Thanksgiving weekend in Minnesota

先週の木曜日からジョシュの実家のミネソタに行ってきました。（木曜日はアメリカの感謝祭の日）
感謝祭の日、家族全員で過ごすのは１９９８年以来。今回はジョシュのお姉ちゃん家族の家に泊まりました。
さくらにとっては初めての感謝祭、私にとってもジョシュの家族と感謝祭を過ごすのは初めて。
金曜日はお姉ちゃん家族と一緒にクリスマスツリーを狩りに行ってきました（さくらと私は初めての経験でした）
午後は両親の家で弟家族と妹と一緒に夕食を。
土曜日の午前中は「IKEA」で朝食がタダと言う事で、両親と妹夫婦と一緒に、午後はお姉ちゃん家族の家で、全員集まって夕食＆ゲームを（弟さんのお嫁さんは仕事の為これなかったけど）
３泊４日とても楽しい時間を過ごせました。

This past Thursday we headed for Minnesota to celebrate the "giving of thanks" with family. We have not all celebrated together since...1998. That has been over 10 years! And it was before any of the Wes & Vicky kids were married! Imagine that! We stayed with my older sister, Jen & her large family. (Dean, Jen, Elizabeth, Heidi, Soren, Annika & Maggie.) We arrived at their home a couple of hours prior to the Thanksgiving dinner. Total in attendance, 16. Wes, Vicky, Swenson's named above, Jared, Mary Grace, Shepard, Chris, Jill, Takako, Sakura & I. We thoroughly enjoyed eating all of the food and conversation with family. The following day, we headed out with the Swenson's to help document their Christmas tree find/removal/return to the house. The kids even met Santa and rode on a horse-drawn hayride! Later that night we headed over to my Dad & Mom's for Chicken Pesto and some more family time. Then on Saturday, we met some family at Ikea for a free breakfast then returned to the Swenson's to relax with family and get ready for a Papa Murphy's pizza party later that night with the family. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, on that will always be remembered!

Crawling form, lounging around the house & story-time

先週末は家でリラックスしてました（っていつもだけど）　さくらはハイハイも上手にできるようになり、つかまり立ちもだいぶ上手になりました。クロはさくらが近づいても平気だけどデービスは相変わらずさくらに慣れなくて、気がつくとデービスもクロもジョシュの膝の上に、デービスとクロにとってそこが一番落ち着く場所みたい。
最近、肩車をしたんだけどさくらはとっても楽しそうでした（肩車して家の中を歩き回るだけだけどね）
土曜日は、家の近くの本屋さんで読み聞かせがあるので行ってきました。さくらはずっと寝てたけど。
（写真のさくらがうずくまっている姿はヨガみたいなポーズだけど寝てる姿です）
今週末も楽しい時間過ごせました。

Since our last post, we've been relaxing around the house, Sakura has been perfecting her crawling form and pulling herself up on things that she can grab. Sakura loves teasing (pulling fur) of her big brothers. Kuro can handle it but Day-bis starts to walk the opposite way. Day-bis & Kuro love just lounging around on Daddy's lap. They really vie for the best position. We've also starting putting Sakura up on our shoulders and prancing around the house. (We just need to duck around the doorways.) She is really getting ready for Thanksgiving & Christmas. We got a Mrs' Claus dress for her and a Santa Claus outfit for her cousin, Shepard. Just yesterday, she showed us her new 'yoga' sleeping style (as seen in the above picture.) Then we went to Borders book store for 'story-time'. She was in her PJs and slept the entire reading of 'The Polar Express'. All in all, it was another great weekend for our family.

This weekend was beautiful

今週末は、とっても天気がよくて、しかも暖かくて気持ちがいい週末でした。
金曜日は裏庭の落ち葉拾いや洗車したり、デービスとクロは裏庭で走り回ったりさくらと一緒に公園で遊んだりと、クロは滑り台は怖がらず滑れるけど、デービスはやはりへっぴり腰。
土曜日はオフベースでミリタリーのパレードがあるっていうので見に行ってきました。ジョシュもパレードに参加しました。朝早いのにも関わらず人が多かった。
日曜日も天気が良かったので、皆で裏庭＆公園で遊んで、午後はゆっくりお家でリラックス。

My what a wonderful weekend. It all started off with Friday, our 'green-day' from work. We ended up raking leaves and washing the vehicles. Just a good time to relax and enjoy the family time. Sakura has also been working hard to perfect her crawling. Saturday morning we woke up early as Josh volunteered to march in the Olde Town Bellevue Veterans Day parade. Takako was able to snap a few pictures prior to us heading out the gate. Later in the afternoon, the weather got up to the mid 70's as we headed out to the backyard and played with the boys. Later that night we had curry rice & chicken w/tomatoes. Wonderful! Sunday was another beautiful day as it was up into the 70's again. We even had Sakura try out the baby swing in the backyard.

End of October & Halloween 2009

土曜日はハロウィンでした。特にハロウィンのために衣装を買うことはなく、日本に里帰りした時に母親がHappy Halloweenって書いてある洋服をくれたのでそれを着る事に、カツラもあったのでそれをかぶせてみました。夜は近所をまわらず、家にきた子供たちお菓子をあげたり、ジョシュの家族とビデオチャットしたり、その夜に、さくらはつかまり立ちをしました。随分前から私達が支えると立つ事はできたんだけど、自分から立ったので、少し驚いてしまいました。
来月は”感謝祭”があるので、ジョシュの実家にいく予定です。

Here we are at the end of October (actually in to November) and what fun we have been having. This past week we have been getting ready for Halloween & pressing on towards Thanksgiving. It was my brother, Jared's birthday (33) on the 26th and relaxing at home, Takako just happened to put my old wig on Sakura. BINGO, costume is complete. On the 31st, we drove around town running errands, getting things that we needed (wanted) for around the house. We ended up not going out that night as we would just be using Sakura to get candy for ourselves but we did dress her up at home. She had a Halloween (Trick or Treat) onesie from Hideko and of course the blonde wig. It was quite a fun night chatting via Skype with family. Sakura also surprised us with being able to sit up on her own as she is just over 6 months now! Now we are pressing on towards Thanksgiving where we are planning on staying with the Swenson's of Lakeville (Josh's older Sister & family for those that don't know). Looking forward to the family-time.