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Showing posts from August, 2017

DollyWood with Aunt Bunny

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My kids are lucky to have really great uncles and aunts on both sides of the family. They very lucky that they get to spend a lot of time with them whenever we are visiting family. They are the luckiest because their uncles and aunts come with us, or take them on outings. Have I mentioned how lucky they are? I preface this post with this, because I am really grateful for all their aunts and uncles. It takes a village, and my kids are lucky to have theirs.  One aunt outing we have to highlight is out afternoon to Dolly Wood with Aunt Bunny (the kids pet name for my sister Bethany, which is possibly the best aunt name). Dolly Wood, if you love food, country music, amusement parks, or one of the above you will love Dolly Wood! Best of all those worlds.  The kids were beyond excited to get to ride all the rides. Our first ride was the Smokey Mountain River Rampage, just a big inner tube ride. I was worried about Henry, because he does not like going to fast. We held each other's

Utah! First Stop Back in America

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We went around the world backwards going from the East in an eastward direction, but headed to the West for Utah.  We spent the week of July 4th there. Utah celebrates the birth of our country better than any place I have ever been. Going to a place that was extremely patriotic after being abroad was really good. But really we were there to spend time with family. Holiday or not, that was our priority.  Despite the jet lag we have a wonderful visit. Jet lag kick our tails, especially mine. Our kids got to play with their cousins, have a back yard, and a house with stairs. Cosette and Henry are obsessed with having a house with stairs, because they have never had one. We got to visit with friends we have not seen for a longest time, and go out to their new farm. It was amazing. It was low key, and the a great visit.  All the Plothow cousins. Cosette is the lone girl.  Shucking corn from Grandpa's garden.  Visit to the Hogel Zoo, because we could not pass up a ch

Lemonade Stand!

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While in Tennessee, we participated in an classic childhood tradition of a lemonade stand. I cannot remember where Cosette got the idea to do a lemonade stand, but she got in her head that she wanted to do one. In just a few short hours after the idea was conceived, we put together a lemonade stand. Everything went surprisingly smoothly, and the process was not very difficult.  Since it was Cosette's project, I made sure that she was in charge of everything, and helped her with every step that we had to take. She had the final say. It was a really fun activity. She went with me to the store to pick out the lemons. She helped me cut the lemons and juice them. Then we made a sign for our fresh homemade lemonade. 25 cents a cup. It's a bargain.   I was not sure how it was going to go. You never know with these things. We set up it up on my parent's street, which gets pretty good traffic, foot and car. She was really shy at first to announce our presence. Every time

Moving Update

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We have moved! We are finally all together and up in NYC. Our apartment is a wreck. Unpacking is going to take a long while. We have been chipping away at it as fast as we can before Lyndon heads back to work Monday. We have made progress, and progress is progress no matter how big or small.  Our new neighborhood is amazing. We absolutely love it. We live further south than we have lived in the past. It is a whole new neighborhood. There are lots of dogs that the kids love petting. It takes twice as long to get anywhere because we stop and pet every dog that we can. The kids are loving it. That is what Henry said first about our neighborhood, "there are lots of dogs!". We have gone to Central Park every day and whenever we get home the kids have to bathe, they play so hard. We've been to Trader Joe's twice in the last few days we have been here. We can walk there, and it's amazing. And we got some Zabar's chocolate babka we have heard so much about. Our

Last Day in Asia

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Our last full plus day in Asia we spent back in Sapporo. It was surreal thinking we would be leaving the next day, and not just leaving, but leaving for who knows how long. We never know how long we will be some where, but we have left Asia for now. First stop was the Sapporo Pokemon Center . Pokemon is very popular at our house. Cosette has been talking about it since I came back from Tokyo in January with Pokemon stuff. When we arrived she was shocked at how many stuffed animals there were. She was planning on getting a Ninetails, but when she saw how many there were she had a really hard time making a decision. She said "I didn't know how many there would be!".  Next we visited the Maruyama Zoo . Lyndon was still feeling ill, so he had to miss out. We saw some new animals we had not seen. Our favorites were the animals native to Hokkaido: the Ezo Deer, Hokkaido Brown Bear, and the wolves. After the Singapore Zoo it was nothing spectacular, but we still closed