Mark Turns TEN

Mark is one lucky dude, let me tell you! He gets to celebrate his birthday pretty much for a couple of weeks, have a school break in the middle and lots of yummy food! Right after Christmas, since a lot of his tennis buddies were in town sitting twirling their thumbs, waiting to play more tennis, we organized a tennis celebration with three of his friends. I reserved two courts and for almost two hours these boys played tennis-doubles, singles, and a bunch of tennis games. It was a lot of fun!

And topping it off with frozen yogurt from Menchie's made it even better. This is Mark, Neel, Stephen and Ryan, by the way. Mark's sweatshirt is matching Menchie's colors-haha.

Then Mark's actual birthday came....and brought lots more presents! Oh look--it's a tennis calendar, a tennis bag, a jump rope with a counter (from Katya), a head wrap (why?) (from Alex), a Nike hat for playing winter tennis, a pickle ball set (basically mini tennis), Sport Resort (to play tennis), wrist bands, tennis socks, Sugarpova treats (by Maria Sharapova), tennis bag, root beer and a math book. Wow! I admit, some of those gifts would eventually be "necessities" for tennis, but we kind of dedicated them to his birthday. 

His favorite gift was his new tennis bag that fits six rackets (he only needs to at the moment, to be honest;).

For his family celebration he requested a crepe cake--crepes with whip creme in the middle.

And finally, a week after his birthday, when people were back in school and busy with mundane January tasks, we had a friends celebration! Mark took a few friends to Defy Gravity which is a trampoline center and is coveted place to go for him. 

For his friends celebration birthday cake, Mark went with a non-traditional cake again (crazy child)--he wanted a donut cake! So yeah...that's what he got. Easiest birthday cakes ever!

And finally, the annual check-in with Mark:

Height: 57 inches (145 cm)

Favorite Sport: Tennis

Favorite Book: "Refugee"

Favorite Movie right now: Avengers: Infinity War

Favorite Color: Purple

Hobby: Tennis and basketball
When I grow up I want to be: Tennis Player

"What Keeps Us Busy" Update

I know I just wrote a post recently what we've been doin. This one is actually our late fall/early winter update, if you want to be specific. I used to blog about Paris and Scotland and now I get to describe our everyday life:) Actually, life is very adventurous for our kids as they are involved in various activities at and after school.

Katya:
Some days she dresses up like a lady on vacation.

And on other days like a business lady. 

What's up with that? The truth is that was a "Dress Up Like a Tourist Day" during their Spirit week at high school. I am still battling the leggings and oversized sweatshirt look, plus socks and Birkenstocks, but whatever. Some days she dresses up really nicely and everyone notices. Her new favorite color to wear is rich yellow as she looks great it in.

And the second picture is from the day she competed in her first Speech and Debate competition in Fayettville. She took part in the Declamation category and did really well. Her next competition is coming up in January and she is very excited for that. It's a lot of memorization, but she is getting more confident with that.

Lastly, the big news as of two weeks ago is that she got a major SUPPORTING part in her high school musical "Music Man". It's a huge deal at their school as a ton of people auditioned and only a few were chosen, and especially for the actual main/supporting parts. Katya is going to be Mrs. Paroo, the Irish mom of the main character:) For her audition Katya sang the song that Mrs. Paroo sings and added a bunch of (she thinks) Irish accent. It worked! No one else could do it nearly as well as she did, so now she just has to watch a bunch of movies to refresh her memory of the Irish accent and get to work. The show is in early March but until then she has rehearsals after school almost every single weekday and some on Saturdays. It's intense.

Alex:
Alex is blessed to have Robert as his Boy Scout Master. They have just one year left to start working and finish his Eagle Scout Project as our church will no longer be affiliated with the Boy Scouts after next December. Alex loves scouting just as much as Robert does, so this is wonderful. They get to camp together and do projects together.




Alex also competed in the Head of The Chick regatta in Williamsburg on Nov 10th. The middle school boys were some of the few rowers who actually got to race that morning as the wind picked up so much that the whole regatta had to be cancelled around 10 am. It was very sad. But it was also very dangerous to continue as they had some hypothermia emergencies and one boat overturned because of the waves. Crazy stuff. The boys won first place (out of two) with Katya coxing, so they were happy.

At school Alex has been working hard on getting great grades. He is succeeding most of the time, although finds Math most challenging. He is good about doing his homework and us never having to remind him to work on his projects. He has a ton of friends at school. This year he tried out for the basketball team. As a 8th grader he had a good chance of making it, but the competition was stiff and after three days of two hour try outs even his 5' 11.5'' height didn't help him. He was a bit bummed as he was really hoping to do it while rowing is not in racing season to stay in shape. 

But Alex has definitely been noticed for his musical abilities. He got to perform at the Veteran's Day ceremony on Nov 9th at the school's auditorium, in front of hundreds of his school mates and a large group of veterans from all military brunches. He sang "Come Home" by One Republic and played the piano. It was very touching. Mark and I were there and saw how many people appreciated his emotional song. Alex is never afraid to speak in public and is confident at presenting himself, especially before he performs. He said that after the ceremony, as he walked downstairs during lunchtime, all the kids in the room started cheering and clapping for him:) Girls would come up to him and tell him he did so well that it made them cry (that always makes me smile:)).

And then Alex was asked to also sing the National Anthem before their home basketball games. It was a huge honor and Alex practiced whenever he could at home. He did great singing it (a cappella) and, of course, everyone was again impressed (I might have to start buying him bigger hats as his head grows bigger😂).

Finally, Alex is a percussionist in his school band. And he is fantastic! It's amazing what their band teacher, Dr. Duval has done in the last year with the kids who came from three different schools. I actually ENJOYED listening to the 7th and 8th grade band concert this year. They did great!

Mark:
We talk a lot about Mark and his tennis and more tennis. It's because he wakes up and thinks of tennis, goes to bed trying to wear his tennis shirts and spends his time watching youtube videos of famous tennis matches. If he is not outside playing with friends he is playing ping pong inside with those friends or with himself by folding up one side of the table. I have quite sad news though--he has chosen to completely neglect his piano for the last four months. It breaks my heart. At the same time, it's a relief because there is no more anxiety around piano....I don't know how he could have gone from loving every moment of playing the piano at age 6 and simply devouring each piece of music that we gave him to not wanting to practice at all. His expectation of himself and his focus shifted to tennis so much... I still hope to get him back into playing, so we'll be working on that.

Mark is still a funny guy who is kind of struggling this year with liking school. He has no issues with learning or socially (although he says he has no friends but somehow everyone always wants to be around him) but it's more of an enjoyment of school that is lacking. His last year's teacher just set really-really high expectations of how learning could be so he is just disappointed that it's not the same this year. He still loves math and hopes to do well at the Spelling Bee this winter.

I just signed him up for indoor soccer season that will last 2 months during slower tennis months. It's recommended that even these kids who spend hours on tennis courts also have another sport to play as it helps prevent burn out AND helps their footwork. I am excited to see how he likes this indoor soccer deal as they are letting him play on the 11-12 team (he is almost 10).

Here is a funny morning picture of him--he needs a haircut but is trying to convince me to let him have longish hair like some other famous tennis players-haha.

Oh, and lastly, I took a picture of Mark's Christmas wish list. For his posterity:) There are a lot of tennis and sports items, but some of the funniest ones are on the second page. As you can see, he didn't number them in ascending order, but instead he rated them on a scale from 1 to 10 how much he wants each item.

The first one is Go to RR which means Go to Red Robin (he just loves their mac and cheese). The ones towards the bottom are Wimbledon Finals and US Open Finals. He basically wants tickets to see tennis, but not from far away, it has to be close up. He had two more items on the third sheet and they were Tickets to Austrlian and French Open. Great to dream, right? Someday, I know we'll make US Open tickets happen, but probably not close up at all!

And here are Robert and I partying at his work Christmas get together. It was a huge party--with at least 200 people. They rent out Prestonwood Country Club building in Cary and make it super fancy. We enjoyed the appetizers and desserts and I even convinced Robert to go dance with me since they were playing our iconic Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls songs. How could have we resisted?? So many memories from the late 90s and early 2000s:) We came home at midnight and didn't feel old at all. 

Lyana. 

Dreamy San Diego For Thanksgiving

Back in September we were about to go on our four day trip to NYC when the hurricane Florence decided to ruin everything, so we had to cancel our trip and miss a chance to hang out with our great friends, the Warners, who were supposed to be in NYC at that same time. After quickly changing plans, we decided to trade in our tickets for a flight to Sand Diego where the Warners live. And we postponed the trip till Thanksgiving. We basically left on Saturday before the Thanksgiving Day and came back late on Friday after.

This was our first family trip to California and we were all very excited! And we were so excited to finally see the Warners! Last time we saw the WHOLE family was in 2011, right before the Warners left Japan to move back to the states. We saw the old(er) Warners on two separate occasions for our Misawa reunions in Germany and in ladies get together in London, but not the kids. So we were all looking forward to us staying with them!

California welcomed us with open sunny arms! We arrived later in the afternoon, picked up by Emily and taken straight to the fabulous Taco Truck place to eat all together. We ate and talked and laughed and were just so happy to see everyone!



We were quite a bit jet lagged but persevered and stayed way later than we should have with the help of Emily's hot chocolate. We talked for a while longer even after all the kids went to bed.

The following morning we went to church, where I was blinded by the amount of people with bright blond hair! Wow! California blond is a true thing:)) We, then, let the Warners recover from our invasion and went for a quick sightseeing trip in Downtown San Diego.

The Mormon Battalion historic site is open on Sundays. We enjoyed an animated tour through this very interesting period of history that I didn't know much about. 

We took a bunch of pictures right in front of the building where the tour happens. Late afternoon sun and yellow-orange walls were a nice backdrop for them.

Alex, of course, was volunteered to be our Exhibit A during the tour. 

And at the end of the tour the boys enjoyed "panning for gold".  We talked to the missionaries for a while longer (they are the ones who lead the tour, actually) and then went on a walk through the Old City.

We came home for dinner to have Emily's famous crepes:) And then hung out for a long-long while. Katya was in heaven as the Warners have FIVE boys in their family. 

And this is our children SEVEN years ago on a super hot and sweaty evening in Misawa. Lincoln is the new addition:)

On Monday, since most kids were still in school, we decided to go to Sea World. It didn't open till 11 am, so we had a slow morning. It's a good thing that we got a discount because, to be honest, by 3 pm, we were kind of done. 

We did see the whale show which was pretty neat (I just hope they do take care of them like they say they do).

And Mark got his fill on touching sea creatures.

We walked through the sharks aquarium.

Found a funnel cake (with an enormous amount of whip cream and strawberries on top) and shared it along with a turkey leg and some random snacks since everything was so expensive. 

As you can see it was a cloudy, even a  little chilly of a day, but we didn't mind.

We took a couple of exciting rides--this is the one that got us all wet. 

Mark's favorite was the Electric Eel. The lines were not long at all so we just went on it multiple times. It's a short ride but super intense:)

Technically, you are supposed to flip the image upside down-haha. 

Oh, hi, Mark:) 

So there we go!

On Tuesday, since we were so close to the temple (and ours is closed for another half a year), we, as a family, went to the temple to do some baptisms. Mark got to hang out and read/watch movies at the visitors' room as we wanted to make it a whole family experience. 

It's so sunny that it was painful:)

Oh, teenagers!

Max came with us as he had a day off school too:)

On Wednesday morning, we all enjoyed a huge breakfast at Pipes. It's famous for a reason--the setting is very social, food is good, portions are humongous. 

I think this is the appropriate time to post a flashback photo from Christmas of 2009. Nine years ago--wow! 

Emily and I (with a photo bomber in the background:))

I think we are missing one kid. Sammy? It's hard to keep up.

After Pipes we were hoping to go on a hike but one of the trails that we planned to conquer was closed (well, parking next to it was closed) so we had to improvise and ended up going to the beach. Yay! 

The beach is always so much more fun with friends! 

In the afternoon, Katya and Mark got suited for some beekeeping business. Doug is an avid apiarist (that's my new word of the day). 

They look like they are working with some alien species. No one got stung this time.

The majority of the next two days the kids just played, played and played. 

And somehow no one broke a bone. 

On Thanksgiving Day, we all got ready for the Warners' family to come over, cooked some food, played some games.  

Mark sneaked away with one of the "cousins" to play a tennis match. That's after he was obliterated by Doug in a tennis match earlier that week.

And finally, the pinnacle of the Thanksgiving festivities--the Thanksgiving dinner! So yummy! So comforting and fun:) We just love the Warners and their family!

Emily and I--and we did save room for pie. Lots of pie:)

We had such a wonderful time with the Warners! If only California didn't feel like it's so far away! The kids fell in love with San Diego, especially Katya. She decided that someday, if she can, she would love to live there:)

We are grateful for the opportunity we had to go visit friends and spend time with them, talking as if it weren't seven years ago that we went separate ways.

Lyana.