Sacramento Spring Break trip

So I figured we'd just stick around home for spring break and hang out. But Kristin asked if we'd consider driving out to her place for spring break. Then Brooke said she'd come if we came and then I knew what we had to do........go. So I worked on Dru and he asked his father to come up and help out on the shop the last part of the week and then it all fell into place.
Dru's dad could come and then Dru had some company and we had our plans to go to Sacramento.
It's an 8.5 hour drive there and about 6.5 hours of it is NOTHINGSVILLE mate. Talk about boring.
But our first goal was making it to Winnemucca and having lunch, then making it to Kristin's, and that's just what we did.
The kids brought snacks, DVD's, books on CD, drawings, colouring, stickers, pillows, ipad. They were ready and did great in the car, for the most part.
Masaru sat in the front with me and to tell you the truth the kids slept a lot, there and back. We went through doner pass and that is known for lots of snow and having to have chains and being closed at random times. The weather kept changing over the week, but it looked good. I just can't even imagine the amount of snow that must be there at times. Must be the perfect place for snow I guess.

We finally got there and the kids wanted to swim straight away. So they did.
It's still cold and the pool was freezing. But that didn't stop them.
Brooke was still on her way and actually didn't arrive until we were all tucked in bed and asleep.
So the rest of us hung out and had some amazing dinner and caught up with each other.


I was determined to run and do yoga all week. I ran 3 times and did yoga five times. It was wonderful.......well the yoga was, the running was and is hard for me, but I also know it's good for me and need to keep at it. So far this week I've been home I've ran zero times hahahahaha
But Kristin's yoga studio she goes to is THE BEST THERE IS. Oh my goodness. I wish I had it here in Boise and it's totally spoiled me and now I"m in a yoga depression. But I have done yoga twice this week and plan on doing it today, so that's good.
The teachers and their methods and everything I love. So that was good.

We had four dogs around the house so that was fun for the kids. Here's one of Kristin's dogs doing a trick for us. Pretty cute right.
Still not a fan of dogs, even though they're great. I just can't have something else to look after. Maybe when I've got no kids? We'll see.

So we traveled on Monday and then Tuesday were all together and decided to go for a bike ride on the greenbelt to the rainbow bridge. It didn't really work out though.
We all split up and were meant to meet at the bridge but the other group of kids got the wrong idea and then Kristin had to go back and it didn't really pull together like we'd hoped hahaha
So we hung out at the bridge and had fun mucking around on the rocks.

 Cuzzies.

 Emiko was the only one with me and Brooke from my kids.

 Hence the reason it has it's name.

 Us on the rocks.

Pretty fun right?
So we decided to head back and meet the rest of them and head home.

The kids loved hanging out and did pretty good with it. Turns out my children are the scrapiest I guess, so that's nice. Maybe they all need to do yoga with me.
I had knitting to do for Dru and great discussion with my sister in laws who I love and my nieces and nephews.

The next day we went to the state capital to meet up with Myles old teacher who'd become a senator for California. So that's something you don't hear of everyday. And to top it off her sister is in there too and it's the first time sisters have done this. So there's that as well, which is way cool.
The problem was, there was also like a fair thing going on and so parking was a nightmare.
Oh well.


So we got her some flowers and headed in. Like all state capitals, it was beautiful inside.

She met us and let us into her office and talked to us for a second then started showing us around. Emiko doesn't look super impressed hahaha
Her sister joined us as well, so that was awesome. We got the special tour which was wonderful.

So not many people get to see this. This is the back of the original building. They simply covered it up and kept building the addon. Funny aye. It's good they didn't knock it down I guess right. Then she let us go into the room that she makes decisions in with 40 other senators. Usually people aren't allowed to be down their either, but we were special thanks to Myles.

They even did a special sign for us when we got in there. How cool is that?

So we got a picture once we'd asked some questions and listened to what they had to say. I'm standing behind her sister. She was really nice too and answered all my questions honestly and really well. I liked her.

So there's two rooms and the senators room is called the red room and is decorated in red.

The the whole building changes from red to green. Interesting right. Here's one of the transitions into the changing parts of the building. And here's the green room. This room is where her sister works and is part of 80 people who are chosen. They aren't called senators though, they're called Assembly people. They do the exact same thing as senators.
So to get a bill passed it goes to the 40 senators, then gets swapped to the assembly 80 then goes to the Governor and they can still say no. Crazy aye.
It was pretty awesome to learn, for me at least.
The kids liked it but then we were heading on a tour of the capital and Takeshi started backing away saying "I'm hungry, I don't wanna do that" and I couldn't blame him.
Turns out all of my family as well as Kristin's weren't interested in the tour, so Brooke and her kids did the tour and we went outside and waited for them.

The fair thing was packing up but we got some strawberries and played on the tractors.

Love this picture.

The kids in the huge tractor. Emiko on the little one. We also tackled time by doing it the old fashioned way, and playing a game of stop and go. The kids had fun and even Kristin and I started playing.
Then Brooke came out and we headed out to Old Sacramento to check out the shops and dress ups over there.
The kids liked it, so that's great.

There was so much to see and play with. Everyone started getting tired though, and so we headed home. It'd be a full, long day and the kids had done so well.
We had some dinner and then Emiko came to me to show me she'd lost a tooth.

 So the tooth fairy had to work really hard on getting that tooth and money to this little girl. But she did it which is super impressive don't you think?

Now she had bunny teeth and goes around showing everyone. 

The next day Kate and Kristin went to a funeral and so we all packed up a lunch and headed back to the rainbow bridge to show the other kids what they'd missed out on.

It was a great idea and the weather was beautiful and I sat and knitted while Brooke and I talked. It was wonderful.

 Not the best picture but I think it's funny, so it's going up.

Here's all of us. Takeshi and Masaru jumped in and so I put Takeshi's hair up in a high bun to keep it controlled. The kids had a blast.

Here's some video's.

Heading down to the rocks. Here they are about to jump. I took a boomerang of them jumping cause I thought it'd be great, and it is, but on second thought I wish I'd done a slowmo. Oh well. They said it was cold but not too bad and jumped in a couple more times.

Meanwhile, Dru and his father were making big gains on the shop and dirt work. Dru was really happy with how things were turning out. It was great.

We came back and hung out and watched 'Hunt for the Wilderpeople' as a family and laughed together, which is what that movie does right? Good times.

The next day it was rainy and so we headed out to the Daiso store. It's the japanese dollar store and it was great. I spent $45 there!!! And I don't regret any of my purchases.
The kids had fun there as well and most of them got a face mask and so vowed to put it on that night together.
Here's the proof.

It ripped all of Emiko's peachfuzz off. She was a little scared I think.
The kids played games inside like chess. I finished Dru's hat.

I'm not happy with it as I made a mistake and am kicking myself for it. So I told him I'd make him another one. He likes this one though.
We did a timtam slam that night with everyone. I think they all liked it. The next day was Saturday and Brooke headed home. We'd all packed to go home too but the doner pass required chains and in the end I didn't wanna do that.
So we stayed Saturday as well.
We said goodbye to Brooke which sucked and hung out for the day together.
We decided to bike to another park together and try out the exercise stuff they had there.

Off we go.
Zeke and Takeshi having fun. Fun right? It was a nice park and a good thing to do between the rain. That night after dinner we headed out to the milkshake place they use to go to when they lived in the trailer. They were going to show us where they lived but they're too traumatized to go back, plus it was raining really hard. So we took a video of this rainbow instead. Beautiful right? It was the perfect rainbow. We headed home and watched 'School of Rock' together. Classic. Then we headed to bed. The next day was beautiful and a great day to go home.
So we re-packed our things and headed out and said our goodbye's.

The ride home went without a hitch and was perfect but still pretty suckie.
I listened to a life changing book on CD while the other kids did their thing.
We stopped again in winnemucca and made it home to our Dru all in one piece and happy to see him.

Here I am halfway there.

What a wonderful trip and I'm so glad that we decided to go and that Kristin invited us. It was a great way to spend the spring break and we were all happy.
Kristin and Brooke are easy to hang out with and fun to be around.
I struck gold when it came to sister in laws and couldn't be happier with my 'in-law' family.
I'm so glad the cuzzies get along and had a wonderful time together.
Great spring break.

The day that changed NZ forever

So on the 15th of March an Australian man planned an attack on some people in Christchurch. He recorded himself live on facebook and went into a Mosque with a semi-automatic gun and shot the people in their praying. He then went to another Mosque 6 mins down the road and shot more people who were praying. He then was caught by the police and is in jail awaiting trail for murder.
He killed 50 people and others and still in hospital being cared for.
It shook NZ to the bone and nothing like this has ever happened in NZ and quite frankly I don't think any of us ever thought it ever would happen.
NZ is a peaceful and quiet country and people don't go around shooting each other.
It was horrible and has change the country.
Everyone's banned together, however and have shown their connection to each other in hopes that something like this won't happen again.
The government is making changes, they deem necessary to make the country safer and healthier so everyone can feel safer in their home.
It's been really sad to watch from afar and we've done all we can as a family to be educated about it and to support the country and the victims.

Masaru made me a friendship bracelet which was really nice.


The local kiwi bakery here in Boise said they'd hold a vigil to honor and remember those lost and the tragedy that has happened. We were way happy that they did that and happily went to have somewhere to mourn and feel like we could share feelings.

It was great to be together. I said a speech which Dru said was good. So that's nice. Then the bakery owners hung out with us and shared some pies that hadn't been eaten with us and we had a great time together. It was a wonderful night. br />
I put up this donation page and donated $100 towards the cause. It's up to almost 9 million now which is awesome. Some of those families have lost the breadwinner of the household. They will need all the money they can to mourn and to survive for the next few years while they pick themselves up and I'm happy they have this help to do that.



The whole family has come together and talked about it and it's been great.
Emiko cried when I first told her and it was super sweet.
This will change things forever, but hopefully NZ will continue to move forward in a positive way and will be changed for the better.
I guess now we can't say that we've never had a terrorist attack, which sucks.
Love to NZ my home.

The Dr, Who box and Yuki's choir performance.

So Yuki's choir teacher approached me months ago to make a time machine for the kids choir performance. I said sure then pushed it out of my memory.
Then she approached me and reminded me about it and that I had two weeks to do it. So she got the box and then I got to work.
Of course I threw out ideas to Dru who helped as well with feedback. He can execute like nobody's business so is always key to a project.
I went and got some paint and Dru rolled it over the whole box and we let it dry and it sat around for another week.
Then finally on the last weekend before it was due, like like Melissa styles, I got to work on it.
All the kids helped out and we got it done.
Then Dru reinforced it so it could take a little beating from being moved around and put a handle on the door.
I like how it turned out and so did everybody else.

GREAT shot that Dru took of me standing by it at the performance. Nice skillz Dru.

I even got a shout out on the programme. She paid me back with cash they made from DVD sales and I feel slightly bad about taking that money. So it's in my purse making me feel like I've stolen from children.
Moving on...........

There's Yuki in amongst the crowd. She dressed up really elegantly for the programme. She looked great.

Dru and I made it to the 10am timeslot and it was nice to be together. Yuki was happy to have us there. The programme was about the power that one person can make and was a really good message. It was well done. I'm glad they have a music teacher and programme in the school still. A lot of schools don't, so the kids are lucky.

NZ passport pic's, Dad, knitting, Masaru and art

So as we're trying to do all we can to prepare for moving to Australia, without actually being given the 100% go ahead, we got our NZ passport pictures done.
Dru's boss said he'd talk to the CEO over a month ago and STILL HASN'T and it's driving me nuts. He said AGAIN this week, that'd he'd talk to him and so here we STILL wait, twiddling our fingers and waiting...........just waiting......................
NZ said to have a neutral face, no teeth, a non white background but still light and to show both ears. So we thought it was best to accommodate by just telling the kids they couldn't smile. They turned out like we're a bunch of hooligans.
So here they are for your viewing pleasure.









So those will haunt us for the next 10 years. So that'll be just great.
I'm glad they're all done and at the right place. NZ contacted me and said they have mine and Masaru's and so that's great news. Hopefully the other three will be there shortly and we'll get contacted about there's reaching there as well.

Yuki went with Caleb to his gymnastic meet that he had out in Meridian. She spent the whole day with him and his mother and had a fantastic time with him. Like I said, he makes her laugh and relax. It's a good fit. They seem to be getting along WAAAAAAAAAAY better without being in the same class. So I'm glad that we did that.


I had Yuki's class draw their shoes. Here's Yuki's. It looks wonderful.

Then I had them do this seahorse as well. Yuki's turned out wonderful as well. So beautiful.


I got Emiko's water bottle cover knitted. Three down and just Masaru's to finish. I love this wool. Such a wonderful pattern. Emiko loves it.

Masaru and I found out that until May 10th him and I are flipflopped ages. He's 14 and I'm 41. How cool is that?

Then the next day I took him to the orthodontist and he finally had his braces removed. He said his teeth felt crazy and he couldn't stop feeling his teeth.
Doesn't he look handsome with that nice expensive smile. Almost $3000 for that perfect smile people.
He has retainers he wears at night, and as long as he does that, he'll keep those nice straight teeth. I told him that's all me and his father are paying for, so if he let's his teeth go crooked again, he'll have to pay to fix them himself, which I think is a fair deal.

I went to scouts with Takeshi the other night and he did some indoor marble games. Here's the one he made up with his friend. I think he was just trying to use up as much tape as he could.

Then it was also Dad's birthday which is always reflective. Here's what I said on instagram about it.

Would’ve been 71 today. Those who’ve never lost a love one probably think I need to get over my dad passing on, and those who’ve lost a love one know, you never ‘get over it’ you just learn to live without them, and in that lies the sadness. #hopeimmakingyouproud#loveyoualways #waitingtillwehug#illalwaysmissyou #dad

So there's that.

Yuki's snow field trip to Bogus

I went with Yuki on her snow field trip to Bogus. I knew it was going to be cold so pulled out all the stops and wore a ton of clothes. The only thing that was super cold still was my toes.
We took the bus all the way up to bogus and I and Yuki did ok. I gave her some travel sickness stuff and she wasn't sick at all, which isn't like her as she always feels sick going up there. She sat with her friend, Sarah, and I had a seat to myself, which was great.
I went with Yuki's group and we had some fun with their leader person.

Here they are digging their hole all the way down till it touched the dirt underneath so they could measure it and see the difference in the temperature. Here I am in Jobecka's snowshoes trying to get used to walking around in them. After playing a few games we went inside for lunch. I sat with Mr. Herron and another teacher and started talking and warming up. I couldn't be bothered going back out and there were two other parents as well as the guide in my group, so I opted to stay in the warm lunch room. Come to find out the other mother didn't want to go back out either and so it was just the one father and the leader who went back out. Bless that man's heart. He even took video's of Yuki coming down the slide and into the igloo for me. What a great guy. I stayed in and kept talking to Mr. Herron and the other teacher. It was a nice time. Here's Yuki going into the igloo.

Yuki inside the igloo.
What a great picture of her.

Inside the igloo. Going down the slide. She had a ton of fun and talked about it when she came back inside. On the way home I almost fell asleep on the bus. I'm glad I went, but I don't think Yuki really cared either way about me being there or not, which is why I opted to stay inside the second half.

Yuki's choir, Takeshi's field trip, art, Yuki's first Temple trip and snowboarding crashes and jumps

Yuki came out to me like this the other week and I couldn't stop laughing. Pretty funny right?

That balloon was a gift at Emiko's birthday. They lasted long enough to be fun and now they've all popped.

Yuki had a huge get together with a bunch of other schools. So the kids and I went to watch. It was ok. I know it meant a lot for us to go and support Yuki, and that's the reason we were there.

Here's a picture of Takeshi at school doing some math with his peers, that his teacher sent. Takeshi just can't take a normal picture man. I love how enthusiastic and 'different' he is. I hope he never looses it. Like my mother always quoted "Why be normal"
Keep being you Takeshi, normal is taken and a little boring if you ask me.

I went to a field trip with Takeshi and his grade. We went to the Idaho museum. It was great and I'm glad I went with Takeshi.

This face hahaha

Who knows what I was thinking in this picture, but I like how it captures me playing with Takeshi's hair.

Great picture of Takeshi and I. I'm glad I got to go and I think he likes the support and his mother being around.

Yuki's art I did with her class.

Emiko's art I did with her class.

Masaru is learning how to do macrame and has been busily making things. It's been cool to watch. I'm glad he's in an art class this semester.


Takeshi making and landing a jump on the slopes. Way pumped. Masaru crashed on his last run with his buddy. Here is the crash without music. He's ok and had a headache and a sore hip for about three days. I'm glad it wasn't worse and that he's alright to be honest. Part'n'parcel of doing extreme sports I guess. And then here's the same video but edited to music which makes it THAT MUCH BETTER hahaha Knowing he's ok makes me laugh at the video and be ok with it. But if he'd seriously hurt himself I could never watch this video again. I'm glad he's ok, so can laugh at the well placed music his friend did.

Then Yuki went to do Temple baptisms for the first time with her church youth group. We took her friend Susie as well. I'm glad I was there, and Yuki had a great time.
It was good to be with the youth again and to catch up with some of the girls.
I had a great night.

Fun, fun.