Santa Brunch - and Christmas fun!

I took Ellie and JR to the Santa Brunch at SRCC with Dad, Emily, Brian, Luke and Ms. Molly. Nana happened to be traveling and Lauren went to a breakfast at Kristien Woods' house instead for R+F.

Ellie got to wear her new dress from Nana (it is super-cute and she was very excited to show Santa). JR was happy just to wear his desert boots and a sweater. I swear that kid has a mind of his own. 

Overall it was a blast. Bummer Lauren didn't come but it is what it is. 

Zoo Lights 2015

We brought JR and Ellie to Zoo Lights tonight. I think it might be JR's first visit to the zoo (unless he was super young). They had a blast!

Highlight was the house with all the Big Cats. There were two lions and JR roared at them before we left. And he help pointing out the leopard. 

Ellie loved it and wanted to ride the carousel. We will have to do that next time. 

Great way to get in the festive spirit!

Getting back to journaling, but the topics are going to be different

I've decided to get back to journaling, but now that we have the two kids with a third on the way, I'm deciding to start chronicling some of the fun small things from their day-to-day and things we do together.

I'm going to find a way to do this from my phone but this will be a lot of fun to share with them when they get older.

Back to journaling!

Back to Japan - 2014 tour from Tokyo to Yokohama, Shonan, and Osaka

I'm back in Japan for a work project, and it's been a totally different trip from the last time. For this trip, we are doing training at four different sites around the country. What an interesting trip. Just a few of the highlights from each of the places...


Tokyo - this city just amazes me. I only had one night here, and that's never enough. We went to an awesome bar - Bar High Five - and it was killer. http://www.barhighfive.com/

We followed that up with just a solid dinner around the corner, and that was a great way to settle into what was going to be a fun week.


From Tokyo we had to go to Yokohama, and this was a much more laid back night. We were resting up for Osaka.

Two things were impressive for me during this part of the trip:
1. The client site in Shonan was as impressive of a research facility as I've ever seen
2. We got to take the bullet train from Shin-Yokohama to Shin-Osaka

Pictures of each below.

The final leg of the trip involved a few days in Osaka. Highlights included Osaka Castle, catching the last day of the cherry blossom festival along the river, walking through Dotonbori, and eating some amazing food.

The sushi place we went to for dinner was incredible - Sushi Hoshiyama. Very young chef, creative sushi, incredible experience.

Lunch for tempura was ridiculous