This is pretty fun...

We're having fun hanging out with our.Japanese kids, they are pretty hilarious!

We had a pretty lazy relaxed morning of sleeping in. Then we had a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and toast. Then we thought it would be cool for the boys to see where we got our eggs from....

They thought it was pretty cool, so they each held a chicken...

Then they played some video games for a while, they were all getting so into it, laughing so loud cracking up, it was making me laugh in the other room, I guess there's no comunication barriers when it comes to video games.

It was so funny listening to them, but everytime I tried to get a video they were kinda quiet, oh well, here you go...

Some more hanging out time.... so serious...

Not so serious...The kids' dad, Josh, was in town from California. So he came over and took all 4 kids to the mall. That was pretty cool, I knew the boys would probably love to go to the mall, but I wasn't looking forward to it, so Josh took them. Here's the kids and their dad...

I told Jade to take pictures while they were hanging out at the mall....

Josh bought Hayata this sweatshirt that says "Washington" on it. He also bought him an expensive jacket, I couldn't believe it. He was spoiling all 4 of the kids, I guess it really was good that he's the one who took them to the mall, cause I would have NOT spent that kind of money!

They had lunch at the food court... hey are they eating Japanese food????

That was really nice of Josh to take out all 4 kids and spoil them rotten, he flys back to California tomorrow.... Josh and the kids again...

Then the kids wanted to try the food the boys brougt over from Japan for gifts. I was up stairs for a while, and the boys were saying "where's the mother? where's the mother?" so when I came down, Kent was about to eat this dried up baby fish, it was disgusting. When Kent ate it all I heard was loud crunching, and I made a loud gagging sound and the Japanese boys just busted up laughing. Then Jade ate a dried up dead fish, too. It's hard to tell in this picture but you could see the fish's eyes, mouth and everything... crunch... crunch... crunch...

Super cute picture of Jade and I....

The boys said that they liked hamburgers, so we wanted to take them out to Red Robin... these kids are great, they have no problem posing for the camera, as you can see...

Hide (Hee-day) pointing to the hamburger he's going to order...

Hayata being goofy...

Hide showed me some of his Japanese money, so I took a picture of it next to a $20... kinda blurry, their money was shorter but wider....

The waiter took a picture of all of us...

They thought the tower of onion rings was pretty cool...

After dinner, I needed to stop at the grocery store for some syrup for our pancakes tomorrow, and some other things. I thought the kids would get a kick out of going to an American grocery store, and I was right. They hung out in the produce section for a while taking pictures of different vegetables... hahaha...

Hayata pretending this vegetable was really heavy.... we have a couple of comedians....

Both boys got to scan some of the food at the self check out, they also got to feed money into the machine...

Man, I hope we don't make these kids sick, when Hayata was eating his donut he kept saying "soooo sweeeet" but he ate the whole thing!!The ride home....Our favorite cousin Kyle was coming over to hang out and spend the night, we got a donut for him, but I think he was more excited about eating the Japanese food, and yes Laura, he ate a crunchy dead baby fish, too!I think Jeromy's having fun with the guys, too....Now the guys are up playing video games, working off some of that sugary donut before they go to bed, while playing a little guitar.

Good night!

We got our kids from Japan!!

We went to Olympic High School (where I graduated in 1993!!) to meet with the Japanese students.

There was an assembly where the american kids did some stuff for entertainment, and then the Japanese students did a little dance for the americans.

The american kids had the choir sing the Star Spangles Banner, that sounded pretty cool, and then the had their drummers come out, this little video doesn't do them justice on how cool they sounded.... that one kid on the end was really getting into it!!

And here's a video of part of the dance the Japanese students did... the boys are in blue and the girls are in red in the back...

When we loaded up the car with Jeromy, myself, Kent, the two boys and all their luggage... well, you see where Jade had to sit, she's a good sport tho, she didn't mind...















We dropped off their luggage at home, gave them a quick tour of the house and what rooms they'd be sleeping in, and then we headed over to our friend Michelle's house who was making a fabulous "early" thanksgiving dinner!!

Here's a gaggle of gorgeous girls...

Here's Kent and Austin playing video games with Hayata and Hide (Hee-day)....

Hide knew how to play the guitar....
And he was not shy about playing it and singing along...

Can these girls get any cuter???

There's that wacky Beriah...

Michelle made a wonderful dinner for all of us.... check out the spread....

Jeromy carving the turkey....
Here's the guys at one end of the table eating... and I did catch you Laura about to take a bite of something, but it looks really far away.... and you look gorgeous... so I couldn't delete it!
Beriah likes the turkey leg.... Jade likes it, too....

Here's the girls end of the table....
Then the kids went out side and played a baseball game, the Japanese kids seemed to like that!

We headed home after watching a movie, full and tired, thanks Michelle for everything, I think Hayata and Hide had a great time!

When we got home, both boys had little gifts for us and for all 3 kids! It's their custom to exchange gifts, I figures we would get them little souvineers while they were here, but then I realized we should of had something for them right there to "exchange" with them. Oh well, we're american we don't know! But here's the stuff they got for Jeromy and I...
Here's what they got Jade, they also got that stuff for Aurora and some Hello Kitty stuff....
Here's the boys... Kenton 15, Hayata 14, and Hide 15... Hide had also shown us some pictures of his family, his parents and little sister.
Some good looking kids there....

The boys thought our turtle was pretty cool, so Kent brought her out of her cage and both boys grabbed their cameras... ok Hide grabbed his cell phone....

Here's Hayata holding the turtle...
And Hide holding the turtle...
Oh my gosh, I am so tired... not quite sure what we are doing tomorrow. We have alot of different ideas, but nothing set in stone. Kinda nice, we're just going to play it by ear.

Both boys said they have been learning English for the past 3 years, that is the same amount of time Kent has been learning Japanese. There's still alot of communication barriers, but we get thru most of them with Kent's Japanese and the boys English skills... and alot of laughing.

This is a pretty fun experience!

Exciting...

We are picking up our 2 Japanese foreign exchange students this afternoon.

They are 2 boys age 14 and 15. We have alot of fun stuff planned for this weekend that we have them. I'm hoping to blog tonight, but it might be late if I get to it at all.

Their names are Hayata and Hidekazu..... I will have to practice saying those names alot.

Will be posting soon....

Kent gets "spacers"....

Today Kent has his orthodontic appt to get his spacers put in. They like to put them in a week before the actual braces go on which will be next Tuesday.

Pretty exciting stuff. First he had those 2 teeth pulled a few weeks ago, and now spacers... and then finally braces....

When we went this morning, I was thinking I should bring my camera, but I didn't know how they would feel about it so I didn't . Well, while we were there I mentioned I should have brought my camera, and the lady, Lori, was so nice she said they have a digital camera for the clinic and I could take as many pictures as I wanted and she would print them right there! How cool is that???

So I started taking a few pictures. They also took another X-ray of his face and she printed me a copy of that, too!

Here's that X-ray... amazing.... that protruding upper front teeth will be pulled back with the braces, and have the room to do it now that those 2 side teeth were pulled.... if you look carefully, you can see the faint outline of his nose, lips and chin around his skull... AMAZING!!!

Lori had to put 8 spacers in, she said Kent's teeth and gums are really healthy cause he didn't bleed, well the boy brushes twice a day, flosses and uses a fluoride mouth wash! Here's the pictures Lori printed for me, she's the lady in the pictures as well, she reminded me of my aunt Dede....BTW.... we all had our 6 month dental cleaning and check up yesterday, and I'm proud to report we ALL are cavity free! But they did say Jeromy's mouth is a ticking time bomb and we need to get his 4 wisdom teeth pulled! That will be our next tax return.

Later!