Clam Digging!

Last Saturday we went with our friends to the beach for some clam digging. This was our first time digging for clams so we had no idea what to expect. We wore shorts and sandals and we put swim suits under our clothes. When we left it was nice and sunny. Upon our arrival at the beach it started to get cold and cloudy. Our friends that we went with all had rain boots, long pants, and coats on. What were we in for? It wasn't that cold and the sand/mud was warm. We thought, "hey this wont be too bad." For Lane and I, we were fine but of coarse the girls got covered in sand and mud and were all wet and so after a couple of hours they were very cold. We had a good time digging and getting dirty. While most of the people around us stayed perfectly clean. I don't know how they managed that one. Grace and Sophia had a very good time. This was truly a dream come true for them. I am always telling them not to get dirty and to stay out of the mud and such.
While we only found 500 grams worth of clams we had a good time. We were given a 2 Kg limit and we were far from that by the time we were done. I guess we really aren't experts at finding clams. After clam digging we went to the store and bought more clams so that I could make clam chowder. The chowder turned out well and now I have a new appreciation for people who dig for clams. Over all it was a good experience that I don't need to experience again or at least until I forget what it was like.
Grace loved to play with the mud the most.

Poor Sophia fell flat into the mud.

Digging for clams or so they said. I think they were making mud pies

Having fun in the mud. Too bad it wasn't a warmer day, but at least it didn't rain.

Our findings. Half way through the morning we realized that we found lots of the wrong kind of shell fish. So that is why we left without very many clams.

Seoul Korea

Last week Grace, Sophia, and I had the opportunity to take a girls only vacation to Seoul Korea. I chose Korea because its close to Japan and a safe country for a mom and two girls to travel to. Prior to our departure to Korea, I ordered a Seoul travel book and read it throughly to know exactly what to do and expect on our trip. I made up day trips for all the days that we were there. Some day trips were for the girls enjoyment and some were for my enjoyment.
We left our house on Wednesday may 14th at 7am to catch the Shinkansen train to Tokyo. We then had to transfer to the airport train and we finally arrived at the Narita Airport with 1 hour to spare. We had a very short two hour flight to Korea. One of the reason I wanted to go to Korea was that their international airport (Incheon) has been voted the best airport in the world for the last four years and I had to see this for myself.
Although once we arrived I was not given much time to look around, but that was ok because we were going to have to come back. After we got through customs and such we quickly found the correct bus to our hotel which took us directly to out hotel in downtown Seoul. When we arrived at our hotel and to our delight, well mostly mine, across the street from us was an Outback Steak House. We don't have one of these where we live. We were able to eat here several times and Grace just loved the brown bread. Our hotel was in a very good location and it was very nice for us girls.

On our second day in Seoul I took the girls to Seoul grand Park Zoo. The girls love zoos and what kids don't? Grace and Sophia really enjoyed looking at all the animals and they both loved a baby monkey that we encountered. They could not stop laughing at him as he played in his cage.

Day 3 we went to some palaces and temples. The sad thing about Seoul is that just over 50 years ago it was destroyed by war. So everything we saw was rebuilt.


Day 4 we went to Seoul Tower and the national art museum. We went to Seoul tower on saturday and it was very crowed with high school students and other tourists. The Korean students could not get enough of Grace and Sophia. They all had to have pictures of them. So I told Grace if she could put on a great smile I would buy her a treat and she did a great job of smiling for the student. We also had an interesting encounter while we were at Seoul Tower. A lady came up to the girls and I and asked me where we were from. I told her we were from America. She then said how ironic I am from Iraq. It was a short awkward moment for me, but then she told how beautiful Grace and Sophia were and then asked to kiss them. So I let her kiss them on the cheek. It was the girl's first international diplomacy.
After Seoul Tower I was going to take the girls to a Palace of some sort but I could not find it. Along the way we stumbled onto the National Art Museum. Now I wasn't going to take the girls into an art museum, but it was a girl's lucky day. They had the Art of Cartier on display. I just had to see all the beautiful jewelry. I told the girls that it was princess jewelry in order to peak their interest. They could not get enough of all the beautiful jewelry.


Day 5 we went to an English speaking church which was really nice to attend and being able to understand it was wonderful to my ears. The girls had such a good time at church and they are really excited to move back to America knowing that they will understand everything people say to them.
Day 6 I took the girls to Children's Grand Park. It was the coolest park. 1 it was free, 2 they have a free zoo, and 3 the girls got to pet elephants, ride camels, and ride on ponies. Sophia and Grace loved it here. I wish they had parks like this in America.
We got to feed elephants, ride on the camels, and the girls got to go on pony rides.





Day 7 we went shopping for souvenirs. I only bought metal chopsticks. In Korea they eat with metal chopsticks unlike China and Japan who use wood chopsticks

Day 8 We went to Namsangol Hanok Village. Its a replica village so people can see how traditional Koreans lived. Grace and Sophia really enjoyed this because the village had lots of stone cobble walk ways threw gardens and most of the time you didn't know where you were going to end up. The girls sure love secret pathways.
Seoul Tower in the background.

After going to the Village we headed back to Incheon airport. The airport is very nice and new, and very fast and efficient. I was able to buy some Clinique make-up which I haven't been able to do in Japan so that was very nice. Grace was a little disappointed with the plane we were on going home because it didn't have a TV for her to watch. But after getting her meal on the plane, that included skittles, she was a very happy girl. We enjoyed the quick flight back to Japan where we ended up staying the night at a hotel near the airport.

We arrived too late to take a train back home.
On day 9 we slowly made our way back to Sendai so that Lane could pick us up from the train station after work. The girls fell asleep on my lap on the local train from Narita to Tokyo. Too cute.

The best part of the trip home was being able to ride on the double decker Shinkansen/Bullet train. The girls were very excited about it. They did not want to stay in their seats because they need to go and check out the staircase on the train.
Now we are home and very tired. I am glad that the weekend is here. Although we have a busy weekend planned. I love to travel and I am grateful that I can travel with my girls. They are truly good travelers for being only 3 and 4 years old.

Kinkasan and More.

Last week was a holiday weekend so Lane had Monday and Tuesday off. So we decided to go Hiking on Kinkasan Island (golden flower island) about One hour north east of us. I have wanted take the girls to this island because it is suppose to have semi-wild deer and wild monkeys on it. Well it was a beautiful day and we had a good time. I also included some pictures from a BBQ we went to on Saturday and me on mother's day.

Here we are almost at the top. It was a 1km hike up. But this spot had a stunning view of the ocean

Lane and Maria at the top.

So I don't have a good zoom on my camera so click on this picture and you will be able to see the monkeys. I didn't want to get too close because I am unsure of how wild monkeys behave.

View from the top.

Maria carrying Sophia. My little girls are not so little anymore and I can't carry them anymore unless I want an aching back. Thanks to Maria for carrying her.

Here is the picture of some of the deer. They are called semi-wild because well they are wild, but they are very friendly at the same time.

We went to a bbq on Saturday night and here is a picture of the grill. They cooked clams right on the grill and a bunch of meat and veggies. It was really good food.

At school Grace drew a picture of me for mother's day. I think she did a great job. She even drew tulips. My favorite flower.

Grace and Sophia got some fish from a game they played at a children's fair last week. They named the fish Mican(Japanese for tangerine) and Rapunzel.- Rapunzel already died. And Grace took it well.

Deep thoughts by Sophia

I have a little girl named Sophia. She is only 3 years old and she tends to say the funniest things even when she has not intended them to be funny. This post is including some of those funny things that Sophia has said to us over this past weekend. Now I know most of you don't know what she sounds like, but she has a very high pitched voice and she talks with some attitude some times. So here we go in no particular order.
1. On Tuesday Lane was going over our plans for the day with the girls and he was telling them how we were going to hike on an island and that we might see some deers and monkeys and we might even see our friend Maria. Sophia's response was,"Maria's not an animal dad."
2. On Saturday while driving back home from lunch Lane noticed a police car turning into our friends street, so he pointed it out to the girls. Sophia's response was,
"What did you say dad? I can't hear you." She repeated this about 5 times. She sounded like an older person who can't hear well. It was hilarious.
3. On Tuesday while we were hiking on the island we saw some monkeys cross our hiking path, Sophia's response was, "Hey look how silly, I think they are hiking like us."
4. On Sunday Lane was talking over the computer to his mom about Sophia going to pre-school next fall and debating whether or not to have her go to the same school as Grace. During this conversation Sophia was far away in the Kitchen eating breakfast. Lane said to his mom," I think Sophia will cry if she is not with Grace at the same school." Sophia's response in her snobby voice, "I don't cry when I am not with Grace." We had no idea she was eves dropping.
5. I always call her random nick names and last Friday night I called her pumpkin. Sophia's response was," I am not a pumpkin. I am not Jack Skeleton (Nightmare before Christmas movie). I am Sally. No wait I don't have leafs for arms. I am Sophia."
6. Last night at dinner Sophia asked Grace a question and Lane tried to respond to it and Sophia's response was, "I was not talking to you dad. When I ask you a question you can talk, but I am not talking to you right now so don't talk."
Sophia loves to talk about sharks. This is also what she sounds like for those of you who were wondering.

A day at Grace's school

Last Tuesday was an open day at Grace's school. This allows the parents to come watch the kids during a normal school day. This also happened to be a holiday for Lane so he was really excited to see Grace at school. It has been one year since the last open house that I could go and see so this was fun for me to watch as well. Its hard to know what is really happening in Grace's school with the whole language barrier so this was a good opportunity. (I have to add this real quick, there was just an earthquake. Minor but a little nerve recking. At least it didn't shut off the power.) Back to my topic now. Here are some pictures of Grace and her school. Afterwards we went to lunch at a pig farm where they had all sorts of animals on display. The girls had so much fun feeding the rabbits.
I had to put this picture up. The play ground equipment at Grace's school is fun, but very dangerous. The kids half to scale the mountain to go down this super long slide. And you can see Sophia playing on the metal airplane.

This is the main building at the school. Grace's class room on the bottom just to the right of the stairs in the middle.

Sophia feeding the rabbits. She had a hard time feeding them because she wanted to feed certain ones and they kept stealing the food she had to give them.

Lane is staring down the Ostrich.

Sophia trying to feed the scary goat.

This is a video clip of Grace at school. She was the group leader for the day so she introduced her Group and her self. Its so cute to watch her do this. She is very out going in class.