kiko – Page 17 – d@vidb dot net

Family trip to Tanegashima

It’s summer vacation! So we can either have the kids hang around all summer and drive us (mostly Kiko!) crazy, or we can ship the family off to Tanegashima.

This year, it happens to align with the total eclipse (I’ll give you a hint… rain) where the Southern tip of Tanegashima was in the 100% zone.

We also took a side trip to Yakushima, the island that inspired Hayao Miayazaki’s Princess Mononoke (Look it up) and Noa got to play with nature (touch bugs), and both Hana and Noa got to play with their cousins.

I took one week (the first one) with them and am heading back to Tokyo shortly. I have a feeling he is going to forget all his English by the time he gets back, so I have loaded him up with some Super Why! (Look it up!) and Transformers.

In the meantime, here is our week in pictures…

RumiRumi (Noa’s personal hair assistant) Dad is on the right.

Noa getting some Super Why in the mix with Hina.

Our dissapointing but still cool 100% total eclipse. (It did get really dark outside for 2 minutes!)

Hana throwing a tantrum over the fact that we couldn’t actually see the eclipse.

Noa’s friend George. I am too lazy to turn it the right way round.

Noa being cool.

Both Noa and Hana really enjoyed the ocean this time around.

Noa enjoys relaxing…

… and Hana enjoys posing.

All of these were taken with the iPhone camera so apologies in advance. (Actually they came out pretty good.)

Since I am making this post in the ghetto, you will have to squint and turn your head appropriately to enjoy the pictures.

I am going to miss everyone while they are here, but with trips to Dalian, China and Singapore coming up… will be busy.

Family Picture at Fireworks

So … umm.. apparently there is one thing more frightening than Tickle me Elmo… fireworks.

Noa has been scared of fireworks since he was born, and now at 3 1/2, no exceptions.

He freaks out. Screams, cries, runs away (almost gets hit by a bus) and hangs out in McDonalds.

Here is a family picture taken before the happening.

Goggy

Goggy passed away today at the age of 97.

Will write more later, and want to thank everyone for the kind words.

A big thank you to Scott for the following

so sorry to hear. i know she was such a wonderful person… always talked to me when i came by, asking about my life and was genuinely interested. she lived a really long and full life and always seemed happy and positive.

I wish I could have been there with her.

Goggy played a huge role in Shane and I growing up.

Christmas Photos

Some photos from Christmas

Noa in all his kamen rider (masked rider) glory

Hana pushing a shopping cart

Our new Roomba!?

Wish we could have spent it with all of you, but Noa definitely had a good time and got most of what he wanted from Santa.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and … Happy Holidays?

As per usual, you should all be receiving your Christmas Cards and/or New Years Cards (Japan) any day now…

I believe one of our traditions is to post the cards online a few days before you receive them, thereby ruining the surprise.

Anyways, make sure to put it on your fridge, and LET US KNOW IS YOU DO NOT RECEIVE ONE!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love always,

Dave, Kiko, Noa and Hana

davidandkiko.com -> vidb.net?

It’s been a long time since we only had 1 post in a month. Between a trip to Austin, Texas for me, and a trip back to Tanegashima for the rest of the family things have been crazy.

In bigger news, because of all the problems with davidandkiko.com, I have decided to move the site to vidb.net which I know shouldn’t attract too many crazies.

vidb.net -> d@vidb.net (davidb.net, get it??)

The move is semi permanent, but will work on moving back to davidandkiko when possible.

Thanks so much and in return here are lots of pictures.

BTW:　Noa is really really iinto Darth Vader. Because he’s black.

Injuries and Halloween

It was bound to happen! Despite being pretty perfect, Hana was injured today. We were at a friends house and she pulled a cup of tea over and it fell on her hands.

Or we were teaching her only to speak when spoken to… or something.

Either way, she is all bandaged up, we are all a little traumatized.

Could have been a lot worse and she doesn’t seem to have been injured (the bandages are a precaution.)

Now still likes to test the theory that she is not in any pain by trying to ride her around like a horse when she is crawling.

This is the costume Noa wears when he is tormenting Hana.

Noa and Hana gear

Seems like the website is up and running. Still a lot of things to work out, clean up a bit, make it look better and add some features, but good to have some pictures back!

We just bought some really cute shirts which have Noa’s and Hana’s names on them.

「英」はな Hana – Some sort of flower, also used in the character for English

「希空」のあ – Wish, Sky