Monday: Sasebo and Home

Monday morning we were delighted to partake of some delicious Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  Oh, how we have missed yummy donuts!  Then we packed up and checked out, and went the the Sasebo Zoo.  I was a bit disconcerted that their "main" road was not one you would recognize as such. I was glad Dan was navigating.  I am not sure I would have been able to get us to the Zoo otherwise!

At the Zoo, we had a marvelous time!  It wasn't a big zoo, and some of the animals were quite sad and pathetic.  It was a chilly day and some of the animals seemed miserably huddled together for warmth. Somehow, despite the PETA- conflagrating conditions, we had a really great time. The kids really enjoyed it and we had fun. Plus, it was around $18 for the 7 of us to get in.  Yay!

The road to the zoo.  Yikes!

The Zoo.

Rylee is so cute.  She was feeling MUCH better.

Callie and Delaney.  They crack me up.

I think this elephant was 43 years old.  The writing was all in Japanese, but it sure looked 43.

This bear was awesome!

Check it out!  He was climbing the walls to say hi.

Of course, later we saw you could buy food to drop down.  So he was just hopeful, and then disappointed.

The baboons were interesting.  Odd and disturbing and cute.

Some were cuter than others.

The lioness was unimpressed with us.

Marian wanted a shot with the bunny.

And since Marian did, Rylee wanted a photo too.

The meerkats were SO cute!

Look at the one on the left, just sitting in the bowl.  

The petting zoo was not open, but that did not stop Callie!

They didn't need to go inside to give love.

This was cool!  The gophers (were they gophers?!) were fun.

The kids had a great time getting "underground" with them.

This made me laugh;  all 5 kids squashed in the viewing area!

This little guy wanted to say hi to Rylee.

Rylee was happy to make friends.

So much to love about this picture!

Me and a meerkat!

Yep, Rylee and a meerkat too.

My strapping young man.  He's growing up so handsomely. 

A pile of raccoons.

Delaney and a bunch of raccoon bottoms.

These spider monkeys were so cool!  The kids were able to push leaves under the wall for them and the monkeys were nifty with their long appendages. 

This fantastic looking thing is a Lesser Panda! 

 Yep, we must pose in every single one!

This right here was the very best part!  This was an amazing under-the-aquarium area where the penguins swam right over your head and around you! 

So amazing! 

Delaney, posing on the other side of the tank. 

My sweet Callie. 

And my darling Marian. 

The 5 little goobers actually sat down nicely and posed for me!  I love them! 

Are these really cabbages you can eat?  Or is a cabbage flower different? 

Driving home.  We are crossing the big bridge that connects the island of Kyushu to the larger island of Honshu, which is where Iwakuni is.

Sunday: Nagasaki and Sasebo

 I should have gotten photos of church.  Oops.  We went to the Japanese Branch in Nagasaki for church.  It was a little over an hour drive from our hotel in Omura.  The branch was super welcoming and nice, and the missionaries there were American and translated for us. After church it was a short drive to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial.

The Peace Memorial is to remember the atom bomb dropped there in 1945.

And these garlands ARE tiny origami cranes linked together.  1000 cranes for peace.

I'm not sure the girls really understood what happened here. 

They just wanted pictures with all the monuments. 

This one had the date and time of the bombing. 

This is where the hypocenter of the bomb was. 

I do love these kids, even if they are irreverent in solemn places. 

They did have a marvelous time feeding the pigeons.

Rylee was not feeling well.  She HAD spent the entire night puking non-stop, but she was a trooper and did not complain.

 Interesting info on the bomb.

This was a neat column of a building that mostly survived the bomb.  They moved it here to the peace park to serve as a reminder. 

Silly girls wanted another picture. 

Joshua was too cool to join them. 

Delaney is so cute! 

I may have mentioned how much fun they had with the pigeons. 

We drove 2 hours to Sasebo Naval Base for the night.  This was the view from that hotel!

Saturday: Fukuoka and Omura

 Saturday morning we left at 8am.  The kids claimed they were not exited about taking this trip, but they were still up and ready and surprisingly pleasant in the car.  It took us just over 3 hours to get to Fukuoka and 5500Yen in tolls.  We got to the temple with plenty of time.  We'd gotten a bunch of bags of Reece's Peanut Butter Cups for the missionaries, and so we stopped at the Mission President's house- he lives under the Temple.  He was super nice and invited us in and the girls took advantage of the bathroom there.  We visited for a bit, and then went out to do our thing.

Marian, at the mission president's house. 

The lighting is dreadful here, but here are the kids and the Temple!

 While I was inside the Temple, they wandered a bit.  Here are Callie and Rylee, with the Temple in the back.  It is in an odd spot, in the middle of the city, right next to a zoo!

Photo courtesy of Callie. 

After the Temple, we drove another 90 minutes or so to Omura.  There might have been some napping on the way!

Our Japanese hotel room.  The beds were hard as a rock and small. 

But we had a great view out our window. 

And did you know they have cigarette vending machines here?!!

We took a little trip

 Everyone had a 3 day weekend (well, the Americans did), so we went on a little trip, just to try it out. While I would not call it a colossal failure, I also would not call it a rousing success.  I would lean more towards success though, and the failure was somewhat due to the puke party going on.  We left on Saturday morning and just got back home (Mon evening).  I'm a bit tired and cranky, but didn't want you to feel unloved.  So, here are some random photos taken during the trip.  And I promise to bore you to tears with the details later.

Reason #67 Why I Love Being a Mom

Oh my goodness!  My children are too funny!  I'm listening to Marian play a very interesting version of "This little Piggy" with Rylee.


This little piggy is going to the ball.

This little piggy is putting lotion on his eyebrows.

This little piggy is that little piggy's boyfriend and is REALLY mad about the thumb asking her out.

And this little piggy is planning to sabotage the thumb's night out at the ball.