in the temple during yoga

this year we went to miyazaki during golden week. again. we have such a great time. this was the third year. i hope this continues as a yearly thing for a long time.

we left on the third very early in the morning. we actually over-slept. i wanted to leave at five, but that's when sasha woke me up that morning. i had put my alarm in the next room so i wouldn't disturb the kids, but i didn't hear it, either!

it takes between three and five hours for us to drive to victoria's house. this year it was about four. we didn't have to stop as often this time around. both hiro and sasha slept most of the way.

there were several dual nationality families there during the three days. we met our old friends and made new ones. this year there were actually quite a few kids of the same age and ran around a lot playing. it was great to see. they even played with hiro sometimes. in fact, sometimes when the girls were fighting they would fight over who could get his attention! the older boys liked hiro, too, with gentle teasing and shoving him under benches. LOL ok, shoving is a harsh word, no one was injured in the 'hiding hiro under the bench' game.

the weather was perfect on the third. for dinner there was delicious baked chicken (made in dutch ovens with potatoes on the bottom and stuffed with garlic). fabulous. the rest of the week, though, was mostly rainy. that was ok for an onsen trip, but pretty much canceled out any other sight-seeing. i kinda wanted to go to the gorge this year to get some more photos. but, because of all the people and all the room at the temple, the rain didn't really matter much (except maybe to the moms, who just wanted some time alone together but the kids kept showing up where they were! LOL)

watching a DVD here are the kids and a few dads watching a DVD, giving the moms a break!

on saturday morning there was a yoga lesson, that's where sasha is there at the top of this post. she's so cute in the morning! i didn't do much yoga this year because of the pregnancy, but also because i was wearing a skirt. oops! ;)

our drive home was pretty uneventful. although, at one point hiro started yelling, 'poo poo!', and then we could smell it. i think he is really getting ready for potty training seriously.