Adventures in Kyoto

The day after Halloween we got on a plane and flew a couple hours to Osaka. Then we took a train to the city Kyoto. It is a famous city for their ancient temples and shrines. During WWII the city was preserved because of its historical value.

Going on trips with kids is always an adventure and this one didn't disappoint. They sure make it hard, but hopefully we made some good memories.

We stayed in an Airbnb which worked out pretty well. I wish I would have taken some pictures of it. Here is the pic from the website...

The shower/bath room was cool. It kinda looked like this pic

Step out of the tub and the whole room is a shower (ours even had a mirror just like the picture- not a fan of the mirror in the shower).

The toilet was a "magic potty" as my children call them. Brooklyn went to use it and wanted to know what all the buttons were for so she pushed one. All of a sudden there was some screaming coming from the bathroom- and water spraying all over. She had pushed the button for the bidet and it shot right through her legs and onto the floor.

It kinda looked like this except the buttons were on the wall. Who needs a separate line for the sink when you can just put it right on top of the toilet. 

On the train to Kyoto: You have to treasure these tender moments when all the kids are happy and getting along!

While on the train Spencer said "Does this train have wings?" No. "Then are we flying?"

After our last trip there was no way we were going without a stroller. This one makes it so all the kids can ride necessary.

Day 1 was Nijo Castle, Kinkakuji temple (Golden Pavilion) and the Philosophers path. We took mostly buses and did a lot of walking. 

I wish I would have taken more pictures of this place. It was amazing. Apparently we were there about 3 weeks too early for the full Fall colors, but we still saw a few. 

I love this man so much!

Day 2 was on bikes- what a great way to see a city. Especially since the bikes were electric assisted. That made pulling a 50 pound kid (plus one strapped to you-for Curtis) possible for 6 hours. The kids said this was their favorite part of the whole trip.  

Kiyomizu Dera temple

This is the Fushimi Inari Shrine and the 1000 Torii Gates ( I think)- People come from all over the world to see this sight!

We are in a city that is known for their great food.....

And we eat at McDonalds. That's just how we role. While there I asked them to fill my water bottle with cold water. There was obviously some confusion in the translation because when they gave me my water bottle back it felt a little warm (it is an insulated water bottle). I was super thirsty so I took a drink anyway. It was scalding hot water!!!!! I sucked on ice for the next 3 or 4 hours and my tongue is still sore a week later. 

Day 3 was Arashiyama which is a short train ride from the city center. Here we explored the bamboo forest, although I'm not sure we found the actual one I was planning on seeing. By this point I was so tired, my feet hurt and both Curtis and I had a head cold so we didn't really care. 

Of course we had to play at the park because the kids don't care about anything else. It was funny watching our two kids on one end of the teeter totter with a 3 or 4 Japanese kids on the other end.

The kids did enjoy Monkey Mountain

You climb for about 20 minutes and at the top are "wild" monkeys that just roam around. You can feed them if you go stand inside the cage. The kids were too afraid to hold the food out, but Brooke would toss it close to the monkeys. I was pleasantly surprised she didn't freak out when she saw the monkeys were not in cages. We have come a long way!

The view from the top of Monkey Mountain

This place reminded me a little of Europe

Spencer's 4th Birthday and Halloween

Happy Birthday to this handsome dude!

     This was a big year for Spence. He got potty trained and stopped sucking his thumb. It was all a matter of him deciding he was ready. Nothing we could do would convince him to either stop putting his thumb in his mouth or poop in the potty. As soon as he was ready, it took about 2 days and that was it. 

  Spencer loves superheros, cars, wild kratts and playing pretend. He can entertain himself quite well for a long period of time (which is good since Brooke is in school every day). 

       
    He loves Preschool and is one of the smartest kids in his class (as well as the biggest). He knows almost all his letters and can count to 29 without any help. 

  I got to go to school and eat lunch with him on his birthday. Since I didn't get a party thrown together, we gave the party favors to his classmates at school. 

   Then we had desserts galore with all his friends at the park that night. Spencer loves desserts as well as mac and cheese and tacos. Our neighbor made the cake- it was pirate themed just like his party favors. 

For Halloween this year our family theme was 

The Scooby Doo Gang

We had multiple opportunities to dress up (Spencer's school carnival, branch trunk or treat/chili cook off, friend Halloween party and of course Halloween night) so I only made them wear this when we dressed up as a family. The kids of course take their pick out of the dress up bucket for everything else.

 I'm glad my kids take after me in loving to dress up for Halloween. Curtis is nice enough to go along with whatever I plan :-)

Another fun thing we did this year was under water pumpkin carving. Because of the bad weather, we had to do the carving in a reef which had terrible visibility. Still it was pretty fun to see the pumpkin insides float up as you scraped it out. I'm sure the fish loved it, but we couldn't actually see any. I hope this is a new tradition.