CoCo's equals YUM!

Oh how I missed Curry from CoCo's!  The only problem with going to CoCo's here is that it's surely a drive to get to!  It's down in Hachinohe.  About an hour away on the toll road.  Scott and the boys had the pleasure of trying it, and they loved it!  We each got our own customized curry that we wanted. 

 

There's many things you can add to the curry such as soft boiled egg, or hard boiled egg, corn, cheese, meat, almost any veggie... Then you can choose your spicyness!  I like to get mine with the rice, then order a Naan to scoop up any of the leftover curry after all the rice is eaten.

 

Now, CoCo Curry house is not to be confused with CoCo's Resteraunt... This place is more like Denny's and doesnt have but one curry dish on the menu.  We ate there too, and it's not bad...  CoCo's Resteraunt is right here in Misawa.  It's across from the McD's.

Ramen Lunch



 Since I had off work today for Presidents Day, we took a trip off base to explore and grab some yummy lunch.  We decided on Ramen for lunch and came across this little place "Thunder Ramen"

 

It was really good!  Even the boys ate ALL of their food!  We got Ramen and Gyoza.  We will definately go back...  Next time I want to try one of the spicy dishes.

 

It's not exactly what I remember from Tokyo the first time, but as we explore, I know we will find those hole in the wall places that serve the BEST!

Turtles!

This past weekend, I found a post on the Misawa Websales about a couple of turtles that needed a good home.  They came with a tank and some food...  I adopted them.  I was so excited to bring them home to the boys that I forgot to ask what kind they were and how old, but after some research, I found out they are Reeves Turtles.  They are from Asia and are quite a hardy breed! 

Their names were "Crush and Squirt"...  We were quite happy to have them!  The kids loved the idea of having turtles!  During the weekend, I went out and found a newer larger tank for them.  The tank they came with wasn't very big at all...  The aquariums here are not very big, and it's unfortunate that I sold my 55 gallon tank before I left... :(  But how was I suppose to know that we would adopt some turtles? Oh well. C'est La Vie!

 

After talking with a new friend here, we confirmed that we had Reeves Turtles and that they sell hatchlings at Homac... Well as many times as I had been there recently, I told her I hadn't seen them and so she took me that afternoon to show me.  I fell in love with the munchkin turtles, and decided that if we are going to have Turtles, then we will do it right...  We must have 4 turtles... just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...  So I adopted 2 baby turtles from Homac and bought some baby turtle food...  The tank I had gotten the first set of turtles in is plenty big for these guys, so I went ahead and set both tanks up for both sets of turtles.

 

We named the older ones Raphael and Leonardo.  The younger are Michelangelo and Donnatello.  Now to get the tanks to look even better, I am in search of TMNT aquarium decor...  There's not much out there, so I'm gonna have to get creative. :)

 

The babies are so tiny!  They are only about the size of a 500Yen piece...  Or a half dollar in American terms... LOL  Each one of them has their own personalities!  We are loving them very much! 

Don't worry, the Cat and Rabbit are still extremely loved too!  We are a very loving family!  And as always, my house is becomming a ZOO. :)

 

Coco's Condo

Here is the final product of my most recent building.  It's a Rabbit Condo. 

Here in Japan, it's hard to find those Neat Ideea Cubes, so I went to the Daiso and found a lot of wire grids.  Each grid costs 100 Yen...  Just think, each one of the grids I got are about the size of 2 Neat Idea Cubes already put together...  This thing is massive!  Coco is living in style with 3 stories to run around in.  I even made ramps to go to each level.  The flooring is supported by dowel rods I got from the Homac.  There are hundreds of zip ties that secure the condo together!  This is a lot larger than the condo's I built for our rabbits we had back stateside.

Coco still get's run of the downstairs each day...  So he's not locked up in the condo all day long, but in the case that we get busy and something should ever happen that we can't let him out for some reason, he can still get plenty of exercise!!

Coco the Rabbit

There's an animal rescue on base called PAWS (Pets are worth saving) that we went to check out.  They had a lot of cats, 2 turtles, and a rabbit.  We fell in love with the rabbit!  (We had rabbits before we left Oklahoma, but couldnt bring them with us, and since Trystian was devistated that we had to find his bunnies new homes, I felt horrible for taking his pets away!)

I filled out the adoption application and we went home.  After the board had decided we could adopt the rabbit, they called us and then our whole family jumped into the car to pick him up.  His name was Rue, but Trystian changed his name to Coco.

The first thing we did was go to the Homac off base to get bunny food and some supplies (as they dont sell any of that on base), and to the Daiso.

The Homac is a store much like Lowes or Home Depot in the states.  They have a lot of pet stuff including fish of many kinds.  I was able to get some wood for the rabbit's new home, as well as carpeting for the different levels. 

The Daiso was the next stop.  This is one of my favorite places!  It's like the Dollar Tree back in the states.  It's the 100 Yen store.  Most everything in the store is 100 Yen, but they do have some things that are 300 and 500 Yen...  We were able to get these metal Grids that will be the base and build of the Rabbit Condo as well as zip ties, decorations, chiew toys, and treats.  While we were there, I picked up some house stuff like cleaning supplies for the house and kitchenware like spatulas, graters, and cutting boards.  It's easy to spend a lot of money in there, becasue everything is so "cheap" all you think when you put it in the cart is 'Oh it's just 100 Yen'... 

The kids love the rabbit, and Coco is settling in nicely too!  Trystian is excited he has a bunny to care for again!  This makes me happy!

LOTS OF TRAVELS

So it's been a while since my last post, but I promise as we are starting to settle down now, I will post more often about our adventures.

We had a wonderful Christmas in Maryland! 

The first weekend home, the kids got to see their biological father.  The boys got to play at chuck-e-cheese and walk the mall, as well as go to the Salisbury Zoo and got to ride their new bikes to show off.

Then we had a blast at hanging out with Nonna and PopPop, GrandMere and GrandPere, Grandmom and Grandpop, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Family and Friends the entire time!

First was Christmas.  It was wonderful!  On the Eve we spent the day at Scott's families house baking cookies, playing around, singing, eating, and we went to Church.  After reading The Night before Christmas and another book, we opened one present each and put on our new pajamas for the night.  We made our way to my parents house where we read again, spent time with eachother, and got ready for bed and for Santa.  Oh and we called NORAD to find out where Santa was before going to bed.  Christmas morning was great!  The boys opened gifts from Santa and from my parents.  After breakfast, we left to go to Scott's house to enjoy some dinner, and fun, family and more presents.  After a while we left to go to my grandparents house where we had fun with family, and ate our dessert.  After a very long day of excitement, we retired at Scott's house for the night.  The kids went to bed pretty good that night. :)

Next on the agenda was the Wedding!!  We hustled and bustled after Christmas to get everything together and ready.  That weekend was wonderful!  The night before the Wedding, Scott's parents prepared an awesome meal for the rehersal.  The morning of the wedding, some things went wrong, but then again what ever goes off without any issues?  All in all though, it went very smooth!  I loved dancing with Scott for our song!  We had Scott's sister help choreograph a dance for our first dance!  It turned out Magnificant!  By far one of the best dances yet was the "bridesmaid dance" as we dubbed it!  I created an evolution of dance kinda thing where Anna, Jenn and I danced to a ton of different dances ranging from BeeGee's to Twist, to Kung Fu and Michael Jackson, to the Time Warp and Cotten Eye Joe.  Believe me, I wish I could have had it on video!  A big thanks to everyone who helped with getting the Wedding and the Reception together and off so smoothly!!

After the Wedding you would think things would mellow out?  Well not quite...  We had to do New Years...  We had an awesome time at New Years with family and friends!  Played some games, talked, watched a movie, and "tried" to set off some fireworks!  LOL...  There were issues, dont ask! LOL

Soon the time came to leave the 'Bury...  :(  It was a sad day.  I spent the whole night before packing and getting all ready in my car to head up to the airport.  That was a LONG couple of days!!

Once at the airport, we checked all our stuff in, we hung out in the lounge waiting to board our first plane.  The kids did relatively well on the flights...  for a 3 and 4 year old, I think they did OUTSTANING!  No yelling, screaming, fighting, nor crying!  Some bickering of course, and a little louder at times, but what do you expect for sitting still on a 5 and half hour flight??

Once we landed in Seattle, we got our bags and went straight to the hotel.  Before settling in, we were right back out to the train system to catch a ride to the Space Needle in Seattle.  We met good friends and had an awesome fun filled jam packed day!  We explored the Space Needle, the childrens museum, some resteraunts and the train system and monorails.  After the night was done, we went our seperate ways.  :(  It was sad to say good bye, but I know we will see them again someday soon. :)

We got about 2 hours of sleep before checking out of the hotel and taking a shuttle back to the airport where we had to sign in and wait a very long time for our next flight...  But long story short, we made it to boarding time.  :)  We got on our flight and we made our way to Japan!  The boys were excited!  I tried to get them to sleep on the flight, but it didnt work so much... LOL...  But again, the boys did pretty good I think for the flight.  No crying, screaming, yelling, nor fighting.  Once we arrived to Japan, we were greeted with SNOW!!  lots of it!  My office met me at the terminal and showed us to our hotel where we got some very MUCH NEEDED SLEEP. :)

Finally Here!!

We have finally made it to Misawa!  I look forward to making posts once we get the computer up and running.  I will post pictures of our base house as soon as we are set up.

I passed my Japanese driving class today, and can now drive here.  Now to find a car that's within our budget and works for us.

Stay tuned for more blogs once I get my computer up and running as well as our house.