Parent hour and a birthday package

Bingo!

Craft time

Mr. Alex and Weston

Weston reading with his friends

Westons Lorrax mask

Our adventure walk

Westons new pirate blanket

Opening gifts

 On Friday, I was able to go and visit the boys at summer camp. I spent time with both boys and enjoyed seeing them and their different activities. After camp was over for the day, we took a little adventure walk around the compound. It is really pretty here and there are trails and different walkways to explore. The boys ate their popsicles and we took in the scenery. 

Tommy also brought home a birthday package from grandma and grandpa Bell that arrived at the embassy. Weston loves pirates and it was full of pirate gear for him and Ashton. There was also an awesome pirate blanket made by grandma Bell. Thank you for the package!

We have had a fun weekend. Tommy and I were able to go out on a date on Friday night. Roppongi was in full friday night party mode and we enjoyed dinner and took in the energy of the city. Saturday we went to a festival at the kids' recreation center Nandamo. I will post about that that next week. 

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and are enjoying the Olympics! 

4 year old Weston

Crazy faces

Happy birthday hugs from all the boys

New backpack for school

The babies watching and playing

Birthday in Utah

Nana gave him a remote control Lamborgini

Weston was lucky this year and had several birthdays. One was in Utah with all of my family before we left for Japan. My Mom made him an awesome bumblebee transformer cake. The Saturday before his actual birthday we let him open his gifts and we went out on a family outing. Monday the 23rd we made a yummy dinner and had cake and his favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream (and rented a movie of his choice-Men in Black 2). I think Grandma and Grandpa Bells gift arrived at the embassy today, so he will get to open even more gifts tonight (thank you!).

Happy birthday to our sweet 4 year old!!! 

Roppongi Hills

In the middle of the business of the city

Huge slide

A fun robot art piece

The twins love being outside

Slides galore!

We ventured out again yesterday to the ever popular Roppongi Hills area. It was a nice walk, very busy with crowded streets and a lot going on. One of my favorite things about Tokyo so far is how clean it is. There is never any garbage/litter anywhere, no cigarette butts etc. People are also very friendly here. We always get a lot of attention when we are out because of our kids. I guess it's because they are blond haired blue eyed american kids but also because of the twins. In fact last week Tommy and I were swarmed around by about 20 tourists. Camera flashes were going off every second and they were so in love with the twins that we had strapped on us in the baby bjorns. I will post about that story later.

After we walked around the shopping area of Roppongi (which included a trip inside the Lego store!) we walked a little further to the "Robot park." We let the boys play for a while and they had a great time. 

We made the 30 minute walk back just in time to head over to a friends apartment for a little party. It was great to get out and let the boys play with the other kids that were there. At one point, they went to another friends house to get some nerf guns. Another plus of living on the compound is that it is extremely safe with little to no traffic. There are only 2 ways of getting in and out and both gates are guarded. So all of the kids were outside playing around the grounds while we visited inside and enjoyed a fun evening! 

We still have a lot of exploring to do. 

Roppongi Hills will definitely be a place we will visit more!

Our big 5 month olds!

 NIXON!!!

COOPER!!!

Today was a bitter sweet day. My mom left Japan after 2 weeks of playing, sightseeing, exploring and helping us get settled.

We are so glad that she came and spend time with us. It has been a great few weeks.

The twins also turned 5 months old today! They are so much fun and we can't remember life before they were here. They are so happy, playful and smily :) They really light up when Ashton or Weston talk and play with them. Ashton's favorite thing to do is hold the babies while he is standing up. Weston likes to show the babies his lego towers and tell them about pirates!

...

Happy 5 months Nixy-boo and Cooper-troop! We love you.

Japan--We already love it here :)

Tommy's first day of work. So handsome! 

My mom and I after our walk to the supermarket.

One of the grocery stores

Mimi and her boys!

Virginia with Weston and Nixon

My mom pretending to be homeless with her shopping cart ha ha!

At McDonald's 

Well, we have made it safe to Tokyo and honestly I can't think of a single thing I don't like so far.

It is hot and humid (but not bad at all) and there are mosquitos galore, but we have been having fun.

The flight here went really well. None of the kids had a melt down. They just slept, ate, played and watched movies. The babies did extremely great too. 

We were met at the airport by our Embassy Sponsor and taken to our car that drove us to the compound. It is really pretty here. The grounds are green and gorgeous. There are ponds and streams throughout and the kids have enjoyed finding the fish and turtles who live in them.

There is a small store on the compound with food and necessities so if you needed something and couldn't get to the military base right away it's close.

Our van is on it's way over, but walking is really all we will be doing here. We brought our van mainly because Japanese cars are a lot smaller and we needed the room and for sightseeing and church we will want to drive.

We have found a few grocery stores, 7-eleven's (and other convenient stores), tons of places to eat and even a McDonald's. 

It is like living in downtown Manhattan but it is so much cleaner. The compound is like a quiet sanctuary in the middle of the city. The second that we step out of the gates, we are smack dab in the middle of the hustle and bustle of everything.

We spent the weekend recovering from jet lag and did some sightseeing (that included a lot of walking). It is nice seeing what is near us and finding different places to go back to.

Monday morning I spent a good portion of the day at the Embassy getting my badges and checking on our shipments, car and plans to move into our apartment. It was nice to see where Tommy will be working everyday. 

We are so excited to be moving into our temporary apartment this Thursday! This is extremely unusual because most of the time, you are in temporary housing for weeks, even months before you can get into your new place. Also we found out that our air shipment is here and will be dropped to our temp. quarters on Thursday also! Lucky us! Our car and boat shipments will still take a while, but it will be here before we know it.

This post is all over the place because we have been doing and seeing so much! My mom and I walked to the supermarket to get some produce, fish and japanese cuisine. We put the babies in the bjorns and made the trek to and from. We were tired, hot and sweaty by the time we got home. While we were gone the big boys played with Virginia (Nana as they will call her) and went to the pool.

As you can tell we have been busy. The kids are adapting great and seem to have not missed a beat. I am really happy with our move. I am so thankful that Tommy is such a hard worker and that we got this job. I can already tell that these moves will be such good confidence builders for all of us. It requires all of us to be outgoing and meet a lot of new people, and of course we get to see the world.

Stay tuned for lots of pictures and updates as our adventure is only beginning!