Wilson or Archie?

My first and third babies could probably pass for identical twins.

Love these happy little lookalikes!

Harmonyland

In a country that loves it's many cutesy characters, Hello Kitty is still the queen. A few weeks ago, we took a trip to Harmonyland, a Hello Kitty themed amusement park. It is about three hours east of us just north of Beppu on the eastern shore of Kyushu.

You might be surprised to learn that Nathan had a bit of a Hello Kitty phase in grade school. It was actually Nathan that found the park and suggested we go!

 The park is up in the mountains and has a very classy Bavarian feel to it.

There were tons of rides that were made for the boys' age group. One thing that surprised us was how many adults were there without kids. Adults in Japan really love Hello Kitty and cutesy stuff as much as kids here!

Wilson and Leo went on their first roller coaster rides. Wilson went on the biggest one the park had to offer and got off wanting more.

Leo went on a pretty tame one, but loved the thrill.

The park was pretty big and there were lots of other things to do. There was a train that went around the whole park.

Lots of cutesy things to stop and see.

Some neat restaurants. Can you see the tree you climb through to get in this restaurant?

There were three different levels on the mountain, so there was quite a bit of walking involved. It was all very scenic and there were a few parks for the boys to play at along the paths.

Everything was Hello Kitty themed - this was a cute little donut I found.

The only bummer of the day was when we went to Hello Kitty's castle to see her and found out they closed her castle 30 minutes before the park closes. Boo! 

We had a great day at Harmonyland and we will be back. We'll be sure to stop by Hello Kitty's castle first next time :)

Chiwata Falls

To beat the heat this summer, we've been exploring some of the many waterfalls in our area. We have a rule for the summer that we don't do anything outside unless it involves water - the heat is that bad! We go to the pool a lot during the week and on weekends we're either at a beach or a waterfall. We're starting to prefer the waterfalls because it's usually much cooler in the mountains where they are, they're shaded by the trees, we have fun hiking on the paths that take you to them and you can usually get in a swim.

Chiwata Falls was our first waterfall of the season and we had a good time exploring the area. It's about 40 minutes southwest of Sasebo.

The drive up was beautiful.

The road was very narrow and winding.

Once we were there, the hike through the woods was nice but a little slick and tough for the boys due to some recent rain.

Archie got his first ride in his wrap and liked it.

The falls were very pretty. We're pretty sure these aren't the main falls since we didn't finish the whole hike, but we were happy seeing these.

The boys had fun throwing rocks, playing and pretending to fish in the riverbed. This is where Leo caught his "peanut butter and jellyfish."

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Chiwata Falls!

Grandma Shirley visits!

Two weeks before Archie was born, my mom surprised me by getting a plane ticket to come for Archie's birth. This was unexpected because my parents already have a trip to see us planned for October. I was thrilled that my mom was willing to make the long trip twice just a few months apart, and so happy that she'd be here for Archie's first few weeks.

While Grandma was mostly here to cuddle the baby and help with the bigger boys, we did manage to get out and do some fun things while she was here. It was nice that she's coming again in October, because we didn't feel the pressure to see and do everything during this trip. It also started getting pretty hot and humid during the two weeks she was here, so we didn't mind staying in with the boys some of the time.

Nathan took her to our neighborhood grocery store where they sell awesome Japanese meals for lunch. They came home with many different options and some cute mini beers. None of us were big fans of the sake they found, but it came in a cute bottle so it made the picture!

We took the 99 Islands boat ride. Leo was thrilled because it was our first time on the red pirate ship. In October, we plan on going out again but on the much classier Pearl Queen.

Wilson's school had it's Father's Day festival so mom got to meet some of Wilson's classmates and have a look around his school.

She also watched the big boys for us on Father's Day. Archie and I took Nathan out to a movie and lunch at his favorite Indian restaurant.

We got in some shopping at the Ginza and a few 100 yen stores around town. 

We went out to eat a few times and she loved the food! I didn't get a picture at her favorite, Coco Curry House, but here's the tiny Ra Ra Ramen restaurant where the food was excellent. It was my first time, too!

 Wilson got a chopsticks lesson.

We took Grandma to Saikai Park for the beautiful view.  The kids had fun showing her the huge roller slide.

We did a day trip and headed south to Obama Onsen. She was having such a great time- I even got her to pose with Obama!

Grandma made friends with some ladies there and we had a fun time relaxing and soaking our feet.

Next, we drove up in the mountains to the really neat resort town of Unzen. There are more hot springs there that we had fun walking through.

We also discovered a neat shrine tucked away on a side street.

Leo had fun showing Grandma how to use the Japanese version of drinking fountains.

It was a great two weeks having Grandma around to help out and have fun with. Grandma LOVED pretty much everything about Japan and it was neat hearing her rave about it. We already have a pretty long list of things to do when she comes back in October with Grandpa and Aunt Judy. We can't wait!