What a day! I'm exhausted! It started at 4:55 am. Adam and I are trying to get ready to run the Tokyo marathon in February, so just running short runs during the week, then a longer run together on Saturdays, adding on 1 mi. each week. Anyway, since we had a day trip planned today with the kids, we had to do our run early. Had the babysitter sleep over to save time this morning. We were up to 10 mi. this morning, it's fun, like a date, I just talk Adam's ear off talking about anything and everything to make the time pass. We got back a little later than planned, Adam threatened me not to wash my hair because we didn't have time, but after 10 yrs, I'm still not intimidated, and washed it anyway. ( I only made everyone on the bus wait 7 min--oops) Used the babysitter, threw everyone together in a whirlwind, and off we were, to ride a steam locomotive, pick and eat apples from an orchard, and visit Tsuwano, a quaint little Japanese town with temples, shrines, Torii's, little shops, and lots of coi (carp). I packed so well last night, laying outfits out, preparing 6 lunches, snacks, jackets, etc. I did pretty well, only forgot 1 thing, 1 important thing, the front pack. I was a little nervous for a minutes once I realized, but then just thought, I've got blankets, a billion jackets, I can jimmy rig something up. Adam's fleece jacket made for a comfy little front pack for little Luke. Too bad our camera broke after 1 picture, or I'd post a pic of it. Why can't the camera break just before the trip, so you can bring the other camera?? Murphey's Law I guess. Most of the day went pretty well, as well can get these days with 5 kids. The train ride was really neat, until someone opened a window while in a tunnel. Lots of black smoke, even Jakey was making faces. At least it wasn't one of my kids who opened it. This time. After we got off the train we were lucky enough to be walking right next to the engine as it took off again and tooted it's whistle. It was SOO loud and long!! I covered Lukes ears the best I could, but he and Jacob were both screaming hysterically after. Fun times. At the apple orchard, both Jacob and Isaac never quite mastered the apple orchard rule of "finish one apple before you pick another". It's way more fun to pick than eat. But at about $6.00 for 4 apples, I didn't want to pick any to take home. We'll eat applesauce, it's a lot cheaper. And the apples were free while we were there, so long as you ate them. Tsuwano Village was very nice. We had 2 hrs to spend there, so that meant we got to see 1 shrine walking at a 2 yr old pace, stopping to feed every coi along the way. Actually, we really hustled at the end, and were able to get ice cream before heading back on the bus to go home.
Well, that was our day in a nutshell, hope I didn't bore you, we miss you all!! Off to bed..
Becky