Oh, so festive!

We took the girls to the Scottish Festival again this year.

We saw some of this.

This kind of weirds me out, by the way. I did like the Roman section though but I'm not sure why the Romans were there in the first place. Hello, remember Hadrian's Wall - they built it to keep the Scots out of Roman Britain. How soon they forget . . . anyway. I got to throw a spear in their camp and I was really good at it.

We also watched the strong man festival. They were not so impressive. They were mostly just, how to do you say it politely, round. The strong women were awesome - not round, just buff - and fun to watch! Emily is planning to compete next year.

Heidi and Molly agreed that the shave ice was the best part of the festival. Dying the tongue is always a fun and festive event. Also, shave ice stops the whining.

I love how this kid is looking at these guys like they're nuts and the nuts are giving the kid on a leash the same look.

Next year we're getting Scott a kilt.

We tried to exhaust her

Ayuka came to our house last weekend. Her school did a week-long tour of California. OK, not all of California. She got to see San Francisco and Universal Studios in LA. Just the staples I guess. Luckily for us, there was also a homestay program so the students could live with American families. She was only at our house for 36 hours and we did our best to give her a homestay to remember - or at least to help her be thankful she's Japanese.

As soon as we picked her up we took her right out to get a hamburger. In her questions about America she wrote, "Will Americans eat hamburgers all the time?" Yes, dear Japanese student. We do. We especially like them with bacon because bacon is like a little hug from God.

We've got spirit, how about you?!

Next we took her to see American teenagers in action - the local HS football game! I had some friends who brought their Japanese students too so we all sat together. I wish, wish I could speak Japanese because I would have loved to hear their true reactions. All of the students were very polite and I really couldn't tell if they were having fun or not. They just smiled and nodded a lot when I asked them questions. I'm going to take that as a yes, it was fun.

This photo was taken on the first cold day of the year. I'm starting to think it was also the last cold day of the year. Whew! I'm roasting here! Also, can you see that Heidi was profoundly influenced by Mugatu's final collection?

The next morning we took Ayuka to go see some California produce. Every time I go to Denios I kick myself for having been away for so long. I LOVE the produce section. You can find all kinds of things you pay double for at the grocery store AND then lots of freaky looking Mexican and Asian fruits and vegetables you can't find anywhere else. Come over. I'll take you. It's been too long already.

The rest of the day we wore poor Ayuka out by taking her to the mall, going miniature golfing and best of all, we sent her with some friends to go to a Stake Dance! I think she had fun. Again, there was lots of smiling and nodding, so who knows. I know she liked the Sonic drink she came back with.

Sayonara, Japanese kids! We'll see you next August!