Friends from ??? .......... JAPAN!!!!

It is past time for an update! We all survived winter, tax season, and Spring Volleyball. Well, I should not say we survived winter yet because it snowed yesterday (May 1) but today felt like spring again.
We had a fun change of pace a few weeks ago. Tara was talking with a teacher at school who had served her mission in Japan. Since then she has kept in contact with a Japanese english teacher who arranges for families to come visit the States and the teacher from our school arranges a place to stay. So, Tara was visiting with the teacher and she mentioned she needed to find a place for a Japanese family who would be coming in about two weeks. Tara said we would be here and we would love to have them. The family was a mom, a seven year old daughter and a four year old boy - the dad stayed home to work.

Here is a picture of the girl, Kokoro.
Here is a picture of the boy, Ryota, playing with Ryan and Landon jumping off the window sill onto the beanbag.

Landon doing a flip.

Ryan doing a ....???

Ryota. This boy was such a tease and live wire! He was so wound up when he first arrived that it seemed like he was a top unwinding for about two hours.

Ami made a yummy Japanese meal before she left. It was good (no sushi)

Tara made an "Idaho Potato" apron for Ami. She loved it!

They were such a fun family - amazing how laid back and relaxed they were at our house considering the numerous potential hazards we have (rope bridge, tree house, hot fire place).

(Ryan and I took one for the team on the picture above!)

Kokoro loved this horse!! She would have loved to take it back in her suit case.

Kokoro was very flexible - the girls were amazed at this one!

This was taken within about 10 minutes of arrival at our house. Like I said, they fit right in and little Ryota loved doing this.

Two interesting observations: 1. They were amazed at the Dollar Store, Walmart and the oversized houses in America. 2. They were a little unnerved with all the open space.

Florida Sunshine

Sometimes life throws you a curveball high and inside, but sometimes you get a soft easy one right down the middle. This post is about a recent soft easy one down the middle.
Through a unique set of circumstances, our office picked up a client who has a resort hotel in the Florida Keys and needed an audit done. I was asked to go down to the resort and do some onsite work for the audit. So, off I trudge through the snow and cold to the airport - duty calls and I will do what I am asked:)
The Florida Keys are a group of islands stretching out south and west from the bottom of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. It is about a four hour drive from Miami to Key West, which is the last island and the end of the road. The place where I had to go for work was halfway between Miami and Key West. The bridge above and the bridge below are past the place where I was. Most of the bridges are not too long, but as you can see, there are some long ones! You can see a secondary bridge that is pretty narrow. This is the remnants of an old railroad that was built to transport pineapples up to the mainland. I think a hurricane in the 60's caused some terrific damage and the railroad was not repaired. However, by that time the tourism demands were enough and a new highway was put in.

This picture below is on the mainland. You go through miles of this stuff - I suppose it is a part of the everglades?

This picture is looking back at the island where I was working on. I was told that all the water is piped down from the mainline. You can see the pipe under the bridge.

Same bridge but other side

Looking out into the Atlantic. You can see little islands out there.

This is a picture of the resort hotel. It is called Cheeca Lodge and Resort.

more pictures of the resort

Here is a really cool tree. These do not grow in the forests I am used to!

More pictures of the resort.

"Key Lime pie" is on about every restaurant's desert menu. I thought this was a cool design and took a picture to show the children.

This picture below was taken from the same chair as the one of the pie above. The weather was very nice, high of 78 and low of about 68. However, the locals said it was much cooler than normal. All things are relative as Tara told me it was at zero the same morning I took this picture!

The picture above and below are from the same chair.

I believe a person could almost get used to this!

The next several pictures are of the room I stayed in. These were very nice rooms and I was definitely out of my comfort zone (like how much and how often do you tip?)

The tub filled from the ceiling!

I am standing in the bathtub below taking the picture above.

The two pictures above and below are of a couple of homes in Miami in a normal neighborhood. Notice the bars on the windowns and doors. It reminded me of some of the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

In was a nice change of weather, but it sure would have been a lot better if my family could have been there. Maybe next time.

Christmas activities

We dressed up to take some presents to our neighbors


Ryan, Landon and Kalli opening a gift "together."

Michone looking very serious about things.

Ashley with a tea pot.
Tara got a 2000+ piece puzzle and loved it! She got it all done in about 8 days.
Todd came to visit. Here he is with the boys who are sporting new shirts and ties.

One day we (Dad) decided to build a snow cave. So we went to our yard and made a big pile. Tara later made a castle (in the back ground). This picture is of Kalli trying to rescue her dad who was hollowing it out and kicking out the snow. The entrance got plugged and it took Kalli a few moments to break a hole through. She then went to get Tara who was able to save the day. However, she does not know her own strength: I was trying to fit through head first throught the tunnel and asked Tara to help. She pulled my arm and it felt like I was on the rack! We decided to make the tunnel a little bigger.

Kalli helping to save her dad. She was quite worried that I was trapped for good.

Michone in the castle Tara made out of 6 gallon buckets. Michone is destined for theater.

We went sledding Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. It was not quite the Little Alps, but it was sure a lot of fun! Ryan loved it and had a hard time letting anyone else on this tube.




Here is a fun video of two up and coming knights of the round table. Someone had given my office some big 12 month calendars. They looked like great swords and so me and the boys had it out that night. Any guesses who wins?

My(Ashley)first blog!

On January second our family made snowcaves and stuff like that.So here is a picture of dad getting out of the snowave.It was really fun!


Landon has been waiting his whole life to get a bow and arrow.So on Christmas morning Kalli got one for him.When it was not even fully opened,Landon started jumping around in circles,and saying"Yes I've wanted one of these my whole life ".All of that time we were trying to get him to tell us what it was,but he just kept jumping around and around saying the same thing over and over.The rest of the day he played with it.

On Chrismas morning,Michone wanted no one to come into the parlor.(that is whare Santa Clause came)So she was the guard:)

First time

Today, January 10, 2010, was a first for our family.... Michone gave a talk in sacrament meeting. She did such a good job and and Josh and I were very proud of her. Her topic was obedience. She did not wear this outfit, but her smile from the pulpit was even more radiant! She was worried about going long, so she told me to stand up and straighten my dress if her time was up. Fortunately I did not need to stand up, as she was right about 4 minutes. She prepared this talk with just a little help from Josh and was able to do it with just an outline. She looked up at the audience and used great examples from the scriptures. It is so fun to see how much she has learned over the years and that her testimony is growing! You'd all be proud of her!!

Here is a picture of Mr. Landon being silly. Notice the camera is lower....when I was downloading the pictures off the camera tonight, there were a bunch of photos taken by Ryan including some just a few moments prior to this shot of Landon using the toilet. (We had a talk about modesty.)

Bald Eagles!

Today after church, Landon noticed a bald eagle in the big cottonwood tree in front of our house. There were two, but by the time I got out with the camera, there was only one left.

I noticed one the other day, so there must be nest somewhere nearby.

We all thought it was cool to have two bald eagles in our yard. Plus Landon is just telling me there was a hawk in the back tree.

Brady, our dog was very interested in the eagle. When it flew off, she barrelled off through the snow trying to chase it.

As I was transferring some pictures, I noticed some little videos from last fall that I think are just cute as can be. Yes, I realize it may be just because I am their dad, but I like them anyway.

This first video is shows how Kalli almost has a perfect landing.

Here is one of a group jump.

This is my favorite. Lots of laughing!