Tying up the loose ends in preparation for summer!

May finds us anxiously awaiting the end of school.  One month to go and summer means we get to go back home and see family!  But I am getting ahead of myself just a bit.  First we need to tie up some loose ends - like the entire month of May!  Ha Ha

Ben has been eager to figure out a way to make some money and suddenly he had a lawn cutting job fall into his lap.  He had a willing helper drive him over and assist with some trim work.  

Another big item for Ben was he finished the requirements for the rank of Star in Boy Scouts and was promoted at the last promotion board of the year. 

He was also formally recognized along with his fellow scout and friend Tommy for their work on getting the skatepark repaired.  

Meanwhile in Swansboro, the new forklift arrived!! Can't wait to see that thing in action next month!

While the Swansboro crew gets acquainted with the forklift, we gear up for celebrating another trip around the sun for the one who always makes sure we take full advantage of everything and anything - Jim!  Lucy and I tag-teamed on the cake.  She made the batter and I whipped up some brown butter chocolate frosting.  It was DELICIOUS!!!

Up next is Mother's Day.  Poor Jim, he has to share his big day with me ever since we started having kids.  Works out for me because I get extra CAKE! Seriously though, we decided to head over to Mt. Fuji to check out a famous pagoda called Red Chureito. According to what we have been told, this pagoda was relatively unknown until some foreign travel publications featured it as their cover shot.  We missed the cherry blossom season version of this site, but we enjoyed our time there nonetheless.

Wesley was fortunate enough to join us on this adventure.  I am not sure if he felt fortunate or not, but Jim insisted and since we were combining his Birthday and Mother's Day we gave in.  After checking out the Pagoda we were going to head over to a garden that was in full bloom.  However, Jim had other ideas.  Instead he headed halfway UP Mt Fuji!  We had dressed for spring weather, but the temperature at Station 5 was a chilly 45 degrees!!  BRRR!!  Even Wesley was like - what happened?

We do want to hike Fuji this year (if it is open) but hopefully it will be a tad bit warmer when we do it.  

Here is an up date on the metal card catalog drawers I pulled out of a dumpster a few months ago (yes, a dumpster).  I pulled two out, but decided to do one set at a time in case I totally messed them up.  My neighbor has graciously said he would help me figure out how to attach some legs to them, but in the mean time they can sit on top of this bench my daddy made.  I really like how they turned out!  Now I need to decide if I am going to attempt to refinish the other set and perhaps stack them on top of each other. 

Speaking of dumpsters...one day while taking Wesley for a run I saw this! 

It is some type of giant golf ball/cooler/stand.  I am not exactly sure why it is in the dumpster but I really want it!! Jim of course immediately said NO!  He may or may not have also brought up my purchase of a giant metal eagle while living in Yuma.  I am not exactly sure of the connection but he was adamant I was to leave it alone.  I of course couldn't do it.  I reached out to a few people to see if we could save it, sadly no one else could see the sheer awesomeness of this and it was eventually thrown away.  I still can't believe no one wanted to save it!  Tragic.

The following weekend we decided to take the kids downtown to check out the Shibuya Scramble Crossing along with some other sites nearby.  During non-covid times as many as 1,000 people will cross this intersection at the same time.  I cannot imagine how they do it without running into each other!  

Since we were right next door, we showed the kids the statue of the most loyal dog in Japan - Hachi-ko.  As well as hitting up some of the shops just off the scramble.  The place was fairly busy but of course it is nothing like it would be on a typical non-covid day!

The school is slowly wrapping up their year.  One of the last things to do is NHS inductions.  With all the Covid nonsense, we didn't get informed by the school until the last minute about when the ceremony was going to be held or how we would be available to watch.  Eventually they decided to put it on facebook.  Supposedly they took pictures for the parents but given the way the year has gone, I am not holding my breath for those pictures.  We do feel lucky that our kids have been in "live" school all year, unlike so many in the US.  I had to make do with taking a picture of Lilly on the computer screen.  Not great, but the most important part is she was inducted! She has really done a great job keeping her grades up and juggling all the extra curricular activities this past year.  

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to try out some camping.  Originally we wanted to head to Ishigaki to do some diving/snorkeling but with the current State of Emergency looming all over Japan, we decided to press the easy button.  Or so we thought.  Turns out it is not easy to rent a camp site in Japan.  Several we found were first come first serve.  Eventually we did find one that would take a reservation!  Our friends the Taylors were also camping so we decided to make it a group effort.  The campsite we found was situated  on Lake Yamanaka, which according to the map we found is the whale shaped lake.  I must say, I had pretty high hopes of finding some cute Japanese whale souvenirs.  We also discovered that this lake is part of the Olympic Bicycling Road Course events.  So our expectations were kind of high.   

The campground was great!! The sites were fairly close together, but there was plenty of space and trees for the kids to set up the hammocks and settle in for the night.  

Team Wellons set up all the Enos

Once the Taylors showed up the kids got down to some fairly serious corn hole tournaments while the parents got busy fixing dinner.

First night of camping

We did walked down the street to check out the sunset, but we weren't in the best spot to get a sunsetting behind Fuji shot, but still - it was pretty nice!

The next day we decided to rent some bikes and take a tour around the lake to see what fun things we could find/see.  I must say I was pretty disappointed that the ONLY thing I saw with a whale motif was this paddle boat.  Plenty of swans and ducks though.  Both in real life and represented.  😕

We also came across this display.  Which was the ONLY Olympic signage we were able to find.  Not to mention there was exactly ZERO Olympic swag anywhere to be found.  

More Fuji and swans

All in all, we didn't come away with a warm fuzzy on our readiness for the Olympic games in July.  We love the Olympics, hope the games will live up to everyone's expectations!