies who cooked the food and the teachers for their work and the parents for their care. again, peter knew most of the words to say which had me grinning, even if none of us could literally translate what was being said.  i'm glad they are teaching the children to be thankful for their blessings, regardless of religion or language - the conscious acknowledgement is such a valuable ritual.  everything is made there at the school fresh every day which makes my heart sing. we enjoyed a japanese pickled salad (tasted a lot like grandpa simpson's pickles), rice and pork & tofu "cookery" along with tea, of course. they called it a cookery, but it seemed more like stew to me. everything was tasty and we ate it right up. bless him, our little man did his best with his chopsticks, mostly using them to stab at the bigger pieces of meat and tofu in his stew. every day he takes a little satchel with a fork, spoon and chopsticks in it as well as a cup and napkin. he spread his napkin out like a place mat under his plates and ate everything up with a little help from us. once everyone finished up and the kids were getting antsy, we headed back out to our slippers and down the hall to deliver him back to the classroom. more announcements we didn't understand from the teacher, then said good bye to peter and off we went. we're so pleased with his japanese school and look forward to seeing his progress over the next three years - and we've registered betsy to start attending school when the new year starts in april. she's already talking about riding the bus with peter. :)

the boys at the lunch table: pete wears a smock over his uniform all day while at school

our tasty lunch

this week we switched over to the winter uniforms. once it gets cold, he can wear wool leggings underneath or pants if we prefer. he gets to wear his choice of socks and after a few weeks of seeing he was the only one wearing plain white athletic socks, i picked up a few fun pair for him out in town. he was overjoyed to see these socks in his drawer that morning!

pete and his new best buddy konrad

most of the bus stop kids

Three Falls

the weather is just perfect right now here in japan - mid 70's and sparkling skies. i feel like time is ticking steadily toward dreary, cold and damp winter....so we're savoring every opportunity to get out and explore. this morning i took b&c along with some amazing friends and their littles to hike to three falls. it took our little carpool about 45 minutes (+20 to reroute after a wrong turn down a teensy little side road) to drive out and park at the trail head. another 20 minutes to load up all of our essentials and kiddos into packs and we headed off. its a quick little hike through a very old, mysteriously beautiful gorge carved out over time along a stream bed with some small waterfalls along the way. the water is crystal clear and quite inviting - i can only imagine how refreshing it is in the intensely hot summer months. most of the path is carved into the rocks with some iron steep stairway ladders and handrails brought in by some kind souls long ago - they are quite run down and rusty, but still do the trick and kept us safely away from the drop-offs.  we found a lovely little lunchtime spot atop the rocks in the riverbed as the water was quite low.  betsy did great under her own power (and loads and heaps of guidance and helping hands from momma and my sweet friends). just as in everything else she tackles, lady bug was absolutely fearless and quite interested in checking things out. when she gets a little older, more coordinated and able to better understand gravity, she will be a wonderful little hiker...i look forward to the day when all our babes can ramble along on their own two feet, but curtis was perfect as could be riding along from his happy little backpack perch.

adventurous mommas and our littles setting out at the trail head

skip forward to lunch, we spread out on a big flat-ish rock in the middle of the stream bed

view up the hillside next to us during lunch

holly and lady a

betsy and lady a scampering on the rocks

back up the hillside

i just loved the sunlight filtering in through the trees and bramble - this felt like a very old, very special place.

down goes c and her little

up some super old steps with rusted out handrail

and back down again - steep stairs. betsy was a wild and crazy trooper: and my friends were saints for helping me keep track of her.  she is a fearless 2 year old: the worst kind. :)

three falls

etched into the rocks next to the stream bed

betsy adores porter. he was quite a gentleman, always waiting for her to catch up and showing her the way.

thankful.

view out the window on our drive home