Appi, PuuTalo and Hachimanti (AKA New Years)

Frosty Panther is what it's called. Most of the squadron went on a ski trip over New Years' and it was so much fun! We left Thursday morning and drove south to Appi ski resort.

The car did awesome but I passed out on the way up right before we got off the toll road. And no, I don't mean I fell asleep. I passed out, in and out of consioucsness like I did in the Post Office when I was 5 months pregnant with Clara. It was a little more intense this time I think becuase of the altitude (I think), and took me a long while to recover, but everything's been fine since. Once we got to Appi I spent a lot of time just sitting and drinking juice and eating crackers to get myself feeling better while tyler's getting his gear and stuff ready and while the Chicowski's are giving us Katie's old snow gear for Clara (because I dind't have a good coat or pants or boots for her. Thankfully my Land's End order came in on Wednesday night for Clara and Tyler's snow boots!)

We get in the lodge and Tyler has to go buy some gloves (because we forgot to pack them-doh!). he gets back, then i have to go to the bathroom and change into my snow pants. I get back and ask him for the car keys in

case I need something from it while he's skiing. They're still in the ignition (although he did turn the car off). So . . . we were off to a bit of a slow start to say the least-hahaha!

Finally we get everything sorted out and tyler hits the slopes. I hit the little indoor play area with clara becuase I'm still not feeling strong enough to brave the snow/wind/sled hill elements. Plus i don't really know where it is and don't want to go wandering. Clara has a blast on the

little slide, going down head first after toys she pushes down. We had some ramen and curry and finished up jsut as Tyler was coming in for some lunch. So we all headed over to the bigger food court where everyone was hanging out (which I dind't know about).

Tyler went back out after lunch and I took clara to the sledding hill which was a lot of fun, except I had to ride with her and it was a bit of interesting logistics, to say the least. Considering the size of the teeny tiny sled I brought, my 7 month pregnant self and my toddler whose bundled up more than Ralphie's younger brother from A Christmas Story. But still, it was fun. And they had al ittel conveyor belt you stood on so you didn't have to walk up the hill. Nice.

She was in undies all day and we didn't have one accident. Either told me or I'd ask her and we'd go before we headed out in the snow. But man! So much CLOTHING! Bib pants and regular pants and a tee shirt and a fleece and the coat and the boots. . . she weighed an extra 10 pounds with all that gear on! I won't lie, I tried to not give her as much liquid as I normally do because i didn't want her to have an accident, but she still ended up drinking a ton. But like I said, no accidents in borrowed pants so that was nice.

We left Appi around 4 and rove to PuuTalo cabins. We got switched cabins so instead of it just being us and the Chicowskis it was us, the Chicowskis and the Lugars and, we found out as we were unpacking, Jarod the new guy whose family was still back in teh states. So there were 3 toddler girls (21-36 months), two pregnant women (4 months and 7 months) and a single guy (technically). Hahahahaha! But it was a lot of fun. . . we just felt bad for Jarod in teh morning. Fortunately he has a 4 year old girl and a 3 month baby so it's not like he was completely single and without kids.

Tyler unloaded the van and I realized I packed WAAAaaay too much. But I'd never been, so I'd rather have been prepared. Plus it didn't help that we had 3 more people in the cabin who packed for themselves too, so there was a ton of food and snacks and everything. There were 3 bedrooms with 2 sets of bunk beds (That's why jarod took the couch even though there were technically 3 beds still) and a teeny tiny ktichen and only a stovetop. Spaghetti was delicious that first night.

Since it was New year's Eve though, I went over the the 'party' at about 9:30 or so to bring my fudge and see what was going on while everyone else watched Ronin in black and white (becuase something was wrong with the TV when we hooked it up to the laptops). Nothing much was going on except I had a bite of jalepeno cheese dip that almost killed me (thanks Kline Family! : ) So I went back to the cabin pretty early and fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Woo! Happy New Year! : )

The next morning, on New Year's day

everyone went to a closer place called Hachimanti to ski and sled. It was much smaller than Appi but it was nice. I had to buy a beanie becuase I, of course, forgot mine at the cabin. We strapped on some (borrowed) skis to Clara and tyler pushed her down a hill a few times. She liked it, but I think she only liked the poles, really. It was hard to get her to let them go.

Then we took her sledding and it was AWESOME! She loved it! It was really snowy and windy though, so she hated that, but the acutal sledding part she loved. She'd sit in it and grab the side and tyler would send her down to me and I'd hear her just laughing so hard! "HA HA HA! HA! HA HA!" it was so hilarious! She'd get to the bottom and I'd ask "do you want to go again?" and she'd say "again again!".

WE started off by takign her out of the sled and Tyler would carry her up the hill, but then tyler had to sit in the sled at the top then slide off the back of it as he put her in the sled 'with him' otherwise she wouldn't get in. So then we jsut stopped giving her the choice and when she got to the bottom I'd grab the sled string and start pulling her back up towards tyler (Who would run down to meet me so I didn't have to go very far--thanks baby!). Otherwise she'd say no no she didn't want to get in, but then she'd be laughign the whole way down.

I didn't take any pictures of sledding becuase i wanted to just enjoy it. And the wind was sort of blowing pretty hard. And it was snowing too. So I didn't want to have to fight that. Plus it was cold. Freeeeeeeeeeezing cold. I was SO glad she had proper boots and pants and a coat! She needs better snow mittens though. She just had cloth ones so we had to go in once or twice to warm them up becuase they'd get cold and wet from holding the sides of the sled. We almost had an accident when the Kline girls ran into us at the bottom, but no one was hurt thankfully. (Although, I gave Siobhan a hard

time because, first the Jalepeno dip then she sends her kids after me to finish the job?! hahahahahahaha!)

Tyler got some more skiiing in though. We didn't keep Clara outside for long mostly becuase of her hands. So Jenny and I took Katie and Clara back to the cabin early while Trevor and Tyler kept skiing. When we got to the cabin Clara was so dead asleep I took her snow coat, pants and boots off her, held her over the potty to pee (which she did while alseep) and put her back in bed without disturbing her. The position she was in when I left the room was the same position she was in 2 hours later when I went to get her for dinner. Hahahahaha! She was OUT! it was so cute! I should have taken a picture, but I wasn't thinking.

That night was the crock pot cook-off in the main room at PuuTalo. I made creamy chicken and jenny made a cherry pie (which won!)

and Mary made a chili. I tried to make my box oven brownies. . . but it didn't turn out becuase I didn't have enough time. As I was lighing (or trying to light, rather) the charcoals, TYler said "So, they'll be ready in 20 minutes?" and i said "Waht?! No! I have to get hte charcoals hot then it needs to bake for 35 minutes!". So I had to scrap that idea. But I still have the oven and I'm still going to use it--oh yes, I will.

There was a TON of food, but i forgot t

o bring drinks so I had to run to the vending machine and buy a bunch of drinks for TYler and I and Clara. Clara had fun running around with all the other kids. We took a big group picture and then were out of there by 8:45 (PuuTalo rules)

We played Apples to Apples that night in the cabin and started to watch The Princess Bride after two rounds, but no one made it very far into the movie. I think the two days of skiiing and the onsen (which I didn't get to go to becuase the water's too hot and I'm pregnant and I'm bummed about that becuase i've wanted to go to an onsen for al ong time n

ow) and all the food, everyone was just wiped out.

We packed up and headed out the next morning. We packed SO MUCH STUFF!! HAhahahahaha~!! But liek I said, I dind't know what to expect, so next year I'll be better. It was mostly all food too. But we both could have used smaller bags. Just that snow gear takes up so much space!

Tokyo con Bree a la Clara Day 3

Clara woke up at 5:30am. Awesome. I finished mama mia with her in the other room while Bree stayed in bed. Clara goes down for her nap at 7:30am. We're in no rush to get an early start to day after yesterday. Bree decides to walk to the lawson's or family mart for a razor.

She leaves. She comes back.

"I can't leave without you."

Ah crap. Fortunately teh front desk was able to help us out. They also had a bit of a free breakfast which was nice. Bagels and toast and schmear and liquids to drink.

We take the train to a station near Hama Rikyu Garden. While walking to the garden we stop in a big building with lots of eateries in it and get some food to go so we can picnic in the garden. We make it to the garden adn I take clara out of the backpack and she manages to get her pants covered in dirt and food in 2 minutes nd 18 seconds (practically).

I got her a sandwich but it was a waste of 340 yen because she just ate the egg drops in my egg drop soup and the tofu chunks and the tofu chinks out of Bree's rice bowl.

WE walked around the gardens which had some really awesome big, old trees. Not as many flowers as the imperial one (I'll give it that) but I really liked all the big old trees with fresh spring leaves on them. We also saw a wedding couple (He was white, she was Japanese and they were both in traditional wedding kimonos which were very pretty). Then we took the 1:35om ferry up the Sumida River to Asakusa.

Once we get off hte ferry i don't recognize ANYTHING. Tyler navigated last time and I guess I paid negative amounts of attention. We get to a signal and ask a lady next to us for SenSoji Shrine or Nakamise Dori and she points us in the right direction. But we hit it perpendicular instead of head on. But it didn't matter because the temple is undergoing cleaning or renovation or something so it was all covered. We crossed Nakamise Dori and went around so we could come back up it the full length (or most of hte length) leading towards the temple. Bree bought some fans and I bought a green parasol because Clara was starting t to get a little sun.

A woman took our picture (but really a picture of Clara) and I took a picture of a group of High School boys laughing their heads off in front of the gate. I took a picture (lots, actually) of Bree trying to tie the paper to the rail. We have no idea what it means or what its for, but it was mostly just to cover our Karmic basis. Unfortunately she ended up almost breaking the thing and taking down a bunch of other tied on papers, but she didn't. But it was close. I'm sure hte karma gods were just laughing at us.

We hung out around a pigeon memorial off to the side then decided to head back before rush hour. It wasn't so bad even though we hit the train at 4pm and had a 30 minute ride back to Roppongi station.

We had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (I know I know, but I only packed so much food for clara). It was CRAZY expensive! But pretty good. Especially since Bree bought and she let me get a Fudge Sundae (which was really really good). ON the walk back home Clara fell asleep in the carrier again while I was wheeling her around.

Bree Rocked the Tokyo navigation and got us safely back to the hotel. I totally would have never been able to cross this stupid huge street we needed to cross. Bree found a way and also some teeny side street that was the right direction! I broke down and asked a random guy herding people into a taxi where Hardy Barracks was, and I literally had to turn my head around and it was right there. So she totally did it. It was awesome.






Here's bree getting the "praryr scroll" or whatever it is (we still have no idea--she just put 100yen in the box and picked a drawer)






Here she accidentally pulls the stick out of the holder when she tied on her prayer strip






and she got distracted so she ripped her prayer strip in half while tieing it on so she had ot pick it up then tie on half a prayer strip (yes, I am laughing at her right now but still taking pictures)



Then she had to put the wire back in the holder so she didn't leave it broken : )









Clara passed out in the stroller/backpack but US IN front of Hardy Barracks at day's end! Woo hoo!!

Tokyo con Bree a la Clara Day 2

So, the train station is about a 30 minute walk at my pace with Clara on my back. Lets just start out the day with that. A 30 minute walk to the train station at 8:30 in the morning.

We get to Ginza and try to Matsuya department store but it doesn't open until 10am and it was only 9:15 or so. So bree looks at the map and says

"Well it looks like we can just walk to the Imperial Garden from here."

I think to myself "no, we shouldn't do that." yet heard myself say, "Sure. Ok."

THREE HOURS LATER!!! WE find the freaking garden!! I was so over it. Stupid Imperial Garden. You can't even see the palace from the garden (that I could tell, and Frommer's corroborates this) but wahtever. Her map was crap and I should have spoken up. BUt it eventually became the principle of hte thing-we WILL Find the garden! We WILL make it to the Imperial East Garden!!

We were faked out a few times before we reached it, but we eventually made it. With the help of a not so crazy Japanese man who found us an English Speaking "Tokyo Tourism" person to help us, and a lot of complaining (at least for my part) we did make it. We also had a pit stop at a fountain park. And took teh subway ALL THE WAY BACK.

Clara fell asleep for about an hour (before we hit hte fountain park but during another really nice walk through an equally nice park that was not the imperial garden). I took her off my back and wheeled her forwards until she fell asleep then I pulled her behind me becuase it was easier on me. One we hit hte garden she was awake and she walked aroudn a bit. Fed her some raviolis while we sat on a bench. Showed her the fish off hte bridge, showed her the flowers, she picked them then trhew them on the floor.

We stopped for some food for us at the train station on teh way abck and it was rediculously hot curry! Whoa! So hot! Bree thought it was fine but I was having some issues. The ladies all thoguht clara was adorable, but I was glad bree was there to help wrangle her. We put her between us on teh bench with all our gear on the seats opposite us at the table.

We took teh train abck to the Ginza shopping district and walked around Matsuya for 10 mintues, didn't find what bree was looking for, went to the bathroom, got some groceries from teh basement shop, then tok the train abck to Roppongi station and walked to HB about 3:30pm.

We ate some dinner from what we bought at Matsuya (or the grocery store on the bottom floor of Matsuya--Clara enjoyed the Apple). Clara peed 3 times on the floor and pooped all over my suitcase (it was gross, not only ebcuase it was on my suitcase and she got some appendages in it, but becuasei t was basically an entire can of mandarin oranges that she had for breakfast that morning). Clean up was surprisingly easy though, after the "AHHH!!! WHAT?! You pooped ON my suitcase?!"

I put clara down to bed and Bree and I started watching Mama Mia but went to bed at 8:40 bcuase we were both exhausted from all the walking.

The phone rings at 9:40pm. I bolt up in teh pitch dark and think "WAHT?! What's goign on?! What's happened?! Is someone injured?! Who could be calling at this hour? ITs what, 2, 3 am? This must be seirous! where's the phone? WHY IS IT SO LOUD?!"

I get out of bed, stumble around hte bed, stumble to the other nightstand (Which is right by bree's head) and fumble to find the shaking mass that is the ringing phone (Again, right by bree's head) and pick it up

"hellO!?!"
"Uh. . .this is front gate. Yoru pass expired."
"What?"
"Uh, you visitors pass, expired. You need to come sign again."
"What?"
"Pass only good for 24 hours. So Pleasse come sign it again."
"Oh, oh. Um. . .she's sleeping."
"Oh"
"Can I sign it for her?"
"Um, ok."
"Ok, I'll be there in a minute"

I hang up the phone after a few tries (its still dark) and go to turn on the light. Bree wakes up (or at least admits she's awake now"

"Where are my shoes?"
"Why? What's going on?"
"your pass expired. I guessi ts only good for 24 hours so I have to sign again."
"Oh. Do you want me to go?"
>pause< "Yeah" "ok"

So, after that minor interruption, we slept very well for the remainder of the night.

BUt seriously, it felt like they were calling at 2am. We were SO tired from all the ridiculous walking that day.

Tokyo con Bree a la Clara Day 1

I flew down to Tokyo on Monday the 18th with Clara to meet Bree! Whoo hoo! She came in for a visit. I had to take the morning flight out of misawa which put me into Tokyo about 4 hours before bree's plane would even think about landing. That sort of sucked, hanging around Haneda with Clara while she's trying to run away and into people's luggage and baggage carts. It would have been fine except for the shrieking while she was running. I kept telling her all the people in teh airport didn't think she was as cute as I did, but that didn't seem to sink in.

Anyway, Bree got in safe and sound and walked out to meet me abotu an horu afterh er plane landed. We were goign to take the airport limo to the HArdy Barracks, but we missed the shuttle and didn't want to wait around for another 40 minutes for hte next one, so we took the train to Tokyo Station then had a 3000yen cab ride to Hardy Barracks. There was a closer train station but we didn't know that at the time. Clara fell asleep on my lap for literally 2 minutes in teh cab, but she was pretty good for the whole time. MInus the snacks that lay strewn across teh floor of the train we took. Sorry japanese train car clean up person!

Anyway, the first day was jsut travel. She had to sign in at hte front gate and surrender her passport while she was at the Hardy barracks (Which is basically jsut a TLF in the middle of Tokyo and for $40/night it can't be beat! Especially since they had a crib and two rooms connected by the bathroom so we could put clara to sleep and still be up).

Every time she left she was suppossed to sign out her passport again, but we dind't really know that or understand or pay attention becuase we were tired and it was 8 or 9pm by the time we got to the hotel, so we ended up leaving the next morning without getting her passport back and when we came back on that evening and Bree presented her Hardy BArracks visitors pass to the gate guard his face said

"What th?!"

Then he communicated to us that she was suppossed ot turn that pass in and take her passport whenever she leaves, then when she comes back give them teh passport back and take the pass. whatever.

The first picturee ws clara being entertained before takeoff by a guy working on the tarmac. THe second is Clara being entertained by a flight attendant doing her thing. See video below for clara being entertained by lifting the arm rest up and down (occupied the better part of a half hour). The last photo is clara passed out on the bus from Haneda airport to Narita Airport. She was, needless to say, exhausted. But she was a trooper for hte whole trip!

Traveling

Blogging Hiatus until way later.

I'm traveling to, in and around, and from the states starting Thursday April 16th.

Scheduled day of arrival back in misawa: 09May09, 1840 hours (ish, assuming I make that flight).

Scheduled departure again to Tokyo: 18May09, sometime in the morning? I'm picking up a houseguest.

Perhaps she can then babysit whilst I catch up on blogs. I'll be sure to mention any back posting for those of you who find it annoying (I do too, but I can't stand goign out of order. you all should know me better than that by now.)

Tooooooookyooooo---TOKYO!!

Thursday the 5th

Today was much colder than yesterday and that sort of sucked. We went to the grocery store across from the Train Station exit for breakfast items. Shinigawa Train Station is HUGE, so there were a lot of stores right  along the street there, but we just kept to this one little grocery store that had about 2 aisles (but everything we needed).

We took the train to Hama-Rikyu Garden which was about 300 years old. I really liked it even though it was super cold and none of the flowers were in bloom (hahaha!) But htere were some awesome looking trees like a huge Black Pine. We ate breakfast just on a bench. Clara ate 3 gyozas (wonton things stuffed with I think shrimp) and some of my apple.

After walking around the park for a little bit (not too much becuase, like I said, it was FREEZING cold!) we bought tickets for the water bus to Asakusa. The boat took us up the river and pointed out a lot of bridges and other things, but it was a little hard to hear and was mostly in Japanese. It wasn't crowded though, so that was nice. There was a group of school kids on the ferry and the girls couldn't get enough of clara. They finally dared one to come up to us and ask where we were from and what her name was. (I could tell, it would be like me making Stephanie or Dana go up and ask a spanish speaking couple where they were from and what their daughter's name was). Clara is a tough name for the Japanese though. I always get a sort of 'dropped face' response or a blank stare. Sometimes they'll try to pronnounce it, but mostly they just nod and say ""oh! oh! She so pretty!". To which I just nod and say "thank you!".

ANyway, after the Ferry dropped us off at Asakusa we walked to the Sensoji Temple. IT was orignially built in 628 AD but got destroyed and moved and has been at it's current location since the 60's or something like that. We also walked along the famous street that leads up to the temple.  Nakamisi Dori I think? I'd have to check my book. BUt it's basically a gauntlett of trinkett stores. Fun to look at but a waste of money really. We tried to go to lunch at a place mentioned in my Frommer's guide, but it was closed. So we took the train back to Ueno and walked through  the park.

We saw some street  performers but I don't think they were working for tips. . . so I'm not sure how that works in Tokyo. We saw a bunch of homeless people in the park too, which was innteresting becuase we didn't see any others really, except at Ueno. But  it was a nice big park and at the end of it was the Tokyo National Museum. We acutally missed a lot of stuff that was in the park--a zoo ab unch of statues and some other things, but I didn't know about them until Friday night.

Before we went into the museum we had lunch at the museum cafe right outside it. I had a delicious ratatoulle. They dind't have a high chair for clara so we had ot keep her in the carrier, but she did fine.

The Tokyo national Museum is HUGE. It's about 5 buildings and we only saw the permanent collections in 2 of hte buildings. While we were taking a break (becuase she took to screeching in the big, echoey display rooms instead of while waalking through the park or any other place we'd been that day) a TON of people started coming up to clara and saying how cute she was (in Japanese) and taking her picture! There were probably half a dozen japanesse people, men and women, crowded around her at one point, trying to take her picture.. She's still not an awesome walker, so I had to be near her to catch her and prevent head bumps, but I was also trying to get her to  smile. Of course it didn't work, but the people didn't seem to mind.  It was weird though. SHe's pracitcally a Japanese National Treasure now! Hahahahaha!

Then we walked back through Ueno park to the train station (clara had a little nap finally) and went to Akihabara, or, "electric city". I bought a teeny tiny 2 gig USB drive that's acutally a cell phone charm. We went to the Sega Arcade and tyler played a little bi of a display game, then we just walked around and looked at all the stuff! There were booths with nothing but wires and cables. Spools and spools of them. One stand had nothing but speaker plug ends and electric do-dads that I didn't know what were. There were also a bunch of stores like Spencer's Gifts back in teh states. Full of random crap and cartoon paraphenaliea (except the cartoons were all Japanese and mosstly Hiyo Mizaki's, like Kikki's Delivery Service or Howl's Moving Castle).

We got on the train at 5pm which I was nervous about for rush hour in TOkyo, but it wasn't too bad. Clara liked to hold onto the handles and fish hook tyler's mouth. I thought both were funny : ) We hit the grocery store again outside Shinegawa for dinner/breakfast items, but we still stopped at McDonald's which was across the street from the station. Clara started to lose it around now but we kept feeding her puffs until we could get back to the hotel. . . . when we realized I dind't quite pack enough food despite the fact that she was still eating what we were eating in ADDITION to the food I brought (mostly raviolis and jarred foods).

So I had to go down and talk to the consierge about where to buy some baby food (pronnounced "bebe food!" but said very fast) in Tokyo. The guy and girl were very helpful and found 3 places near the hotel with baby food. So we made plans to stop by in the morning and buy some.

Toooooookyooooo---TOKYO!

Wednesday the 4th

We went down to Tokyo as a last trip before Tyler deploys. After we got off the train from the airport we walked a long long LONG time before we got to our hotel--mostly becuase we dind't know where we were going and went the super long way around on foot. However, once in the room at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, we had a lovely nap (and I got a tuna sandwich from the hotel that was definitley not worth 1,900 yen--welcome to Tokyo). 

We went to dinner at TGI Fridays. I know I know, we go all the way to Tokyo to eat at a Fridays. . what do you want from me? It was Tyler's choice : ) We ended up dropping 7,500 yen on dinner at Fridays! Over $75 and we don't even drink! But it was still a good meal I guess, plus Tyler entertained Clara the majority of the time so that was nice.

We then went out walking and walked the really long way around the Epson Aquarium and Theater, but dind't acutally do anything in there. We walked back and took the train to Ginza (sort of like the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo). But we didn't do any shopping.

We needed help finding the Sony building in the area and the Japanese people were more than helpfull, but by the time we got there it was closed so we didn't get to see the show room or displays or anything. Tyler was bummed. I was cold. A random guy gave clara some candy and she took it (we need to work on that : ). We took the train back to our hotel and walked the SHORT way home (which was still long for me after this day!). I gave clara a bath and then she finally fell asleep for the first time at 9:30pm. She's a trooper.

Yes, this is the only picture I have of day 1. It's at Fridays.

St. George

I drove up to St. George for the week to visit Erika. I brought Frankie along. The ride there was fine, but I left in the evening so clara would sleep the whole way. And she did until I got off the freeway and hit construction. And by construction I mean about a mile stretch of road that is completely torn up and woke her up at midnight. She went back to sleep though once I got to Erika's place.

The kids really liked clara. Jake was so sweet the whole time. Here he's showing clara his video game. And Lucy just wnats to sit next to her. She was constantly wanting to help and be near clara. While she was eating, while she was peeing while she was sleeping. Clara needs blankie! Baby eating? Baby go pee! Clara! Clara!

I acutally loved it. It was really cute.




Here she's giving Clara her teething toy.








Shortly after she shared her drink with clara. clara just chewed on the lid.

She had one tooth when I left for St. George and she got another one on wednesday while I was there.


I watched the kids while Erika and Nate went out for their anniversary. Erika looked terribly cute!








But we mostly spent the whole time sewing. We sewed a Hooter Hider (which we found hte pattern for online but apparenlty hooter hider the company is mad that people know how to make them and are posting instructions online, so some people had to take them down, but we still got a copy : )

Isn't this fabric super cute? Wal mart. Erika picked it out.





She taught me how to make the fly so I can sew some pajama pants like she made me. These are jake's new flame boxers. I told him to pose and this is what he came up with. He's hilarious!





BUT!! the Big main project we sewed was a shopping cart seat cover! (Can also be used as a high chair cover in resturaunts!) We picked out the fabric from a super cute fabric store in town (which I went back to later for a great sale and bought a ton of fabric I had to pack in my bags to japan--probably not the smartest idea but SO worth it! Fabric is sort of hard to come by over here)


It has chocolate brown polka dots on teh underside and a minty/brown gear sort of design o nthe top.

There's four toy loops so I don't ahfve to constantly pick them up off the ground for her, and a little side pocket from other things. Snacks, perhaps, when she gets bigger. As of now it holds my water/juice/odwalla/whatever

We were suppossed to get compliments on it, but we didn't. I think because utha is lame and babies are a dime a dozen out there. (remeber how kendall and I got started out with the kids in CA? I bet you we would have gotten comments in CA! The fabric is SO CUTE!!)

We did other things, but that's all I have pictuers for. It was nice of them to let me bring Frankie and to stay so long. Erika will be opening up an Etsy shop soon so stay tuned for that! She'll have sewing stuff and her fabulous chocolates/candies too. And in case you're not sure which one she is, here's a nice photo of her.
HAHAHAhahahaha!! O hcome on erika! its a great shot! Plus it makes me understand where Jake got his posing skills from : ) heh heh heh