Travelog and Independence Day

Well, we are once again back home in Japan. We had a good trip to the states. It was fun to be there with all of Mike's family. With all nine kids together for the first time in six and a half years it was a big event and we were very grateful we could be there for all the weddings this year. The girls loved playing with their cousins and picking strawberries with Grandma. Emma cracked her chin on the side of the pool and had to have stitches a few days before we left, but other than that everything went pretty well! We got the stitches out the day we got back. We figured we planned our leave well this time because we came back to a long holiday weekend for the 4th of July so Mike goes back to work tomorrow, Monday. We got to go to the big 4th of July party on base for the first time. I painted festive fingernails and toenails before we went and got the girls are dressed up. :)


There was a barbecue and entertainment and there were a lot of fun things for the girls to do. Everything was free. The evening ended in disappointment, though because and evening thunderstorm prevented the fireworks display.

There was painting of ceramic magnets and beads and those cute white hats they are wearing (but they left the hats white).

They loved driving the go-carts.

I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch Mike on the bull :)

We decided not to waste the rest of our weekend and took a trip to a cave on Saturday. It was on a very scary narrow, winding, mountain road and all of us girls got carsick. Jane and Hana threw up and we had no extra clothes or anything. Luckily we parked by a river so we washed them , their clothes, and their carseats and just let them wear wet clothes while we went cave exploring.

This is called Nippara Cavern and used to be used by Buddhist monks before they opened them to the public. Here Emma is standing by a cleansing place.

Here is another shrine area. The shining metal in the photo are coins stuck to the rock. People have stuck them on the walls and ceiling all through the caverns.