We've got mail!!

Ok so I know this is a strange thing to post about, but when you haven't received one piece of mail for almost 2 months you get pretty excited when you finally receive a package from home especially one that is full of so many goodies.  When Hans got home last night with our package that my mom sent over 5 weeks ago we were ecstatic to open it.  Here are a couple of pictures of Olivia sitting amongst all the goodies that we received.  It has been fun to have some new toys, new movies, stuff for the kitchen (finally), and all the other goodies Grandma sent our way.

A little update on our mail situation.  Come to find out first the post office or possibly the army (we don't really know what happened) messed up our forward and our mail was getting sent to Germany, Korea, and everywhere but here and eventually back to sender. We decided enough was enough and we switched our forward to have all our mail forwarded to my parents house since I will be there in a month for 2 weeks and then the forward will end when the girls and I get back to WA so if you sent us something and it was returned or you want to send us something you can send it to our Bremerton address and we will get it eventually.  Sorry if you did get something returned to you we would still love to get it so we would love it if you would resend it.  We do have a new address here that is suppose to work better than our old one so if you need to get something to us before then let me know and I will send you that address.  In the meantime my mom reads all our mail to us over the computer so we will know what we are getting.
Pure Joy!!

Having fun at both parks

The last day we seemed to have it down.  We were able to get up and get ready in a timely fashion.  We got some rolls and muffins from downstairs instead of eating the full sit down breakfast and we were at Disney Sea right as they were opening.   Here are some pictures of us getting ready in the morning.

Claire doesn't cry even when Olivia carries her like that.  Tough little sister.
Olivia getting ready with me.  She was even very agreeable this trip to wearing pants since it was cold outside.  You can see her bow in the mirror.  She has never really liked me fixing her hair probably because she was like Claire and didn't have much for a long time so I never had to fix it.  But this Minnie bow that she is wearing she loves.  We also got a Daisy bow and a Marie bow.  I figured someday Claire will have enough hair for a pony tail and we will need one for her too.
When we got to Disney Sea we got a quick picture with Goofy, he was just leaving so we did the proximity shot.
Then we bee lined it over to Mermaid's Lagoon so we could our picture taken with Ariel.  With no line.  Perfect!!
Here is Olivia and Hans outside Mermaid's Lagoon.  We headed in there and were able to ride a few of the rides and see the show again without hardly any wait.  It was nice to not have to wait long and do a lot in a short amount of time.
Claire and I in the Mediterranean. 
Hans and Olivia at Mysterious Island.  We did ride the 20,000 leagues under the sea ride with the kids.  Mostly for Hans and I since we didn't get to ride very many of the big rides.  It was really neat, but all in Japanese so we didn't quite get the story line.
We were headed out of Disney Sea to take a short break before going back over to Disneyland and happened to find the characters near the entrance with short lines to get your picture taken.  So we took advantage.
Yes Claire was sleeping but she was there :)

I don't know what it was about Disneyland but every time we were there it was raining.  We got to Disneyland just in time to watch the day parade.  The girls definitely loved both of the parades and we loved watching them enjoy it.  It was sprinkling as we watched but neither of them were phased.  Here are a few pictures from the parade.



What's coming next?
Wow!
Olivia's favorite ride was actually Dumbo.  Which just goes in circles, but she loved it even in the rain.  You would think she would like Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh the best, but nope it was Dumbo.
We took a break from the rain and watched the Mickey Mouse Revue, a little video and then musical rendition.  The girls again loved it which was great for Hans and I and a chance to warm up.  It was all in Japanese.  A lot of the shows were of course, but a few of them gave you a little reader box so you could see the translation in English.
Leaving the park.  We were sad to leave since our trip was so much fun :)
When we got home we took our pictures in our hats.  Hans is wearing Olivia's first hat from Disneyland in LA.
On Monday, when we were in line for Peter Pan there was a very nice Japanese girl behind us who thought the girls were super cute.  She spoke English very well as she had spent a year studying abroad in New Zealand.  She was very helpful in talking to us about Japan and the Japanese people.  She said many Japanese do understand what we are saying, but are too shy to speak English to us.  She told us that the word that most Japanese people would use for cute would be kawaii (I don't know if this is how it is spelled, I am sure it probably isn't but it sounds like Hawaii with a k) and that chuo meant very.  After she told us this I was able to actually here them saying kawaii and was able to understand that they thought the girls were cute.  Everywhere we went the girls got a lot of attention like they were little stars.  Claire eats up and smiles and waves and claps all the people giving her attention.  Olivia is a little more shy about it.  I was thankful that we were able to talk to this girl and learn so much from her.
The girls looking very kawaii in their hats.

We left Wednesday morning and the trip home was pretty uneventful.  We took the train as we would have had an hour wait for the bus we wanted to take.  Taking the train here is relatively easy as long as you know what line you want and which direction you want to go.  The hard part on the way home was that it was raining and the girls were just super tired especially Claire and they can't sleep on the train because it so noisy and we have to change trains fairly often waking them up.  It was a long two hours home, but we made it.  We had a great trip and we are so glad that we got to experience the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Tokyo Disneyland

On day 2 we went to Disneyland.  Unfortunately every time we went to Disneyland during this trip it seemed to rain.  We were bummed as this is the first really bad weather we have experienced since being here.  Usually it just rains really hard one day and then it clears up for a few days.  we had a really hard rain on Friday before we left so I was hopeful that the weather report was wrong...but it wasn't.  It rained a lot like it does in Seattle, misting and then raining and then dry and so on.  It was also pretty windy which is what made it even more miserable because it was super cold.  So Monday morning after waiting in line at our hotel for 45 minutes to eat a very expensive (3,300 yen each) European continental breakfast we headed out in the rain with a ton of other people.  Just because it is raining doesn't mean you Disneyland won't be packed even in the off season.

Here we are at the entrance.  You can see how thrilled Olivia is to be here in the rain :)
It rains so much in Tokyo that the have a covered main street area.  Definitely nice for those rainy days.
Olivia, Hans and Robin Hood.  Hans was trying to show me how easy it is to get a picture with a character as the day before I was unable to get Daisy to take a picture with us and Olivia thought she didn't like us.
So next it was my turn.  Still had a tough time getting Hook to take a good picture with me.  I guess I need practice conveying to the Japanese character that I want to get my picture taken with them.
The World Bazaar.
When in Japan do as the Japanese do.  Everywhere we went the first day we saw the ladies wearing these hats.  So we had to buy one.  It came in handy in keeping my head warm and dry through all the rain.
Us girls by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Finally a smile :)  Olivia was able to ride the Snow White ride and it quit raining for a little bit.  She was in her zone the princess zone.
Us girls with Mickey.
We love Cinderella's castle.
Daddy and Pinocchio.
As we headed into Toon Town Claire finally fell asleep.  Face up in the rain.  Don't worry we tucked her head in after the picture so she would stay warm and mostly dry.
Daddy and Livy after riding another roller coaster.  We were able to see Minnie's house, Goofy's bounce house, and ride a roller coaster in toon town.  By this point we were getting pretty wet, cold, and hungry so we headed into the Queen of Hearts to have some dinner.

The king of my heart :)
After this we decided to head back to the hotel to give us and the girls a break from the rain and cold so we could return for the electric parade and to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride which we had fast pass tickets for 7:45 to 8:45 at night.

The break was nice and then we headed back to watch the parade.  That is when we had the biggest scare of our lives.  We got back to Disneyland just in time to find a great spot for the parade and it had actually cleared off and was a pretty nice night.  One of the employees came over and was trying to communicate to Hans and I that we needed to fold down our stroller for the show.  I asked if we could just park it over by the fence out of the way and she said yes.  Once Hans went over there she kept bugging him and telling him to fold down the stroller or park it farther away or something.  While Hans was messing with the lady I was holding down our spot and another lady came telling everyone to sit down so people could see of course in Japanese, but I got the jist.  In the midst of all this commotion.  Olivia took off from Hans to find me, but never did and Hans didn't even know she had left.  When Hans finally got back I looked around and didn't see Olivia.  I started running around calling for her and looking for her.  Imagine the tall blond lady running around yelling a foreign name and all these people just staring at me like I was crazy.  I felt crazy....crazy scared that I wouldn't be able to find my daughter.  Once Hans saw that I hadn't found her he told me to go find someone that worked there and he took off looking too.

Shortly after that (it seemed like eternity)  I found a nice Japanese man that asked me if I was looking for someone and then helped me find a security guy.  He spoke english well and said lets go over to the lost children room.  I said she is 3 she won't know to go there.  He assured me that the staff would find her and bring her there.  I was scared that someone may have taken her, but he said that that doesn't happen here.  Coming here that was my biggest fear that someone would try to snatch my child.  But since I have been here I have learned that crime is very low here and I actually feel safer here than in the states.  Everyone is very kind and nice even if I can't communicate very well with them.  So I felt a little better but I was still panicked.  Shortly after I reported it to the lady in the lost children center a call came in that they had found her and Hans (by two different people) and were bringing them both there.  So the scary situation was over within 15 minutes and we were back in time to watch the entire parade although we had to stand.  The kids loved the parade and I was so glad that we had found Olivia quickly and that she was safe.  Olivia didn't seem to scared by the situation as I thought she might be.  She said a nice lady had helped her and asked her name and she was able to tell her so that is good. 
Cinderella opened up the parade.

Here is Snow White.

Olivia having a great time from her perch on daddy's shoulders.  Olivia kept asking me get a picture of that one mom.  So I have a ton of pictures from the parade.
Claire intently watching the parade.
Sully and Mike.
Cinderella.
Cinderella and the prince behind.
Marie from Aristocats.
The caste all lit up.
We also got to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride which was super fun for Olivia and was probably my favorite ride of this trip as well.  It is different than the one in LA so it was fun to see a new ride.

Here are couple of videos.  One of Claire waving as we were riding the bus over to the monorail station to go back and watch the parade.  The other is of Olivia after she got off the roller coaster in toon town.