Started out slow, but definitely picked up speed towards the end

The last couple of weeks before the kids start school always seem to lag.  The girls are both trying out for volleyball so they have started conditioning and Ben is all over the place hanging with his friends, which leaves me quite a bit of time to watch all the Olympic events I want!  The problem I am having is deciding which events to watch live and which ones to watch on replay.  It is a good problem to have.  I still wish we were able to see the games in person.  Especially since a good number of them are about 1 1/2 hours away!

Since we can't go see any Olympics, my friends and I decided to hit up a wind chime festival.  Wind chimes (or Furin) symbolizes the start of summer in Japan and there are major events all over throughout the summer where you can go and purchase chimes in an array of designs.  The day we went however, there was not a breath of wind, but lots and lots of chimes.  The writeup we read called it a festival, but we went mid-week and it was more of a market. We weren't complaining though, because I could not imagine being at the Kawasaki Daishi Shrine with a bunch of people.  It was very nice to be able to just walk around without crowds.  I even picked up a couple more wind chimes to add to my growing collection, much to Jim's chagrin.

Someone celebrates a birthday this week.  He wasn't in the mood to take a portrait, but I was able to snap him enjoying his birthday ice cream.  Yoshi came sniffing around and Wesley actually growled at him!  I don't think I have ever heard Wesley growl at the cat - EVER!  

Yoshi, in turn, jumped up into the stool, demanding his own treat.  This is not unusual.  He does it about 5 times a day.  It usually works. 

There are a lot of great ramen places nearby and the kids have tried several of them, but by far this one is their favorite.  They would choose to eat here multiple times a week if we let them. Lucy finally asked us if we would like to try it.  She was right, it was pretty good - and this was Jim’s first meal off base after quarantine!

The 2020(1) Olympics ended earlier this month, but lucky us, the Paralympics are starting up and although we still aren't allowed to go see the events, we are lucky enough to host the track and field and swim teams here on Yokota until they can move into the Olympic Village.  Since they are on the base, they invited the public to check out their practices.  It was pretty motivating to say the least.  I have never watched much of the Paralympics, I have a feeling that will not be the case this year.

The last week of summer finds Ben and one of his friends at a Japanese Adventure camp up in Hakuba, near Nagano.  Some of the activities he will be experiencing are mountain biking, rock climbing, white water rafting, canyoning, kayaking and camping.  I am not sure how they were able to get all these activities completed in the 5 days he was gone, but they did!

Lucy agreed to come with me to pick him up.  We had thought we would go up as a family and also do some canyoning but in the end we didn't have time.  Hoping to be able to do it in October.  We got a late start on our 3.5 hour drive and weren't expected to get to our room until 11:00pm.  That ended up being even later when the highway we needed to use was closed and they detoured us.  Sadly the GPS didn't know how to get us to our destination using any other route.  So after several TENSE minutes of us driving in circles, Lucy was able to find an alternate route that found us on essentially a goat trail that winded up and down several mountains.  (she is cool under fire!) We finally rolled into our AirBnB about 1:00am.  It was not fun - AT ALL!

But the next day was better.  Lucy and I had a nice breakfast and then decided to take a gondola up the mountain to one of the very ski runs we did multiple times when we were there over the winter skiing!  We had lunch and watched several paragliders run past us and launch themselves off the mountain! It was crazy!  We also visited the Hakuba sign and public foot bath and several other stores that we missed the last time we were here.  All in all, we had a very laid back day.  It was fabulous.  We picked up Ben at the train station and headed back to Fussa without any traffic snafus - whew!

Two days later the new school year started!!  Kids are looking forward to a great year!

Both girls made the Volleyball team. Lucy is on the JV team and Lilly is one of the Varsity Captains.  Since we are only playing DoDEA schools at the moment, they only have games on the weekends.  The very first weekend they are long hauling it to Iwakuni (+14 hours away) for two days of Volleyball against two other teams.  They sleep on either a gym or classroom floor.  They are looking forward to playing and bonding with their teammates while riding on the bus.  We are looking forward to watching the live streams of the games.  Right now, we are not allowed to travel to watch them play (not that I was considering it) and will have to wait until the first home game in September to see them play in person.  I feel sorry for the bus drivers.  You know that bus is LOUD!

They have all their gear and are ready to play!

Home - for the weekend

Lucy sent some pictures she took of Lilly.  Lilly returned the favor but in video form. Jim and I watched the Friday afternoon games but the feed was disrupted so we didn't get to watch.  The teams played pretty well, but they ultimately lost their matches.  

 

While the girls were busy, Ben was doing his own thing.  His Boy Scout Troop had an end of summer pool party at the indoor pool.  He looked like he was having a good time! 

Babies, family & travel woes

We ended the last edition with an update on Jim and we begin this month with him too!  He is on way to meet up with us in NC but has to make several stops.  Don't feel too badly for him, he got an upgrade and his first stop is HAWAII!😬!  Granted he is only going to be there for about 30 hours, but that is longer than the rest of us have gotten to be there.  

The travel gods give and the travel gods take away, Jim's next stop is Washington, DC.  He took the red eye from Honolulu and was able to swing by one of his best hometown friends to meet the newest addition to their family - James! Jim loves babies!  So he was right at home with that baby in his arms.  

Speaking of babies, Jim drove straight from Scott's family to his sister's house and got to get even more baby time!  In fact, this is his first time meeting his niece and he is officially the last family member to do so.  Madeline took to him quite nicely once he started reading books to her.  Brother John joined up and there was a mini Wellons Family reunion happening!  

I believe he did actually have to attend at least one meeting at the Pentagon. But it wasn't long before he was on the road heading south!  

All together again!

Ben wasted no time on getting him up to speed on all the things we had been doing before he arrived.  This included a spin on the new forklift and of course a boat ride with Capt Ben at the helm.

 

Hmm, do Gregg and I want to know what these two are talking about?

Jim showed up just in time for the 4th of July.  It is a crazy busy time at the marina, and the kids are "all in" with helping by working the docks.  But it isn't all work and the weather was PERFECT -- blue skies, light winds ... but HOT.  Jim's parents and sister Sallie plus two of her sons drove down to spend a couple of days hanging out with us and enjoying the coastal life.  

Sadly, that visit was all too short.  A few days after the holiday, Jim drove back up to DC but this time he had company - Lilly!  She has kept in touch with a friend and they had been planning a visit pretty much all year.  Jim said it was touching to watch their reunion and as much as he wanted to spend the quality time with Lilly in DC, he knew that this visit with her friend was just what she needed.

After a couple of days they got in the car and headed to Richmond to stay with his other sister and with that visit, he got to see all of his siblings.  He hasn't seen them since his promotion two years prior!  One more special stop just outside of Richmond at his cousin's house where he got to see yet another BABY - Luke!  I am glad the baby days are over, but I think Jim's ready for another one...  

While Jim and Lilly were in DC, the rest of us were having fun too!  Ben was improving his boat handling skills and Lucy and I took an overnight trip up to Southern Pines. We had to cut our trip short due to an approaching tropical depression but we were able to get in a visit with some friends and have a delicious crepe breakfast before the rainy drive back to the Boro.  

Jim's cousin Patti was on her way to drop her son off at a nearby camp and we were able to get together over at Granny's house with my cousins for a fun family cookout.  It is good that we were able to blend both sides of the family so seamlessly. I don't know how I got so lucky to have such a cool family!

Next up is Lucy's 15th birthday!!!  How is our sweet baby girl 15? I hate to sound like a broken record, but it truly does seem like just a few years ago she was barely crawling and now she is a rising sophomore in High School!  

It wouldn't be a trip to home without at least one night spent at MacDaddy's.  Usually it coincides with Lucy's birthday and this year is no exception.  Gigi sent me this screen shot which I just love.

As soon as we arrived, the kids disappeared into the arcade to blow their allotted money on the games while the adults made their way over to bar area and ordered our dinner.  Afterwards we all ventured outside to the Go Kart area to watch Jim battle the kids for supremacy.  He usually misses out on this part so it was nice to see him getting to play.

After MacDaddy's it was time for presents and cake back at Nanny's!  I told her all of the presents from us would be waiting for her in Japan. She still had plenty to open and I would say she was pleased with her haul!

The next day was departure day or at least for some of us.  Jim's return was delayed for a few days but before we separated (again) he was able to get a few of the kids to join him on a jet ski ride over to the beach.  

The kids and I piled in the Sequoia and headed to Raleigh to catch our evening flight out to Dallas.  RDU wasn't super crowded and we were able to get through security and to our gate without too much fuss.  Although the girls would say that I was not nice to the lady at the counter when we were checking in.  I would use the word terse.  But we have agreed to disagree.  Bottom line, we made the flight and arrived in Dallas and then to our hotel without incident.  

The next morning we were up and back at the airport in time to enjoy some down time at the Centurion Lounge before heading over to the gate for our flight to Tokyo.   The kids would probably agree that if you can ever get into a lounge at the airport - DO IT!

Last chance for Chick-Fil-A!

At the gate we found some familiar faces!  Friends we spent many a happy hour and too many Okinawan adventures with.  The kids were all excited and you wouldn't have been able to tell it had been a year since they had seen each other!  We even got the bonus excitement of having several members of the Dominican Republic's Taekwondo Olympic team sitting near us at the gate.  Once we were boarded we saw several other people sporting different Olympic team paraphernalia although we weren't sure if they were athletes or support staff.  It was kind of exciting nonetheless.

The flight over was not crowded and we all had room to spread out which of course really helps when you are on a 12+ hour flight.  

If I thought I had shown my extensive paperwork collection to get on the flights back to Japan too many times, I was ill prepared for how many times I would need to show it once we were allowed to get off the plane.  I wish I was kidding when I say that I had to show basically the exact same paperwork at every single stop along the way.  At every stop, the worker would spend several minutes writing things down and checking things off, hand me back my stack of papers/passports/phones (we all had to have a QR code saved to our phones) times 4 since there were 4 of us and point me to the next person who would do the exact same thing - For three hours!  

Thank goodness we had linked up with our friends because it made the process a bit less painful and a whole lot funnier.  When we finally cleared the processing/testing gauntlet we breezed through customs until we got to the food sniffing dogs.  I had already filled out paperwork stating we had not smuggled in any food items and we were led past a dog that started jumping in front of Lilly.  I looked at her and was like - what do you have in your bag 😳?!  Turns out it was a banana she bought before boarding the plane in Dallas that she forgot was in there.  So that ended up being a pretty funny albeit embarrassing event.  Thankfully the food police just made her throw in away and didn't cart her off to food jail.  

Our driver was waiting for us at baggage (I hope he hadn't been waiting there for the last three hours but I think he was).  We were able to grab a quick Starbucks for the road and our 2 hour ride back to the house.

This is what greeted us upon our arrival back home.  Wesley was SUPER excited to see us!!  Yoshi was a bit more cautious, but by the second night he was back to sleeping in the bed with me.  I have missed that.

Jim, meanwhile, is still in NC at this point.  I am super jealous he got some extra time with my parents.  I would have given pretty much anything to stay in Swansboro for extra time. I sure hope he took advantage of the time and didn't spend all of it working on the computer.

Finally he was able to start his return trip to Japan.  He somehow managed to score a seat on the Patriot Express which is the military chartered flight out of Seattle.  While he didn't not get to see the Corders this time, he was able to connect with another Naval Academy buddy over a few beers.  

Then he got to relive the PE experience all over again.  Of course this time his pain was significantly diminished because he was flying without us and the dog.  He said for the most part the airport was a zoo.  Lots of people, lots of chaos.  Very few of the people on his flight probably had moved to Japan before so that makes for a tense situation.  Pile some misinformation and misinterpretation of information and you get a "not fun" situation.  We are just happy he was able to get on the flight.

 

Thank goodness Yokota is the first stop on the PE route!  Welcome home Jim!  We sure have missed you.

The kids and I made a bet on how long it would be before Jim invited people over for dinner.  We all lost, it took him 1 day.  But it gave us an excuse to set up our projector and watch some US Women's soccer on the back patio!  Perfect ending to July.  I know what I am going to be doing for the next two weeks.