a busy month of april means...

a crazy assortment of activities for us!

hanging with iowa people, marcus and kelly burrier

(friends of our teammate, joanna, who were a ton of fun

and huge encouragement to us all)

lots of time on campus with new freshmen

here we are at shuto university

babysitting a princess

who is a baby-toting fighter with her brother in her spare time

(notice the home-made baby carrier that she requested i make for her baby bear!)

time for bed!

celebrating mark's birthday, star wars style!

mark with his star wars children (i'm not even going to pretend that i know the names of the characters) :)

up next...pictures from BEST club's hiking trip...stay tuned!

kyle turned 26!

we celebrated kyle's birthday yesterday, such a fun day and great chance to show love to the man that loves me so well :)

we started the day with cinnamon rolls, one of kyle's favorites that

i'm getting better at with practice!

can anyone guess his favorite gift?!? hmm, i wonder... ;)

then it was off to the park where we chilled on a blanket and kyle played basketball while i took pictures and went for a jog. it was a GORGEOUS day to be outside!

time for another favorite of kyle's: sushi! here's our top picks:

shrimp avocado (top and bottom left of triangle)

tuna (bottom right and middle left)

salmon (middle right)

i don't know the name of the bottom middle one... a korean style roll of some sort

the competition stacks up!

that night, we had a pizza party with the rood family and some friends.

(american pizza from COSTCO! not japanese style with corn, hot dogs

and seaweed among other things!)

yum, yum, cheese and margarita!

cute kids, huh? :)

happy birthday kyle! may your 26th year the best yet! i love you!

Meet the Freshmen!!!

but first, meet Joni! she's a friend of our team who came over to help us for the month of April to help us launch the new semester! energetic, loving, serving and so fun! we're pumped to have her here!

Jen, Joni and Joanna on campus

getting ready for recruiting: joni, fuyu, jen, joanna, tomoko, mark and kyle

at our "booth" where we served cheesecake and coffee to new freshmen as we got to know them.

masashi and tomoko with 2 freshmen guys. 1000's of students in suits flooded the campus for their entrance ceremony and to check out the clubs they could join.

kyle and kayla taking a break ;)

our first event of the semester: the BARBECUE!

mark giving an introduction to the new students

miho and joanna chatting

the main attraction? kayla rood in all her cuteness! here with 3rd year kaoru

doing self introductions the whole group! what a great turnout!

jennifer at english lunch table with new freshmen girls

and our first BEST club meeting of the semester: SHABERANITO

jun, kyle and jo

jo and freshan kyoko in the midst of a fun game
wow! so many people! thank you God!

like one of the family

we felt completely welcomed and loved as we spent the weekend with Masashi's family in his hometown, Sakudaira. the Japanese never cease to impress us with their hosting; they go above and beyond to pamper their guests! we went to a fabulous onsen, ate amazing food, and played mountain golf (just like put-put but OUTSIDE, so much fun!) and tennis!

our view from the bus.

it is always refreshing to get out of tokyo and into the countryside of japan.

waiting at the station for masashi to pick us up - we made it there all by ourselves!

the restaurant provided these huge (by Japan's standards) napkins especially to protect yourself from the oil spatters from the hot dishes. well executed guys!

beef anyone? :)

with Masashi's mom at the restaurant

Yuki (Masashi's brother), Masashi, his father and Kyle eating donuts

at their local tennis court after playing a few games
this tennis family didn't quite know what to think of our "skills" ;)

cooking fried noodles with vegetables and meat (yakisoba) for lunch

learning Japanese caligraphy from Masashi's mom

believe it or not, the tongue really helps with accuracy! right, Kyle?

can you tell which ones are ours?

feeling the love folks!

i celebrated my 25th birthday on wednesday and wanted to share it with you all. i didn't get pictures of the food, but we feasted on delicious barbequed hamburgers (thank you master griller, kyle!), doritos (my favorite weakness!) and AMAZING blue cheese walnut salad with raspberry dressing (thank you jin for your thoughtfulness!)

umm, the kids actually ended up blowing out these candles before

i had the chance. so i was blessed with round 2 "happy birthday to you"

and was able to blow out a couple the second time!

haha :D

spending some quality time with abbie and yaya as the gave their homemade cards!

thoughtful, beautiful children!

thanks for the packages from home, i am too blessed!

with jo that night at the public bath. what a way to end a truly wonderful day!

thanks for sharing it with me :)