Family Trip to Kyoto

The first time I went to Kyoto Chris wasn't able to go, because he was in Alaska or Iraq or Las Vegas or something... take your pick. :) We were looking for an opportunity to go back so Chris could experience Kyoto as well. When Chris got a couple days off of work last week, we booked the last rooms left in Kyoto (it was cherry blossom season) and took a 3-day, 2-night trip to see the city.

Katelyn had never seen anything as exciting as a Shinkansen before. She was obviously pretty thrilled about her first big trip.

I had forewarned Chris that it is actually pretty rare to see geishas in Kyoto, even though that's where they're most plentiful. We were pretty excited to see a geisha within hours of getting off of the train.

...and then we saw two more and Chris started doubting my previous statement.

Kyoto is known for sights like this... pagodas, shrines, lots of people...

It really was a beautiful day. And it was nice to be there when the cherry blossom trees were blooming.

The whole family; Me, Katelyn, Chris, and our shy, adopted, Japanese son.

Happy traveler.

I was a happy traveler too when I got my coffee and unidentifiable but delicious afternoon dessert. Chris stuck with the more manly option of a local beer and edamame.

This is the "Golden Pavilion" (a.k.a. Kinkakuji), which is probably the most famous site in Kyoto. It really is covered in gold leaf. And it really is old. I thought the brochure said it was built in the 1200s. Wikipedia says it was built in the 1300s. It also says it was rebuilt after it burned down in the 1950s. Bummer. Well, it's somewhere between 60 and 800 years old.

Katelyn was pretty popular with the little old ladies.

Best restaurant of the weekend? this little French cafe we found when we accidentally got lost. Not only did they have AMAZING entrees for lunch, then also had delicious coffee and cake sets.

Katelyn was very disappointed that the cake sets we ordered weren't for her.

Bamboo grove near the French cafe.

It probably looks way cooler from the seat of a rickshaw.

We went up Kyoto tower for drinks later that afternoon. And of course Japan would have a cartoon caricature of the tower that you can pose with.

One of my favorite places from my last trip to Kyoto was Nijo Castle. We were very disappointed when we got there at 4:02pm, two minutes after they stopped admitting people for the day. However, they reopened that evening after dark, and the whole castle grounds were illuminated to highlight the cherry blossoms. 

It was a gorgeous walk through the cherry blossoms, but very difficult to capture on camera without a tripod.

It turned out not to be such a bad thing that we missed seeing the castle during the day.

Our last day in Kyoto we went to the Fushimi Inari shrine. This shrine is famous for it's thousands of torii gates. 

Holy cow. They weren't kidding when they said "thousands" of torii gates!

Each torii gate is donated by individuals or companies. The name of the company and the price of the torii gate are written on the back. The prices range from 400,000 yen (about $4K, depending on the yen rate) to over 1,000,000 yen (that's well over $10K for all you Americans looking to buy a gate). 

So if my math is correct, there's a crap-ton of money that was invested into this mountainside.

The tunnels of torii gates started and stopped and slowly wound their way up the mountain. It was a nice little hike.

Towards the top of the mountain, Katelyn made it very clear in her own little way that she needed a diaper change. We stopped in this little restaurant or hut or something because (as you can see in the top left corner of the picture) the sign said it was free. The nice gentleman who owned the place saw what we needed and not only offered to let us change her diaper there (brave soul), but brought us complimentary tea, turned on a heat lamp so Katelyn's tush wouldn't get chilled, and gave us a little plastic bag for the offensive diaper.

Katelyn did great on her first big trip. But she would really rather us stop taking pictures of her. :)

Grandma and Grandpa Visit Japan

Mom and Dad... or... Grandma and Grandpa(?) came to visit us after Katelyn was born. They were here for two weeks of sightseeing and touring Northern Japan. Well... quite a bit of that time was spent lounging around and catering to the needs of a very adorable but demanding newborn, but we got out for a bit of sightseeing and touring:).

I don't actually have many pictures of my parents' visit to Misawa, but I'm sure they have a couple (hundred) they could show you if you stopped by. ;) Here are a few we took with our camera... 

Katelyn is really not that photogenic. But if you take enough pictures, one of them is bound to turn out... right? 

Still trying to get that picture.

Ok. We'll stick to photographing adults instead:).

Like I said, we did get out a bit. One day we drove to Hachinohe to see the beach there. We happened upon a small festival where my parents were able to try tons of local food. These were octopus dumplings. Interestingly enough, they stuck with mostly french fries and chicken on a stick after this one:).

Mom supports local farmers and craftsmen.

We did make it to the beach eventually. Hachinohe has a beautiful rocky coastline. 

Mom and Dad had never looked east to see the Pacific ocean before.

It was a pretty windy day, but it made for beautiful waves along the rocky shore.

Another day we took the family to the aquarium. Katelyn loved it.

...well, most of it.

Another day we drove up into the Hakkoda mountains to show them all the snow.

They took the ropeway up.

And they took the ropeway down. Chris strapped on his skis and raced them to the bottom of the mountain. Chris won. Or maybe I won. Because I was warm, at the bottom of the mountain, with a cup of hot chocolate and a sleeping baby:).

Katelyn

The mild contractions that had started that morning (March 9th) during breakfast were getting to be a lot less mild. I finally started timing them when Chris left for work thinking I would probably time them periodically throughout the day, and then, if I was lucky, we would head to the hospital that evening. 

I immediately regretted sending Chris off to work... My contractions were only about 4 minutes apart and a quick phone call to Labor and Delivery confirmed that I should probably come on in. Chris rushed home, helped me finish packing the hospital bag, and we sped off to the hospital. Let me just say as a side note, rushing to the hospital when the speed limit is 40km/hour or 25mph can be a little anticlimactic. We pushed it up. I'm sure we were going at least 30mph.

We got to the hospital about 9am, walked down to Labor and Delivery (slowly, and with frequent breaks for contractions), and were admitted right away. I was already dilated to 6cm so things were already moving along faster than I had expected. I debated to myself about having an epidural for the next couple hours. I would decide I wanted one during a contraction, but then by the time the contraction had passed and I was able to actually speak, I had changed my mind. When they examined me for the second time, I was already 9cm... so the epidural never happened. Katelyn was born at 1pm after a fast but otherwise uneventful four hours of labor.

Chris didn't have time to change out of his flight suit until after she was born and we were settled in to the recovery room.

Holding her for the first time after Chris helped with her first bath

Proud father

Later that afternoon, getting settled into our recovery room. Chris and Katelyn were exhausted:)

Huck is a pretty good watch dog. He runs to check on her every time she makes a noise. I'm pretty sure he would offer to help change her diapers if he had opposable thumbs.

She does a lot of sleeping during the day. She knows how important it is to rest during the day if you expect to stay awake all night... :)

Belly shots

22 Weeks

26 Weeks

38 Weeks

40 Weeks - Katelyn Aleen Behrens was born on March 9 at 1pm.  She weighed in at 7lbs 15oz and measured 19.9 inches long. Welcome to the world, baby girl!

More Misawa Snow

I thought we got a lot of snow last winter, but apparently that was just an average winter for Misawa. This year has been above average... the snow just keeps coming!

It turns out that Chris is an excellent snow shoveler. I was skeptical at first, because he always managed to be deployed or TDY during our heavy snowfalls. :) It also turns out that I'm an incredibly ineffective snow shoveler while pregnant. Thank goodness Chris didn't deploy this winter!

I'll leave the snow shoveling to Chris... I'll take care of exercising the dog. The golf course near our house turns into a snowshoe paradise during the winter. Huck and Lowen (Alison's dog) can barely contain their excitement when we take them to the golf course.

It was an amazing morning... sunny, warm, and clear with about 6 inches of fresh snow.

The golf course is getting pretty deep for Huck.

But clearly he doesn't mind.

Have I mentioned that I love Misawa winters?!

38 weeks pregnant, and it turns out that snowshoeing for over an hour is not enough to kick-start labor :). 

...But it's more than enough to tire out a couple of dogs! Lowen didn't leave my snowshoe tracks for the entire walk back to the house. She was pretty wiped out. That was Sunday... it's Tuesday now and my maternity leave just started... I hope she's up for another morning at the golf course! :)

Nursery

Remember the guest room? Well I finally got my act together and turned it into a nursery.

Sorry, baby girl, but I'm not repainting the blue walls pink. I will, however, spend a lazy Saturday afternoon with dry erase markers and leftover paint pretending I'm some sort of artist.

Viola! A nursery!

Misawa Snow

We get the best snow in Misawa. I was impressed last year by the amount of snow we got... but this year has been even snowier. I am just really glad that Chris is here to shovel!

This was from a couple weeks ago. We woke up on a Thursday morning to 19 inches of new snow. These pictures were taken after most of the shoveling was done. 

We're running out of places to put the snow... every thing you shovel tends to roll back down to the sidewalk.

Midway through shoveling out all around our cars, the snowplow came blocked us in again... grr.

This is the monster icicle in our back yard that's threatening to slowly wall us in. That low shelf you see by the base of the icicle is actually the table attached to our grill... Yes, we probably should have put it into the storage shed for the winter.

Huck has one path he takes between the back door and the trees. He tries to keep it packed down, but unfortunately the snow keeps filling it. 

He's a pretty good swimmer though.