Sterling and Nelson in the SUMMER

We've been taking the boys swimming quite a bit. They both love it.

Sisters!

We got Nelson this swing for a dollar from a garage sale. It's so fun!

After a long day of work, Sterling fell asleep on Kara.

After another long day of work, Sterling with a VERY dirty face.

May/Our House

This is a picture of one of the horses with her new colt for TAIYO! We're excited for you to come ride this summer!

These are some pictures of our house that we are renting from my dad. It is on a really pretty farm and we love it! The picture of the sunset is taken from our front yard- I LOVE summer sunsets!




Nelson has been eyeing every bite we take (particularly kyle's cheeseburger here) so we decided to try some rice cereal. He's not too great at eating it, but we've only tried twice.


These pics are from when we stopped in Keokuk to visit NTCC and Luke's family. Sterling and Blake had a blast together playing tackle football, cowboys and indians, chasing Granny's cats and exploring together.






This is when we stopped in North Platte, Nebraska. We went to the Buffalo Bill Museum, aka Fort Cody, but it was closed -- BOO!


This is Sterling and his two friends from MTI on the last day- Elisa and Jabez, who was from Australia.

Yeah! New Pictures!

We arrived in Colorado a few days ago and we've been attending a conference for missionaries returning home. It's been a GREAT week- very encouraging and uplifting for us. Here are some of pictures of our week here. The one of Sterling and Luke in the hot tub is from when we stayed in a hotel in Salina, Kansas on the way out here.




We stopped in St. Louis to visit Luke's family, as well as a church that supported us. We got to see Aunt Francie, Nana and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa Chase as well as Uncle Brian, Aunt Erin, Alexis, Ava and Aubrie. Sterling and Ava had a blast together. They were two peas in a pod- both very strong personalities!


This is at our new home. I don't have any other pictures of it yet, although I will soon! Everybody was wrestling- even Nelson!

Nelson, Luke, Kyle and Spike checking on the 4-H pigs while Sterling rode with Grandad in the tractor.

Two Week Trip

Well, still no pictures, but I will give a little update. We just left today to start a two week traveling trip. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon if we get wireless internet! We are in St. Louis for the next couple of days. We are visiting with some of Luke's family here as well as Harvester, a church that supported us over the last year. Next we move on to Colorado to go to MTI- Mission Training International for a Debriefing and Renewal program. After Colorado we will be in Iowa and Illinois to visit churches, friends and more of Luke's family. We are really looking forward to these next two weeks of being with friends and family that we haven't seen for a LONG time.
The boys are both doing really well. Sterling has continued to spend every day on the farm. Nelson gets bigger every minute. Luke has also been working on the farm and I've been trying to set up house.
Hopefully we'll have pictures soon...Hope to see everyone on our cross country tour!

We are...

So, where in the world are the Chase's? We are settling into a farm house that my dad owns in Greencastle, Indiana, where my family and our sending church is located. We have been in a whirlwind since the moment we stepped off the plane.
Our journey began Wednesday morning last week. Our neighbor, Kazuko and her daughter Miku helped take us to the bus station and while we were there Sterling's teacher as well as my teacher showed up to say "Sayonara!" It was a very emotional and sad departure- we have made such great friends in Japan and it was very hard to say goodbye. We took a 1 1/2 hour bus trip to the airport and once we got there, we had to spend an our just at the check in counter. It was so difficult! We had so many bags and carry-ons that the people at the ticketing counter were making it very hard on us. To make a long story short, we had to go through many, many obstacles and hurdles before FINALLY making it to America after 24 hours of travel.
We spent one night at my parent's house before we moved into the farm house. It had absolutely nothing in it- no furniture, no refrigerator, no oven, nothing! It was also very dirty because no one has lived there for quite a while. But Luke's mom came in the day after we arrived and with the help of her and Tom as well as all of my family, we are starting to make it livable! Some good friends are loaning or letting us use some of their things, so we are thankful for all the people who have been so generous to us in our return to the States.
As for now, we are just trying to set up house and get over jet lag. We are also trying to get a reliable car- right now we're borrowing my parent's car every day! We don't have internet at our house yet, so I only get to check my email every few days at my parent's house. As soon as we get it at our house I will have lots of pictures to put up!

Ohanami 2009

On Friday we went to a cherry blossom viewing festival with our neighbors, Kimio san, Kazuko san, and Miku. It was so fun! There were so many interesting foods, people, and beautiful trees, of course. It was at the Okazaki castle so Kyle got to see a lot of very interesting Japanese cultural things.


These two didn't sit long at the picnic before they were up running around.

Walking through the beautiful tree lined sidewalks.

Kyle, me and Nelson with Miku and her parents.

What a great picture of the 5 of us at the Ohanami Festival!

Miku and Sterling had a blast running around and playing. We let them play one game so they got little prizes. Sterling got a chocolate covered banana- he actually didn't like it all that much :)




By the end of the day Nelson's face was a little sunburnt- I felt really bad! I didn't even think about it since the weather wasn't hot, it was just really beautiful out all day.

The Last Week

We took Kyle to Nagoya Port on Thursday. We went inside a ship that has been turned into a museum. We also went to another museum and an observation deck that looks out over the port. It was really cool- Sterling loved all the buttons on the boat. The picture of Luke and I was on the subway ride home.




Sterling was so exhausted the other day that he fell asleep reading his books!


On Wednesday the girls all went out to lunch for a mini baby shower for Caitlin. It was really fun to get together for one last time. The babies were so cute together!



On Monday we took Kyle to Osu Kannon. It's a buddhist temple in Nagoya with a really big shopping area all around it. The only person who ended up buying anything was Luke!