Trip To Idaho

Sunday we drove 5 1/2 hours from Mom's to Jon's. Jon's family was tired from their busy life and having relatives over just before us...for Sarah's graduation. We missed the graduation on purpose...because their family wanted less relatives crowding them and staying at their house. We were tired from our travels. So we all hung out and rested Sunday after we arrived. The kids got reacquainted. Jon made a delicious dinner. Cream cheese chicken with fettuccine noodles. Monday was memorial day. Jon had work off and the kids had school off. The kids mostly stayed home. We made them go to the park when we played pickleball. Emily wasn't feeling well so she stayed home to rest. Jon, Ster, Spencer and I played pickleball. They have a nice walk from their house to the park..along a green and pretty water canal with ducks. Athena loved the ducklings and the squirrels and the birds. The grownups left the kids and went to lunch at Zupa's cafe. Then hit Duck Donuts. The donuts were cake like ,too hot for frosting (so it was melted icing) and expensive. I didn't like them. For dinner we had butter chicken curry and nan. It was yummy. We played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. 

Jon and Emily did a ceremony to give us wands he made himself. With certificates they made too. After the ceremony Athena was trying out her wand and nothing magical was happening. She said "My wand doesn't work". Then someone said "you are not allowed a wand until age eleven...so it won't work just yet"

To be fair...in Universal studios you buy a wand and you walk around using it in the Potter themed town and magical stuff and sounds occur. But these wands are made of pure wood and we are not at Universal.

 Tuesday Spencer, Lucy and Ben went to school. Pickleball again: Jon, Ster, Luke and I. Luke caught on fast and was good at it. Yay We took Ty for a haircut. Yay. So handsome when his hair isn't grown out. Ty wants to grow his hair but I can't stand it . And Ster wants to buzz both boys heads to military cuts but I fight for their right to have hair.

We went to Target because it is a super short walk from their house. It reminded me how much higher the prices are there than Walmart.

When the kids were all back from school and clubs we took whoever wanted to and went to the YMCA pool. It was Ty, Athena, Lucy, Sarah, Sterling, Jon and Tiff. Spencer was at baseball practice. The swim test was easy. We were happy about that. It meant Athena could use the water slide and Ty could do that and the diving board. Also, the hot tub allows kids accompanied by adults. So, it was a great time. One Athena almost missed out on because she left her swim suit in Provo! Athena has more confidence than I did at her age. She is as bad at swimming as I was back then. But she proudly claims she can swim. When I was her age I claimed I was a bad swimmer.
For dinner Emily made homemade macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. Jon made homemade french fries and broccoli. We watched The Mario movie until bedtime. Wednesday morning Jon made a full breakfast of sausage and pancakes and fruit. We said goodbye and hit the road.

Luke was feeling depressed most of our stay in Idaho. It's hard moving away from your life, home and all your friends. I felt bad for him. We (Ster, Jon and I) talked about reasons for depression and validated his feelings. Luke spent a lot of time laying around on their tall soft carpet (we had hard floors and rough, short carpet in Japan) and claimed the hall near the boys' bedroom in the basement was his Hall of Depression.
We did make him hang out with others and participate in stuff some of the time.
One time I walked past Luke on the carpet he was wearing dark sunglasses and he looked like a COOL dude.With his Luigi hat, long curly hair and glasses. Nobody has ever looked so cool wallowing as Luke did.

Once we got back to Provo Luke started to feel like his depression was going away. He is feeling better and hopefully that will continue. We just want our Luke to be happy and healthy and safe.

Spouse Appreciation Flight

 

Spouses’ Appreciation Flight

Once a year the Air Force at Yokota celebrates the spouses who support their military members…with a military flight on a cool air craft. Military members are not invited.

I have always turned down the opportunity. No, thank you! Because, I don’t like flying on planes.

This year I felt impressed to sign myself up. And after my paragliding experience I felt confident. It would be a good practice flight before getting on a plane with the kids for a long overseas flight next Saturday.
Tons of spouses met at 9:30am near the flightline. We signed in and hung out waiting for our turn for the briefing. I saw friends from church and friends from school. Jaymee Warner was there too. It was fun to visit and hang out with them on a beautiful morning waiting for an exciting flight. There were three groups before my group to fly so I had to wait all morning.
Mary Wagner and Amy Higgins whom I know from Mendel Elementary were in my group. So we hung out. We played a card game Ms. Higgins brought called Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. We only played one round …one game …but it was really fun. So I messaged Sterling to order it on Amazon.com so we can play with family this summer.

Brunch was provided during the brief…an assortment from the bakery. I am a sucker for chocolate frosted donuts so I had one. During the brief one presenter compared some of the flight experiences to a roller coaster. At this remark some spouses quietly cheered while others, on the other hand, suffered in silence. After the brief we began to discuss it to see if it is comparable to a roller coaster because there are plenty of people who , like me, just don’t do roller coasters! Some of the people present experienced an Osprey before and said it is not like a roller coaster. We calmed down enough to press forward.

Lunch was served, Subway, and my team still wasn’t up for our flight. I skipped Subway because Ster and I planned to go to lunch after.
The first time given to my group was that we would fly at 11:45am. At 11:45 they told us we had fifteen more minutes to wait. At noon they lined us up to get on the CV-22 Osprey then told us we had another fifteen minutes to wait. Lol. Why did they have us there at 9:30am if we were not flying until 12:20?

When we finally walked to the plane the wind from the helicopter like propellers whipped us all. We wore ear and eye safety wear and we boarded the plane. It was smaller than I imagined it would be. And the sight of the seats and seatbelts freaked me out. I seriously wanted to turn around and leave. What was I scared of? The turns and any motions that would make me feel a sinking feeling as well as the fact that the back doors would be open during the flight!

But I buckled up and found ways to be brave. I focused on the inside of the plane…small details. Then I focused on the flight line ground out the open door. I imagined being in the sky and seeing the earth…because that is something I like. I imagined the take off, because that was making me nervous. I told myself in my head things such as “This is like a helicopter and they take off going upward and with force. This is normal. This is how it goes.” It worked.

The craft was super shaky even without trafficking or flying. Just sitting in place, propellers on. “This is normal.”

When we took off it didn’t happen with as much force as the briefer had said. It was a much easier flight than he made me think. It was a nice flight. We couldn’t see Mt Fuji today even though the sky was blue. It was a beautiful day but a bit windy.
Having the back of the plane open was nice. It actually made it better because I hate planes and like seeing the earth. Now I know this about myself. 
It wasn’t amazing but it was fun. We flew for thirty minutes….over Hakone and Tokyo. And luckily I had so many friends to hang out with all morning during the wait. If they had not been there then it would not have been worth it…except to make me feel more confident about flying on planes. A practice run before next week.

The movers had been at our house yesterday and today. We had served the Japanese workers Subway for lunch. There were not a lot of movers but they worked hard and fast! Especially compared to American workers.
Today I left Sterling home with the movers for my spouses’ flight day. They were done taking our household goods by lunch time.

I picked up Sterling and we drove to Zona Voce for lunch. We enjoyed pizza and salad. Then went home to our empty house. About an hour later the military temporary furniture loan arrived. A dining set, a livingroom set up, beds. Perfect. Luke in currently living in what used to be the office. All the kids have their own rooms. And the boys have big, single beds. No more bunk bed!

Tomorrow is Saturday. Ty’s farewell party is tomorrow. We were going to do it at the USO/Yujo center but they will be closed due to a scheduled power outage. So, Ty moved the party to the Sakura Shell and park in our neighborhood. I will serve pizza and maybe cookies. Ty and his friends can play.

Sunday is Mother’s day. I want to watch home movies and show them the videos and pictures of my paragliding adventure. I want ice cream and cookies for mother’s day dessert.

Monday we will sell the trampoline and I will mow the lawn for the last time. Tuesday we move into TLF. Wednesday we do our house inspection to show we have cleaned the house enough to move out. Thursday is the last day of school for our kids. Except that Friday is Athena’s field day at Mendel! So, she will probably go to the fun field day.

Friday is my birthday lunch with my friends. And I hope to play pickleball a few times that week with my friends. I am taking my pickleball set with me all summer to play with Sterling or if someone else wants to learn. But really it’s my friends I will miss. My pickleball friends.

Saturday we fly out of Japan. May 20.

Paragliding!

 

Recently a few families from our ward experienced paragliding. The first family to do it (the Mitchells) said it was an incredible experience and suggested others try it. I said “That’s something I’ve dreamt of but don’t know if I will ever be brave enough to do it.”

Shortly after that a second family (the Pratts) went and then said that everybody should try it. Even children! Their kids including a seven year old went paragliding near Mt Fuji.

So I found the bravery to plan to try it. I found a friend to go with me and made a girl’s trip out of it.
Monday May 8 Liz Monson and I had an appointment to paraglide near Mt Fuji. But it rained Sunday and Monday so the paragliding school allowed me to push my appointments back by one full day.

Tuesday morning was beautiful! At 8am , after sending the kids off to school, Liz left her kids with a sitter (Karrie Shirley). Karrie would have likely come with us to paraglide if she wasn’t needed to babysit. L That would have been fun to have all three of us on the trip.

Liz drove for our girl’s trip and it was an amazing day. We drove for two hours (paying tolls to drive per usual) and started our sight seeing at  Fuji Hakone-Izu National Park falls. We paid to park (as you always have to in Japan even for shopping) at the Falls area. Then took a walk to see a few different falls. The first one was indescribably magical. Fuji was in view above the trees and below the trees was a set of glittering waterfalls dropping into a colorful and clear pond! It was a blue sky and green leaves kind of day! The air was perfect. Not warm and not cool. Liz and I were both stunned at the beautiful of that first waterfall scene. We then walked to others falls with clear water and a boulder journey to climb to get to the water. We chose not to do the climbing but went straight to the bridge. Then up a long set of stairs to a gift shop where you could see the second falls from a high viewpoint. And lastly an incredibly giant waterfall but that was hard to see. It was more of a sound experience. You could see over a fence or climb small stands to try and see the falls but it was hard to see.
We stopped into a café right there for refreshment. 600yen for a drink was the requirement for eating there. But we really wanted to try their scones which came with a small bit of ice cream. Mmmmm.

We only had a ten minute drive from there to the paragliding school. In this area we were sight seeing that day we were impressed at the country. The beauty of the area. And we were surprised to see dairy farms . Lots of cows. And lots of cowboy themed places! Haha Cowboys are considered American. As we passed one cowboy theme park I couldn’t believe my eyes. I recognized it as a place I have visited in my dreams more than once recently! A month or two ago I was having a reoccurring dream about being in Japan but in a cowboy theme park with my family and my Boren family as well. It might not be exactly the same as the one in my dream…I can’t be sure. But it was crazy to experience seeing it in real life. Even though it was just in passing as we drove.

 

As we approached the paragliding school we could see people paragliding in the sky with the mountains in the background. Upon seeing how far away the paragliders were I freaked out. I became scared to do it. I had been so confident that I could paraglide because I always wanted to fly like a bird. And being above the forest calms me. I’ve dreamed many flying dreams that were realistic when I was a kid. So, I can paraglide in real life! But I became overcome with fear, looking up at the sky. The sky, mind you, which is a fear of mine. The sky, space, anti gravity. Huge fear of mine! But the earth and looking down at it is not a fear of mine. And I did not want to back out leaving Liz to experience the flight alone.

  Mind you, Liz has jumped out of a plane before! She doesn’t look like it but she is brave!
So we signed the forms inside the building and I imagined myself from the cliff and soaring over the trees…which calmed me enough to watch the instruction video. And the video convinced me I could, maybe, go thru with this. SO I paid the money. It was 10000yen which is about $75. A great price when you realize the experience is near Mt Fuji and can be the most incredible experience of your life.

Liz and I drove over to the the landing sight where the day was still gorgeous and Fuji was in clear view!!
Watching the paragliding take flight and even land made me feel more comfortable and happy.

We climbed into a van with instructors and other customers and drove up the cliff. One of the instructors asked Liz and I, because we are clearly not Japanese, where we are originally from. Liz responded “Ohio.” Now, this sounds exactly like Ohayou which means Good morning, in Japanese. So as soon as Liz said it, all of the Japanese in the car responded enthusiastically “Ohayou!”haha
The instructor found Ohio on the USA map on his phone to see where it was.

 

At the cliff, all strapped with a safety seat which attaches to the instructor who attaches to a chute and equipment, we saw the beautiful view! And we had thirty minutes to wait our turn to fly. So we sat and talked and watched the paragliders in this heaven on earth. That is the best way to describe it! Strangely enough, sitting up there made me more confident than ever that I could run right off that cliff with a chute. One thing that makes it easier is that you don’t jump or run off the cliff. By the time you reach the edge the wind has already lifted you off the ground in a gentle float!

A little bit of nerves crept back as I ran toward the edge with my instructor and as we left the safety of the cliff. But soon all my uncertainty melted away.
It felt like being a bird! Like you belong there, in the sky, looking down at the earth. It was as peaceful and graceful and incredible as in my dreams!

It wasn’t too fast or bumpy or jerky. It was grace and beauty. I loved it! And I thought “Athena would love this! She would be brave enough to do this with me. One day, maybe in America, we will probably do this together.

Sterling had said he would go experience it with me but he was okay with letting me have a girl’s trip.

Living in Japan for four years was worth it, to experience this one day of heaven on earth!
Now, my life is amazing. My husband, my children, all the blessings God has given me. My life, you could say, is Heaven on earth. But this was something else. This was a day I never imagined could be true. Was I in reality dead and gone to heaven without realizing it? It sure felt like it.

The instructors were fun. They flew us around each other so Liz and I could take pictures and videos of each other while in the sky. Our phones were secure so they could not fall down to the earth during flight.

When we came to the earth I ran a little to help us land and stop correctly and I thought “I can’t believe we did this!” I can’t believe we were, I was, brave enough to go thru with it!
I had prayed and prayed for help to brave enough to do it but I still couldn’t believe I had. And because I actually did it I now know it isn’t scary. It’s incredible!

It’s not heights I am afraid of. It’s planes. When I am in a plane I have to see out. I have to see the earth or sea. That comforts me.

The paragliding school gave us each a free keychain to commemorate the event. It’s really cool.

Next we drove ten more minutes to our last stop of our girl’s trip: Fuji Shibazakura (English Garden/ Peter Rabbit themed). We walked the gardens and stopped for lunch. I ate a cheese filled pancake shaped like a giant 10yen coin.

We drove two hours back to our area of Japan. I was sad to leave. It was the prettiest part of Japan I have seen! But, I wouldn’t want to live there…so close to an active volcano. Right by Mt Fuji! No, thanks!

We arrived home before dinner. It had been the best day! And I couldn’t stop beaming. The joy radiated from within me.