The Francis 4: June 2009

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hill Park (1/27/09)

We don't know the real name of this park,
but we call it Hill Park because it is built up
along and on a couple of hills.

Working his way across the swinging logs

I did it!

My dear friend's daughter

Never at a lost for words....

my dear friend helping Eli, climb the mountain

say "hello"

the slide (be sure to watch the video)

My dear friend's son

How many people does it take to help Eli
do the ball swing

what lovely ladies :~)

Brotherly love!

CHEEZ

More IKEA trip

more apartments

Tony took this picture of his side view mirror

YEAH!! WE MADE IT!!

We parked on the roof and took some pics of the view

Dakota got his cowboy hat for Christmas from
G&G Francis and wore it 24/7.....

Eli trying on the "fruit hat" and Dakota
seeing if it is any good - LOL!

Eli LOVED the kitchen area

I am so lucky...

I just love.....

all these men in my life!!

Time to go home.

It's been a long day

This picture is for dad because if we could take all
the stuff he has in his garage to one of these they'd
be rich - LOL! They buy and resale items that you would
find in a garage. They have them for books, CD's/DVD's,
household products, everything!

Trip to IKEA (1/1/09)

Seeing Fuji on the way there

We started out expecting this trip to take us
about 1.5hrs (even though it is only about 30mi away)
it ended up taking us 3, that's THREE hours to drive
30 miles to go SHOPPING! 3 of the 4 of us were not
very happy.....so lots of pics were taken to try to entertain
themselves.

Apartments on the mountain side

The ferris wheel at the water park

The happy travelers

Paying the toll

the signal man

Toll booth worker

We were laughing at how confusing these signs were

Seeing this restaurant cracked us up

This says Toy R Us

More traffic signs :~)

Apartments

These are all apartments

Mt. Fuji (12/14/08)

I took these on my way home from taking Tony to work.

Panoramic view

Eli just got out the chalk and drew this face :~)

Our 1st Thanksgiving in Japan

Not only was it our 1st Thanksgiving in Japan,
but it was also the 1st Thanksgiving that all
the boys helped mom prepare the meal. It
was a really GREAT Thanksgiving. Mom had
so much to be thankful for - THANKS GUYS!
I love you!

Eli and Daddy were in charge of making the pie.

Dakota was in charge of the Green Bean Casserole.

Mom peeling potatoes.

Daddy "enjoying" being Eli's "assistant".

Time to EAT!

Dessert is ready!

Gyoza Heaven restaurant

This restaurant is very small, we are sharing our
table with 4 other people that we did not know.

Gyoza - these had different "stuffings" and are
not normally this big, which is the reason of the
name of the restaurant.

Thanksgiving at BEC school

BEC school is a private Japanese school that teaches
English. We visit them quite a bit throughout the year.
A few us made the "fixin's" for a Thanksgiving dinner
for them. Dakota gets put on the spot at the front of the
class. Notice how short his hair is - this was RIGHT
after a #2 haircut - Uncle J. would be proud :~)
This teacher is from NYC.

Eli doesn't really care who can understand him
when he has a story to tell :~)
This teacher is from Australia.

They were amazed at the turkey - "how do you
cook a chicken that big???"

The teachers are primarily from the U.S. and
Australia.

The man on the right is Mr. Takeno, the owner
of the school.

Mr. Takeno and Dakota

This is the food that Mr. Takeno's wife made
for those of us who brought and served the food.

a Thank You treat for us to take home

but Skip said I could have 10....

We had our friends over for dinner and as they
were getting ready to leave (around 10p) Eli asked
if he could have another cookie. Our friend, Skip said,
"yeah, go ahead and have 10". We walked our friends to
the door and when we came back into the living, there was
Eli with his TEN cookies. I told him he had to put them back
he told me, "but Skip said I could have TEN".

Happy 12 yrs!

12 years old!!!

Halloween (10/31/08)

Our friend, Rie, experiencing her 1st
American Halloween on the base.

Eli

Eli and Dakota

Dakota (in the middle holding up the Nerf gun)
with all his friends before they took off to go
trick or treating. Eli is in the Spiderman costume.

A Balcony Visitor (10/24/08)

I wish I had taken one from further away
because he was very hard to see until you
got very close.

Our 1st NOB (not Bon) Fire (10/23/08)

We were missing the fall bonfires that we had grown accustom to having so utilizing what little space we have, we made due and created a little bit of home here :~) But we renamed it from a bonfire (which is usually somewhat of a large fire) to Nobfire (backwards bon - nob - somewhat of small fire)
There's not a change in time, I used the flash on some pics and not on others.

Eating the s'mores

Flea Market (10/18/08) and a couple extras

This is just too sweet

Perfectly plowed fields (randomly squeezed
all over the city) ready for planting

A truly compact car

The one bag that the boys in family would care
whether or not I used it!

This reminded us of Grandpa C.

Fish on Stick stand

Oh yes, I meant it literally, Fish on Stick
(the WHOLE fish)

Or maybe you'd prefer it on plate....

Coffee and popcorn - we decided that would tie
us over for a while because we were not
THAT hungry.....I have to give credit to Dakota
though - he did eat a bowl of noodles!
My fearless world traveler!

Food stand

Yeah! Carmel corn - this I ate

The Ferris Wheel at the water park up the road

I'm in charge here...

Loaded up ready to go home, hence the smile!

Cutie Pa-tuties

Cooking Class 102

These are the mushrooms that were
the "meat" for the dish.

The noodles

The complete meal

Rie, Joanne, JeongKi

Dicon salad

Cutting up the veggies

Jayne, my wonderful partner in crime :~)

Tomatoes & our neighbor

These are pictures of last summer's
tomato "crop" ('08)

This is Eli in his new Flash suit with our neighbor,
JeongKi

Narita Airport (8/5/08) & the Canadian Olympic team

I don't want my picture taken

Gotcha!

While we were at the airport waiting for
Grandma & Grandpa to get their bags checked
we saw the Canadian Olympic Softball girls
team and some of the Brazilian Olympic Softball
girls team. That alone was pretty cool BUT what
really made it special is that Dakota not only got the
autographs of the Canadian, one of the players took him
beyond the checkpoint to meet some of the players and
get him even more autographs!! Those are the couple of
pictures that follow!