It's a win-win-win situation

This post has nothing to do with Christmas, but it is wonderful. Back in October my brother and his family were sealed to each other. It was such a wonderful and amazing experience to be there and witness this great event. I was more than choked up when they brought in the kids, all dressed in white. My nephew Boston was so excited and just burst into room and just stood there smiling at everyone. Brighton was very calm and glowing as she held Avery - who handled the event fairly well. I'm so excited and proud of them. I love you guys! How can you not love these kids?

This post is dedicated to Emily - she challenged/told me to post this. I have lots of embarrassing stories (drugs on my driveway), and here's another one. Lately my days have been filled with meetings. Not just a meeting here and a meeting there, but days where I don't see my desk till about 3 or 4 pm. Well yesterday I had one meeting. ONE! And I decided to celebrate the only way I know how - going out to eat. I've been really good about bringing my own lunch - cheaper, healthier, saves time, etc. So I felt like I really deserved this little treat. I didn't have anyone to go with me, so I decided to just run in, grab it and come back and eat at my desk and read. I pulled into the parking lot, entered the restaurant and just walked straight ahead to get in line and place my order. Halfway up the line my right foot slips and goes flying forward! I didn't even quite register what was happening, but dance techniques must have kicked in. My left foot went backwards and...

Hiroshima was a more somber part of our trip. We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum which provided a different view point of the attack (not that I'm saying what we did was right, but it was interesting to hear it told from their point of view instead of America's point of view) and some haunting images of the aftermath of the bomb. We spent probably 2 hours in there and then briefly walked around the Peace Gardens. This is a picture of the Atomic Bomb Dome, a memorial to those who died after the bomb. After that heavy, emotional day we decided to go out to dinner and our friend at the Hostel recommended a great place. We quickly learned that the restaurant owner and cook did not speak English. Thank heavens a girl was there to help us and stopped us from ordering cow tongue for dinner. This meal may have been my favorite, purely based on the experience we had while eating. You basically buy a plate of raw meat, lettuce and veggies and then you get to grill your meat...

Sorry for the delay in finishing my Japan trip. I wasn't even going to finish it till a few people asked me to. So here it is. After our whirwind Kyoto-in-a-day trip, we had a few more sites to see before we headed to Hiroshima. Our first stop was Nijo Castle, also known as Ninja Castle. The great thing about this castle is the squeaky floorboards. Unless you walk on the very edges, the floorboards squeak - and are supposed to squeak so the Emperor/Ruler/Whatever could hear anyone coming. I'm known for my awesome ninja skills. Here am I fighting with Stephen. I obviously won. And yes, I'm wearing a skirt. The weather was so hot and so humid I wore that skirt for majority of the trip. Here's another gorgeous garden shot of Nijo Castle. After Nijo, we headed to Osaka to visit Osaka Castle, and sample some tasty food (or so we thought). Osaka Castle - a lovely castle on the outside that has sadly been gutted on the inside. The castle was gorgeous and we learned lots of nea...

I've got a lot of posts about Japan. If you want to read the adventure in order, start here: 1. Konnichi wa 2. Tokyo 3. Kyoto 4. More Kyoto I'll hopefully have more posts up soon.

Tuesday we hit a few more sites in Tokyo and then left for Kyoto. We took the JR train and arrived there about 1.5 hours later. We found our hostel and started sightseeing. It was too late to see and do much but we were able to visit a paper lantern park and strolled around Gion - the Geisha district. We searched everywhere but we didn't see one Geisha. Apparently they were all at some evening, nightly show. Since that was a bust, we decided we'd eat dinner and just enjoy the night. You can't go to Japan and not try their Ramen. They have a museum dedicated to this food. We visited a department store where they have "Ramen Street". Tons of different styles of ramen - who knew there were so many ways to change this basic noodle dish? Our friend Yoshi, from the hostel, told us to try a specific restaurant. Ordering ramen is tricky in Japan. We saw a line, so we just stood in it and figured we'd be seated soon enough. Well we kept seeing people put money in a ven...

Today would be our whirwind adventure in Kyoto. We got up early and starting our journey we were assaulted with warm temperatures and awful humidity the minute we left our hostel. Sanjunsangendo - the temple with 1001 golden Kannon statues - was our first stop (maybe a 20 minute walk) and we were already wet from the humidity. The inside of the temples were okay, but it was the temple grounds that I found beautiful. So many trees, ponds, mini shrines - it was just gorgeous. Our next stop was Ginkakuji - a Silver Pavilion with a neat Zen garden. Again - gorgeous grounds. I'm pretty sure I'll have a mini Zen garden when I own a house. We then headed further up to Kiyomizu Temple (pure water temple). The walk to Kiyomizu isn't a bad walk, but when it's hot and humid it seems like the longest walk of your life. The tempuratures were probably in the low 80's but with 80% + humidity, that's a lot for a desert dwelling person to handle. These grounds were again gorgeou...