And while I have a connection

I'll post some more pictures while I'm getting internet service. Grandpa here's those Nike's you bought him. They fit him good and he thought they were fun to play with.






































What daddy's are for, letting him play drive the car :)

So here are some pictures

So for some reason the Internet that we "barrow" isn't powerful enough for me to load pictures on here! Someone needs to tell one of my neighbors to get stronger Internet connection so our wi fi can pick it up! Anyways, I did manage to take just a couple of pictures at the home coming. I was alittle pre-occupied, and wish I would have taken more or had someone take a family pic of us. I guess we will just have our memories!

Eli waiting in the passenger terminal in his pj's at about 10pm















There's the plane!!! The guys are starting to come down the stairs.















If you can even see this picture, Eric is right in the center with a blue pillow under his arm.















He was sooo happy to see us.




















Daddy's boy right away, I think he even gave him a kiss that night.

Eric is home!!!

Ok, sorry for not posting sooner. Eli and I flew in on Saturday and we stayed the night in Nashville at a hotel. Sunday morning our wonderful friends the Bagge's picked us up to drive us home to Clarksville. That was drama finding a ride home, brilliant me, forgot I booked our flight over Memorial day weekend and so NONE of our friends were in town to pick us up. On top of that there was no shuttle service and the rental car place was out of cars! But, luckily I did think of the Bagge's at the last minute. We got to the house expecting it to be covered in dust and full of sewer rats (thank you Alan Clother) only to find my wonderful friend Paige had come by a few days earlier to straighten up, change the sheets and give us a few groceries. So, very sweet. One worry down, next one to deal with... the car. So the car was completely DEAD, I had to call a tow truck to come and pick up Eli and I to take us to get a new battery. Just so you know baby seats don't fit so well in semi trucks!! I had to hold it on my lap the whole way because he couldn't change gears with the seat in the way. Ok, so the car is running, new problem... Eli has been sucking on my phone as a toy during this whole ordeal, so now it won't work! And this is my ONLY means of communication- we have no computer, all I have is my phone to cling to in hopes that Eric will call me. So I go to Walmart and LUCKILY- no THANK THE LORD, we are eligible for a free phone.
Ok, so drama aside we got home and start waiting. All day Sunday we wait, all day Monday we wait. Then Monday night I get a call from Eric that they will get in on Wednesday night! So all day Tuesday I wait. At about 6pm I was over at a friends and thought about checking my e-mail to get there flight info and the arrival date is for that day! Tuesday! In like 3 hours! I was so overwhelmed, I made my friend read the email for me. He was coming in a day early!!! So we hurried home and got ready and headed out to the flight line. Its kinda fun there, all the women and children gathered around a fence waiting to see a plane come in. Then in the distance we see the lights of the plane and the crowd starts cheering!!! The guys start there way off the plane and towards the group and everyone in yelling and waving flags and signs to Daddy. It was a very sweet thing to see all these men coming home to there families. Eric was towards the end of the group and it was that strange dream like feeling to actually be with him again. Eli went straight into his arms and of course, I cried. We were able to leave to go home after only a few hours. Eli has been doing wonderful with Eric, and we are having fun together too. wink, wink.

sorry where did I leave off

in uncle marks hat















outside The New Sanno Hotel















in the lobby















was so excited to stand on the chair




















Sorry, I've been distracted and haven't finished posting all of these. Where was I, Oh yes we are to Sunday which was a very very lazy day. We tryed to check back into the military hotel but they had had a prom there the night before and couldn't clean the rooms fast enough to get people in. Long story short I pretty much sat in the lobby til 5pm when we were finally able to go to our rooms. We took some pictures and chilled. Well needed rest.

kabuki style

One of my favorite meals. Our friend Megan has lived over in Japan for 10 years, she married a japanese guy about 2 years ago. They met up with us several times on the trip and help lead us around. Most importantly they took us to eat and ordered for us!!















At the Edo-Tokyo Museum, Its next door to the Sumo Stadium that we missed by a couple days!


































Danielle and I are international disrespectin' fools.

the homeikan

On Saturday we moved from the military resort to a traditional Japanese inn called a Ryoken. This was somewhat of an unknown experience for all of us, but ended up being a very cool time!


The entrance to the Homeikan














where you remove your shoes and put on indoor slippers














me looking hot in a robe- yeah right!




















our room














after taking a nice long bath.

I was in Japan!

Sorry no posts for awile we just got home from Japan yesterday! We left on the 29th for our big family vacation, everyone came except Eric and Jonathan. The flight over there was non-stop 10 hours, which was not to bad. Eli slept on and off. He and I took a day or so to adjust to the 16 hour time change. We got up around 5am everyday- cause we just couldn't switch over completely. Japan reminded me so much of Korea, except it was alot cleaner there. It was neat to be back in a familar place, and to show my family what it was like for a year of my life. We stayed at a military hotel in Tokyo, which was so nice. I'll post daily what we did while we were there, starting off with day 4. We lost a couple days with travel and jet lag!

Our first big outing was a trip to Asakusa area to see the Senso-ji temple and shopping area. It was pretty busy when we were there because it was their holiday- golden week. The Temple had a long row of shops with all sorts of asian nik-naks and gifts and a huge garden area. It was beautiful.