Extra special visit in Ca!

After playing on the horses at Nut Tree and eating lunch - Sakura was EXHAUSTED!

While we were in California we got an extra special visit in. Taz happened to be in California (she is now living in Japan) while we were there and we got to have lunch together with her and the DeMetris family! I can't tell you how much we appreciate Taz, and all that she did for our family, she will always have a special place in my heart, Dean's heart and probably the rest of our family too. There just aren't words to describe how much we love her - so it was extra special we got to see her. We hadn't seen her since we left Roppongi Hills with Sakura to come home 1 1/2 years ago! Sakura has sure changed since the last time Taz saw her - she's grown into a beautiful little girl and we are SO incredibly proud of her.

We met Taz and the DeMetris family at Amici's pizza/pasta in Vacaville. Even more special it was Kira's 2nd anniversary of her Gotcha Day, we were elated that we could share such a special day with Nancy, Tim, Tripp, Kira and Taz!

Thanks for letting us share your anniversary with you!

Happy Gotcha Day to sweet Kira chan!

Kira and Auntie Taz

Me and the girls -

Sakura was so sweet she reached out and patted Kira's back while Kira was in my lap

Sakura at lunch


Kira was engrossed in the DVD

Sakura and Auntie Taz chatting

There's Tripp - he had a BLAST running around riding the train and carousel -

he did NOT want to leave.

Daddy and Sakura riding the horse

The next two pics are my favorite of Taz and Sakura.

Sakura is pretty reserved and has to warm up to people, but then she will generally go, but rarely does she get this comfortable - Taz definitely has a special way with kids, Sakura knows how special she is already! Sakura loved her and just about went to sleep while Auntie Taz was holding her. When we first arrived I tried to get Sakura to give Auntie Taz a hug, which Sakura promptly responded "NO" - Taz said don't push her, it was okay ... to me it wasn't - I wanted Sakura to show appreciation to Taz, Sakura did eventually as you can see - she just did it on her own terms and time :) Taz and I chatted about Sakura quite a bit, in our conversation I mentioned that people always want Sakura to smile at them - Taz said "Sakura chan is Japanese baby, Japanese people don't smile at everyone" - so there we have it, Sakura is just a typical Japanese baby.

When we were done, I thought that we should have had the waitress take a picture of all of us at lunch - I think we got wrapped up in chatting and eating and didn't even think about it :( Ugh!