Day 12

Today I am thankful for 3 day weekends. Especially ones where Patrick is NOT on call! And where the weather is perfect one day (great for outdoor fun), miserable another day (indoor fun) and in between on the next (either outdoor or indoor). This weekend found us heading to Mt Fuji on Saturday for family pictures. The weather was amazing, the scenery was perfect and the kids were being great. It was totally an awesome day. I can't wait to get our pics back as the setting was 'picture-perfect' and the time of day had the sun setting for the perfect lighting. After our pics we stopped at the BEST burger place in Japan, Moosehill Burgers. HIGHLY recommend it! Sunday was pretty miserable outside. We stayed in and worked around the house, watched The Great Pumpkin and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and wrapped presents (they have to be mailed this week to guarantee Christmas delivery). Sunday night, we got a babysitter and Patrick and I headed out for a date night! We went to an indoor go kart racing stadium that is pretty close to base. What a fun time we had!!! We raced together once (he let me beat him on one lap - then he took off and ended up lapping me...TWICE!). Then he did a round by himself and a round with some other Japanese guys. He was loving it - and it was a good break for him. Then we went to a late dinner at a yummy Italian base right outside the base. We were home by 10...but it was still fun to be fun again :-) On Monday we celebrated Veteran's Day. It was iffy weather...so as a family, we decided to go to Round 1 for 3 hours of crazy fun! Our friends the Webbs and Odoms came also which made it even better. The girls would watch the kids so the guys could play, then the guys watched the kids so the girls could go to the "Relax" room. The kids had 3 hours of non-stop fun! And we are topping it off with a BBQ to finish off the long weekend! It was only 3 days - but we packed in a LOT of fun!