On Saturday, Tamie got the last of her wisdom teeth out. While she was getting it out, Layla and I did a bit of laundry… There was so many kids’ clothes from just 5 days of daycare that we needed to go out and buy extra hangers just to hang all of it. I’m sure glad they feel the need to change the kids’ clothes multiple times a day.
Just a bit of laundry… Thanks daycares.
When Tamie finally came back she wanted to go enjoy the nice weather and head to a beach or mountain but I’d already promised Layla to take her out on a scooter ride. 30 minutes later, after a brief scooter ride and some playing at a park, we were back at home thinking of going to a beach or mountain. In the end, we decided instead to check out the Grandberry Mall, a giant outdoor outlet mall we hadn’t been to in a long time. Not only did they have Christmas lights out already, but the music was all Christmas-y too. Yikes. Despite that, we somehow enjoyed ourselves.
Street juggler that entertained the masses. And the kids.
Sunday we woke up with the plan to head out to Oyama, a mountain not far from here. Tamie strapped Julia onto her back and lead the way. She carried the big baby on her back all the way up to the cable car, which is more impressive than it sounds as there are a lot of stairs to climb before getting to the cable car. We took the cable car up to the Afuri Shrine where we had lunch and took a few pictures.
View From the top.
Layla snapped a pic.
After exploring for a bit, it started getting a bit late and Tamie started to get cold so we began the trek back down the mountain. I strapped Julia on the front, backpack on the back and we were on our way. Five minutes later, we were stopped, waiting in line at a washroom. Layla had to go. The line in the girls’ washroom was so long she came and asked me to take her into the mens’. So I unstrapped Julia, took off the backpack and we ventured into the stinky toilets. One door was locked, one wasn’t. The one that wasn’t was a filthy squatter that Layla was scared of. The second eventually opened and an embarrassed old man apologized as he ran away. Looking inside, Layla was relieved to see a flusher. Lifting the lid was all sorts of badness though. Not only did it not flush – it was full to the brim. How that guy managed to sit on it and… Blech! So gross.
So we bailed and hoped that Tamie was still in line in the girl’s washroom, which she wasn’t. The next washrooms were 10 minutes away and Layla was determined that she could make it. So I strapped Julia back onto my front, slung the backpack over my shoulders and we were off again. Two minutes later, Layla was going to explode. So I did what any loving father would do – I told Layla to go in the bushes. And wouldn’t you believe, she was going to! Before she could, we pulled her a bit off the beaten path and did our best to help her out before finally heading down the path comfortably.
Coming Down.
The path down was a lot steeper with a lot more stairs than I remembered. Of course the last time I went I didn’t have a baby strapped to my chest and wasn’t all that concerned about falling. =) Luckily Julia fell asleep not long after we started. Layla was a trooper the whole way down as she held her Mom’s hand and they counted how many steps they’d gone down. They got to 100 in both Japanese and English and that was only a fraction of the steps we descended. Near the bottom, we picked up some ice cream as a reward for making it – as soon as Julia heard the word ‘ice cream’ she woke right up.
On the bus ride home, Layla was so exhausted though, she fell fast asleep. Julia, however, was wide awake and making friends with the kids sitting beside us.
It was definitely a good way to spend the day and I look forward to the next time we get the chance.
Saturday at Grandberry Mall Pics
Sunday Mountain Pics
