Weird Themes in April

 I write from Akita, Japan. It's been an adventure so far, indeed. More on that in a minute. But first...

Our neighbor dog, Nacho, comes to play with Pip sometimes. They sniff each other, frolic, poop in the grass near each other, sometimes Nacho eats Pip's food, and then he goes home. Best friends. 

Anders' misson presidents, Pres. and Sister Mattsson, came to Utah from Sweden to visit missionaries and other people. They came to our house and visited for 2 hours, and it was amazing. What incredible people. It meant so much to Anders. He loves them.

This was on the lid to my overnight oats, and I thought it was pretty inspirational- just like overnight oats tend to be. 

Aani was rear-ended twice in like 5 days this month. The first time was on her way home from St. George with some friends, and the friend's car was minimally damaged. The second time was in the truck, and so we're dealing with all of that. Insurance, chiropractor visits, truck damage, etc. Laaaaaaaame. She's doing well, though, and she's gotten super good at filling out police reports. 

We went a little Maverick run and Pip was just looking funny as she waited. 

The girls beat me home from church one Sunday, and this is how I found them. It was like 70 degrees, so naturally sunbathing weather. I felt weird posting a picture of them sunbathing, which is why I took artistic liberties with this picture. 

Work continues on the basement, and it's been a little slow going. Everything always takes longer than you expect: Life lesson that keeps being taught. 

Nils hurt his back one day while working on the basement, enough that he had to take the rest of the week off from it. It was quite the strain. He was completely incapacitated for an evening. We had a neighbor/physical therapist come over and help with getting him realigned, which helped a whole bunch. 

We didn't do anything for spring break, I think we took Ava to Costco and Zupas. Crazy stuff. 

But we did take her to Japan a couple of weeks later! Quick rundown of Japan so far:

PS- Aani couldn't come on this trip with us because of cosmetology school. They told her 9 days was too many days to miss, and she'd have to re-enroll later. So, we desperately miss her and are so sad she's not here with us. She seems to be living her best life back at home, and I bought her a Snoopy zen garden here in Japan to make up for her missing the trip. 

She went to prom with Aidan and had lots of fun. She likes him. 

Nils and Anders did a 3-day Japanese joinery/woodworking class a couple of hours away from Tokyo. We all landed at the airport, and then we went our separate ways. The girls and I went to Tokyo Disney while the boys did their class. 

Here is a link to pictures of Nils and Anders. I'm having trouble getting them onto my laptop and I've had enough of that, so follow this link here to see! They had fun and learned some cool skills. They also walked for like 3 hours to get to this McDonald's and back. Anders was not pleased. 

I don't want to drone on and on about Tokyo Disney, so I'll try to be concise. It's probably the best Disney park we've been to as far as theming. It feels next level. Every cast member is smiling and waving non-stop. It's cute, cute, cute. It feels like Galaxy's Edge quality everywhere, if you know what I mean. We have turned into Disney nerds, and while we're not really ashamed, we are a little embarrassed. It's fine. 

ALSO! It's about 1/3 of the price of US Disney parks because it's not actually owned by Disney. I know, wrap your head around that one, folks. I still don't completely understand. Feel free to do Google search on that one, it's pretty interesting. 

Anyway, we had a blast for 3 days at Tokyo Disney. 10/10 recommend if you're ever in the area, and if you like Disney, and you're okay with everything being in Japanese. Tokyo Disney is the land of large gestures to communicate with the dumb Americans. It works. Also, many of the people speak great English, which is so nice of them, because we know literally 2 words of Japanese. 

Addie found rice at the hotel breakfast buffet. 

There was a shuttle bus from the hotel to the monorail. The monorail station was across the street from the hotel, but did that stop us from riding the bus? No, it did not. 

Cutest monorails ever. 

Rope droppers. We did this twice and it really didn't matter because it took an hour and a half to get into the dang parks!

After 3 days, we met up with Nils and Anders back at Tokyo Station and took a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. We have been on many, many a train. Subways, monorails, metro trains, and Shinkansen trains. So many trains. 

We visited Himeji Castle, then took a little boat ride around the castle. They gave everyone rice hats to wear, and it felt a little cultural appropriationish, but hey. Here we are, and it was amazing. 

We went to the Bamboo Forest in Kyoto, and did another boat ride down a river to get to the bamboo forest. It was pretty magical. 

There are things here that would just not fly in the US of A. Someone would get sued.

Shinkansen views from Kyoto to Akita. 

We got to Akita yesterday. We're here to see cherry blossoms, but it's really rainy and cold, so our plans may be disrupted. We shall see. It was about 8 hours on the Shinkansen, so we're on the other side of the country in the north. We'll head to Tokyo tomorrow, spend a couple of days, and then head back home on Saturday. 

Jet lag has been a factor, we've all been pretty tired and more than one night have gone to bed at around 5:30 pm and slept for 12 hours. It's been a week that we've been here, so we're all adjusted- just in time to go home in a couple of days, haha. 15 hour time difference is a killah.

Food has been rough. I have 7-Eleven to thank for keeping me alive, no joke. The 7-Elevens are actually amazing and are little food shops, and I'm not talking about hot dogs on rollers. They have all kinds of prepackaged meals, fruits, pastries, snacks, etc. etc. Addie has been eating lots of rice balls from 7-Eleven. There's just a lot of squiggly, slimy stuff here that does not appeal to us and our very American palates. Plus, there is wheat in nearly everything, so that makes it extra tough for moi. We're managing, though! 

Observations:

• Bidets on 99% of toilets.

• White noise inside toilet stalls.

• Trains are quiet spaces.

• Food from hotel buffets is room temperature, even food that would traditionally be served warm/hot, like fried eggs and cooked veggies. Not great. 

• They put a lot of ice in the sodas, which means less soda. We miss our free refills. 

• People are very friendly and smiley. 

• Surprisingly affordable. 

• The culture is very defined with rigid expectations and norms.

• It's very beautiful here.

• The respect for history is big.

• Sitting on the ground is considered disgusting. We've done that a couple of times out of desperation due to lack of seating options. Sorry, Japan. We're doing our best!

Well, I guess I'll see ya later. Looking forward to the next few days here in Japan, and then getting back home, which will be very nice, too. :) 

I Think It Presents Itself When You Finish -Nils

Welcome, welcome. Just in case you're wondering, my title strategy is to ask whoever is near me what I should name the post, and then I type the first thing they say. I'm running out of ideas after 1,000 years of blogging. 

Alright, let's just get into the happenings for the month. 

Nils and Anders have started finishing the basement in the rental house. We have big plans for this project, and not just renting it out. Videos and course content will be made. We're still figuring all of this out, but we feel like we're on a good trajectory, and this will help us make an important transition. We'd like to start a new channel (I know, I know) that entails bigger projects, and not in the DIY realm. This is a ways out, but it's what we're working toward. 

Addie is in her final couple of weeks of AEMT school, then the outdoor pool season will commence soon after. She's gotta get everything ready for the summer season, which takes a lot of time before it starts. She knits and crochets like crazy in her spare time. Perhaps she'll start work as an AEMT in the fall, and then pursue paramedic school next year. She went to a cadaver lab today, and just got finished telling me all about it. She thought it was super interesting, and wasn't grossed out by anything (the smell being the exception). I think that's amazing. 

Aani is very busy, working most days at Swig, and most nights at cosmetology school. It's a lot for this chica. High school graduation is approaching quickly for her. She's been going to all the dances and trying to have a social life, but she's busier than the average bear and sometimes it's hard. She's rocking school and loving all she's learning. 

Ava started spring tennis season a couple of weeks ago. She's been really busy with band festivals for the last 6 weeks or so, having a festival like once a week is seems. She continues to be a good sport about most everything, and is generally just a good kid. She just got hired as a lifeguard at the outdoor pool, so this summer will be a busy one for her. 

Framing begins: 

Addie teaches primary, and one of the kids in her class sits in front of us during sacrament meeting. He is usually very fascinated by her crocheting projects, so this last Sunday, he brought his own yarn and needle project so he could sit by her and craft together. Pretty freaking cute if you ask me. Aani asked him to smile, this is the face he pulled. We love this picture so much. 

Band concert for Ava. She had a solo and crushed it. 

Last weekend Ava brought home one of those robot babies from school. It was horrible. It cried all the time, and needed to fed, burped and changed basically non-stop. We named it Li'l Karen, because it really acted like a Karen. 

Li'l Karen was activated for about 49 hours. After it turned off, Ava was able to show her true feelings for it. 

Nils did a thing. He's only been flipped off once. Boy this thing is divisive. 

He and Anders wrapped it last week. 

Pre being wrapped. 

First drive home.

Just Aani giving neighborhood boys haircuts. Breaking hearts and cutting hair. 

This last week Nils and I spent a couple of days at an intensive workshop of sorts for YouTube and the business. We are part of a small coaching/mentoring group that will meet every quarter for 2 days, digging deep to strategize and learn. Anyhoo- we went to a very nice house that had a pool with speakers that allow you to hear music or a podcast without distortion under water, so Nils had to stick his head in for the experience. He said there was no difference from hearing outside the water to inside the water. How is it possible? 

Throwback photo of the century, when Ava had to kiss the mannequins at Old Navy. What a cutie pie. I would love to squish her again. 

In April, we're going on a big huge trip to Japan. It's gonna be crazy times, I just know it. I'll likely write before we leave. 

In the meantime, please try to behave yourselves. C-ya L8ter 🐊! 

I Can't Believe it's the Last Day of February. -Ava

Well, well, well. Another February in the books. This month has consisted of a lot of researching, batch filming/editing videos, a li'l trip to SoCal and Disneyland, and other normal life things. The goal is to get videos all done through June so we can work on finishing the basement in our rental house full time. Content strategy included, of course. 

Pics are in random order, sorry! I don't have the patience to sort them, and stinky Blogger makes it difficult. 20 years of blogging here, folks.  

We managed to get some nice family pictures on the beach at Crystal Cove. It was quite lovely, not windy, good sunset lighting, somewhat cooperative participants. Hallelujah! 
 

The Buzz Lightyear ride got stuck and a I kept shooting one target and getting lots of points. It was fun.

Super Bowl at Kevin and Tonya's included a light show with 4 Teslas, except our Tesla is apparently too old, so it wouldn't sync up with the other ones. Kinda funny. It started doing its own thing when the other 3 were all done. 

The Tesla owners coordinating the big light show. :) 

Aani and her Sweetheart's Date. It was a fun night. 

Book club snacks. I'm in a book rut; not loving anything at the moment. :(

We had a baby sprinkle for one of the YW leaders in our class whose baby is coming soon! The girls decorated these onesies, and we wrote fun messages on diapers. We also all wrote down baby names from A-Z, and that was pretty entertaining. 

We went to Balboa Park in San Diego for a few hours. Nils has been doing push ups every day this year, so he got his in for the day while there. 

Ava wasn't too sure about this sculpture. 

Aani's been doing hair like crazy! She colored Ava's hair again, did my highlights, and has been taking clients! 

Cosmetology school things:

Valentine's Day in Disneyland. A genuinely great day to go there. 

Sis beach pics. 

Tacos at Taco Land in Anaheim. They were yummy.

Aani went to Anaheim AGAIN this week for a hair convention, so Disneyland twice in 2 weeks. What a life. 

Found this scary mural at a sad outdoor mall in Anaheim. Man face, toddler body. And Aani. 

Fun fact about our family and Disneyland: We all love Space Mountain, except Nils. Space Mountain is the destination of choice. It's the music, the darkness, the cool lighting. Nils says it makes him queasy, but he goes on it anyway and doesn't understand why we all love it so much. 

We've all had sickness this month, nothing major, just lots of colds, sore throats, achey bodies, congestion, coughs, etc. Time to be done with all of that. 

March will be (hopefully) full of basement planning/construction/email campaign going. We also have a big trip coming up in April and need to plan it. 😳 More details to come!

Happy March to ya.