Sapporo Snow Fest!

Well, I have made it back from the snowy mountains of Sapporo, Japan! I have to say that I highly recommend the Snow Festival! :) Being surrounded by snow and snow sculptures really brings out your inner-child. Especially if you weren't around much snow as a child!



So, I had to take a picture with the man wearing glasses. I know--I'm a nerd!


Glamour Girls! So, on our way to Sapporo, we discover in Glamour magazine that if you take a picture holding the magazine somewhere interesting, they might put your pic in the next month's issue. How many other Glamour readers could possibly be at this year's festival?! So, fingers crossed you'll see our faces in Glamour next month! :)

Amy and Allison enjoying the sculptures! There's no way to describe how big these are without getting a human in the picture as a reference!!

My inner-child catching snowflakes on my tongue!
I just liked this one--I like elephants!
We took a little day-trip to Otura, a town about 40 minutes away. We were told it had a strong Russian-influence in it's architecture, but the only thing we found was the canal. Other than that, it looked like the rest of Japan! :) But, we enjoyed a pretty heavy snowfall, a nice cup of hot chocolate and purchased a few handmade glass items. Not too bad of an afternoon!
You have to enlarge this picture to really appreciate it. Along with the snow sculptures, there was a collection of ice sculptures. Great place to get ideas for those expensive weddings they show on WE. Anyway, this one shows a fisherman holding a REAL fishing pole trying to reel in the big catch! It was amazing to see in person! It was about 7 feet tall, but it's hard to take a picture of something that almost completely clear!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! I love y'all!!!!

A Day at the Park

Since our time here is dwindling down, we've been trying to go to some of our favorite spots on the island. We love taking the dogs to Comprehensive Park. It's a huge park with lots of open spaces to play around with the puppies. We also had a chance to fly our kites, but only one of the two was able to get airborne.

The game of fetch. A game Chandler and Monica can play with no end. However, their style of playing are very different.
Chandler loves the chase! He will run after the ball and then play a mean game of keep-away from Monica. But, then Chandler's interest begins to fade and Monica eventually gets possesion of the ball and will return it to the owners. So, in short, our 5-pound dog is the better retriever!
Monica with the game-winning ball! :)

It's Official!

We now know that we are definitely going to be heading to Oklahoma for our next duty station! We will be at Tinker AFB starting at the end of April! So, that means we'll be heading back to the States at the beginning of April. We can't wait to see everyone and be so close to family again! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Year!!! :)

More Pictures!

I just wanted to add a few more pics from the China trip! :)

CHINA

We are back from our adventures in China and I have managed to go through our first media disk! We got a little camera-happy and managed to take 1000+ pictures! Thank goodness they're digital--I don't know what we'd do with all that film!

Our first stop: Xi'an (pronounced She-ahn)

This is a very old city with a lot of emporer's tombs because it is an ancient capital of China. It is also the location of the famous Terra Cota Warriors which are statues of soldiers buried around an emporer's tomb to protect him in the after life. It is the only example where they made life-sized sculptures. A lot of other emporer's made soldiers but they were much smaller.

In the pit behind us you can see all the soldiers! There were over 8000!! Some are still buried because they are trying to preserve their color until new technology arrives.

Next stop: Beijing

There was a lot to see in Beijing! First was Tienamen's Square and the Forbidden City!

As you can tell, it was VERY cold!!

We needed some American food and what's more American than Hard Rock Cafe?! :)

Shaun and I at the Ming Tomb.

THE GREAT WALL!! Our favorite site of the trip!!

To Thaw or Not to Thaw....

We had an early Thanksgiving with our closest friends since we would all be out of town on Thanksgiving Day. I volunteered to make the turkey--my first!! So, I went and picked out the perfect size bird for our small group of six, brought it home and began to let it thaw. This morning I went to the kitchen ready to prepare our feast--and that's when I saw it. Printed on the turkey packaging "KEEP FROZEN. DO NOT THAW." I was so confused! Every article I read about how to prepare a turkey always started with how to thaw the turkey! I studied the packaging some more to realize I had purchased a "pre-stuffed" turkey. I can only assume this is why I was not supposed to thaw the thing. So, unsure of what to do, I hustled back to the commissary and purchased another bird. This one was promptly seasoned and placed into the oven without thawing. I was very nervous, but it actually turned out to be a delicious bird! We also had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and a couple desserts all brought by our friends. It was a delicious Thanksgiving meal! So, we are most thankful for making such good friends that can be our 'family' while away from our real families on the holidays!

Some cool pictures

Believe it or not, this is NOT a picture of a hummingbird! I thought it was a real hummingbird when Shaun was photographing it, but after I got home and looked at the pictures, you can see antennae and it looks segmented like an insect. So, I did a little research and discovered the hummingbird moth! It looks like a tiny hummingbird, but doesn't scare away when you get close to it. A very interesting find--but apparently they are also in the States!

Also while at the aquarium, we saw the Dolphin Show! We were able to get some really cool pictures of the dolphins showing off their acrobatic skills! We couldn't understand anything the narrator was saying, but it was very cool to watch!