Utah and Spaghetti

Why is spaghetti so good? Maybe because it is so fun to eat! we just loved watching Tessa eat her spaghetti and get half of it all over herself! She is such a sweety pie! Here are some of our favorites!

Tessa's goofy face when she is mid-laugh.

Last time we were in Uath, Matt tried to teach Tessa how to high five and on the last day of our stay, she did give him a high five! I was expecting her to have forgotten his previous lessons but to my surprise, when Matt put up his hand for a high five, Tessa copied him and was ecstatic to have her hand shaken by Matt. Such a silly thing but it made her (and Matt) so happy :)

Kelly does this thing with Tessa where she says, "How big is Tessa?" and then says "So Big!" and Tessa puts up her arms up high as Kelly says "So big!" This was so cute to watch her break into laughter every time!

The Walton Siblings! Kelly, Matt, Jon, and Becky. Merry Christmas Everyone! We love and miss you all! Can't wait to see you (hopefully) soon!

Utah Trip- July 30th- August 3rd

At the end of July, we were able to go to Utah to spend some time with Kelly, Clint and the rest of the family. We all went up to Grandpa and Grandma Wood's cabin in Brighton and did some little hikes to keep the kids from going too stir crazy. It was beautiful in the late summer with some wild flowers still in bloom! And the kids were adorable as well:)

Setting out on the hike! Megan, Matt with Seth in the backpack, Reed and Clint. Clint was able to go on a short walk with us and then went back with Tessa in the stroller.

Doesn't Matt look like a model father? ;) Seth loved riding high and not having to walk on this hike.

The kids picked wild flowers along the way and gave one to Seth. I thought that this was such a cute picture of him! He is a sweet little boy.

Molly with her flowers. She lost some of them along the way because she picked them so close to the top of the flower that she had no stems to hold on to. She was so excited to give flowers to Grandma and Grandpa!

Doesn't this look like a cute little family? except that Seth is our nephew and not our son but it could work:)

Becky thought that all of the kids looked like they could be from a scene in The Sound of Music the way they were all following Matt around in the field of wild flowers. Can't you hear the music now? :) "The hills are alive, with the sound of music!"

This picture of Tessa was too cute to pass up. She had just been held in the shower spray for a few minutes to give her a quick bath before heading home and I think she was still in shock. Poor little girl!

On the hike, the kids found a "cool" gravel pile which they played on for a good half hour. Jumping down it, sliding down it on their bottoms and then they found this cool old sled behind the gravel hill.. They had a blast sliding down the hill again and again and again. We finally had to pull them away so that we could finish the hike before it got dark. Kids are the best in that they can take something as simple as a pile of gravel and make it into the best play thing in the world!

Summer Job

I know that this is late and it is already the end of the year but I had to catch up sometime...

During this past summer, I worked at a Lifeguard/ Swim instructor/ Assistant Swim Coach for the Campbell Community Center. (This was my second year working for them). Since the demand for swim lessons is so high, the community center also uses the Westmont High School pool during the summer swim season. I was lucky enough to be a pool manager (which basically means that I am in charge of anything that goes wrong, scheduling the lifeguards and running first aid drills) and this meant that I was able to pick which pool I wanted to work at. Westmont is just down the street from our house so the choice was obvious. I got a good little workout by riding my bike to work every day.

Saying Good Bye to Japan

Finally, after all of these months, we are going to finish our Japan posts! Yah! Sorry that we have been stuck on this for a while. We promise that photos from our Portugal and Paris trip for Thanksgiving will be up soon!

On Sunday, we decided to catch a train and walk to the embassy area of Tokyo. This is also the area where the Tokyo Temple is located so we got to take some pictures in front of it. Hard as we tried we could not take a self portrait which included all of our faces as well as the top of the temple spire. Oh well, this is the best one we got. No matter where you are, the electrical wires are all over the city of Tokyo, obstructing every view but it is still a pretty building.

Next we walked and rode the train to the same area where Ryan and his family picked us up the day we climbed Mt. Fuji. Just around the corner is this beautiful park with wide walking paths and tall trees. I almost forgot that we were in the middle of the city! The street noise was almost completely gone by the time we arrived at the center of the park and Meiji Shrine.

We were lucky enough to see a traditional Japanese wedding party walk through the center of the shrine courtyard (through all of the crowds of tourists and Japanese people enjoying a nice Sunday morning) into the private shrine rooms beyond. Matt got this great picture of the bride (with the white "hat" and golden kimono) and the groom (in black and grey). I would have loved to sit in on that wedding and stare at all of the beautifully made kimonos.

Matt and I at the Meiji shrine. Then we were off to our hotel to shower (again... during the summer in Japan, you need to shower at least twice daily so that your clothing is not soaked through with sweat) and then head for the airport. Sadly, our Japan trip had come to an end, but it is one that we will remember for a long time to come.

The Final Days of Japan

After climbing Mount Fuji for over 10 hours, we made it back to our hotel exhausted, sweaty and sore. My knees had taken a beating on the steep climb up Fuji and again on the switchbacks on the way down so sleep was a nice break from the pain. The next morning, Saturday, we slept in late and then did some sight seeing in Tokyo.

First up was the Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan. Although the Emperor holds no governmental power, it was still cool to see (at least a part of) this figurehead's home.

Then we went to Asakusa which is also well known for the Thunder Gate (Kaminari-mon) which hangs in the entrance to the street which leads to the Senso-ji Temple itself. If you can't tell, this lantern is HUGE! Behind this gate is a long line of shops which is were we found one of our prints of Fuji (which now hangs in our home). Here is also were I first tried Ramune, a sugar-y soda in a hourglass shaped bottle with a marble as a cap. The marble is pushed into the bottle by the vender and then you can enjoy the yummy soda inside. This was one of my favorite treats in Japan (besides the yummy warm bread).

A train station on the way to Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants baseball game! You can see how crowded the stations can get during rush hour! At least we never had to be pushed onto a train by the Japanese Train Pushers (Google it ;).

Here we are at the Yomiuri Giants game! So much fun to go to such a popular sporting event in Japan! We saw baseball fields and stadiums almost everywhere we passed on the trains. After not being able to talk to anyone around me or understand what people were saying, I wanted to try my hand at getting by on my own with no Japanese language. So I got up the guts to go and get some food at the game all by myself. I just wanted to order some ice cream. And my mission was a success! I even was able to order one Chocolate ice cream and one swirl! Yay for me:)

The cheering section of the stadium. even though I did not understand what I was cheering, it was fun to sing along with the crowd.

Matt and I in front of the Tokyo Dome where the Giants play. Sadly, we did not get to see them win but it was fun none the less. Thank you to Ryan and his brother Matt for getting us tickets and coming with us to the game!

Climbing Fuji- Friday June 25th 2009

Continuing on with the Japan posts... The Friday before we left Japan, we climbed Mount Fuji with Matt's friend Ryan, and Ryan's father, sister and brother-in-law. We rode the earliest train (5:30 AM) and met them at a train station close to Ryan's house and we headed out towards the base of Mount Fuji!

Once we got to the head of the hiking trail, at 7,500 feet in elevation, we see this map of the trail. If you look closely, you can see that the trail is basically switchbacks all the way up to the summit.

What a beautiful view we had as we came around the hills surrounding the mountain! We had had fog the whole way and then we caught a glimpse of this iconic mountain! Then the doubts set in... with all of the snow, would we be able to make it to the top? it looks a lot taller in person...

This is Matt and me as we are setting out on our hiking adventure! Little did we know at this point that we would be climbing these same switchbacks forever and then have to hike down them on the way back down. Don't we look so optimistic?

Then we looked UP and this is what we saw. Clouds and more switchbacks on the ridge we were climbing and then more mountain covered with clouds behind it. The little huts along the trail are places where you can stay during the climbing season to make the hike a two day hike. Of course we were climbing in the off season so they were mostly closed but we passed many people hiking up with food, water and blankets to stock the huts for the following week when the official climbing season would begin and hundreds of people would begin their climb of Mt. Fuji.

At this point, we had passed the switchbacks and begun to climb in the patchy snow and rocks. You can see just how steep this mountain is in this picture as well! Also in the background on the left is the rope and steal rods that held them in place (in other words, the trail) which we followed to the top, if we could find them buried in the snow.

Climbing through the snow. We had to forge our own trail part of the way up and thought about turning back several times when we kept slipping and falling on the loose snow and rocks.

Almost there!!! Matt and I were so happy to be at this point! We had hiked though some deep snow and thought about turing back, more than once, but were met on our way up by workers digging out the trial on their way down! Lucky us:)

Me at the summit of Mount Fuji at 12,388 feet! The first mountain that I had ever climbed and hopefully not the last!

Matt standing by the crater rim on the top of Mt. Fuji. And yes, Mt. Fuji is a dormant volcano.

This was our hiking group resting on our descent of Mt. Fuji. From left to right, Monte (Ryan's Father-in-law), Lynne (Ryan's sister-in-law), Me, Matt, Ryan and Jeff (Ryan's brother-in-law).

Japan Continued!

I am determined to get all of our Japan travels down in our Blog before we post pictures from our Paris and Portugal trip (Which we just got home from yesterday afternoon, thus, the 6:00 AM posting).

We left off when we were in Kyoto, exploring the various temples and shrines there including impressive Golden Pavillion. The next day we went to Nara by train to visit The Largest Wooden Building in The Entire World! This building is called, Todai-ji Temple or the Great Buddha Hall, and it houses a HUGE Buddha but the main reason for us going to this place was not for the Buddha. We wanted to see this huge wood building! The coolest thing about it though is that it was originally much wider but when it was rebuilt twice since the original was erected between 710 and 794 AD after it burned down. The one we saw is 33% smaller and was built between 1615 and 1860. No small feat even then!

Nara is known for its gardens and small, little "messengers of the gods" (aka: miniature deer). These deer roam free through all of Nara Park and are very friendly. Almost too friendly because they will come right up to you and steal your snack out of your pocket if you are too close! (These guys that I am hanging out with were too tired to be interested in me)

The gardens surrounding the Todai-ji Temple were very impressive as well. From one, Nanzen-in, were were able to catch a glimpse of Todai-ji. (Or what we thought was the Great Buddha Hall but what was actually one of the massive gates leading up to it)

Sometime before we left Kyoto for good, we also visited Sanjusangendo, the LONGEST wooden building in the world! (I guess we were interested in the wooden buildings for a while:). This building is also famous for what it houses as well (1,001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy) but again, we were more interested in its length.

On June 24th, we headed back to Tokyo and had dinner with one of Matt's friends, Ryan, who was working in Tokyo. We went to dinner with him, since his wife was with her parents who had come to visit, and we ate at the Ginza District, which is the high end shopping area in Tokyo.

The next day, we went to Nagano by train to see Matsumoto Palace, which really wasn't as spectacular as Himeji Castle but we still had to go see it. This was also the area in which Matt spent some of his time while on his mission in Japan and one of his favorite areas.

This is Matt Blogging again. Danielle and I had the opportunity to go to Utah and spend time with Kelly, Clint and the girls. It was a great trip. I'll just pretty much let the photos speak for themselves, with short captions.

We got to take Callie ice skating at the South Davis Rec Center. Callie and Danielle both did great. Callie really enjoyed being pulled around and jumping up and down.

On Clint's last night in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit, Danielle and I got to spend a few hours with him. He was more than ready to get home.

Clint waving goodbye to his hospital bed on the 17th day after the transplant. The day that he got to go home after almost six weeks in the hospital.

As we walked out of the University Hospital it was already raining pretty hard. As Clint got up to move from the wheelchair to the car, it started hailing really hard. None of us cared, it was just great to be taking Clint home after a successful transplant.

Danielle and the girls on the front porch waiting to see Clint. Callie made a "Welcome Home Daddy" sign. It was such an amazing feeling to drive around the corner and to see the girls waiting to see their Dad. I can't even describe the emotion and excitement that I felt in that moment. Clint is home where he belongs.

Tessa wasn't sure about the mask her Daddy had to wear.

Callie was so excited to have her Daddy home that she didn't stop talking for a couple of hours. She wanted to tell Clint about everything she had done and show him everything new that she had or had made. When she ran out of new things to tell him or show him, she simply would lean her head against his shoulder and say "I missed you Daddy. I love you Daddy. Daddy, you went to the hospital and now you're better," over and over again. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I loved Tessa's face in this picture and so had to post it. Being in Utah for over a week, I got really close to the girls. It was so hard to leave them and head home to California. I miss them so much everyday.

Danielle and I stopped for a photo on the Salt Flats on our way home.

A Missionary in the Family!!!

We have some exciting news! My little brother, Jens Karren, just got called to serve a LDS mission in Curitiba, Brasil!!! He will be reporting to the Sao Paulo, Brasil Missionary Training Center on January 13th 2010!

(Jens' Mission picture, with his new missionary haircut! This big step of cutting his hair made the whole process real to me. My little brother was going on a mission!)

Several things make this an especially exciting announcement. First off, Jens will be the first son in my family to serve a mission. Way to set the example for the younger two, Jens! Second, Jens is going to be going to the same mission area that Matt's dad served in for a portion of his mission. How cool is that?

We all made guesses as to where he would be going when the family was together over General Conference Weekend. We had guesses for all over the world, including Russia, Samoa, Africa, "Anywhere south of Mexico", and lots of guesses State side. Out of the 16 guesses made, only my grandmother guessed Brasil. Maybe it was a grandmother's intuition:)

So we will be saying good bye to Jens-y Babe at the airport as he takes off on a new life adventure. We are all so excited and proud of him!

In his own words; "I just got my mission call to Curitiba, Brasil!!!!!" (He is so excited, can you tell?) I think he will be a great missionary.

(Jens' Pre-missionary haircut picture, so cute;)