Happy Memorial Day!

We have had a busy few days - Memorial Weekend!

First of all Happy Memorial Day to all of you - a very special thanks to our troops, past and present, who do what they do so that we can enjoy all of the freedoms we enjoy and take for granted every single day!

Sakura enjoyed being a "criminal" for a few minutes -

ironically she was wearing black and white stripes!

Walking to the car with Daddy - purse on arm - she rarely leaves home without grabbing that.

Lunch after Mom and Dad had their haircut

Sleepy girl fresh from her nap enjoyed a few minutes of snuggle time with Daddy.

Pool time with cousin David - Sakura enjoyed finally meeting her cousin David, my brother's youngest - only one cousin to go - Zakkary and he will be here in a few weeks. My brother Matt and his family are moving closer - at least in the same state now! Matt got a job in Tucson and he drove down with David last week. We are SUPER excited that they will be close enough to actually get together from time to time!

Testing the water with Daddy. Isn't Sakura's swim suit the cutest?

Thanks Heather, Sakura looks adorable!

Swimming with her cousin!

If you look closely you'll see Sakura's lip quivering and turning blue - it was COLD! Unfortunately Sakura didn't mind at all and threw a FIT when I got her out. Poor Sakura! She was exhausted and feel asleep before dinner even.

Boys and their toys - we bought David a Super Soaker

which as you can see Uncle Dean enjoyed!

Oh the drool ---

Sakura is cutting a molar and OMG she is like an open faucet! She is luckily keeping drool bibs on much better than she did when she was younger, so we don't have that many changes of clothes, but boy she gets SOAKED - no need for the toy super soaker at our house!

Daddy and his girl

We found a spot at the shopping center that has these "fountain" things for the kids to play in, since Sakura enjoyed it so much at Sea World a couple of weeks ago, as well as

California Adventure I really wanted to take her here....as you can see she thoroughly enjoyed it!

Headed for the water!

Lovin the water

Loved these pictures of Sakura trying to catch the water!

Splish Splash

She even tried to crawl into the fountain!

Summertime Fun

Sakura enjoying time at Katie's - I can't tell you how very lucky I am to have one of my very best friend's watch Sakura while Dean and I work - we know how lucky we are and appreciate Katie (and her family) so much. Here are a few pictures Katie took of Sakura.

Katie said to Sakura "Time to go and get Nicole and Samantha from school",

naturally you must take a book and your purse. Katie said that Sakura grabbed just a random book off the shelf, along with putting her purse on --- this girl LOVES purses!

Let's go swimming - Samantha (L), Sakura, and Nicole (R)!


Testing the water!
Thankfully Katie has a cover, so it's more like a nice bathtub :)

Sakura, Nicole and Samantha swimming beauties

Drying off

Two cuties - Sakura and Samantha

Favorite toy and packing

This is probably Sakura's favorite toy (Papa and Gramma Janie got it for Sakura for Christmas) - she loves to carry her barn to us, have us squeeze the little animals and can even mimic the cow sound - but she doesn't say "MOOO" she keeps her mouth closed and makes the sound that this cow makes - it is quite funny to hear her.

Carrying her barn

Guess Sakura is ready to take another trip. Tonight while I was putting away Sakura's laundry, she went over, grabbed her Hello Kitty purse and started putting in her pj's. I hollered for Dean to grab the camera and get some pictures. Here is Sakura putting her purse on her arm - she LOVES purses!

Ready to go

Packing her pj's.

Croup Stinks and gifts from Japan!

Sound asleep on our way home from the Dr.

Well Sakura had an emergency trip to the Dr. today. She has had a fever for several days, it would go away with Tylenol or Motrin and then return - today at the Dr. it was 102.9. Poor Sakura - Dr. Amon diagnosed Sakura with 'Croup'.

Croup, which is marked by a harsh, repetitive cough similar to the noise of a seal barking, can be scary for both children and their parents. After all, attacks of croup may jar your children awake at night and leave them gasping for breath.
The harsh, barking cough of croup is the result of swelling around the vocal cords (larynx) and windpipe (trachea). When the cough reflex forces air through this narrowed passage, the vocal cords vibrate with a barking noise. Because children have small airways to begin with, those younger than age 5 are most susceptible to having more symptoms with croup.

It was very nice that this afternoon a package arrived from Japan that Sakura LOVES! Inai Inai Baa on DVD that Uncle Yasushi sent (and they PLAY on our portable DVD player! YAY!!!), a cute musical toy with Guton on it, which plays the Inai Inai Ba song, along with a few other songs - a cute plush dog that is the main character in Inai Inai Baa - I don't know his name, and an Inai Inai Baa book! Sakura was happy when she woke from her nap and I had her gifts set out in her chair, she spotted them right away and pointed!

Gifts from Uncle Yasushi

(the dog plays Peek-A-Boo with little magnets in his hands to cover his eyes, Inai Inai Baa translates to Peek-A-Boo)

Checking out the dog

LOVING the musical toy

Trying to put her sock on

Finishing the day sharing a popsicle with Daddy

Dosokai 2010

Dosokai 2010

Goofy's Kitchen group photo!

Sakura and I just returned from Dosokai, the 2nd annual. We had an amazing time with everyone.

• Driving 592 miles alone with my non-car loving daughter


• Standing in LONG lines for rides with two little ones that don't understand why we are waiting


• Not much sleep due to late night chats and early morning rising to get where we need to be


• Long walks to and from the park resulting in shin splints


• Hearing Sakura say Da-Da over and over because she misses her Daddy


• Spending time with great friends = PRICELESS!!!

Here is just a small sampling of the 609 pictures (taken between me and Misty) while we were at Dosokai. We truly had an amazing trip, missed Daddy a bunch, but it was so nice to get to spend extra time with our friends. Sakura got her first set of Mickey ears from Auntie Misty and she LOVED them, she kept them on the whole time and never fussed about it. We think they looked super cute too! It is always special for us to get to spend time with everyone, Disneyland is just a bonus. I feel that these friends are an important part of Sakura's life, these children share the same history as Sakura does, these families share a similar past as we do as well, there is an amazing bond between those of us that have gone through SO much to get our children, it's really indescribable.



Sakura and I started out leaving Wednesday morning bright and early. We headed to San Diego and met up with Nancy and Tripp, Misty and Kumi for a day at Sea World. Sakura was a great traveller and slept about 80% of the way there - then entertained herself with a snack and drink - couldn't ask for a better baby!!! I didn't get very many pictures there - but Sakura really enjoyed the Sea Lions LIVE show very much - she stood, danced, waved and pointed at the seals. Then we hit the Shamu BELIEVE show - again Sakura enjoyed watching the whales, Mommy was a bit disappointed that the trainers still aren't in the water with the killer whales so some of the excitement isn't there, but Sakura didn't care, she loved watching the show. I think Sakura's favorite part of the park was the Sesame Street Bay of Play area where she walked around, crawled through the tubes, and splashed in the water fountains. When we left the park we drove the rest of the way to Anaheim, Sakura was SO exhausted from all of the fun that she slept the whole way! Whew - part 1 of the driving down!

Fresh from the car and ready to hit Sea World!


Yay, Auntie's and kids are here....Check Tripp out doing some maintenance on his stroller!

Hi Auntie Misty and Kumiko!

Bay of Play

Playing and watching the water fountains at Bay of Play,

Tripp was off enjoying the rope climbing with his Mommy :)

Pure exhaustion, Sakura was out like a light!

Handsome Tripp after breakfast - he and his Mommy headed home Thursday morning :(

Thursday Misty, Kumi, Sakura and I headed to Little Tokyo - I ♥ Little Tokyo and can't wait to take Daddy back there sometime! They have quaint little shops and looked like lots of great food! We headed to dinner with Misty's Aunt Kaz at a Thai restaurant - which I'd never had. It was pretty good, Misty's Aunt Kaz was the best part though - she was great company! The girls were exhausted but behaved very well for our dinner!

There was a beautiful (very unique double) sakura tree still in bloom!

The girls playing

(we tried hard to get a good picture of them both looking, but that wasn't happening!).

And exhausted again....

Poor Sakura didn't get her normal naps in while we were gone,

but she did remarkably well I think!

Imagine our surprise when Misty and I were in different rooms getting our girls ready for bed, and out they come with matching jammies! Too Funny!

This wasn't planned, Misty didn't know Sakura had these jammies and I didn't know that Kumi had them either - they were sure cute in their little whale jammies!

They weren't having any posing for a picture, this was the best I could get.

Friday and Saturday we spent at the park - Friday night we met up with several of the families and enjoyed dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, I have to admit I was a little nervous about Sakura being afraid, she dislikes loud noise/voices VERY much even crying at Texas Roadhouse when they sing to someone...but she wasn't afraid at all, luckily they sat us in a little room and it wasn't too noisy - Sakura did fine! Yay! Saturday morning we enjoyed the Dosokai breakfast at Goofy's kitchen a little downtime in the room for the girls, then back to the park for a few rides on It's A Small World - I think Sakura and Kumi's favorite ride of all! We went once, got off and rode again, no line to speak of so the girls were in Heaven.

Me and Sakura and Misty and Kumi by the castle

Misty had bought Sakura and Kumi matching shirts to wear to the park with their names!

SO cute!

Waiting in line for Dumbo

Hanging out in the stroller

With their first Mickey ears!

California Adventure Bugs Life play area...more water!

Enjoying dinner at Rainforest Cafe

We were SO lucky that Bee took a picture of us with our special friend Kazuya and his family!

Sakura riding It's A Small World

And King Authur's Carousel

WALKING around Downtown Disney!

Such a big proud girl!

Ring Around the Rosie with Kumi and Savannah

Crawling around Goofy's Play area

Kumi, Seth and Sakura playing the piano in Goofy's house

Sunday we headed home bright and early and back to Daddy - Sakura was sound asleep when we got home but when I said Da-Da she woke right up and looked around she was SO happy to see her Daddy (and YaYa and Wrigley too!).

Again, we had a wonderful trip - missed Daddy so much - but totally enjoyed our time at Dosokai! Thanks to everyone - for the wonderful gifts for Sakura!