Let's Backpedal.

Hello blog!  I'll spare you the details about my whereabouts over the past few months (i hate that it's been that long).  I know you have been enjoying adventures in Australia and Japan vicariously through Casey, but through me you can enjoy "adventures" in new home ownership and parenthood! what's more fun?!  ha.

July and August were great but BUSY!  We mainly spent time with friends & family, moved, and worked on house projects.  Every spare moment was spent unpacking or working on a project (i.e. our "garden").

We took our annual family vacation down to Sunset Beach, NC in early July and had a great week.  It was VERY different from last year though. To be honest it's not too much like a "vacation" anymore.  Well it really depends on your definition, but there wasn't that much relaxation which is my idea of a vacation.  There was a lot of chasing around a crawling baby, trying to prevent her from eating TOO much sand (impossible), and dealing with naps and bedtime.  I didn't even bring a book to the beach because I didn't have a moment and at night when I did, we were playing games or putt putt or I was falling asleep.

I loved watching Waverly on the beach though.  She LOVED it.  She is fearless and would crawl right along the surf and into the water.  She splashed in the wading pool and her little pool, put fistfuls of sand in her mouth over and over...she had a blast.  Luckily she took her afternoon nap on the beach which was great.  Waverly and my niece Caroline played a lot together and we took wagon rides to walk "Coley" or "Dog!"  Nick and I had a double date with my brother and Shannon and it was nice to get out for dinner.  Cole turned 4 and had a nice swim and romp on the beach with Nick and we had great weather for most of the week.  We were sad to go...but tired! haha.

playing in the wading pool...good way to corral Waverly

she REALLY loved the beach

beach bums

Nick got some golf and beer time in

4 years old...and feeling it

story time with Uncle Nick/Daddy 

pretty awesome board game - Ticket to Ride

pillow forts

Nana and Granddaddy

putt putt extraordinaire 

Annual Smith family putt putt

4th of July!

The rest of July was spent closing on the house, getting ready to move, and MOVING!  Our favorite pastime. Closing was easy...you just sign paper after paper, absolutely no reading involved! just kidding. But it actually did seem pretty painless. We felt really adult and it was fun to have access to the house...because it was ours!  Such an amazing feeling.

We had some painters come in to paint part of the inside of the house that week and then we packed up and moved the following weekend. We moved in at least 100 degree heat.  It couldn't have been a more humid, hot summer weekend.  Luckily we had the help of Nick's co-workers (they all help each other move when someone new joins the engineering department...how nice is that??) and they lift weights for fun and thought this was a good day's work out. Really. I also did my fair share of heavy lifting.  We were so dirty and sweaty by the end of the day...so gross.  Waverly's room was still in the process of getting it's THIRD coat of yellow paint by yours truly. Who knew that cotton candy pink couldn't be easily concealed?  So we spent 2 more nights at my parents, took a few more loads of our things over to the house...I finished some late night painting and then we finally had our first night in the house!

we went with shortbread

love the soft but still colorful yellow

what your fridge looks like post move in - domestic beer brands for our moving helpers.

these gems arrived prior to moving in!

"you're packing me up again?!"

And so for the past month and a half we have been unpacking, organizing, and doing a lot of house projects.  It didn't take long to unpack because we have so many closets, storage nooks, an attic and garage, and lots of space by our standards.  Things are still not where I want them long term, but that's ok. Our "to do" list is long. At the top are some not so fun things like taking care of the yard (more on that later), buying all new window screens, and controlling pests around our house.

In between we have been enjoying seeing my parents on a regular basis (our "ad-hoc babysitters"), our local friends, and going to the neighborhood pool which is behind our house!  Nothing like walking back and forth to the pool within 5 mins through your own backyard!  Love it.  Just wish they allowed cocktails and the baby monitor signal would reach that far...

we loved our pool days and evenings :)

my wild garden

holy overgrown yard.

like a lion in the tall grass

baby proofing our cabinets

"hey...what happened here?  these used to bang so loud!"

testing out the new baby gate

Remember the dishes story...well I bought new dishes and love them! We got 2 sets of dishes, serving platters and accent plates from Pottery Barn all for under $200!!  Coupons, store credit, and shopping the sales plus having a cashier give you a discount on everything instead of just 1 item didn't hurt!

accent plate - comes in 4 colors..blues, yellow and reds. love!

Nick and I really celebrated our house about 2 weeks in when we finally ordered sushi and drank a bottle of wine we had been saving for our first house.  We brought it back from Maui and thought we would drink it on a special occasion...I thought that would be our 1st anniversary but we were in Richmond and didn't bring it. Then I thought it would be after our first child, but I was breast feeding and not feeling up for wine yet.  So it became our first house.  It's been our tradition to order sushi soon after moving into a new place.  So we ordered sushi and opened the bottle that has followed us from the Maui winery to NYC to New Jersey to Alexandria and finally to Richmond. Delicious :)

Now we are settling in and it feels good!  Love from Richmond!

Discovering Mount Fuji.

Before I go into our climbing story, I should mention that Matt is home for a short time.  Even though it isn't for long, I am loving having him home with us!  

One of the things that we wanted to do while he was home was climb Mount Fuji because the climbing season is only 45 days long.  Since our future is never certain, we had to take advantage of it now.  We joined a group of eight other friends, rented a van and some hiking gear, and hit the mountain.  We did the sunrise climb; meaning that we started climbing around 9 pm and climbed throughout the entire night to reach the summit for the 4:40 sunrise.  It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done, but it was also one of the most amazing.

When I think back to my climb, my thoughts are all over the place.  There were good ‘I can’t believe we are actually doing this’ moments and not-so-good ‘what the hell were we thinking?’ moments (sometimes within a two minute span).  Here are just a few of those moments.

• Good:  Sharing this experience with Matt.  In all honesty, I wouldn't have been able to make this climb without Matt.  There were times when the mountain tried to get the best of us, but we didn't let it.  Luckily, we hit our lows at different points and always kept the other person going.  If this isn't a great metaphor for life, I don’t know what is.  We have been through a lot, but now we can actually say that we have conquered a mountain together.      
• Not-so-good: The wind.  The wind was out of control.  I asked Matt how fast he thought the wind was blowing, and he estimated 50 knots.  There were times when I found myself holding on to rocks so that I wouldn't get blown over.      
• Good:  Sense of community.  There were people from all over the world climbing together with one goal in mind – reach the summit.  At one point, about halfway up the mountain, I looked down into the night and all I could see were the headlamps of the hundreds of other climbers still making their way up.  It looked like fireflies on a summer evening.
• Not-so-good: The oxygen levels.  A couple of the people that we were with did get altitude sickness and it was no joke.  We were lucky that we escaped with a little nausea and headaches, but nothing serious.
• Good: Finding safety goggles.  Because the wind was so bad there was ash and rock bits flying everywhere.  It was hitting me at such a high speed that it felt like bees were stinging me.  The worst part was that the ash would get in my eyes, which was incredibly painful.  Luckily, about half way through the climb we were able to buy some old school science safety goggles.  Even though I felt like I was back in eighth grade science lab, they were lifesaving!
• Good: The walking stick and huts.  At different points along the mountains there are huts where people live and work throughout the climbing season.  They are great because they offer a flat place to sit down and catch your breath for a few minutes.  At the huts they sell water, snacks, oxygen, and other items you might need for your hike.  But one of the coolest things that they do is burn a stamp on your walking stick for a small fee.  When we started our climb, we purchased wood walking sticks and at each station along the way they will burn stamps, the final one being at the summit.  It was so cool sitting on the mountain in the middle of the night and watching these men brand your stick. 
• Good: Reaching the summit.  I am not an emotional person, as most of you know, but when I reached the summit I almost started crying.  I was so happy and felt so proud.  It was such an indescribable feeling and one that I will never forget.
• Not-so-good: Did I mention the wind?!  Believe me; it certainly didn't get any better at the top of the mountain.
• Good: Cup of noodles.  Once we reached the summit, we had to wait awhile for the sunrise.  It was around 4 am.  Luckily there were two huts at the summit serving food.  We were herded into one of the restaurants and ordered ‘cup of ramen’ which turned out to be cup-of-noodles.  It was the best cup-of-noodles that I have ever tasted – like a gourmet meal.
• Not-so-good: The walk down.  When describing the walk down someone said to picture a cartoon character walking on marbles and constantly falling down.  I can’t think of a better way to describe it.  You are walking down a steep mountain on ash that is slipping out from under you.  Everyone is just falling down all around you and all you can do is to get up and keep walking.
• Good: The walk down.  The best part of the walk down is the view.  It was magnificent –that is the only word I can think of to describe it.  The sun was rising and we were above the clouds.  You know those dream sequences on television shows when someone starts daydreaming and they are surrounded by clouds – that is what it felt like. 
• Not-so-good: The wind.  Yep, still happening.
• Not-so-good: My boots falling apart.  About half way down the mountain I realized that my boots were flapping, not exactly what you want to see on Mount Fuji.  I made it almost all the way down without them falling all the way apart.  Needless to say, they didn't make the trip home.
• Not-so-good: Ash everywhere.  Everywhere!  Matt was still finding ash in his eyes two days later.
• Good: Being able to say that I climbed Mount Fuji.  It was freakin' hard as hell and I think that it is awesome to be able to say that I did it.  

Overall, it was exhausting and painful and hard and dirty, but it sure was beautiful.  Don’t think for one minute that I don’t know how lucky I am to have had this experience – the good and the not-so-good moments.   

Here are some pictures of our climb.  Some are from my camera and some are from my friend, Brian. 

The mountaineers before the climb.

Notice the 'STOP' sign - pretty sure it is saying not to climb Mount Fuji at night.

Check out our pants - giving you a little idea of how hard the wind was blowing.

Waiting for sunrise.  Obviously it was a bit foggy up top.  We did have a few cracks in the fog when the sunlight came streaming through.

You can almost see it here.

At the summit!

We did it!  Obviously had to switch to my Hokie hat and give a little VT love.

Best meal EVER!

Starting our descent...above the clouds

Absolutely exhausted, but happy to be done.

Happy birthday, Sadie.

After Australia it was back to reality – grocery shopping, sweeping floors, washing cars – all that good stuff.  But we did have one very happy event to celebrate – Sadie’s birthday!

We celebrated with a trip to the pet store, a swim in the river, and homemade pupsicles.

Our trip to the river was certainly eventful.  Although Sadie was hesitant at first to enter the river, she quickly got used to it and swam 100 yards upstream towards the Japanese fisherman.  The result of which was me running along the river screaming for her to come back and finally stripping down to my bathing suit, running in the water, and grabbing her from the middle of the river.  I thought that she was scared and couldn’t get back to me.  I found out when she ran back out to the river to continue swimming upstream that she was just being a jerk.

The pupsicles were super easy to make and I still have some in my freezer to bring out for the really hot days (which is almost every day here in Japan).

Happy birthday, our Sadie girl.

Pupsicle ingredients.

Mix all ingredients together.

Put mixture into dixie cups, cover with plastic wrap, cut a hole in the wrap, put in the bones, and freeze.
All done!

I honestly wasn't sure that I was going to get the car out of here.
I could feel every rock that we drove over.

Feeling timid.

After her not-so-timid swim up the river.

This is how we had to spend the rest of our time in the river because someone couldn't be trusted.

Celebrating with Bella!