Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Bragging
I think I'm allowed to brag about my kids aren't I ? The middle school had an awards ceremony today and both Jonah and Abbey where on the honor roll with Abbey recieving and certificate of excellence in English (she has an awesome English Teacher, thank you Mrs. Ramirez). I am so proud of them both and all the work they have been putting in to their assignments. GO Jonah and Abbey!!!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Towada Ice Festival
Next on our list of Festivals is the Towada Lake Festival. It wasn't as big as the Hirosaki festival but the drive up to the lake was beautiful as we travelled along the Orasi gorge. It was a winter wonderland. Upon arriving at the festival we did realize that it was unbelievably cold -6 degrees and so we only stick it out for about 45 minutes before heading home.
Hirosaki Lantern Festival
We decided that this year we are going to get in as many local festivals as we can. We have had the opportunity to attend some pretty cool festivals and celebrations while we have been living in Japan such as the Nabuta festival but not so many local ones. Hirosaki is about a 2 hour drive from home and is a town built around an old castle, at the festival they have many lantern made out of ice that are lit with candles during the evening bringing a beautiful picturesque seen to the landmark. They also had a large group of small igloo looking structures grouped by the hundreds that you could see as you looked down from the hilltop which where kind of magical.
Friday, February 1, 2008
My Dad
I just wanted to include this picture of my dad skipping rocks with Ben and Jonah from last summer. Dad had his second heart attack on Sunday morning and has been in hospital till today. He had some exploratory camera work done to look at his heart and see what was wrong the surgeon found that one of the back blood vessels in his heart was so clogged it was only allowing about a needle size flow of blood through it fortunately right then the surgeon was able to place several stints in the vein to open it back up to about 1/4 of an inch. Dad says he feels like a new man and was so thankful that God was there guiding the surgeons hand. I am also so very thankful that my dad was being looked after as I am definately not ready to loose him yet!
