Japan Day 2 - Komagata

We stayed with Carmen's friend Chris who is teaching English to Japanese students. They love Americans. We felt special.
The school was nice enough to lend us bicycles while we were in Komagata. We rode bikes all over the city.
Carmen is finally broadening her horizons. She actually ate Duck! (Of course, she didn't know what it was, and stopped eating it when they told her.) We found out it is pretty tough to order what you want if everything is written in Japanese and the menu's don't have pictures.

Japan Day 1 - Narita

Here we are in Tokyo, the largest metropolitan area in the world. There are over 35 million people here. First impression: It lights up like Las Vegas, but it is WAY more crowded.
Thanks to our Alaska benefits we flew free to Portland, where we switched planes to head for Narita (Tokyo) Japan. Unfortunately we spent Carmen's entire birthday flying across the Atlantic. Although, I don't think she'll mind too much.

Dallas

For those of you who haven't seen the video; this is Dealy Plaza. To my right, the grassy knoll. Behind me is the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. To my left is the exact spot where JFK was killed November 22, 1963.
Liam doesn't get too excited about the Cowboys. He's a true Seahawk at heart.
We are so lucky to have such a great baby who likes to sleep on airplanes. Too bad he's grown out of that car seat.

Houston, we have a problem.

Me & Liam are hanging out with a couple of our pals; Neil, Buzz, and who can tell me the name of that other guy? No one remembers the pilot, just the 2 guys that were on tv for walking on the moon. Can you believe 600 million people tuned in to watch these guys? Wow.
Hey, I think my family is planning a trip into outer space with Uncle Jesse. I'm sure they would have invited me, but the Lunar Module only holds 3 people.
Um, I wouldn't stand there during blast off.
For those of you who haven't seen Apollo 13, that is the original Mission Control room behind us from the Apollo Missions.

Starwars in Texas???

Carmen and I are actually at NASA in Houston. Carmen broke a few rules and as you can see, she was arrested by on duty Storm Troopers. (She doesn't look nervous because she knows the Force is strong with Liam and he will rescue her.)
We did a little flying around the Space Center in an X-Wing; Me & R2D2. They actually have tons of Star Wars stuff at NASA because the original light saber from Return of the Jedi was brought into space with a NASA space shuttle, to celebrate 30 years of Star Wars. Cool!

Everything's bigger in Texas

We went to Texas to visit Carmen's friend from college, Jesse. You might recognize him from our wedding. He was the Usher that was tearing up the dance floor when they played Michael Jackson.
While it was cold and rainy in Seattle, we were rockin the sun glasses in Houston.

Check it out! Texas even has their own version of Bud Light. Why doesn't our beer say "The Evergreen State" on it?
Romancing the Range?! Only in Texas.
Even the bugs are bigger in Texas! Look out, Liam!
Here is a local Texas police officer, writing a traffic ticket. Just one question, how did she catch the car and pull it over on horseback?
Wow, everything is bigger in Texas! Check out Carmen's bottle of wine and Jesse's wine glass!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

My parents, Mark & Lynette Storer celebrated their 31st Anniversary yesterday. Mom is excited about her brand new kitchen that is being installed and dad is thrilled about his new amphibious airplane and hanger that he traded his Cessna for. Since the kitchen remodel is removing them from their home for at least one night, maybe the new hanger would be a fun place to camp out! :)

Liam lost his pants!

Liam loves the LeapFrog table he got from Aunt Christy & Uncle Brian so much, that he didn't even notice that he lost his pants. What a silly guy!

Christmas @ the Moss House

Brian & Stephanie were nice enough to host Christmas dinner and we all had a great time!


It pretty cold, so here you can see Liam wearing my scarf that Carmen got me for Christmas. (She gave me the sweater, too.)

One thing that surprised me when I arrived: Brian has a beard! (Not my brother, the other Brian) Unfortunately, my bro was working and eventually had to leave the party to rescue some stranded motorists.

Sam stayed, though. That boy has endless energy! I think he is a lot like his daddy when he was little. Payback :)











Even though mom & dad Moss (Grammy & Grandpa) were several thousand miles and three time zones away, we were all able to spend Christmas together through our cell phones.

Haley & Levi got rollor blades for Christmas! Yikes! Don't worry. We have notified the ER. They are expecting us.










Carmen really loved the new Nintendo game she got for Christmas: Donkey Kong. In fact, I think she is addicted. We are considering a 12 step program.

Someone please tell me which one is Ethan and which one is Isaac! Ah well, they're both darn cute.



Hey, we all enjoyed Christmas dinner. I just wish I could still get away with playing with my food, like the twins do.










Yep, they were all here. All of the cousins were in the same house at the same time. Yikes! Well, you know what the important thing is: Two more for a baseball team, 4 for a football team; or if we are really ambitious, we could go for two baseball teams, so they can play each other! :)

Christmas at Home!

Since Carmen and I are both on probation at our new jobs, the last thing on our priority list was the Christmas tree and decorations. So here is our Christmas Wagon the night of Christmas Eve!

Liam is always coming up with new silly things that we just don't understand. Christmas Eve we tucked him in as usual. I laid him on his back, neatly laid the covers over him, then gave him is binki. Here he is sleeping soundly on Christmas morning. He sure looks comfy, doesn't he?

There were plenty of presents in the Christmas Wagon for Liam to open, thanks to friends & family; especially Grammy & Grandpa Moss! Liam will take the opportunity to be destructive any chance he gets.



Later in the day, something happened I have not seen in my 25 years in Seattle. It actually snowed on Christmas Day! Liam is so lucky. He got to have snow on his very first Christmas.

He was very curious and of course, he just had to touch it to see what it was.