Butterflies and Hermit Crabs

Today we took the kids to Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove to see the monarch butterflies. We left our house around 10am and when we got into town we decided to have lunch first. We found this tiny Japanese Restaurant which ended up being quite yummy, but lunch took a little longer than we had anticipated. We found the Sanctuary and walked around watching all the butterflies fly around. The ranger said they just started to wake up so we really timed things just perfectly. We even ran into a few deer! After watching the butterflies for a while we decided we weren't going to have time to go to the aquarium so we took the kids to the ocean to walk on the rocks and check out the tide pools. I pretty much dropped Gregory in the water when we arrived - just his feet. The rocks were slippery!! We took a couple of pictures, found a few shells and left. On the way home, we made our must stop at Fisherman's Wharf for caramel corn and cotton candy. YUMOLA! (Carmel corn is still something I haven't given up, but my cardiologist said it'd be okay once in a while!) We had a great day!

Here we are at the entrance to the sanctuary

Gregory trying out the binoculars. I realized I was teaching him to use them backwards!!

Bailey sitting on the monarch butterfly bench

Deer! They were quite tame. Clark was really quite close

See all the clusters of butterflies? They are all closed up until the temp gets higher than 55 degrees. They are just starting to wake up here.

Watching all the flying butterflies

Just beautiful!

Basketball

Santa brought the kids a basketball hoop for Christmas. Bailey kept saying she couldn't play basketball, but tonight Clark showed her how to toss the ball and take a peek at the video to see her in action. She was beaming!

Visiting with family in LA

We took a quick trip to LA this past weekend. We drove down around 4am on Saturday and came back last night around 9pm. We were kinda thinking of spending one more night, but Clark needed to get some work done today so we decided to just come home last night, sleep in our own bed and do what we needed to get done today. We had a really nice time even though our trip was short. We were able to spend time with Grandpa, Bachan, Uncle Denis, Auntie Lynn, Uncle Rick, Ryan and Lauren. We'll have to plan another trip soon.

We had a yummy dinner at Auntie Lynn and Uncle Rick's house. Thank you Auntie Lynn for cooking such a delicious dinner for us!

Ryan getting some food

Uncle Denis working on a sticker book with Bailey and Gregory

Gregory playing with his new stacking train pull toy

Bailey opening some books

Opening more gifts at home

Daddy wearing his two new Michigan hats

Just thought this ornament was so cute. Nigiri Katayama family! :)

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Our tree is back in the garage, Christmas is officially over. It feels good to have our house back in order - well, kinda back in order. Still need to find space for new toys and books, but it feels good to have all our Christmas decorations away.

We had a wonderful Christmas season. From all the activities leading up to Christmas to the actual day itself. Just a whole lot of fun for all of us. I've posted many of our activities up to Christmas Eve so I'll pick up from there...

Actually on the day before Christmas Eve we decorated Santa's cookies with icing and sprinkles. We were going to be busy on Christmas Eve so we got that out of the way. Clark was off on Christmas Eve so we had a nice day together as a family. The weather was terrible so we pretty much stayed inside all day. I made a pot of cioppino and some spaghetti for dinner. (The cioppino is too spicy for the kids so they had pasta) We opened some gifts and got ready for Santa!

I was thinking the kids would wake up early Christmas day to see if Santa came, but 9am rolled around and my family was STILL SLEEPING! Well, around 9 something everyone rolled out of bed and we all came downstairs and guess what! SANTA CAME! Santa went nuts this year and the kids were just in seventh heaven. We hung out here until 1ish and drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. We had a yummy prime rib dinner and enjoyed the rest of Christmas chatting the night away.

Check out photoshows for more Christmas pictures.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I've got more to share, but for now we just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas! May your day be filled with happiness and joy!

Mochitsuki Day!

Today we went to Hibachan's house to make mochi (Japanese rice cakes). Ever since Hibachan was a young married woman, our family has gotten together to make mochi. We used to make them on December 28th, but as our crew got younger and tied to work schedules, we've moved it to the Saturday before Christmas. All total there were about 25 people who came to make mochi with us this year. We started at 9am and worked until 1ish, had a yummy pot luck lunch and had lots of fun chatting time. I'm happy we continue to get together to make mochi. It's great for our kids to learn a little about our Japanese culture.

Bailey working on a plain mochi

Three kiddies waiting for some mochi

See Gregory next to Grandma? He's eyeing the an. He spent most of his day playing with Grandpa outside.

Here's Bailey's FIRST AN MOCHI - she made it all by herself!! :)

My friend Megumi stopped by! I haven't seen her in about a year!! I miss her tons and it was great to catch up a bit.

For more photos, check out our photo shows.

Our Holiday Newsletter

Make a Smilebox greeting

Christmas Lights!

Tonight we took the kids to see the Christmas lights near our home. There's an area where most of the homes decorate their house - I actually think they are all supposed to do it, but there are some duds. Actually this year there were quite a few duds. Must be the economy... But, some people really go all out! We even saw a couple of houses that had their lights timed to the music on the radio! Fun, fun, fun!

We still have NO LIGHTS on our house. Bailey keeps asking Daddy, but still no lights. If she can't get him to put them up, I guess we're going to have a dark house this year. Boo hoo.

Oh, Daddy!

Yesterday, Daddy worked on trimming our tree out front.


Guess what happened next.


Yup, that big ole' log fell on our broom!


He said he fixed it, but I don't believe him!

Making of the teacher gifts

Today we worked on gifts for Bailey's teachers and Kevin (her physical therapist). She made heart ornaments - painted them red and decorated them with Christmas glitter and gems. Daddy helped her drill holes in the heart so we could attach the wire hanger. We actually made these last year for our tree and they turned out so nicely I thought they'd make perfect teacher gifts. I hope they love them as much as I do! :)

What do you think?