hi.

Hi.

We are surviving Japan! By surviving I mean that we are hanging in there during these most boring of days, but are counting our blessings that we are getting so much family time together!! The weather is awesome right now, couldn't ask for anything nicer, well except maybe a little less "haze" or whatever that stuff is from China that turns our blue sky gray! We have been doing a lot of bike riding and are getting to see different parts of the city, so that is very fun! Brian surprised me for Mother's day and took us all to Kyoto for the night! It was a very fun trip! Just great to have a change of scenery and of course, Averie loved it- if she had her way, we would live in a hotel! Kyoto is an old Japanese City that is famous for its many temples and shrines and I had always heard it was a must see destination! So, since I am a photographer and a picture lover...what do you think I went and did? Oh ya, you guessed it- LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME! Not just the DSLR, but the point and shoot too! I think I am the first person to visit Kyoto with no camera! At least i phone has a decent one, so i took some with that!

Kyoto is about a 2 hr train ride North from Hiroshima and we stayed at a hotel that was connected to the Kyoto train station, so that was nice and handy! The hotel was very nice and had an indoor pool...yippee, we all get to go swimming.....NOPE- Kids are only allowed in the pool until 9 am and they have to be 3 years old. Bummer! Strange Japanese rules...So Daddy took Averie while Jagger napped and I got ready in the room!! After swimming, we went to breakfast at a place Averie had spotted the previous night when we first got off the train- "Honey Bees"! We had some delish waffles that were covered in ice-cream, whip cream, cheesecake, chocolate bananas and strawberries! More of a dessert really, but anything goes on "vacation" right?! We walked around the Gion district which was famous for its Geisha girls and ate at a little (curry udon) noodle shop that is somewhat famous I guess-I wasn't a fan but I am happy I tried it once! We also went to Sanjusangendo Temple. Inside are 1001 Buddhist Statues- the whole Buddha thing is very interesting! I don't think I will be converting religions anytime soon :) i LOVE my GOD!!! 

We had a pretty uneventful week this week- brian had a bone scan to see if it's bone spurs that are bothering his elbow so bad, and turns out it is! We are waiting on a doc in the US to find out if he should get surgery- hopefully we will know soon :)

Hope you all had a Great weekend! xo