outdoors: its what we do BEST!

we're back again! we returned to our hiking site, this time for an adventure in camping. and a WET adventure it was! but who knew that playing games inside a tent with so many wet bodies could be just as fun as enjoying our campfire?! because of the rain, we didn't get as many pictures as we'd hoped! enjoy the random selection ;)

our heros! kyle and mark trying to start a fire, cave-man style!

and all this after setting up our entire campsite before the rest of us arrived!

no one can stop 'em!

our group was almost all new freshmen or second years -yay!

cooking our 'dogs

the girls!

just hanging around!

staying warm by the fire!

skipping rocks in the river

anyone up for a nap?

cute girls!

coffee is a must no matter where you are!

we were serenaded by this local musician....

who was spending the day at the river with these friends!

(the ones standing in the back)

oh the random people you meet :) all in all it was a great time getting to know new students and enjoying the surprises of life outdoors :)

ok, one more!

i just had to include this one. i didn't realize our camera took so fast so i was a bit early on the jump... haha! check out those anticipating faces!

breathing fresh air

as promised, here's a look at our hiking trip we took last weekend. we went with utsunomiya

BEST - so much fun to enjoy one of our favorite places in tokyo with some new friends! we can't wait to go back in a couple weeks for our annual BEST camping weekend! yay for the outdoors!

on the train - it only takes about 2 hours on the train to get to this sweet spot!

group pic

thankfully, this wasn't one of the bridges that fell apart as we walked over it!

tokyo staff

just lovely!
connect four?

jump on 3!

ahh yes, the annual kyle and jen picture by the tulips ;)

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!