Luke's First Game

Recently Luke joined an area baseball team with our teammate Andy. He played in his first game this past Sunday and they won 7-6! Luke thinks he didn't play very well but Sterling and I thought he did awesome (esp. for not having played since highschool!) He started out pitching and then moved to short stop. Sterling had a great time playing at the park- the game lasted 3 hours so we had plenty of time to play! We're looking forward to a couple more games this fall then starting back up next spring. It's going to be a really cool way to meet new Japanese friends too, which is awesome. On Sunday we went to dinner with the catcher and his wife.

Nagoya Dragons

On Steve's last night here we went to a Nagoya Dragons baseball game. It was so much fun! The crowd cheers and sings and makes noise with noisemakers the ENTIRE time! We sat in the outfield section and it was great for Sterling to just be able to yell and bang the little bats together that we got him. After the first few innings he said to us "Okay, Sterling's done watching baseball." But then we went and bought him these little bats and for the rest of the game he was a very happy kid!

Kyoto!

On Saturday the weather cleared out beautifully and we were able to take the Shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto, which was actually only about an hour and a half away. It is an old city, it actually was the capital of Japan for several hundred years. The city has preserved many of the old Temples, shrines and the palace from the time that it was the capital.

We got on a regular train in Okazaki, so here is Steve and Sterling waiting for the train to arrive.

Here are the three guys at the Kyomizudera Temple in Kyoto. It is at the top of a HUGE hill, so you can look behind them and see the city and mountains.

These two pictures were taken in the Imperial Palace Grounds Park. Sterling climbed up in this tree and we got some cute pictures.


This last photo was also from the Imperial Palace. I don't usually love having my picture taken when I'm 6 months pregnant, but I figured it was a good time to capture our family together :)

Rainy Days

The weather has been kind of crummy over the last few days, so we spent some time with Grandpa at the indoor play place called Wing Town. Sterling completely wore him out! When they were done playing Steve said "Okay, I'm ready for a nap" and Sterling ran right out of there and said,"Okay, now what?"


When it stopped raining one afternoon we went to the Okazaki castle. So the guys got their pictures taken at a couple of the local sights- an arch that marks an entrance to the castle grounds, the bridge that crosses the moat to the castle, a giant turtle with some sort of inscription all in Japanese that we can't read, and by a statue of a samurai warrior. We came home that night and watched The Last Samurai in order to keep up the study on Japanese culture :)

Playing at the Parks

These first five pictures are all from Grandpa Chase's first evening and day in Japan! Sterling calls him Bampa which is pretty funny. They've been doing a lot of wrestling together- one of Sterling's favorite activities. But the first two pictures are from when we picked him up at the airport, and the next three are from the time we spent at the park today. We did all the usual things- the slides, rides and train!
Another fun thing to notice is Sterling's very cool new Stanford Basketball T-shirt from Carolyn-- Thank you Care! It looks really good on Sterling and we were in desperate need of a gray T-shirt to replace the gray b-ball T-shirt he wears every other day right now (it's starting to get that funky smell that just won't go away no matter how many times you wash it...)





These pictures are all from a day last week that Sterling and I went to the park. The first three pictures are of him and a little boy he met named Aiki (pronounced like Ike-ee). Aiki was a little spitfire- he was only 1 yr 5months, but he ran right up to Sterling and wanted to play with him. They had matching energy levels and became quick friends! They played with bubbles together and chased one another mostly. The last picture is Sterling and Brayden that same day with a hula hoop they randomly found in the park and started playing with. It was a fun day but VERY hot still!

Sterling-isms

Well, I've decided to make some electronic memories because for one, I don't have my scrapbooks here in Japan to actually write anything (and if I just wrote all this down in some random notebook, it would most certainly be gone in one of the many moves we make). For another thing, I only scrapbooked Sterling's life up to age 1 because it was SO much work and I always had to get everything exactly right in it...It kind of stressed me out. So now I have to think about scrapbooking for this next kid for the whole first year of his life and that will be enough to worry about!
So here goes some random thoughts about Sterling's funniness over the last couple of months...

"I'll Throw You Away"
My grandma Birt always used to tell the story of my cousin Miranda and I and our responses to her when she would say "I'm gonna throw you away" when we were being naughty. My typical response was to plead and beg with a repentant tone, "No grandma, please don't throw me away!" Miranda's response, on the other hand, was "No you won't!" My grandma always thought that these responses indicated the kind of personalities we had and the kind of women we would grow up to be-- and in some ways I think she was right on!
So sometimes when Sterling is being a little naughty or just a little ornery, Luke will say to him, "Sterling, I'm gonna throw you outside." He'll just look straight back at Luke and with this mischievous grin reply back, "No, I'm gonna throw YOU outside!" So grandma, what do you think Sterling's response to this statement indicates about his personality??!!

"It's Shiny Out!"
Luke always remembers to get Sterling his most favorite item in his wardrobe, his hat, when they are walking out the door. I, on the other hand, nearly always forget it. So every time we walk outside Sterling yells at me "FORGOT MY HAT! It's too shiny out!"

"Maybe it's Kyle..."
The other night Tony rang our doorbell and anytime anyone rings our doorbell Sterling gets SO excited that he about wets his pants. He was jumping up and down and dancing and screaming and Luke said "Who do you think it is?" Sterling responded, "I think it's Kyle!" I don't know why he thought maybe it was Kyle (considering the fact that Kyle lives in America and we live in Japan) but I thought it was really sweet that he was so excited that it might be his uncle.

"Gigi and Papa too?"
Sterling has been getting super excited about his grandpa Chase's visit to Japan next week. He can't wait for him to come play with him all week and sleep in his room with him (There are basically only three rooms in our house- Sterling's, ours and the kitchen, so Steve gets to sleep with Sterling:). So we were talking to him about the visit last week and he so sweetly started asking who else was coming- was Grandad coming? Gigi and Papa? Sometimes I love the fact that we get to live and work here and do the ministry that God has called us to, other times it makes me really sad that Sterling misses his family so much...But...it's all the life of a missionary right?!

"And you're a cowgirl."
Sterling has been really into identifying things lately- whose clothes are whose, which towel is his in the bathroom, etc. But one that he has consistently been working on is who's a boy and who's a girl. So he'll look at Luke and say "Daddy's a boy." Then he'll point to himself and say "Sterwing's a boy." And then he'll look at me and with a little bit of confusion say "Mommy, you a boy?" So of course I respond and say "No, mommy's a girl." So he just looks at me and says "You're a cowgirl!" It makes me laugh every time. I think he picked it up from a little cartoon called the Backyardigans where they dress up as cowgirls and cowboys.

Okay, I think that's all for now. I will try to keep video taping and remembering these things because I know he will love looking back on them one day...

Shades

I had to get a new pair of glasses because I have some sort of incurable eye infection apparently, so Sterling and Luke went with me to pick them out. Since Sterling couldn't try on any of the store's glasses, he went around with Luke's sunglasses on! Cute!

This is Sterling's latest trick, and the phrase that goes with it: "Can you do dis?"

Sterling's Prayers

Every night before Sterling goes to bed he says his prayers, and they go something like this "dear God, thank you my friends, thank you my family, thank you my Tigger Pooh (the poster on his wall that has Pooh and Tigger on it), we wub (love) you Jesus, Amen". That's pretty much the gist of the one that I recorded here, but he also prays for his baby brother. He's been saying the funnest/cutest things lately...I keep thinking that I need to write them down somewhere so that I won't forget...Maybe I'll try to collect my thoughts and post them here...We'll see!

Playing with Miku

We were headed to the park the other day when Sterling's friend Miku and her mom Kazuko came outside to say hi to us. So we just asked them if they wanted to go with us and we had a great time! The pictures are pretty self-explanatory, but basically, the kids climbed a hill, rode the bouncy toys, went down the slide and fed the fish, ducks and turtles. It was a fun evening.

Just some pictures

Okay, sorry it's been so long since I've posted any new pictures, there just hasn't been anything going on lately! We've just been in our normal routine. But here are a couple of pictures I've taken recently, although they are not too exciting!
This was when it had actually cooled down enough here to go to the park one day. It had been being SO hot that we couldn't even go to the park during the day. It's cooling down a little now since it's typhoon season, although that mostly just means lots of humidity.

This is kind of a goofy picture, but it's Sterling's new rain jacket that he LOVES. We went to a thrift store and bought it for him and he wore it all night that first day.

We ate at a ramen noodle restaurant that night, so Sterling and I were posing for a picture.

There has been some major construction across the street from our apartment. Sterling and Luke go out to watch it at least once a day. Sterling always likes to watch all the trackos working. The ones in this picture are only some of them working in this huge open space. We don't know what they're building, but we hope we get to see it before we move away from Okazaki!

Tonight we watched a movie about an Iowa HS baseball team that was the state champions 20 times. It was called "Final Season". I thought it was really goofy but Luke and Sterling really liked it. Actually, when there would be conversation during the movie Sterling would say, "I don't like this part, where's the baseball?" It was really funny.

Lately...

Last week we went with our team to the water park that we went to earlier in the summer. It was a really fun day and we kept busy the whole time so these are the only two pictures I got. The first is Sterling in his way too cute turtle towel that my mom got him. I just think he looks so adorable in it! Once again, I'm his mom, so I know I'm a little biased here...Anyways, the second picture is this pig pillow that Luke won for him by playing a b-ball shooting game. I was begging Luke to do it because I knew he would win (and of course, Luke was like, "No, I don't want to play, I won't win anything!" and of course, I knew better). Sterling was thrilled about the pig pillow that Luke won and he insisted on carrying it around with him the rest of the time even though it was about as big as him.


We also went to Nagoya last weekend as a family- we just went to a big pet store, but Sterling thought it was one of the coolest places on earth. I sat out in the mall waiting for them because my feet were tired, and, as we all know, I could really do without all small animals. After the pet store we went to this ferris wheel that is attached to the side of a building. It was really cool! We didn't even end up having to pay and you can see practically the whole city from up there. It was pretty fun.


BOTH of my wonderful sets of grandparents recently sent us a box of goodies and we have been thoroughly enjoying everything- Sterling especially likes the muffin mix that we got from Gigi and Papa. But this is his other favorite item from the treat boxes- a baseball and velcro mitt from his Great grandad and grandma Birt. We have played with this little thing so much already! He is getting better and better at it.

Nihon Showa Mura

On Wednesday of last week we went with my tutor, Megumi, and her family to a Japanese village in a different prefecture. It was kind of like in America if you went to an old "colony" town or something (like Billie Creek Village in Indiana). It was in a really pretty area with lots of mountains and we had the best day with them. It was so much fun! We really enjoyed meeting her family and getting to spend the day with them.

One of the first things we did was make rice crackers in these old ovens. These two pictures are Megumi and I making our crackers.


These two pictures are from the go-cart area. Sterling rode with Luke and then got on a little car with Megumi's son, Taiyo. Sterling really loved Taiyo and they had a blast together. Taiyo said that Sterling wasn't a very good driver because he kept running into things!


After we did the go-carts everyone was really hot so the kids all went swimming in these man-made ponds. Megumi and her husband Shuu have 2 kids- Hinako is their daughter and she is 9, and Taiyo is 7. They had a lot of fun splashing around in the water. The bottom was made of concrete so they didn't even get dirty :)



Megumi used to do archery, so here she is showing me how to do it. I was NOT very good at it! In the picture below you can see Shuu and Hinako watching me.


After all that, we were all hot and tired so we went to lunch. Sterling and Taiyo played with his cars, although Sterling still isn't very good at sharing. I had a traditional Japanese dish of cold noodles with a sour plum sauce- I thought it was delicious! Luke decided to go with something he knew a little better and so he got breaded pork cutlet with rice to share with Sterling.

We also got to tour an old school house. Sterling was checking out all the old things they used including a xylophone which he banged on for quite a while!

This was at the very end of the day, Hinako, Sterling and Taiyo all sitting in the back of our car while Luke and I said our thank you's and goodbyes to Megumi and Shuu. The kids wanted to keep going, but I was so tired by the end of the day! There was still a lot more to see at this place- there were all kinds of animals, boats you could take out on a lake, play areas, etc., but I was pretty much exhausted by 5:30 when we decided to head home. Overall this was one of the most fun days we've had in Japan so far.