Our Missouri Visit~Baker Side~

We spent a total of 3 awesome weeks in Missouri visiting family. We kind of bounced back and forth a bit to spend as much time as we could with both my family and Rich’s family. This was our time with Rich’s family.

White Water! It had been years since I’d been to White Water. I grew up going almost every single day during the summer but of course all that stopped when I was old enough to work. I let Rich go on all of the rides with the kids while I chilled and tried to unwind from all of the stress of our move…it was nice.

We had a surprise baby shower disguised as a Baker girls night out for Julie and baby boy Grayson. We had THE BEST time! We laughed so much and so hard. I feel so lucky to have amazing in laws!

Pineapple Whip, yum!

Cousins Kayla and Chris stayed for a few days. Kayla was so fun.

My fancy little lady loves shoes.

The kids spent a lot of time in the pool.

The Marshfield ward had a really cute pioneer day themed Sunday lesson. They drew mustaches on the boys and put bonnets and aprons on the girls and they all sat around a fake campfire. It was so cute!

Grandma Baker arranged for us to go visit her friends farm. The kids loved interacting with the animals.

This donkey’s name is Jake.

He was Aidan’s favorite.

These are miniature donkeys.

Chris got poop on his arm.

It was a fun day on the farm:)

Of course, I can’t forget the annual Rockwood campout! It’s always a good time.

The campout was also a 40th birthday celebration for Jeffrey.

And then, after a few final days of fun, we said goodbye.

Goodbye Cantrells

Goodbye Robinsons

Goodbye Rockwoods (Julie)

The rest of the goodbye pics will be posted later when mom sends them to me:)

Baker family, I love you so much! We all look forward to your visits in the next couple of years. Thank you for being amazing.

We made it to OKINAWA!

I have to do a quick ‘here and now’ post. Our Missouri visit was so long and busy that there is waaay too much to share about that and I don’t want to wait to long to write first impressions and experiences of Japan.

On July 22nd we went to breakfast with Rich’s parents and Yesenia, David and kids. We ate at Sheila’s which has become a tradition for us.

 

I warned everybody to stay still while I took a panoramic picture. Dad, you didn’t listen so you can’t blame me for this goofy picture, haha!

Said goodbye to my sister & fam.

Went back home and did some last minute packing. Daisy and mom photo bombed Arabella. (P.S. Mom, I need those pics you took of all of our family goodbyes!)

I told the kids they should do the peace sign like all the Japanese do:)

Then Maya said, “Maybe we should do a 3 since we’ll be there for 3 years.

Then we all loaded in and headed to St. Louis!

We said a tearful goodbye to the greatest in-laws and headed in to the airport. (Mom, I need those pics too!)

First time flyer!

Favorite new pose…weird.

Yup, I was there too.

We had a 4 hour flight to Seattle and then stayed at a hotel.

The next morning I had crazy anxiety over the 9 hour flight from Seattle to Tokyo. Turns out it was needless worry because our plane was AWESOME! The kids were so busy watching movies and playing games they hardly made a peep!

 

Best little traveler ever! They even gave the kids each a toy! I had no idea what I was picking out for them, haha!

First picture in Japan!

I just love her style:) Always wearing her favorite tutu.

Our luggage.

So, this is where it got hard. We had to wait in the worlds longest lines after such a long flight with 4 annoying exhausted kids only to board another plane. It was not a fun hour and a half but in reality it all went as ideally as it could have possibly gone considering the circumstances. We were all grumpy and sooooo tired. Here’s my question though. How in the heck are kids so dang resilient? How is it that they can be dead tired but if they see something fun to do they are all over it?

I am NOT complaining, I am grateful! Grateful for the genius who thought to throw a tiny little toy in the corner of the airport and surround it with foam blocks. It provided endless fun for all of my kids! They got what little energy they had left in them out and then this happened the second we boarded the plane to Okinawa.

2 solid hours of sleep and we landed in Naha, Okinawa at 8:30ish pm Japan time on July 24th (Pioneer Day!).

Rich’s future co-workers picked us up and took us to our resort. We slept like babies and the next morning woke up to the most BEAUTIFUL sight.

Home sweet home!

We are currently on day #4 of our Okinawa adventure and are in love with this place! The kids didn’t have a single minute of jet lag, Rich and I adjusted super smoothly and quickly and are now ready to soak in this experience.