Japan here we come...

Japan here we come...

Kensley was so cute with her suitcase.  

The airline gave the little kids planes to build.  

When we arrived Ambers family was there to greet us.

Yasue had little bags of Japanese snacks for us.  She was so cute.  She enjoys playing "Merry Ball" also known as Volleyball.  Makayla and Yasue are the same age.

We had our first Japanese dinner with them.

Then we headed to our apartment.  I'm so grateful Ambers family helped us.  The train we took to Tokyo splits.  So when we got to one city the cars 1-6 split off...kinda crazy.

We found our place after a little wondering.  It was fun to be welcomed with treats, maps and tourist information.

Kids claimed rooms fast...

The girls loved this chair.

Seoul Zoo

Kensley and Ben have been wanting to go to the zoo.  Ryan had the day off and the weather was perfect...so we decided it was a good time to go.  We let Thomas come with us and skip school.  I'm glad he came to be my photographer.

The zoo was so quiet.  I felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Ben and Thomas LOVED the monkeys!!  And the monkeys loved them.  It was fun to watch them interact.  

New Beginnings

We will have 3 young women this year.  I remember when I was the new beehive and Alesha and Shauna were in YW's.  We sang so well together for New Beginnings;)

Makayla was the Laurel that welcomed Karley into YW's

Basketball

I love basketball.  I REALLY love watching my kids play.  I tend to get a little loud as I cheer them on;)

Thomas was Awesome with his height advantage.  He loved scoring for his team.  He reminds me of my brother.  He likes to dribble and do tricks while dribbling.

Karley learned so much this season.  At the beginning of the season, she played "hot potato".  She didn't want to shoot or dribble around.  She just passed it as fast as possible.  She had an amazing and patient coach.

Her team took 1st place this season.

Spelling Bee

Shelby was in the middle school spelling bee.  She was not too excited about spelling words in front of people.  She is just like her dad though and can spell words that I can't even pronounce:)  She asked me if it would be okay if she just misspelled a word after a few rounds.  She should have known better than to ask her competitive mom that question.  I said, no way you're going to do your best!  To motivate her, I said I would pay her $5 a word (big mistake!). Her friend was so kind that she kept track for Shelby.  

She was so nervous because she was the 1st speller.  Long story short...she got 2nd place!!

To celebrate we went and tried a new gelato place.