There and back again

Ryan the Destroyer....

2009-05-04T21:22:00.004+09:00

Sometimes I think we should have named Ryan "Conan" or Godzilla would be a great name too....anything associated with destruction. He has been a bit under the weather for about a week. Today he was back with a vengeance. He is just a whirlwind of activity. Running from one destructive zone to the next. I was cleaning up a mess he made in the living room only to find (not 30 sec! onds later) him in the bathroom, half of the toilet paper roll unrolled and a quarter of that in the toilet. HOLY COW!!! He has also discovered that chairs are great things to stand on to reach things he could not previously reach....or any sort of bucket, or stack of books, etc. I never wanted to be one of those "child-proofing" moms, but to me now
Child proofing = sanity :-)

Anyhow, Jeremy is doing well. He is getting bigger by the day and is learning a lot. We have made a breakthrough too....he likes playing with Ryan sometimes! Hooray!! I am on the look out for all things Batman. He LOVES Batman. He also loves playing outside. I am so happy that it is warming up so we can finally spend some time outdoors.

It is Japanese Golden Week (numerous holidays are this week) and the 5th is Children's Day! I think we are going to try and do something fun with the kids to celebrate! Be on the lookout for new pictures! I am headed to Tokyo later on this week for Japan Hobby and Craft Show. Should be awesome!!

Towada Horse Park and Batman

2009-04-27T23:56:00.005+09:00

We visited the Towada Horse Park the other day and had a lot of fun! There are horses, a playground and a GIANT roller slide. I couldn't go down the slide with the kiddos because of my back, but we went with some friends and Jeremy went down with them. I am not sure Ryan would have liked it anyway. We waited at the bottom and there was a little pond there. We heard frogs, but couldn't see any....When we went to see the horses and feed them, Ryan saw them and said "DOGGIE!!!" He was so excited. Pretty much any animal is a doggie. We are now working on horsey and kitty.

Waiting and listening to frogs...

Here they come!
Riding the horse cart!

Giddy up horsey!

Yum yum!

Ryan running, koinoburi kites in the background

So, Jeremy's current obsession is with Batman. Our house is a bat house, 24 bat hours per day. I haven't drawn anything in a really long time and I thought I would try my hand at Batman. Jeremy LOVED it and we are going to hang it up in his room...I am thinking I might do Spiderman and Superman too so he can have a set.

(Inked with Copic Multiliner and colored with Copic Sketch markers, background airbrushed)

Some more older pictures...

2009-04-22T20:33:00.004+09:00

Still catching up.

Some pictures of our house and cars.....

Ryan is working on his biceps.

He is also a cleaning machine!

Jeremy - Yoga, batman style

It's a pirate birthday party at the Weasel's Den!

Okie dokie.....more to come soon!

Hrm.....

2009-03-31T20:13:00.009+09:00

So, I have let this get away from me......I promise to try and update more often.

Here are a few pictures from the last few months....

September at Tokyo Disneyland

Rinnoji Temple at Nikko World Heritage Site

Ryan and Jeremy are Rockstars in Japan!

The following pictures are from a previous Emperor's secondary home near Nikko.

Tsukiji Fish Market.....go at your own risk!

Meiji Jingu Shrine

Breakfast with Santa!

I seem to have misplaced the camera since Jeremy's birthday party.....more to come as soon as I find it. :-)

Eons and eons

2008-09-07T01:42:00.004+09:00

So, it literally seems like an eon since I have posted. It just goes to show how busy I have been this summer. I really can't go into everything that has gone on, because it seems like we have been having something new every day.

Jeremy just started school again and is really enjoying that. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine. I think Thomas and Percy are his favorites because those are the ones he talks about the most. He is obsessed with Spiderman, Batman being a close second. He spends a lot of his time pretending he is Spiderman and it is really cute.

Ryan turned one in July and he gets bigger every day. He is growing by leaps and bounds and sometimes I still wish he was tiny, this is such a fun age to see him learning and growing so much. He has just about got walking down.....he still seems to prefer crawling, but I think that is because it is faster still.

Jared and I are doing well. Not too much new going on with us. We made a commitment to each other to work on the "Hinckley challenge". Jared took Jeremy on his first campout and he LOVED it. I guess they had a great daddy/son bonding time and they both had a great time. We moved off base about a month ago and that has been an exciting experience too. It is neat to be able to feel like we are really living in Japan, rather than just a mini-America. Our new neighbors are great. It is a really mixed neighborhood and we have enjoyed it a lot so far.

Here are a few of the pictures from over the summer:

Ryan got his hair cut two days before his birthday. As you can see, he needed a bath in this picture as well. Here is the before.....

And the after....he isn't quite sure about his new 'do.

He loves it here on his birthday though.

Ice cream is yummy from Baskin Robbins!

Being one is fun!

We took a trip to the beach in Noheji on one of the hotter summer days. This is the first white sand beach I have seen here.

I am not sure what Ryan is eating here, but I am not sure he likes it.

"This beach thing isn't so bad", Ryan says.

"I know Ryan, we had a great time!"

Hirosaki Castle and Botanical Garden

2008-06-02T13:12:00.005+09:00

I am a bit late posting this, but last week we went to Hirosaki Castle with Jared's mom and step dad. It was the last thing we really got to do with them before they had to go back home. It was a really fun time and Hirosaki is now our favorite place since we have come to Japan. We have WAY too many pictures of this place.....everywhere you look it is like a postcard. So, here are a few of my favorites:

Jeremy insisted on eating with chopsticks even though the lady brought him a spoon.

So, I almost forgot to post these.....we also made another trip to the Asamushi Aquarium. Jeremy loved it as always and we were able to see the dolphin show this time. Lots of oooo's and aaahhhh's and clapping from Jeremy.....Here are a few pictures from the aquarium.

This has GOT to be my favorite english sign since arriving in Japan. They like everything to be in english too.....thank goodness, but sometimes the translation is a BIT off.

Kandachime Wild Horses and Snow Monkeys

2008-05-17T02:20:00.008+09:00

So, I think most everyone who reads the blog knows that Jared's mom and stepdad are visiting us right now. Yesterday we took the day to go see some stuff up in the Shimokita peninsula. First, we drove to Shiriyazaki or Cape Shiriya to see the wild horse preserve there. This is the most north eastern point on the main island of Honshu. The area is fenced off so the horses won't move from their protected area, but they are wild. There were several babies and they were really cute.

Lighthouse at the point

We also made a trip to Osorezan. It was still cool. LOL We were able to visit the buddhist temple there this trip. It was neat too. Some of it, we were not able to go to because it would have been hard to take Ryan in his stroller, but we saw pretty much everything.

So, after our Osorezan visit......we did something crazy. We drove to the other end of the peninsula to see the snow monkey area. In hind sight, this probably should have been a second trip. Oh well, I guess. Anyway, there is an area that has caged snow monkeys. We first drove there. It was a little confusing trying to find it. It is at a Japanese rest stop (very different from American rest stops) and first we though we had come to it because it was a pull out with a monkey on the sign. But there was supposed to be a trail.....no trail. So we continued on and found it about 10 minutes more down the road. The "cage" was a lot better than we thought it would be. It is actually a zoo type enclosure opening up into a very large netted area for the monkeys among the trees. There were lots of babies and they were very cute. I tried to get some pictures of them, but they didn't turn out so great.

Our littlest monkey

Some of you may be wondering why I don't have any pictures of Jeremy.....well, that is because he won't hold still long enough for me to take the picture, and when I do, it is either blurry or he is mad because we are making him hold still.

Anyway, we left the rest stop and were going to start back home. We were driving a bit down the road and Jared suddenly pulled into the turn out with the monkey sign to let someone pass. I was just mentioning how misleading the sign was because there aren't any monkeys there....yet, low and behold! Wild snow monkeys running free!!!!!!!! It was awesome. There were tons of them. There were babies with that group too. They hide in the brush really well. They crouch way down and actually pull leaves over them to hide.

Kawaii (cute) Baby!

This is one hiding in the brush across the street. He actually looked right at me, but I didn't take the picture fast enough.

If you want to see some really cool pictures, check out www.wakinosawa.com. This is an awesome website of a local area photographer. Really cool..... Anywho...more to come later.

A new post.....finally

2008-05-15T08:00:00.003+09:00

Okay.....so I didn't die, fall off the face of the earth, or get swallowed by a volcano. I have just been REALLY, REALLY, REALLY busy. I am still really busy this month, but I think things should slow down for me after this month.

Stuff that has happened:

Jeremy said his first sentence. Jared asked, "Jeremy, did you have fun?" Jeremy, instead of saying no like usual, said, "Yeah, it was a good song."

Ryan has started to really crawl, pull himself up on stuff and has four teeth now.

That is the synopsis of what happened. LOL

Here are some pictures:

We are going to the airplane museum today, so I will post more pictures later. And I promise to not go 2 months between posting again!!!!! LOL

Easter Fun

2008-03-24T11:05:00.005+09:00

We had lots of fun on easter, coloring eggs and looking for them on Sunday. Sunday night we spent with the Adamsons, Larsons, Bastians and the missionaries. It was a fun time. Jeremy had fun playing with the other little kids and watching Ben-10. Ryan had a good nap. I took the Cricut to show Kari and she wants one now too.

Here are the egg coloring pictures:

Sunday Best

Easter Egg Hunt!

Asamushi Aquarium in Aomori

2008-03-19T16:17:00.005+09:00

On Saturday, we made a trip to Aomori to visit a friend in the hospital. We decided since we were all the way up there to go to the aquarium too since we hadn't been and thought Jeremy would like it. We missed the dolphin show, but we still had lots of fun. We got to see the sea otters get fed. These sea otters must have been Japanese because they were eating squid. LOL Squid has got to be the national food of Japan. LOL

Anyway, here are the pictures:

This sting ray was over seven feet across. HUGE!!!!!!!

So, Aomori is kind of far away from Misawa. It is about 80 km away.....this seems like it is not far, but it takes about 2 hours to drive there on the back road. Well, we were on our way back and about 10 minutes from the base. The area around Misawa is.....well, nothing. Rice patties and fields mostly. So, we were still out of town. All of the sudden we heard a giant KABOOM, thump, thump, thump.....I thought we had a flat tire, but it wasn't driving like a flat tire. We get out and can't see anything. It is pitch black. I have Jared pull forward a few feet to see if I can see anything hanging off the car or something. Sure enough, the tread was coming off of the tire. CRAZY!!! We drive very slowly to the convenience store. Proceed to start changing the tire. There is no jack in our new car! ACK! I go inside to try to ask for a jack. I was able to pantomime enough for them to understand what I needed. The worker lent us his jack. I was kind of worried when he gave it to me though, because his car was itty bitty. So, we get the tire off....oh, no, we can't get the new one on because the jack hasn't jacked the car up high enough. Now we are stuck there with only three tires. Well, after about 5 minutes standing around trying to figure out what to do, a car pulls up to the store. Well, they appeared to have been working on cars all day and were standing there looking at us.....like as if to say, "do those crazy americans need help?". I said, Jared go see if they can help us. They got another jack and helped us to change the tire. They spoke almost no english and we speak almost no japanese. But it worked out. They were nice guys. I am so grateful to the Japanese people. They are so friendly and helpful.

Jeremy had his first official day of school on Monday and first day riding the bus. He was so excited to ride the bus. When he saw it pulling up he shouted, "BUS!!!!!!" He talked about it for the rest of the day after getting home. It was obvious that they also did lots of singing at school because he was singing little songs for the rest of the day. Tomorrow is his second day and it is a dress up day. They get to dress up like a chick, bunny or lamb. I will have to see what I can come up with.

Jeremy, Rockstar in training

Hiatus is over!

2008-02-28T10:09:00.006+09:00

I have been so busy this month! We have had a lot of fun stuff going on though. Our friend, Jerome sent us this awesome video on YouTube of Misawa and Hakkoda Ski Area. The people are stationed here and are trying to win a contest sponsored by Nature Valley. It is really good! You should go and vote for it. It even has the sushi shop we eat at in it! I wasn't sure how to get it on here.....so here is the link to view it and vote for it. Please go see it because it is awesome! It is the video called Hakkoda http://www.youtube.com/wheresyours.

Okay.....now on to us. It was Jeremy's third birthday on February 23rd! What a big boy he is getting to be. The night before I wrapped all his presents and set them on the living room floor for him to open in the morning......well, he got up a bit before us and decided he would open them on his own. So, here are the pictures of the wrapping paper fun he had. There were two that weren't open and one from Grandma and Grandpa Baird that wasn't open as well.

That same day our branch had a winter sledding party at the "ski hill" on base. There wasn't much snow and what there was was icy or slushy. Our friend Tammy took Jeremy down the hill several times. He liked it a lot. Jared even got me to go down on the sled with him. It has been a REALLY long time since I have been on a sled. I thought for sure we were going to smash in to the giant ice ball at the bottom of the hill, but luckily we didn't.

We had Jeremy's birthday party on the 28th. The kids had a lot of fun. Just about all of the kids played pin the tail on the donkey.....Jeremy wasn't having any part in that, but he had fun anyway. He did a good job blowing out his candle with a little help from dad. Ryan also had fun at the party.

The last two days have been a start of something new for Jeremy. I really haven't blogged about this yet since I really didn't know what to say.....Jeremy has a developmental delay in speech, cognitve and social skills. The past two days he has had his first two days of school! He is going to Cummings Elementary school to a preschool program designed to help him get caught back up. I has been a hard thing for me to think about...I know he is going to love it though. Next week he will start riding the bus to school. I talked to the teacher today and she said he did a lot better than yesterday (his first day). He wanted to do the actions to their songs and even tried singing too. They also made green eggs and ham. He will go twice a week to begin and add more days if needed. That way he gets the chance to get used to going and also for them to get to know him better. I have to admit that it has been a difficult year with him. I have felt for quite some time that he either hasn't been able to communicate to me what he was wanting to say or not understanding what I was telling him. We are so blessed to have such supportive friends here and a community to help him. I know the military isn't for everyone, but we love it.

It has been a year that we have been in Japan now. Three more to go! Okay....enough of this serious stuff. Here are some funny pictures of Jeremy playing with Ryan (yes, he was playing with him, woohoo!!!!).

I couldn't resist one last picture. The snow is starting to melt.....well it starts and then it snows a bit more. But spring is in sight! I just know it! Anyway, here is Ryan in his snow monster outfit. He can't move his arms or legs in it because of all the padding. At least we know he is warm. Half the time he is sweating when I take him out of it.

Bathtub baby and silly jumping

2008-02-07T22:56:00.000+09:00

Ryan is getting really big and his personality is really starting to show. He loves to be silly and be the center of attention. He loves it when big brother pays attention to him too. Here are some silly bathtub pictures and Ryan jumping in his Jumperoo. Sorry, no pics of Jeremy this time......he has been sick. :-(

In hiding?

2008-01-28T09:30:00.000+09:00

No I haven't been in hiding. I have just been really busy. No time for blogging or anything really. We are getting a new car this week and that will be really good for me. It is really cute and red. I will post some pictures when we take possesion. We have to junk the old car first. I am going to update the pictures that we have taken since the last post.

Hopefully things will slow down now. I certainly hope so!

New development in the Langston house

2008-01-08T20:19:00.000+09:00

So, Jeremy hasn't been too excited about Ryan since he came home. He really hasn't wanted to help with him or have anything to do with our new little "invader". Well, yesterday I was making dinner for us and I needed to go and finish something, but I was feeding Ryan. Jeremy was standing there and I thought I would see if he would hold the bottle for me. He did! He loves helping feed Ryan now! In fact, when I came back from the kitchen, he didn't want to give the bottle back to me. He said, "Mama, I nice, hold bottle to Ryan." It was so cute. Ryan thinks it is pretty neat too because he always gets a big smile on his face when Jeremy is holding the bottle for him. Here are the pictures.

Also, Jeremy has his special Elmo chair. This chair is just his size. He likes to take it everywhere and will sit it on the couch, kitchen chair (above), etc and then sit on it.

Christmas and Everything since

2008-01-01T23:55:00.000+09:00

Okay....this is going to have quite a few pictures. I am going to only post a few, if you want the rest of the Christmas photos (that is for you grandmas, grandpas and other relatives reading), just let me know and I will e-mail them out to ya.

Jeremy wearing Daddy's snowboard hat

This is the drive to Hakkoda Ski resort. I didn't go, but Jared said that the snow was as high as the window.

The gondola taking you up to the "big" ski runs at Hakkoda. Jared just did the bunny hill since in was his first time.

Wow! It is snowing a lot!

Now for the Christmas pictures.

Ryan likes his new book.

Jeremy is cooking us up some food on his new barbeque.

Yesterday it snowed and Jared took Jeremy out to play in the snow. He had so much fun! Tomorrow Jeremy and I are going to build a snowman.

Recent goings on...

2007-12-21T11:24:00.000+09:00

So, we have been pretty darn busy the last couple weeks. That is why there has been a lack of blogging on my part. I just haven't had the time. So, now I have a minute and I wanted to post a few pictures and a video!

Us at Jared's Squadron Christmas Party

Jeremy just this morning.

Jeremy and Ryan playing

Ryan rolling over.

Lynne tagged me!

2007-12-03T18:40:00.000+09:00

I am not sure who I would tag because most of the people I know (with the exception of Lynne) do not have blogs.....so, I wanted to answer her questions, but I am not tagging anyone else. LOL

So......six facts about me:

1. I love my family. We have a great time together. It gives me great joy to be with my children and husband. Even when they are driving me crazy, I am so lucky to have them in my life. I am greatful we are an eternal family.

2. I love scrapbooking, stamping, crafting and making things. If you didn't know this, you have been living under a rock. LOL

3. This may come as a shock to Jared, but I enjoy riding on the back of the Harley. It is fun. I like the freedom that it offers. I don't know if I will get to ride on the back of the one we have here. It is a lot smaller than the one in the States and I am not sure I dare to ride it.

4. This is shaping up to be a crazy busy month. We have something almost every day that we have to be doing...holiday parties, dr and dentist appointments, playgroups, birthday parties....and it is growing more and more by the day. Hopefully, I will have a chance to slow down after the first of the year.

5. I want to go back to school. I am not even thinking about it until after the first of the year though. I am thinking about being an art teacher. I think I would like it a lot. My first goal is to learn Japanese though. At least enough to get by. I feel bad not knowing the language of the country we live in. I love the Japanese people, their warmth and hospitality. I got to teach a card class to the Japanese branch of our church on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, but it was kind of hard for the first half hour since the girl who was going to translate for me had to run home. We got by though and it was fun.

6. I was really worried about moving here. I had not ever been out of the country.....Canada and Tijiuana don't count as foreign countries in my opinion. LOL I am really surprised at how well I have adapted. I see some other people not having such an easy time. I really enjoy where we are....Misawa has been a good place for us. It is small and many of the things that are conveniences in the US are not available here, but we are getting by just fine. We have almost lived here for a year now and it has gone by so quickly. So many different changes in such a short time. In the past year we have gone through a major move to the other side of the world and we had Ryan join our family. Major, major changes and we are growing and adapting together. It is awesome.

Okay....enough for right now. I am working on getting together some stuff to launch my second blog. It will be a crafting blog and feature projects that I am working on, classes that I am offering and stuff from my Stampin' Up club. I will post the link when I get it up. :-)

Love you all!

Also, if you feel like being tagged, just post six facts about yourself on your blog and let me know! LOL See, I just tagged anyone who is reading. How is that for following the rules. :-P

Our Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T21:22:00.000+09:00

We had a fun time on Thanksgiving. We had quite a few friends over and had a good time. Here are the pictures.

Um, I think my hand is more yummy mommy.

Daddy and Jeremy

We are all full from turkey!

Super Jeremy!

Super Ryan!

Mommy makes a pretty good horse.

Queen of the fuzzy pink marshmallows, Hannah Ruth

And finally, some pictures of our Rolly Polly Ryan

New techno thingy

2007-11-22T01:50:00.000+09:00

So, I found a neat new little techno thingy for the blog. It is a feedjit live feed widget. Sounds really fancy. I really don't know what a widget is other than it is a nifty thing for blogs. Anywho, it shows a live traffic feed of where visitors to our blog are from. It should be an interesting experiment to see how many people from all over are "visiting us". I am not really sure why I am blogging about this nifty new addition to the blog, other than I thought it was really cool. LOL I will be posting pictures later on of Thanksgiving.

Happy Turkey day!

We have snow!!

2007-11-19T21:04:00.000+09:00

The snow has arrived! I took some pictures outside our building this morning on the way to the BX.

Here are the pics!

Our car covered with snow.

Last week, I fell asleep and had some cardstock sitting out on my scrapbooking desk. I guess Jeremy thought it looked like pretty good art paper. He used my nice colored pencils to do some artwork on it. It was so cute I couldn't get mad. I am going to use the piece as a background piece for a "Jeremy page" in one of my books.

And finally, Jeremy was wearing Jared's boots this morning and Jared got a video of it with our camera. I haven't ever loaded one of these before so I hope it works.

The Primary Program

2007-11-12T11:25:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was the Primary Program at church. Jared was so sneaky and he didn't tell me that he had a part. Too funny. The program was really cute. They had asked all of the kids to answer several different questions ahead of time and then had the teachers ask them and the kids read their own responses. It was really neat to see how innocent they were and their knowledge. Some of the answers were really funny/cute too.

It rained all day yesterday and last night. It is still sprinkling today and it looks like it might rain even more. I actually like the rain here. It is different than the rain in Utah. It doesn't really get stormy, it is just cloudy and rainy. Now it is cold when it rains, but I loved the spring rain. It would be the perfect temperature and would help with the humidity.....then the summer rains came with the heat and humidity and the rain made it worse. We have almost lived here for a year now. It seems like it has gone by so fast.

Ryan is growing by the minute. We have reached a milestone. I had to change him out of the 0-3 month clothes. :-( He is getting too big too fast! I was going through the 3-6 month clothes and it looks like we are going to be making a trip to the BX today because he only has two pair of long pants and all the rest are shorts. He won't be getting much use out of shorts now that it is so cold.

What can I say about Jeremy. He is so smart. I love him so much. He has the sweetest spirit and I love him with all my heart. He loves to go places. Now, when we go to the store he wants to ride in the cart (something he hasn't wanted to do for a long time) because Ryan is in the cart. He loves riding in the basket part. I know it probably isn't very safe, but we make him sit down in it. Even though having a two, almost three, year old is hard.....I love it. He is so silly. He takes his blanket ("bonky") from his bed and carries it all over the house with him and hides under it. Sometimes, I actually can't find him because he is hiding under it. He thinks that is pretty funny. I love that he can tell me how he feels. I love that I can kiss his boo boos better. I love his hugs and sweet kisses. I love that he tells me that he loves me.

Okay....now that I have been all mushy, I will close for now. I am going to try and take some pics of Ryan in the bath tomorrow. We don't have any bathtub pictures of him yet. Love and miss you all!

Look what Jeremy did this morning!

2007-11-10T00:17:00.000+09:00

So, this morning I was checking my e-mail and Jeremy was playing quietly behind me. This is something that he does quite often and I wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing. Well, it is getting pretty chilly here and the end of the motorcycle riding season is quickly approaching. Jared decided to ride his motorcycle to work last night so he could wash it. When he came home, I guess he left his helmet and gloves on the couch. When I turned around from checking my e-mail, this is what I discovered......

He is ready to go!

New Background and various other ramblings....

2007-11-06T00:05:00.000+09:00

As much as I liked the old one, it was just too hard to see our pictures. I was trying to see if there was some magical way to fix it, but I am not that smart when it comes to computer programming and I think it has something to do with opacity and widgets. Whatever those are. Anywho, here is the new background! I like it. It is girly and the website I got it from has it titled as scrapbook. Hrm...maybe it was custom made for me! It is late and I am just about to get Ryan up for one more feeding. Earlier, he ALMOST rolled over, but not quite. He did have a lot of fun playing with his feet though.

Today was Jeremy's first trip to the dentist. I thought it was going to be nightmare time, but it actually wasn't too bad. He was pretty terrified of the chair. The dentist asked me to hold him straddling me and then lean his head back into the dentist's lap so he could brush his teeth. We had quite a bit of screaming for about 45 seconds, but once Jeremy realized it wasn't scary, he was okay. He did so good and I was so proud of him. He carried his special toothbrush from the dentist around with him for the rest of the day.

On to a more serious topic, I have become aware of a movie coming out called The Golden Compass. This movie is being passed off as a fantasy movie similar to Narnia, but it is based on a series of novels with anti-religious themes. The series author, Philip Pullman, is an avowed athiest. Pullman left little doubt about what his books are about in an interview with the Sydney Morning Hearald saying, "My books are about killing God". The movie is a "dumbed down" version of the first novel and has most of the offensive parts removed. The hope is that parents will take their children to see the movie and then purchase the books, which are highly offensive and designed to sell athiesm to children. Please be aware of this film and pass this information on to others. This is real and while it is an e-mail that is circulating the internet, it does check out. http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

I hope this post finds you all well back in the states. Things are going well for us here. We are having the Bastians over for Thanksgiving. I am going over to Sarah's tomorrow so we can plan the "feast". I am sure Jared and Dallin will spend most of the afternoon playing Halo 3. :-)

Halloween!

2007-11-01T22:16:00.000+09:00

We had lots of fun on Halloween. It was a beautiful day and not too cold, but I do have to say that on our way home we were all starting to get a little chilly. Ryan was a good boy/alien and only cried when we stopped moving. Jeremy didn't want to wear his costume at first (as always) but once we got it on him, he loved it.

Ryan the alien

What a cute alien!

Not too sure about his costume...

Wow, it has been a long night.....

But I had fun!

The following pictures are from Oirase Gorge. We took another ride up there to see if the leaves had changed and boy had they! I don't know that I have ever seen colors like that on trees. It was the perfect day for looking at the leaves, but apparently everyone else in Northern Japan thought so too. haha

And finally, Jeremy builds little villages for his cars with his little people buildings. It is pretty cute. He uses them for garages. The last time he did it, Jared took some pictures.

Apple Season in Aomori

2007-10-25T00:47:00.000+09:00

Aomori prefecture is famous for apples in Japan. These large, juicy apples are some of our favorite things here. Jeremy and I went to the apple orchard with Kim's daycare last week. We had a lot of fun! I am just now getting around to posting the pictures.

These are the pictures from Fire prevention day. Jeremy kind of had fun, but he was having a rough day.

Oirase Gorge

This is our car. :-)

Sunset over Lake Towada

Ikibana and tea ceremonies

2007-10-03T23:22:00.000+09:00

The past week, I have been able to participate in some really neat cultural experiences. I really enjoy learning from the Japanese and sharing their rich culture with them.

The Misawa Social Network (or the old enlisted spouse club) had our monthly social last week. We had a tea ceremony lesson. This was pretty interesting for me and my friends Sarah and Misti because we weren't 100% sure if we could drink the tea or not. We opted to not drink the tea and make sure we would not offend anyone by doing so. The tea ceremony is very elaborate and has to be done in the proper way. First, you are served bean paste sweets. These don't sound like they would be very sweet, but they are REALLY sweet, almost pure sugar it seems like. Then you are served tea. There are always two teas and ceremonies at a tea ceremony. One is formal (the first tea) and then a less formal tea. The ceremony has many components, but a lot of it is bowing. You bow to the hostess who serves you, then you move the tea cup towards the person sitting next to you, bow to them, move the tea back in front of you and then bow to the tea. Then you are allowed to drink the tea after turning the cup twice, clockwise. My favorite part of the tea ceremony was looking at the different tea cups as everyone's is different.

Bean paste sweets

Me and Sarah Bastian

Examining the container for the tea is part of the ceremony. It is done in the manner shown above.

Our group.

While at the tea ceremony, Misti told me about an ikibana class she was taking. I decided that might be fun, so I signed up for it too. Ikibana is NOT flower arranging. It is a Japanese art form. The instructor told us that flower arranging is just decorating, but ikibana is art. The goal of ikibana is to make your arrangement appear as it would in nature. Bending the leaves, branches and flowers as though they were blowing in the wind. She was determined to make sure that we know not to create any tornados in our ikibana. There is also symbolism in ikibana. The largest branch symbolizes the husband in a relationship ("make sure your husband is strong") and the flower in the forfront symbolizes the wife. The wife is always looking towards the husband. Unless, that is you are mad at your husband, then you can give him a clue with your ikibana. The instructor was very funny and reminded me of my grandmother. I hope to take more classes from her.

My Ikibana

Misti

Misti's Ikibana

Me and my ikibana

The instructor of our class assisting one of the other people in class.

I also took some pictures of Ryan in his new bouncy seat tonight. He really likes being in the bouncy seat. I think it helps him to feel more of a part of things. He is getting bigger every day it seems and loves to look around and explore his enviroment. Right now his favorite thing seems to be eating and his fish mobile.

Our little happy, drooly man

Just trying something new out

2007-10-01T19:24:00.001+09:00

Miyako and Morioka

2007-09-27T08:48:00.001+09:00

Jared and I had the opportunity to take a little camping trip without the kids. (Thanks, Drapers!) We drove down the eastern coast and across to Morioka and back home. We had a lot of fun together.

Dragon at Ryusendo Cave

Drinking from the Ryusendo Cave water. The cave is world renowned for it's excellent tasting drinking water from the natural springs within.

And now, for your viewing pleasure.......Jeremy being REALLY silly.

Osorezan!

2007-09-09T22:59:00.000+09:00

Today after church we decided to take a drive up to Mutsu and Mt. Osore or as the Japanese call it Osorezan. Mt. Osore is similar to the River Styx in Japanese mythology. Mt. Osore is a volcano so it smells like sulfur (stinky!). We had a lot of fun on our ride up there and back and saw the neat lighthouse town again too.

These pictures were taken on the way:

The above pictures were taken at a neat fishing village with the lighthouse.

Small shrine for purification on the way to Osorezan.

All pictures above were taken at the caldera of Osorezan. We didn't go to the temple because it looked like it cost money.....nominal amount I am sure, but that will have to be for another trip.

Now, below are some fun ones of Jeremy and Ryan.

Squeaky clean!

Uh oh! Mommy is in trouble!

Happy man!

Make sure to make some comments! Until next time! :-) We love ya!

The Big Buddha in Aomori

2007-08-25T23:45:00.000+09:00

Today we took a drive to Aomori to see the BIG Buddha. It was really fun and we saw some neat things along the way. We thought we might try to go to Asamushi Aquarium too, but it was too late by the time we were done, so that will be an adventure for another day. Here are our pictures:

The road to Noheji

Jeremy took a little nap along the way

Rice paddies

More farmland and rice

This island was pretty neat! If you look at the base, near the center, you can see a torii gate.

On the way to Big Buddha, rice fields with a scarecrow.

The following pictures are all at the Big Buddah grounds:

This dragon is a fountain used in purification ritual.

Jeremy, Ryan and I saying HI!

The Big Buddha. This is the tallest buddha statue in the world.

Inside the buddha.

Jared's wild ride

2007-08-15T10:29:00.001+09:00

On Monday, Jared was in a bad accident with his friend Danny. They were on their way home from lunch and someone pulled out in front of them. They are both okay, but here are the pictures of the car.

The Tanabata Festival

2007-07-28T21:32:00.000+09:00

Tonight we went to the tanabata festival. It was really fun! Jeremy loved running under the tanabatas. Here are some pictures.....sorry they are sort of blurry.

The kareoke place outside the main gate.

Octopus waiting to be cooked at a food stand.

Chocolate covered bananas.

Jared and the kiddos in front of a few tanabatas.

A tanabata.

Once again, dachsunds abound! This one is sporting a hello kitty kimono.

New pictures!

2007-07-27T21:27:00.000+09:00

I am feeling quite a bit better and thought I would take a minute to post some more pictures. Descriptions below each picture if needed:

Jeremy is reading Ryan and me a story.

The following pictures were taken on the 4th of July at the base's Freedom Fest.

Talking to Natalie Bilger.

Giving Mary Elizabeth Bastian a hug.

Riding go carts with Jacob Wirfs.

The new baby is here!!!

2007-07-11T03:14:00.000+09:00

He made it! Ryan James Langston: 6 lbs. 13 oz. 19 1/4 in. long

Sorry these are in such a random order. I have no idea what I am doing!

Baby News!

2007-06-22T10:00:00.000+09:00

We are tenatively scheduled to have the baby on July 11th!!! They want to wait until I get a little closer to my due date to pick an actual time and to make sure nothing happens before then, but that should be the day!

We are working very hard on getting ready for him to join our family. Jared and I are still trying to decide on a name, but we are talking about it every day and we are going to look at some names on the internet today. I know we will find the perfect name for our little guy.

Jeremy is getting really big and learning to say all sorts of new things. This morning when I got him up for breakfast he said, "I eat Momma." He is also growing really big. He is excited for the baby too. All day long he shows me things that are for the baby and also gives my tummy hugs and pats and says "baby". He has also discovered dinosaurs and likes to play with them a lot! He makes them walk around and says "Roar!" for them. It is really cute and funny.

Things are starting to get pretty humid here and that is a big change for me. Even when it isn't really hot outside, it still feels stuffy and muggy. I can see what my friends have been telling me about August and I can only imagine how it will be then. June is supposed to be the wetest month during the rainy season and it has only rained a few times. Maybe it will rain more later on and not be so hot. Probably not....

Other than getting ready for the baby, not too much else is going on here. I have become involved in the enlisted wives group and that has been a lot of fun so far. Jeremy and I go to several different playgroups too and he is starting to play better with others and making friends. His favorite thing at the playground is still the slide and he will go down it 200 times in a row if you let him. He is also getting more adventurous and goes down twisty slides on his own.

Well, that is all for now. If you have any suggestions on a name, please let us know!

New pictures!

2007-06-04T19:49:00.001+09:00

New pictures! Info about the pictures are found underneath in the caption. :-)

Taken tonight, just before bedtime. :-)

We put Jeremy in the baby crib for his nap because he won't go to sleep in his room. We thought it was funny that he stuck his little legs out.

Play land at the BX.

More at the playland.

The next several pictures are from American Day, the first big festival of the summer. Here is a storm trooper walking the streets of Misawa.

Jared and I with a different storm trooper.

One of the base fire engines.

The base EOD (or explosive ordinance disposal) robot.

This is a snow plow, believe it or not!

Another view of the snow plow.

Walking up to the civic center booths.

We have determined that 90% of the dogs in Misawa are dachsunds. They are really popular dogs here in Japan and we probably saw 10 or 15 dachsunds at American Day!

Jeremy and I (and baby) sitting at the Young Womens Service Auction.

We are always shocked at how hard the Japanese people work. This was one of about 5 ladies cleaning the cracks in the bricks in front of the civic center. There are no weeds anywhere here!

This is one of the funny things we have always wanted to get a picture of since we have been here. This restaurant is called Cow Beer. That is because they serve beer and steak, but we always think it sounds like the beer is made from cows or something.

This lady is making green tea at the Shimoda Mall.

On the bottom floor of all malls here, there is a large grocery store. This produce is an example of the excellent quality produce they have here. These apples are Mutsu apples and are grown in the area. They are huge!!!

These are apples too. Usually they are packaged in these little nets. Once the fruit forms on the tree they put these little nets on each of them while they are growing. Every single apple!

The strawberries here are one of our things. Huge, juicy and sweet!

Cantalopes in little nets.

One of our favorites here so far. This is fast food Japanese style. They give you your meal on a hot skillet type thing and you cook it right at your table. It is really yummy! I love Mr. Peppers! Lots of food too and for pretty cheap. :-)

Cool dude!

Being silly in daddy's work hat.

Well, that is all for now. We will get the motorcycle rally pictures posted here in a few days. :-)

Sudoku for Everyone!

2007-05-29T22:08:00.000+09:00

Jared has started doing the sudoku puzzles in the paper every day. He thought it would be fun to share this new hobby with everyone! Here is a fun website where you can play online for free: Live Sudoku.

Have fun!!

Not too much going on....

2007-05-24T00:23:00.000+09:00

So the last month or so, nothing too exciting has happened. Someone squished our car on Friday night last week and it looks like we need a new car now. Luckily, he has insurance and they are going to pay us. They said the value of the car and the repairs are about the same, so we could choose what we wanted to do....We are opting for a new car because of some of the other expenses that are going to be coming up on this car. Maybe we can find an even better deal on the next one. For right now, my friend Jessica is letting us borrow her husband's car while he is deployed. Ours still drives, but when they did the estimate, they had to open the hood and now it won't close. We should be able to get a new car in a few weeks when we get the money from the insurance.

I had my first Stampin' Up! open house last night and it went really well! I am excited for my new business here and I think the ladies that came are excited too. Hope things will go well and that I can get it up and running.

The baby has been moving around quite a bit. He is a mover and a shaker. Hopefully he is as good a baby as Jeremy was, but I think that is wishful thinking. He will be a blessing to our family either way.

This last weekend, Jared went to a bike rally near Sendai with some friends that he has made here. Jeremy and I were going to go too, but I don't think camping at seven months pregnant would be very fun. Maybe next time. Jeremy and I stayed home and I went to a scrapbooking crop here. We had lots of fun and Jeremy had fun playing with all of his new little friends. I didn't get a whole lot of scrapping done, but I did get some much needed organization done, so that was a good thing.

Jared has some pictures of the bike rally, but I really don't know what is going on in most of them, so I will let him write that entry (coming soon!). He did see some neat things at some rest stops on the way. This weekend we might try to drive up to Yokohama. There is a really big field of wildflowers up there and it is supposed to be really pretty. We were thinking about trying to go to Morioka Zoo, but I think that is out of the question now with the car situation. It is just too far to go. Maybe in a few weeks.

Be on the lookout for more pictures and Jared's bike rally trip! :-)

Love you all!

Oirase Gorge

2007-04-30T21:31:00.000+09:00

April 28th we drove to the town of Towada. It is about 30 minutes from Misawa. Just past Towada, there is the Towada Hachimantai National Park. This national park has Oirase Gorge and Lake Towada in it's boundaries. We drove along Oirase Gorge and it was beautiful! It was also one of the most winding roads I have ever driven on! The road follows right along the river and there are many large trees that were not removed to accomdate the road, but rather the road moves to accomadate the trees. Jared took all of these pictures with the digital camera, some while I was driving.

First of all, in Towada we were delighted to find that we have our very own "Wonder Goo" store. What do they sell in Wonder Goo you might ask? Your guess is as good as mine. :-)

Jeremy is ready to go!

I guess he doesn't like the song we were listening to.

Our Church Parking Lot

2007-04-28T21:02:00.000+09:00

Okay....so I have been a little lax in loading the pictures. We had some fun ones of the parking lot at church from 2 weeks ago that I have been meaning to load on here, and I just haven't made the time. Well, I am now. :-)

Just to preface, the church parking lot is not much of a parking lot. It is really probably only intended for MAYBE 15 to 20 cars. We fit far more than that in there!

You can see they are all packed in here like sardines!

An aerial view. On the right side of the picture is a small field that is also used as a parking area.

Here is the driveway. You pull in here, go around the corner and then back into your spot.

The Pacific Ocean

2007-04-17T16:48:00.000+09:00

Yesterday on our way back from Hachinohe, we drove along the eastern coast bordering the Pacific Ocean. We were able to stop and take a few pictures, but not for long because it was REALLY windy and cold.

And as previously promised, the pictures I got at Japan Day....there weren't a whole bunch, but some....

Japanese craftswoman making a Noh Mask.

The stages of making a Noh Mask

A completed mask

Koinoburi flags, traditionally hung for Kodomo-no-hi or Children's Day (May 5th). They are symbols of good luck and strength.

This bonzai tree is over 100 years old!

Sunny Days are here again!

2007-04-11T13:18:00.000+09:00

Hooray for a sunny day! It is supposed to be nice the rest of the week too. And to top it off, it isn't cold! Looks like highs of about 50 for the next week. I can't wait. Pretty soon spring will have sprung, we will have cherry blossoms and new leaves. I can't wait! Because it was so nice today, Jeremy and I went and played outside on the playground. We had lots of fun. Then, Daddy came home for lunch, and we had even MORE fun! Here are some pictures of Jeremy playing.

More Pictures Added!

2007-04-07T21:06:00.000+09:00

I just wanted to add a few more pictures that I got developed since we have been here. The scanner is being kind of wonky, so when I get it figured out, there will be more to come. But for now, here is what we have:

Swans and ducks at the "swan pond".

Just floating along.

If you look on the branch near the middle of this picture, you can see some sort of heron. It was too far away to get a good closeup of.

Ducks, all in a row at the "swan pond".

Hachinohe Fish Market, you can pretty much get any sort of ocean fish you want here. They even have "lampfish" like the kind in Finding Nemo.

All sizes of crabs.

Some REALLY big crabs. Their legs stretched well over a foot across.

Samurai house just outside of Misawa. They give pony rides and have a petting zoo during the summer here.

Walking up to the museum at the samurai house.

Many more pictures to come. :-)

Driving about....

2007-04-05T12:04:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was a fun day. Jeremy and I went to his playgroup at the Weasel's Den. He had lots of fun running around with other kids his age. Afterwards, he and I took a drive to the Swan park. The swans migrate here every winter from Siberia and leave in May. They were all over the place. I have never seen so many swans in one place before. There were also many different kinds of ducks too.

Later on, we picked Jared up from work and decided to take a drive. We drove to "the big city", Aomori. Unfortunately, we got kind of lost on the way there, and once we were there, we couldn't find anything. So, we got some dinner and came home. I have decided that it is absolutely necessary to learn Japanese. It is the proper thing to do in living here. We, as Americans, expect people to speak English when they visit or live in our country, why should the same not be expected of us?

I have included a couple of pictures from me and Jeremy's drive around Misawa/Shimoda area. Pictures of the swans are to come when I get the film developed.

This is "white pole" road, right outside the main gate. None of the streets here have names, so the Americans have come up with names for them.

This is the entrance to Nehi Shinto Shrine. All shinto shrines have these gates, called torii gates at the entrance. We didn't get a chance to stop this time as it was really cold outside.

Rainy days

2007-04-02T23:22:00.000+09:00

We finally have everything in the house put away!! It is nice to have a clean, orderly home. Now, the only trick is to keep it that way. Pictures of the house are to come. The last several days have been rainy and kind of dreary. There was one day of sunshine about a week ago and that was nice. The next day, it snowed! And it has been raining ever since.

Saturday we went to the Far East Bazaar, held on base. They had some really neat furniture and assorted goods from around the world. There were woolen items from England, teakwood stuff from Thailand, assorted things from Hong Kong, turkish rugs and really neat rosewood furniture.

This next weekend is Japan day. This is special day set up by Misawa City for the base. They have cultural demonstations to help teach us about the local culture. They have japanese dancing, taiko drummers and local handicrafts on display. I am planning on taking a class at the arts and crafts center to learn the art of washi. It is 3 dimensional pictures made with a special handmade paper. I am pretty excited to learn a new traditional japanese art.

Jeremy is getting really big, and is acting "older" every day. It is neat to see him learning new things daily. He loves to listen to stories that I read him, and he doesn't try to rip the book out of my hands anymore. We have also been playing cars and dinosaurs quite a bit, the last few days. He enjoys that quite a bit and also to play hide and seek. He is getting really good at it too. I had to look for him for about 10 minutes today for dinner time and he thought it was REALLY funny.

I have included a few pictures from our two apartment balconies. (It was sunny the day I took these pictures.) In the second picture, the trees on the right are where the japanese cranes live. Maybe I will be able to get a picture of one of them soon.

It's been a while!

2007-03-11T23:12:00.000+09:00

Well, it has been quite a while since I last posted. I don't think my abscence can be blamed though....we didn't have access to a computer for quite a while because of the move, but now we are all set up! We love Japan! The people here are wonderful and it has been a great experience so far. We found out we will be having a little boy in July and we are also really excited about that. Jeremy is going to be an awesome big brother! Just wanted to give a quick update. More to come when we get our pictures developed!

Plane tickets!

2006-12-20T08:29:00.000+09:00

We got our plane tickets! We leave the great state of Utah to Japan on February 15th. We will fly from here to Los Angeles, have a short layover and then off to Tokyo. We will have a day layover in Tokyo before our plane leaves for Misawa. I don't know if we will have any time for sight seeing at that time. Somehow I doubt it. We will be pretty jet lagged and probably just want to find a hotel and go to bed. This makes it all real! Jared passed his fitness test yesterday so now there is nothing standing in our way but time.

Merry Christmas!

July 18th, 2007

2006-12-02T14:31:00.000+09:00

This is our definite due date for our new little Langston to arrive! I had my appointment with Guy yesterday and he says I am about 7 weeks along. I don't think that we will find out what the baby will be before we leave unfortunately, but what can ya do? I am sure it will be a very special addition, that is for sure!

Tomorrow is our big super saturday and I am looking forward to it, that is for sure. We also have our ward Christmas party tomorrow also. I think Santa may make an appearance and I think Jeremy will like that. He still doesn't really understand what is going on, but I know he is having fun.

It's Official!

2006-11-22T16:08:00.000+09:00

We are going to be a having another little addition to our family, come July 18th 2007. The date is only approxomate, but I have my first appointment with Guy (my midwife) next week. We are pretty excited, but I am a little worried. We weren't exactly "planning" on this until after we arrived in Japan, but that is okay. A baby is certainly a blessing and we are very excited.

Jared seems to think that I have some sort of crystal ball to know what it is, but I just don't really know yet. He wants a girl. I just want a happy, angel baby like Jeremy was. LOL I know I am probably pressing my luck, but I can hope, right? I do have to admit that I am not looking forward to two children in diapers at the same time, but with some work, maybe Jeremy can be on his way to being potty trained.

Not too much else going on here. Just getting ready for Thanksgiving. For the first time we are having our own Thanksgiving (turkey and all)! We are going to my parents the day after for a family get together, but we are just having our own stuff here. Tomorrow, Jared's squadron is having a big dinner/lunch for the whole squadron. It includes most of the base. We went last year. It was pretty good. I hope Jeremy is good. He is getting so big now and he can actually run, it is getting hard to keep up with him because he is *sneaky*. About a week ago, our ward had a carnival and unbeknownst to us, one of the guys in our ward has a band. They played (surprisingly not bad) and Jeremy danced like a crazy person! It was the funniest thing ever! If I can figure it out, I will put the video on here, but I am not sure that I can.

We still haven't gotten our hard copy orders yet, but it should be soon. Jared found out that he would be able to take the Harley with, but had decided it would be too hard. We would either have to ship it with our household goods (not really a realistic option) or get it to a port and we really don't have a way to do that either condsidering that we will need to sell the car right after we get back from Kansas in December. Sounds like the sooner they pick up are stuff the better though. According to the shipping people it takes 45 to 60 days to arrive. My mom asked, "What do they do, put it on a slow boat to China?" Well, technically slow boat to Japan. LOL Our passports should come through next month sometime. We will need to get a passport for the baby too when he/she is born. I think it is kind of silly, a passport for a tiny baby, but I guess it is a necessity.

After Thanksgiving, I will post some pictures. Jeremy was soooo funny last Thanksgiving. He loves his food, that is for sure.

FINALLY!!!

2006-11-12T03:37:00.000+09:00

I finally finished the cross stitch I have been working on FOREVER!!! I really think it turned out well. It is a cross stitch of the Greg Olsen painting "Lost No More". It is one of my favorite paintings and I really think the cross stitch turned out well.

Other things going on with us....Jeremy had so much fun trick or treating this year. He was Spiderman. He looked so big in his costume and he even picked out his candy at each house and put them in his little bucket. The first house we went to, my parents' neighbors across the street, were giving out full size candy bars. She said take one for you and one for your dad. Well, Jeremy picked two out and wasn't letting go. He finally decided it was okay to put them in the bucket about 1/2 block later. We sure did have fun!!

2006-10-28T13:34:00.000+09:00

The days are getting closer for us to move. A lot is going on here. Right now, I am going room by room and slowly starting to get rid of things and figure out what is going into storage. It is a hard process, but it is getting easier now that a lot of junk is gone. It feels good too! I got some stamping done over the past few days. I am in charge of two projects for our Super Saturday in December and I got those all figured out. One is a coaster set featuring the Salt Lake Temple and the other is a framed saying that I think turned out really well. I hope the ladies in our ward like them! I think that it is going to be a really fun time and I am looking forward to it.

Jeremy is getting really big! Every day he seems to learn and grow so much. Tonight we were couch potatoes together and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I remember watching it when I was a child and I hope that we can carry on the tradition each year.

Here goes!

2006-10-22T12:40:00.000+09:00

This is my first blog entry! I am pretty new to blogging, but as we are moving, I thought this would be an excellent way to keep in touch with family and friends. We are really excited for our big move to Japan, but it is pretty scary too.

Right now we are preparing our house, deciding what to take and what to store. It is a difficult process, but it has been good. We have found a lot of things that we don't really need or use anymore.

Well, some of you might be asking why did you name your blog, "There and back again"....well, it is taken from J.R.R. Tolkein, from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. It was the name of Bilbo's book that he wrote about his travels. In a way I feel that as we journey on to this new point in our life, we are something like Bilbo at the beginning of his trip. Well, maybe we aren't that stubborn to leave, but a new adventure all the same.

Check back often for news and updates as we get ready for the move. Also, when we arrive in Japan, we will be posting pictures here!!