Tokyo, Japan

Lane and I were very fortunate to get the opportunity to travel to Japan for a week. We spent time in Tokyo, Yokohama, Yokosuka, and Kamakura. We did a lot, and therefore have a ton of pictures, so I will do my best to condense the pictures and summarize!

Typical Meal:
Tokyo: Like NYC but cleaner and nicer. LOTS of fancy stores. Everyone is very well dressed!

Eating Tempura in Tokyo:

Tokyo Tower (much like the Eifel Tower):

Sushi for Breakfast:

Sensoji Temple:

Shopping:

Entrance to one of the shrines:

Watched a preformance here (Kabuki-za theatre): like an opera, by Japenese.

Imperial Palace (where Royal family lives):

The Great Buddha: Kamakura, Japan

Tsukiji Fish Market: Worlds Largest.

Cherry Blossoms: we were lucky to be there during the start of spring!

Beautiful Gardens!

Another Buddha: (the two religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shinto)

Walking thru a bamboo forest:

I may do one more post with a couple other cool Japan pics but I know this is a lot for those other than family! Basically it was an awesome trip and the most culture i've ever experienced!!

Happy Birthday Lane!

Danelle could not get enough of the birthday singing or blowing out the candles.

Spring Break with the sister(s)!!!

A few weeks ago my sister Breanne came out to visit and since my camera was dead I didn't get any pics. :( sorry.
But my other little sister Megan came for 5 days over her spring break, and I defiantly made up for it with all the pictures I took! Some of the things we did were:

Some good ol' Texas BBQ at Salt Lick! Danelle doesn't mess around ;) Train ride (by far Danelle's favorite!)

River walk in San Antonio.

Remember the ALAMO!

Zoo

Chuck e cheese


And the weather couldn't have been more perfect!!!

Thanks for the visits girls!!! (Do come again soon!)

Wait... what just happened?

The other week we went from snow on the ground here in Texas...To sunshine and 60 degrees the next day. Weird, but i'll take it!Aren't these two adorable!?

I had to get a picture of Danelle's "statue friend". Everytime we go for a walk past this house she stops to hug (and kiss) the statue. It reminds me of those "Just My Size Barbie's". (This day she was also with her friend Presley.) And just like the weather, Danelle can go from "sunny and sweet"... like setting her toys up on a Choo Choo...

or making a bubble wrap runway... it's a bubble wrap poppers dream)To giving us attitude and being a complete mess!It sure makes life interesting- between the weather and this girl, they always keep me guessing!!

Bitter and Sweet

Drove past this today on the way to dinner in Austin. Crazy.

On a sweeter note, I got to eat with my two favorite people at this delicious place.

Mmmmmm.

Gone Fish'n

I hardly ever post stuff about Lane and all his adventures soooo.....

Apprently Lane's a pretty good fisher. He's been bass fishing with his buddy (who is also our Bishop, and just purchased a $$$$ boat that almost cost as much as our first house!)

They're even a part of a Bass Club, and they go to fishing tournments once a month.

On his most recent outing he caught 4 fish (one being 7 lbs. ya that's as much as Danelle weighed at birth) & ranked 7th out of 26th.

*I'm still trying to find something this guys isn't good at... Or maybe I should say "HE'S" still trying to find something ;)

Happy Valentines Day!

This is Danelle's favorite place to be lately- right beside us "helping" in the kitchen. She loves getting to go on dates with her daddy. (She even does a little flirting with him when they go out).

And we were just talking about how we're going to put this little girl in pigtails everyday between now and college. She is such a sweetheart you wouldn't even believe it!

Welcome Twenty Ten!

I've been a little MIA lately due to my computer crashing (& the camera battery charger died). The good news: pics/data has been recovered. The bad news, it's still not working. In the meantime I've been checking emails on Lane's laptop, and not much else unfortunately.

BUT... so the loved ones know we're alive and well here are some random updates:

Lane has been teaching me how to use a hand gun. Every girl needs the skill.

Lane just returned from a road trip, driving from Texas to San Francisco! We sold our car to his sister, so he drove it out there for them.

This little girl has been busy being a toddler...

Side walk chalk. Enough said.

Don't worry, we clean up nice so no one knows how crazy things really get around here:

I finally finished my molding project that was started here, and now it's painted to look like this...

And other than that we've been laying low enjoying our 60 degree weather and sunshine!

(we deserve it after a hot summer!)

Christmas 2009

We had another great Christmas this year!
Lots of Christmas parties with friends:Danelle loved hanging out with all the other kids.
And she has an insane crush on this little guy- Ty. Can you blame her though? (We love his curls!) She specifically asks for him by name- at church, when we drive by his neighborhood, etc.... I'm starting to get a little nervous ;)
Christmas morning she was very excited to see her gifts. "Santa" left a tent/tunnel system (with a little help from G & G- now I'm glad I made the effort to stuff it all in my suitcase home from Utah) and there we're a few gifts under the tree as well.We we really lucky to not have to buy her any gifts this year- she had plenty from our families!Although we kept it as simple as we could, she was still a little overwhelmed and we had to stop to take breaks and eventually a nap.I would just love to know what thoughts were going thru her head that morning- (like what she had done to all of a sudden deserve so many gifts?)

*(Video of her coming down the stairs- CLASSIC)


Hope you all had a great Christmas as well-
and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sea World

For Danelle's 2nd Birthday we took her to Sea World (in San Antonio). She loved it and the weather was perfect!

The dolphins were her favorite:
(Click on pictures to enlarge)
But Shamu and The Sesame Street show were a close second and third.

Danelle's 2nd Birthday

Singing happy birthday (both families on speaker phone)