The month of March has been a fun & interesting month for our family, as we have hosted 3 different students from Japan this month! We enjoyed every one of them, but Emi Kitamori stole our hearts. She is 20 years old, and studying Nursing at a women's college in Japan. Their trip here was to observe medical procedures & medical-related programs here in America. She just fit right into our family! She was so cheerful, always smiling & out-going. (Which isn't typical of Japanese people.) Her English was very good, so that made it easy for all the kids to communicate with her too. Liesel and Emi became very close. She was so patient, as Liesel was always talking to her or showing or doing something with Emi when she arrived home each night. We took her to the morning broadcast of "Music & the Spoken Word" at the Tabernacle on Temple Square on Sunday & she had a wonderful experience! When she came out of the Tabernacle she said "That was so wonderful!! I have chicken-skin!"(The Japanese word for 'goosebumps' literally translates to 'chicken skin' in English). Later I heard her explain her feelings in Japanese to a teacher from her school that was also there that morning. She told her she has never had that feeling, or chicken-skin all over her entire body in her life! Anyway, it was a great day! Another fun thing we did, was to go to the Olympic Park. We were lucky enough to be there to see several Comet bobsleds race by. It was exciting! It was so hard to say good-bye & many tears were shed when she left. We are hoping that we will meet again someday. She knows she can always come back to her home with us in Utah. It was a pleasure to be her family while she was here! Her are some of the cute pictures we took while she was here. Also, some pictures of the 2 boys, Gen & Yuuki that stayed with us this month.
This is Seth's broken toe! He was playing basketball barefooted & caught it on another barefoot player's foot. Nice job Seth! I wasn't planning to spend all afternoon at the Dr. and Orthopedic Surgeon's office. Anyway, it's mending well! We have given Seth lots of TLC
The kids & Mike really made my birthday special! Camille made me a birtday cake with lusciuos, huge red raspberries on it! Yum! Thanks Camille!
Happy Birthday to me! My mom & dad came down to help celebrate!
Some of those raspberries were mysteriously missing when it came time to put candles on the cake, sing & make a wish. I wonder who the raspberry thieves are???Caleb?Liesel?Camille? Ammon?
We've had a few birthdays at our ho use lately!! Jesse turned 18 & became an official adult on March 16th! Can you believe he was 5 months old when we moved into our house?! One of the first things he did as an adult, was to buy dry ice (did you know that you have to be 18 to buy dry ice??) and made 5 gallons of homemade Root Beer! Pretty crazy, huh? We are proud of Jesse, and his many accomplishments over the last 18 years!
Seth turned 'sweet 16' on April 5th! He is sporting his new sunglasses that he wanted for his birthday!
Uncle Kay played a fancy 'Happy Birthday' on the piano, make a wish, blow! We are so proud of Seth too, & the great young man he is! Yes, girls! Seth is available for dating now! (In fact, he has his first date on Friday, with an 'older woman' even. Happy Birthday Seth, we love you!!
I think this is the 'runt of the litter'. This one seems to be smaller than the rest, but is doing well nevertheless. They are soooooooo cute!
This is Gen Kato from Gifu, Japan. Gen is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was fun to get to know him, even though his stay was very short. We hope this experience in Utah will help Gen prepare for and serve a mission.
Gen Kato & our family, the night before he left to go home.
Emi loved playing tug-o-war with Dash!
Our last night together after the dinner & program! Emi was pretty emotional.
Our farewell dinner with Emi. Hamburgers and hot dogs, baked beans, chips. We had Emi try Root Beer! She didn't like it, but got a good laugh and she took a can home to try on her little sister.
Emi's Graduation Certificate!Congratulations Emi!
Feeding carrots to the horses in our neighborhood
Dash & Emi became close friends too!
Temple Square with Emi
Temple Square after "Music & the Spoken Word" broadcast
Being silly for the camera, Liesel & Emi. They became pals!
Comet bobsled racing past at around 80mph!
Another fun picture in the bobsled!
One of the days that Emi was here, she went to Courage Reins, a horse-therapy center for children with disabilites.
Emi was really excited about this opportunity to visit Courage Reins. There isn't anything like this kindof a program using horses in Japan. She loved it!
