Misawa Tanabata Festival

The Misawa Festival is right outside our gates. It is hard to believe that 2 years ago this was our first festival we attended here in Japan, and this will be the last time we attend it since we will be leaving in a year. Cole and I are really going to miss it here. We are sponsoring another family again this year that just moved in and it was neat being the veterans and showing them around. It also helped that it was a beautiful day. No rain and not too hot.
Bryce just hit 7 months on Friday. He is such a wonderful baby. He was loving the festival. He just chilled in the stroller most the time and was happy as a clam.


Chase won this beach ball by sticking his hand into a blowing raffle box(behind) and catching a ticket. He was thrilled.
Turkey on a stick. Cole had a bite of Tina's, another family medicine doc, and he said it was delicious. I believe him. But I really enjoyed the chocolate covered banana on a stick with sprinkles and the snow cone that I shared with Chase and Cole.

Pooltime and Pics of the Front of our House

We are loving having a deck. It was a great place to put Chase's little pool, since it was so hot earlier this week if we would have put it in the yard. Chase was a prune by the time he was done playing in the pool. The temperature has cooled down now, it has been a really weird weather week here in Misawa. We hit the base beach today for a farewell party for some of the departing doctors. Chase has been saying all week "Go Beach" and I finally could tell him today that we were going to "Go Beach." He had a blast playing in the sand and getting in the water. The base beach is not the cleanest of beaches so we didn't take any pictures.

Don't squirt me big brother.


Chase loves helping me water my flowers every day.
Pictures of the front of our house. We love our neighborhood. There are 8 American homes in our little subdivision that all look a like, and we are far away from a busy road which makes it nice and quiet. Except, we here a clock tower chime at noon, and Japan has speakers set up all over, so we hear It is a Small World played over their speaker system at 6 pm every night. Random but relaxing.

Chase's new swing set and slides that we bought from our neighbors that moved recently.

Our tomato plant that produces little sweet yellow tomatoes that we enjoy putting on our salads.

Ennichi-gokko (Summer Festival)

Tonight we attended Chase's school festival, and Chase had a blast. The older kids sang and danced, and then they had some games for the kids, food, and fireworks. They asked that the kids wear their jinbeis or yukatas, which is typical japanese clothing worn during the summer festivals. Mostly the boys wear the jinbeis and the girls wear the yukatas. Below Chase is fishing for a water balloon that they have turned into a yoyo. The balloons don't burst, so the kids loved bouncing these around.

Chase enjoying his hot dog, and Cole enjoying his yakisoba. Chase is a great eater now due to Daiichi. Below he is eating a rice ball filled with salmon that is wrapped in seaweed, a common Japanese treat.

Bryce in his jinbei joined in on the fun.

4th of July

We celebrated the night of the 4th with friends, good food, sparklers, and fireworks. Well, the fireworks still did not go over too well with Chase, but he had a lot of fun with the sparklers. We can't blame him, cause Cole and I were never big firework people. And I still am not a huge fan.

Kayaking on Lake Towada

Chase was loving the kayak. Lake Towada is about an hour and a half from our house. It was a gorgeous day and we were glad we met up with some friends for the afternoon that were camping up there during the 4th of July weekend. We are not ready to camp yet with our two kiddos, but I am sure we will be doing a lot of camping down the road.

Big Budda and Tony Roma's in Aomori

Had to get a picture with my baby Buddha next to the baby Buddha statue. They both have great smiles.


Walking through the pinwheel forest.



Chase enjoying his chicken strips from Tony Roma's. So funny that they put a Tony Roma's inside a hotel in Aomori, which is about an hour and half drive from where we live. The elevator parking lot at the hotel was really cool too.

Asamushi Aquarium

That was one big sting ray.

Who you looking at?? Chase had fun watching the sea otters swim around during their feeding.
And so did Bryce.
The sea lions are one of my favorite. They are so funny.
Check out the dolphin, mom.

Bryce pulling funny faces before the dolphin show.

Loving the sport button on our camera.


Cool starfish.
Chase and Cole enjoying pulling the clams out of the water, and they would open up to say hi and quickly snap back.
We told Chase that this was a cat fish, and he said "meow, meow".