Apr 11 2019

Day 5: Traveling to Kyoto

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Karin

I remembered to take a picture of our breakfast at the hotel in Tokyo. The pastries were delicious. You can see how much I liked them by the amount of them I had on my plate. Actually I probably could have eaten more but I didn’t want to look like a pig. The salad is a cabbage salad with some dressing. That was good too. Also they had some eggs. They were a weird texture that I didn’t really enjoy but Corey seemed to like them.

After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and headed to the train station to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. The train we were on travels at about 278 km/h or 165 mph! I think my sister Krystal would have gotten sick because she gets car sick so easily. The train goes so fast that when you look out the window all the stuff like trees and bridges become an extreme strobe. I just sat with my head down until there was a small town with fields or something that wasn’t so close to the train.

After a quick train transfer we walked about 1km to our hotel. It’s not actually a hotel but it’s a bed and breakfast. It’s pretty cool. There is a common kitchen and dinning area that we share with everyone else. We have our own room and we sleep on futons ontop of tatami mats. Our room feels bigger than our last hotel but we also don’t have our own bathroom we have to share like you would at a hostel.

After getting situated here we decided to explore a little by walking to the local grocery store and then getting something to eat at an okonomiyaki place. The store was fun to see. It reminds me of the china town market in Salt Lake City that we like to stalk up on our Japanese sauces. We had a really yummy dinner at a little place just up the rode. Corey had Osaka style pork Okonomiyaki. I ate pork Yaki soba. It was really good but I didn’t really care for the Bonito flakes they put on top. Bonito flakes are thin fish flakes that will wave and kind of melt with the heat of the food. It has a fishy flavoring that I didn’t really like. Tomorrow we will explore more of the sites in Kyoto and I’m super excited.

American style breakfast buffet at our hotel in Tokyo

Me with the Shinkansen arriving at the station behind me

Corey liked that it says Puncake instead of Pancake on the menu

Waiting for our food with his Ginger Ale. They turn the griddle on and set your food on it.

Corey’s Okonomiyaki. I’m not a fan of it but he loves the stuff. It’s a pancake with pork and cabbage.

I thought this bag was hilarious. I think I need a sweat tote. I may have to go back and buy it.

Apr 10 2019

Day 4 Tokyo Japan

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Karin

This morning we woke up to a lot of rain. We had a complementary breakfast in the hotel cafe. There were these croissants that were so buttery and flaky. I forgot to get a picture of them but I will try tomorrow if they have them. Our plan for today was to go to a Shinto shrine and the Imperial Palace gardens. First we had to stop at the local convenient store to pick up some umbrellas. It was just our luck that this is one of the coldest days they’ve had this time of year. Many places in Japan are seeing snow so we are lucky that we just had rain. I guess we had to bring the cold with us from Idaho.

Once we got our umbrellas we headed to the train station and then on foot to the shrine. The cherry blossoms are finishing up here and they are beautiful. There is a war museum at the shrine. We spent a few hours there. It was a good use of our time to get warm and out of the rain. It’s interesting to see the war history of Japan. Even more interesting was getting a different perspective on WWII.

After the shrine we were pretty hungry and walked to a restaurant. We both ate Mabodofu. It’s something that I’ve learned to make at home but I really wanted to taste what an authentic one was like. It was delicious. They gave us a big bowl of it. It’s about as much as I normally make for my whole family. As we look around it seems like everyone was finishing all that they ordered and I don’t know if it is unkind to not eat everything. So I ate all of it and was so stuffed by the end.

After that we walked through the Imperial Palace Gardens. On the way there we stopped at a public toilet and yes I took a picture of the public toilets in the women’s bathroom. It is definitely an adventure. The gardens are beautiful and we took our time walking around. I wish it hadn’t been so cold and wet because I know we would have spent the rest of the day there if we could. However, our shoes were squishy with water and we were freezing so after a couple of hours we made our way back to the hotel to dry off and get warm. Even though it was rainy and cold we had a good experience. Tomorrow we head for Kyoto

Toilet in women’s bathroom. It’s a workout for your quads

Standing in front of the Old Edo Castle walls

War museum. Plane behind us was what they used as the suicide planes

Apr 9 2019

Day 2 and 3

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Karin

Day 2: This day started before the sun was up. We had to catch a flight from SLC to Seattle at 7am. That means getting up and being to the airport by 5am. Once we landed in Seattle we had a couple of hours to kill before our flight to Tokyo took off. Corey was hungry so we walked around the airport and found Beechers Handmade cheese. I remember from Preston’s choir trip that there was a place in Pike’s Place Market that Preston said the mac and cheese was the best thing about his trip. It’s the same place only they have a shop in the airport too! So Corey ordered a mac and cheese and we waited for our next flight.

Once our plane took off for Tokyo they pretty much started serving us food from the time we got in the air until we landed. It’s an over nine hour flight so I was feeling pretty stuffed by the time we landed. It’s funny how much they offer you to drink and then you watch as the line for the bathroom would get super long. I wasn’t falling for that trick and only had a drink when I needed one. I only had to use the small bathroom on the plane once!

Day 3: At some point, because of the international date line, day 2 morphed into day 3. All I know is we took off on Monday at 11:30am and landed on Tuesday at 12:30pm. I was only able to sleep for about an hour on the plane. This means when I normally would be going to bed at home it’s the middle of the next day in Tokyo. Even though all I wanted to do was sleep Corey and I made sure we stayed awake until 9:00pm in Tokyo. My brain has stopped working and I feel like I’m in a hazy fog. Hopefully by staying awake we can sleep through the night and feel great tomorrow. It’s been a long day. I’ve had some really yummy ramen and we rode the Big O in Tokyo which gave us a wonderful view of the Tokyo skyline. Our hotel room is comically small. The bathroom is about as big as the one on the plane. This was expected and it doesn’t really matter to us because we don’t plan on spending too much time at the hotel. Well time to get some shut eye so we can explore more of Tokyo tomorrow.

The main meal on our long flight. Pork stir fry. It was actually pretty tasty.

Look how tall Corey looks compared with our hotel room door!

Really yummy pork ramen. Boy do I look tired or what!

The Big O behind Corey. It’s like a ferris wheel

Apr 7 2019

Day One of Our 20th Anniversary Trip

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Karin

This year my hubby and I celebrate 20 years of being married! We decided to celebrate by going on a trip to Japan. Corey served a mission there for our church back in 1996-1998. It’s been 21 years since he has been there. We are both excited for this adventure and wanted to keep our kids informed on what we have been up to. Corey’s mom, Nammy, is staying with our kids for a couple of weeks as we go on this adventure. We are so blessed to have her there with them!

Day 1: This is a short day because we have such a long lay over in Salt Lake City. We flew from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake which was a rough flight with lots of turbulence but luckily it’s a very short flight. We have a 10 hour lay over; it’s over night so Corey and I get to spend a night in SLC. We are staying at the Sheraton in downtown. We decided we wanted to try the Indian restaurant that’s a block from the hotel. I know that’s a little daring especially when we’re going to be on a plane pretty much all day tomorrow. The food was a very delicious. We hope it doesn’t come back to bite us later.

Waiting at the Idaho Falls airport for the first leg of our journey

Chicken Korma and Bulb Dosai with Roti and Naan

Mar 28 2016

Spring Break 2016

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Karin

We got a late start on our spring break because of the opera Corey and I were in. We left on Tuesday and traveled 14 hours by car to Grandma and Grandpa Tiffany’s home. We spent Wednesday just hanging around with grandma and grandpa. We went to the movie “Zootopia”. Grandpa spoils the kids by getting them their own popcorn treat pack. We wanted to go to the coast for a day but the weather was saying that Thursday was going to be rainy. So we saved it until Friday.

Thursday was another day relaxing with grandma and grandpa. We visisted great grandma Eve. She has dementia and doesn’t remember who we are but it was nice to sit with her for a while and visit. She still sounds like the grandma I know and grew up with she just doesn’t always make sense. She kept singing in my ear “God Bless America” that’s the only words she remembered of the song but it reminds me of how much she still loves this country. When we first came in her eyes lit up. I wish I was closer and could visit her more. She will be turning 91 this year. I helped my mom and dad plant some seeds in their garden. I can’t believe they can start planting already. We still have a good month before we even try to plant anything. We went to the park to let the kids run off some energy. Preston got in trouble for scaring off some greese that someone was feeding. That night we had our Easter dinner since we would be travelling on Easter.

On Friday we left for the Oregon Coast. We traveled through a small portion of California and a little of the redwood forest to get there. It is a really pretty drive. The weather was great a little windy on the coast but it’s not normal if the wind doesn’t blow. We spent the day visiting azalea park and Harris Beach. My dad and I (mostly my dad) build a sand castle and my mom got attacked by a wave while sitting on a log. After the beach we headed to the harbor and bought ice cream cones. Corey had to visit a fish shop and by some fresh clams and crabs. We took those back to grandma and grandpa’s and ate them later.

I always have so much fun when I visit my parents. The problem is the trip is always too short. We left on Saturday and stayed the night in a hotel. Then finished the drive on Sunday. It was a whirlwind of a trip but I was becoming homesick and really needed some time with mom and dad so it was well worth it. Already looking forward to a trip back in August.

Levi loved pretending he was a spy speeding away from people following him.

Sophia doing what she does best, climbing.

Preston speeding away. Yes he is a little old for this.

coming back to Oregon

entering California

Azaleas at Azalea park

rhododendron at Azalea park

Awesome playground at Azalea park

Lunch at the beach

Harris beach

Sophia and her stick. She drew all over the sand.

Levi and Sophia’s attempt at a sand castle.

Corey stuck on a rock

Hole in the rocks

Grandpa’s sand castle

Waterfall on the drive

Another waterfall Preston climbed to see where the water went.

Aug 17 2012

Wild Cats

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Karin

Grandma worked last night so we ended up spending the day with grandpa. Grandpa decided to take us to a place just outside of Cave Junction called Wild Cats. On the way we stopped at Kerbyville and looked at this shop that sells a bunch of wood carvings and had a lot of tree houses on the lot that the kids explored. When we got to the cat park we got to see a lot of really cool cats. The first one we saw was the lion. It freaked me out a little because I didn’t expect them to be so close. It’s a little unnerving when they roar. Most of the pictures that are of the big cats aren’t zoomed that is actually how close they were. My boys loved it. Sophia got a little hot and tired and by the end of the day just wanted to go back to grandma’s pool. It was pretty hot but every so often in the big cat park they had misters to stand in to help us cool off. When we got home of course we spent an hour or so in the pool. We had a really great day with grandpa.

The kids climbing up a tree house

Grandpa T. on the lower level and the boys on the middle level

Grandpa T. lower level while Levi is on the very top. So high!

Sophia and Levi posing silly.

Cool enclosed tree house with faces on it.

Leopard

Tiger

White Tigers

Baby Leopard that we got to pet.

Snow Leopard

Very impressive Lion

Jun 12 2012

Camping

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Karin

Mike Harris Campground

Yay!! School is out. We have been out about a week but I’m slow at posting. On the day that school ended we celebrated by going out on our first family camp trip for the year. We packed up and went to Mike Harris Campground in the Grand Targhee National Forest. This is a place we have been before and like to go to for our first campouts of the season. Despite forecast for rain we decided to tough it out. The weather actually turned out perfect and it only rained for a couple of hours on Saturday. We got there pretty late on Friday and discovered that we forgot many things including bug spray. We didn’t want to be bug dinner so we had to go into to town and buy some. The other stuff we did without. That’s what the first campout is about right?! In the morning we warmed our breakfast up on the fire (breakfast burritos I learned from pintrest). The kids really liked it. They were easy too. It rained for about and hour and we just read and played games in the trailer. After the rain let up we went for a hike. There is a really neat trail near the entrance to the campground. It leads up to some peaks. We didn’t go that far. We only went as far as Sophia’s little legs could take her. It ended up being about 2 miles round trip. It was a beautiful hike. On the way back it started to rain again. By the time we got back to camp we were all pretty wet. It rained for about another hour. After that it was beautiful. There was one other family camping in the campground. We introduced ourselves. Their kids are the same age as ours and they hit it off really well. The kids went and played hide and seek. After talking with them a little we discovered that they live just on the other side of the airport from us (small world). We also found out that although they wear red and we wear blue we can still get along (those of you who are cougar and ute fans know how hard that is). We exchanged phone numbers and the kids have future plans to hang with them sometime. We packed up and left Sunday morning. On the way home we stopped one more time for a short hike. Not as great as the first one but still fun. This outing was a great start to our season. I love being out in the woods. It really helps me appreciate all that Heavenly father has created for us. I can’t wait to go again.

Cooking breakfast on the fire

Beautiful Hiking trail

Sophia and her hiking stick

All of us on the hike

The kids getting warm after the hike

Gorgeous sky as the sun was setting

Almost full moon

Our little home away from home

Apr 16 2012

Colorado Day 4

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Karin

Cool park we went to

Day 4 was technically the last day of our vacation. Day 5 was spent all day in the car on the way home and nothing exciting to write about. On this day we decided to take it easier than the others. We had a slow morning where the kids just played with old toys and us adults recouped from the previous day. After lunch we went to a park. You can see from the pictures that the play set was shaped as a barn. The kids liked that. We took some good pictures of the kids playing. We spent at least an hour there if not more.

This was Sophia's favorite. A rocking chicken.

All of the kids loved this. They called it the twirling toilet.

I think he is getting a little big for this

Corey even got in on the action

Corey and his cool ride

Kids just hanging on

After the park Corey’s parents took us to the local dairy for some ice cream. So good after a couple of hours in the sun. While at the dairy we got to go into a viewing room and see some cows get milked. We also got to see some little baby calfs on our way out. We went back to grandma and grandpa’s house where the kids colored with grandma. We had such a fun vacation. We wish our family lived closer so we could see them more often. All of the kids were crying as we were leaving for home. They really had a great time with nammi and nampa.

Mmmm... ice cream

Sophia enjoying her cone

Coloring with Nammi

Apr 11 2012

Colorado Day 3: Part 2

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Karin

Things have been really busy and I’ve gotten so behind on blogging. Well the second part of day three for our spring break in Colorado started with lunch. There is a park between the museum and the zoo. We had packed a lunch and decided to eat at the park. It’s still early in the season so there were no picnic benches. Preston wasn’t keen about sitting on the ground. He had determined that the ground was covered in goose poo. Luckily Nammi had brought a table cloth and had the kids sit on that. There was a sprinkler on next to us that sometimes seemed to creep up on us. We ended up moving a few feet so we wouldn’t end up with a shower. There were, however, some kids playing in the sprinkler. I was proud my kids resisted the urge to run through it.

After Lunch we walked over to the Denver Zoo. It’s a lot bigger then our own zoo here in Idaho Falls. There are so many pictures but I think I’ll have to cut it down to just a few to show you. We got there around 1:00 in the afternoon. Just in time for it to really heat up. I was really thankful I brought the kids some water. Corey carried Sophia just about the whole time. When there was a big crowd Levi had the best seat in the house on top of Nampa’s head. We spent about 5 1/2 hours at the zoo. By the end we were all tuckered out. We ended our day with a dinner out at some fancy Italian restaurant. Needless to say on our way home we had 3 sleeping kids.

One of my favorite exhibits. The giraffes.

The kids liked th sea lions.

One of the many exotic fish exhibits. Levi taking a seat where ever he can.

The Kamodo Dragon

For Corey, the red panda or the real "firefox"

Our tour guide. This peacock lead us through a good section of the park.

One of the many exotic bird exhibits.

One of the many, many benches that let us park our derrières.

Walking through the zoo. Getting to the end.

Apr 6 2012

Colorado Day 3: Part 1

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Karin

Denver's Museum of Nature and Science

Day three started here at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Day three was so busy I had to split it into a couple of post. This museum is huge. We didn’t go here to tour the museum though. That’s going to have to be another trip. We did, however, go here to see an IMAX 3-D movie. The movie that we watched was “Flying Monsters.” This movie was about the tarasaur. This is the first 3-D IMAX movie that our little family has ever been to. The first impression I had was wow this is really neat. The second impression was we should do this more often. Then things began to change about 30 minutes in I started to get a little motion sick. By the time it ended my vertigo was off and I felt nauseated. The kids loved it but my first and second impressions were quickly dismissed by the end. They can go again but I think I might have to pass.

The escaltor in the museum

the entrance into the theater

Waiting to be let in the theater

Sitting in the theater

Sophia with her 3-D glasses on

The museum has a little discovery center around the corner from the theater. After the show we decided to take the kids in there to explore a little. They had fun with all the cool stuff to do. One of our favorites was the wall with mirrors on it. Preston enjoyed making his arm look like a wing. There was a skinny mirror that I wouldn’t mind having in my bedroom.

Sophia playing with some blocks

Levi and Grandpa doing the smelling test

Preston our paleontologist

Preston making his arm a wing at the wall of mirrors

In A Nutshell

Take time to listen, to laugh, and to play together– Elder M. Russell Ballard

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