Scarlett's First Train Ride

Omiya Railway Museum

Yesterday we bundled everybody up and took a trip to the Omiya Railway Museum and had the best time. It just recently opened up and it was so cool. The building is 3 floors filled with everything trains (no Thomas but that didn't seem to bother Quinn at all because of all the other real trains that you can climb into and explore.) It has the history of trains including steam engines, electric engines and all the way up to the shinkansen "bullet trains"... plus the Imperial train cars. Neal and Scarlett had a good time checking out an antique motorcycle. Hope she doesn't want a motorcycle anytime before the age of 35.

More Omiya Railway Museum

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Railway Museum

Another great feature of the museum is the Learning Center Rooms where you can interact with lots of fun stuff. In other words, a room full of buttons to push, levers to move and stuff to touch... oh yeah you learn things too. Let's just say it was a dream come true for Quinn. He controlled train signal lights, drove a model train using a computer monitor to guide him and tried pushing cargo cars along different tracks. The fun continued for Quinn with play areas filled with little people sized trains, tunnels, trees and of course lots of toy trains to play with on the floor.
And we didn't even get to try the train simulators or take a ride on the miniature shinkansen. We didn't know you needed to make advance reservations. That gives us something to do the next time.

Scarlett on Christmas Day

Scarlett is getting so big and loves to talk...check out the pictures and video.

Christmas Day 2008

The day began at 7:15am with Quinn waking up shouting, "I hear him, I hear him down stairs!" Unfortunately for him, it was Neal down stairs. We all headed downstairs for Quinn to check the plate of cookies and see if Santa really came to the house. He was soooo excited that the cookies were gone and a pile of presents had his name on them. Quinn & Scarlett had a great day...playing and sleeping, respectively. Many thanks to our families for all the great gifts.

Quinn pretending to be a reindeer

Cookies for Santa

Christmas Eve at Showa Park 2008

Tonight we went to see the light displays at Showa Park. They are absolutely beautiful and pictures don't do them justice. The green tree is made out of champagne glasses. Plus we love to eat the vendor food. We discovered a new food called "Gyoza Dog" which looks & tastes more like Niku-man....both are oiishi/yummy.

Harlem Globetrotters

On December 5th, Quinn & I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters with our friends the Davis family. It was a lot of fun and the boys enjoyed themselves. Quinn would yell and cheer every time the HG got a basket and say, "My blue won!" "Sam, my blue one!". (Sam being his best friend). All was well until the team started throwing out little basketballs to the crowd. Then Quinn wanted to know where his basketball was since we didn't catch one. New lesson learned... you don't always get one.

Scarlett and Ramses

Ramses is finally settling into the fact that we have brought another baby into the house to climb and bother him. Unfortunately he has injured his hip and is very slow to get up and walk away. Lucky for him Scarlett isn't mobile enough to follow him yet.

Christmas Show Japanese Style

Yesterday we went to Quinn's Christmas performance at his school. It was very cute. Quinn thoroughly enjoyed singing and dancing on stage. Check out the video of Hallelujah. Quinn has on a red, blue and white sweater. He is towards the right side between a girl in tan and a girl in red. Try not to get dizzy with Neal's camera work.

Waitin' On Santa

Today we went to the children's party in the hanger. We expected Santa to arrive by C130 but unfortunately we had to settle for a fire truck. Quinn waited patiently with his hands in his pockets for his arrival. Santa bought Quinn a cool book.

Jose Eber Eat Your Heart Out