Five Backpacks

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Who Wants to Meet the President?

Top photo courtesy of Noah's colleague 

Well, after an intro by our lovely Ambassador
 (who's pretty awesome too),
and a short speech-

Porter was lucky enough to be in that small group of people who have ever had that chance. 
Now, most of the time in life being a kid doesn't get you the big perks of life. In diplomatic celebrity land though, that is where you've hit the jackpot! Tokyo is a rather large Embassy, so although we were all invited to come to the Meet and Greet,  it was basically known that the kids were going to be the only ones that really got most of his attention. The children who were old enough to stay unattended were sent up in the very front section where President Obama shook their hands. He had a pretty tight schedule, (and tight security) so this was done kind of "campaign stop" style. Behind the children were the other 500 adults, so essentially most of us parents were relying on others who had been able to get the closest from the adult side for any relevant pictures. Luckily we were able to get a few good ones from one of Noah's colleagues who was generous enough to share! And, it's a good thing too. It was kind of chaos up there, but we have it:

Photographic proof of Porter's encounter with the 
President of the United States
Almost didn't see him there, huh?! But there is his darling head. I'd know that hairline anywhere! 
Love my boy. Thankful someone got some kind of picture of him!
 (and Yes, we are sure it is him, as he was standing right behind that sweet redhead who is his friend.) 

 One last picture from Noah's colleague- 


 Noah was on airport duty, so I was single-momming it for the event.  M and R weren't quite up for being in the front with the rest of the kiddos, so we hung out at the back of the room. It's always a good time playing "hurry up and wait". Thank Heavens for IPads. That's all I have to say. 
That, and seriously- the carpet in this room was the best carpet ever! 
If I ever need to plan an event in a banquet room in Tokyo, I am picking this one! ha!


This is the one shot I got on my own camera of Porter up in the kid's section. You can see the Presidential Flag behind him. I had to push and shove my way to the front for this pic though! Sheesh! 

 Super-zoom on my camera over everyone's heads, and bad lighting.
 Presidential Seal. 

While we were doing that, Noah was doing this:
He was assigned to Airport Duty,
and enjoyed some quality time with AF1.

 He also got this sweet pic of the
 Pokemon plane parked right behind AF1.
I think there is only one Pokemon plane in their fleet, so it was pretty sweet coincidence that it was parked there right then! Only in Japan do you get a Pokemon and AF1 pic. Love it.

Wheels Up! 
Good Job Sweetie! Working hard!


Now I guess we can check POTUS off the bucket-list!
 That was quite the experience!
No matter what your political ideals may be, I am so thankful and realize how blessed we have been from Noah's job and the opportunities it has provided us to meet some of our leaders. For better or worse, they are living proof of a Democracy and Freedom, and the choice that the American people made for themselves as to who would lead them. Freedom to choose is such an incredible blessing, and we are so proud to be Americans! I hope Porter always remembers this special opportunity he (we) had.



Saturday, May 10, 2014

Pinewood Derby Premiere

So we have finally gotten up to speed, and started Porter in Cub Scouts!
our little troop didn't really get going for a few months after we moved here, (and Porter turned 8) so we took a little while. As I was sewing on his patch, it struck me again what a crazy little life this guys has! I love the dragon patch. Never in my wildest dreams though would I have ever thought he'd be starting out his scouting in the "Far East Council". I'm also feeling grateful for the opportunity we have to be in a city like Tokyo, that has a good scouting program for Porter to enjoy. He is really liking it so far, and I love that he still gets to do the same things as his other friends in some ways. 

Porter had his first ever Pinewood Derby, and he did a great job!
He wanted a Skylander themed car- and he did a great job painting and decorating it!
It didn't win the overall fastest car, but it did win two heats. 
He was pretty excited about that!
He named it "Sky Roller"-
 (although, I'm not sure what letter he was trying to write underneath!ha it certainly isn't a "k")

He won the award for "Most Detailed" car!!
He was thrilled about that, as our little guy is always the artist.
Sorry for the blurry picture, courtesy of iphone and being bumped at the same time by someone else, but it's all I got.
 He's still a cutie!

He did a great job, and had a fun time!
 He can't wait till next year!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

An exciting day at the office...

The Big Guy came to town- so we all had the chance to go meet him! Noah had to stay at the airport for airport duty though! 


I took the littles to the hotel for the meet and greet though, sans Noah. It's not every day you get a chance to meet the President! All in all, I think the boys were less enthused by the whole experience than Mom and Dad. ha! At least we took some pictures though:)
waiting, and waiting, and waiting...... good times!





Blossoms and Bunnies


 Springtime in Tokyo is incredible. 
It truly is. 

When the weather is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G, and the blossoms are out, it can not be beat!
It may not last forever, (as just a few short weeks later I can sense the humidity creeping back in), but wow. Seeing the Cherry Blossoms while we are actually in Japan was an amazing experience! 
They are everywhere, throughout the city- and just gorgeous!!!
We went on a family vacation for Spring Break (a post of it's own still to come), and I was so worried that we would miss the blossoms. Although, we did miss the first few days, we were back in time to still see most of the trees in bloom! Nailed it.  Best of both worlds- tulips in Holland and Sakura in Japan all in one week! Yikes. sometimes I truly need to pinch myself. Both were stunning.

I took these pics in the late afternoon- but no filter.
I wanted to capture the skyscrapers in the background- but now all I see is that crazy blue sky! 
Like I said. When the days are good, they are gooood. This was such a great day to be outside with my boys at the park!
  

Now the only problem to all of these amazing blossoms is that all of Japan comes out to enjoy them together! Now that's A LOT of people at the park at once. Ha! 
For this year's adventure we opted to just enjoy the ones by our house. We are lucky enough to have a fantastic park on the compound that happens to have it's own incredible set of mature cherry trees all it's own. 



Not to shabby, huh? We'll take it! 
Gorgeous blossoms and the place to ourselves that day! 

 Then we had a little Easter Bunny action as well.

This is Miles' reaction when we asked him what was going on. ha!

 Egg Hunting 





 And finally our little puzzle pro doing his new Babar puzzle. 
Ronan looooves puzzles. We loooove Babar at our house! Win. Win.
Good Job Easter Bunny!
Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of us before church this year. Although we weren't coordinated or anything, just spring colored ties. We did thoroughly enjoy the chance, however, to enjoy a beautiful Easter Sunday with a wonderful and inspiring day at Church, that reminds us always what Easter is really all about. We really enjoyed watching some of the LDS Church videos about Christ with our little family, including this new video; which is simply incredible. It was a wonderful family time and Porter for the first time this year I think started to really grasp the concept of Christ's sacrifice for us all. I love these moments of love and learning with my sweet little family. Happy Easter everyone!