Tokyo and a Baby Shower!

Over Valentines/Presidents' Day weekend, Ashley, Dad, Keith and I went to Tokyo!

It. Was. Awesome!!

Here we are at Naritasan. We went after dark so the photo quality is muy mal :/

(in the day)

 

 

We stayed at a great hotel. We all loved the traditional breakfast food and Keith and I especially enjoyed the Traditional Japanese Bathhouse that they had.

 Tokyo is an incredibly big city, and the transportation is quite confusing.  There are 13 subway lines! And more train stations than I could count. Some of those train stations  handle over 2 million commuters a day! Thankfully the Japanese people were so kind and always helped us figure out where we wanted to go.

I have a new appreciation for the game "Ticket to Ride"

Imperial Palace: This is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Office Building is the best view of the City. The city went as far as I could see in every direction. It is massive, I don't know that I've ever seen anything like it. In fact, I know I haven't because Tokyo is the biggest city in the world! It is home to more than 35 million people!



Shibuya and Shinjuku:



Hachiko Square is the busiest pedestrian crosswalk in the world. Approximately one million people cross it each day, with as many as 10,000 people crossing during a single cycle of the light!! We were 4 in a million!



We saw a lot of neat Shrines. Here we are at the Meiji Shrine

We were so grateful we were able to see the LDS Tokyo, Japan Temple.



We went to Tokyo, in part, to celebrate dads big 5-0 birthday!! Because of the significant time change between Tokyo and Colorado, he had a 2 day/ 40 hour birthday!! How many people can say that!?!

It was also Michaels 21st birthday!! (Dad and Michael share a birthday) The Costa Ricans celebrated Michaels birthday with him as he continues to serve his mission. He is an outstanding missionary and absolutely loves it. I miss him so much, Im so excited for him to get home this summer! Here are some pictures of him from a few days ago:

Dad and Ash flew to Tokyo from Denver and first spent some time in Seoul, South Korea and then met me and Keith in Japan. Keith and I didnt have as much ease getting out there...Good thing we like Airports and are great travelers ;) We played the card game speed. If you are familiar with the game you know that you each have a pile of 5 cards that you flip over one at a time if you both cant play. We were both stuck so at the same time we flipped over our top card.  We both had a Jack, then a 10, then a King then a Queen and then another Queen. and neither of us could play off of any of those cards. We did the math (nerds, I know) and the chances of that happening are one in 45,882,910,000,000. CRAZY!

The picture below is Catherine Lowes dad (from the Bachelor)  I got to hear all about them and their story and the $70,000 ring that she gets to keep if they stay together for 2 years. It kept me very entertained to listen to his stories for about 45 minutes of the 10 hour flight. Keith and I both had middle seats, but at least we were next to each other :)

After Tokyo, I worked a few days and threw Jessica a baby shower. The shower was so fun and it was great to see a bunch of friends. It was also so wonderful to spend some time with my pregnant sister. I hope I'm half as cute as her when I'm pregnant.

**** Ashley made a video of our cruise to Chile last Christmas. Make sure to check it out, she did such a great job!!

Arizona/Colorado/Hawaii

For MLK weekend, Keith and I flew out to Arizona to see Jessica and Booby Rampton. It is always so fun to be with them, and we always wish we had more time together! We visited Midwestern, saw some of my friends from Jerusalem, rode the Tandem bike, picked lemons, oranges and grapefruit from the fruit trees there, played hearts, had a BBQ, went scorpion hunting, etc etc. Keith had to leave Monday to go back to school  and I left Tuesday to go to work. But, I couldn't make any flights to Denver! So I missed worked :( and flew home to Hawaii :)!

Its been really hard to leave Honolulu going standby lately. Thus I've had a lot of extra planes rides and new routes in the last few weeks... but the plane window views never disappoint me :)

 

 

 Lihue, Kauai



 

Kona Hawaii Airport 

When I was home in Colorado it was FREEZING!!! And that is even an understatement because 32 degrees is freezing and it was 50 degrees colder than that! It was -18!! With the windchill it even got as cold as -35!!! And I work outside people!!! Holy cow, it was cold. I kept thinking...'it's 100 degrees warmer at home in Hawaii...' One of my work friends posted this cartoon haha..

Regardless of the well-below-freezing temperatures, it was great seeing and being with the fam a few days. Kylee and her friend Katie gave me spa treatment at their "Joy and Happiness Spa" and I was able to see Ashley's swim competition ( PS They had school canceled for two days because the weather was so cold!)

 

It's great to be back in Hawaii. Here we are at the Pali Lookout recently. I always miss Hawaii when I'm gone.

But not nearly as much as I missed this handsome face.