Five Month Birthday!

Four month photo!

Now that we are nearly at Ripley's five month birthday, I should post his four month picture! Time flies with two little ones in my life!

Brothers

These boys really love each other.

Easter Egg Dying

With Webb, Davis and Judy!

Culture Fair 2014

APIS holds an annual Culture Fair to promote awareness of the diverse cultures that our community comes from. The Russell Family decided to represent our former home, Taiwan, at the fair. We had a great time preparing our booth, making paper lanterns, and dressing up.

Shana standing in front of our Taiwan booth.  We had to prepare a craft for all of the students who attended the Culture Fair and we made paper lanterns.

I asked the photographer to take a picture of Teddy dressed in his Taiwanese outfit.  This is the expression he gave her when she told him, "Mommy wants me to take a picture of you."  I also love the expression of the little girl beside him.  I guess nobody wanted their picture taken that day!

I'm rolling over!

Feeding Time

Teddy is enjoying feeding Ripley his rice cereal. What a great big brother!

Cherry blossom season!

Its cherry blossom season in Seoul too! This is a picture from my walk to work which is lined with dozens of beautiful trees.

Another priceless photo from day care!

This is Ripley listening to the English lesson at school. What is he sitting in? I have no idea!

Japan: Day Five

We had one last day in Kyoto, so we decided to see two of the most impressive temples in the city.

We started at Sanjusangendo, which is a temple famous for its 1001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. The temple hall is 120 meters and Japan's longest wooden structure. In the center of the main hall sits a large, wooden statue of a 1000-armed Kannon (Senju Kannon) that is flanked on each side by 500 statues of human sized 1000-armed Kannon standing in ten rows. Together they make for an awesome sight.

The outside of this impressive wooden building.

I stole this picture off the internet because we were not allowed to take photographs inside the mail hall.  This was one of the most impressive sites that I've seen in Asia.  One of my favorite parts was that each of the 1001 statues each had a different face.  Very cool!

Outside the temple, the flowers were in full bloom.  Here is a rare Russell family picture with all four of us present!

Teddy had a great time visiting all of the temples, shrines, and palaces.  This was encouraged by his finding "ninja treasures" at each of the locations.  He was on the hunt for little ninja statues at each location.  It was a fun activity for all of us!  Teddy doesn't know it, but Mommy and Daddy were strategically placing each ninja.

Around the outside of the large wooden building were these beautiful outdoor hall areas.  Michael took this beautiful picture!

We then traveled by taxi up a very steep hill to Kiyomizu-Dera.  We had previously visited this temple when we visited three years ago, but it was even more spectacular in the spring with the flowers blooming.

A rain chain to the top of the temple.

Throngs of people climbing to the top of a smaller hill at the temple which holds a love stone.  Many people were looking for love this day!

The main temple literally packed with people and burning incense.  This is a very impressive wooden structure!

A small pagoda.

Another view of the main temple from in front of the small pagoda.

The boys in front of the large temple.

Teddy being a goof ball with one of Ripley's toys.

I love this picture of Grammy and Teddy!

To get home we had to walk down a very, very steep street lined with souvenir shops.  It was quite an adventure!

On the way down the hill we stopped for coffee and green tea desserts.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a Geisha being pulled in a rickshaw.  How very Japanese!

On our last night in Kyoto, we had one of the best meals of the trip.  It was seafood, meat and veggies cooked on a heated stone from Mount Fuji!

Octopus.

Grammy looks terrified!

Fishiness!

Eating the fish heads!

Bacon!  We took this picture for Peter!

Preparing the rice.

Forming meatballs out of a bamboo serving spoon.

It was a truly wonderful trip and we were so sad to say goodbye to Grammy and Pop the next morning.  I'm so thankful for this time with them, and for the many memories we created together.  I love that Teddy and Ripley will always have the pictures of their wonderful vacation with Grammy and Pop in Japan!

Japan: Day Four

It was a rainy day on day four and we decided to just take it easy and have a slow day. We did venture into the rain for a few hours and were rewarded not only by the beautiful of Kyoto even with overcast skies, but also with the almost empty tourist sites.

We first walked to the nearby Murin-an Villa which featured not only a beautiful walled secret garden by also a side-by-side comparison of a traditional Japanese home and a European inspired villa.

In the garden, we happened upon a couple dressed in traditional clothing having their picture taken. 

The traditional Japanese home.

Standing in the garden while the rain falls.  Behind Shana and Pete is the more European villa.

We then walked a little further to Nanzenji Temple with it's impressive entrance gate.

The two tiny white spots on the second story of the gate are Michael and Teddy!

Blossoms in front of the main gate.

After walking around in the rain for a few hours, the Grandparents decided to take the Grandkids home for some games, while Shana and Michael could explore Kyoto.

On one of the back streets of Kyoto.