Yuuki and Nathaniel

Sarah got this cute pic of them sleeping in the car

Nathaniel and Yuuki really hit it off. Nathaniel drug him along everywhere. They went down to play basketball at the park, fed him American candy until he was pretty well done with it, played video games, and forced him onto rides he wasn't interested in riding at the amusement park just to watch him panic. Sweet teenage humor.
Yuuki had never been on a trampoline, a wake board, or skates before. He was very timid with the tramp testing it out with his foot. Nathaniel even put him on the jumping stilts. He did surprisingly well holding onto the fence for balance.

I kept having to tell Nathaniel not to knock on Yuuki's door because the poor kid was exhausted. The students just go go go and never get a chance to recover from jet lag before they are off again for Japan. Yuuki would go to sleep almost instantly when he got into the car.

Several had swine flu before they left Utah and many more got it before they went to Disneyland. Out of 260 boys 70 of them ended up with swine flu-like symptoms before they left. Apparently they brought it with them somehow--maybe on the planes or something. They said nothing like this has ever happened before in all the years they have been doing this. Thankfully Yuuki didn't get it. We recently got this email from him:

Dear Mitchell Familly

Thank you very much for hosting me.

The time which I had with you was very fun.

This experiece is my best treasure.

If I have a chance,I want to stay in America for a longer time.

Because Japan is wonderful country if you have opportunity to come to Japan,please contact me.

I'm looking forward to seeing you someday!

Today is Nathaniel's birthday!

Happy birthday to Nathaniel!!

It will be a wonderful year for you!!

Your sincerely,

Yuuki

Fall

Took these pictures a couple of weeks ago. All my good intentions of getting better pics of fall this year failed, but at least I got ones of the house.
Fall goes so fast!

Hair again--gone tomorrow

(after)

Chopped my hair off again. Can't decide whether I like it or not. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I forget I cut it all off and shock myself as I walk by the mirror.
It really is quite short. When my hairdresser Lacey was cutting it I was thinking "hmmmm...she just keeps on cutting."
But I figured she had a vision in mind and I don't have a whole lot to lose anyway as you can see here-- (of course I also look somewhat exhausted/bored out of my mind as well...)

(sometime before)

My dainty feet

Nathaniel feet, no polish--Mom feet, pink polish:)

I have big feet, which only got bigger when I had my kids. Size eleven. They look like boats compared to normal feet.
However, my son's feet make them look almost small, or at least normal (though from this picture still very, very white)

We went to buy him roller blades for his birthday and had to order them online because Big 5 doesn't carry rollerblades in size thirteen.

My 13 year old son (14 tomorrow) wears a size 13 shoe and is now taller than his dad. I swear to you I just bought him shoes in size 12 no more than two or three months ago.
His friend Cameron says he's a "manchild."
I thought that was a good way of putting it.

Yuuki

Our exchange student has now come and gone. It was fun and the kids absolutely loved it. A lot of work though driving him here and there. We took him for American hamburgers--he inhaled them. He ate pizza, Mexican food, spaghetti (his favorite) and tried pumpkin custard. Our friends hosted a birthday dinner for him on Sunday. Took him to the mall where he didn't find anything but then we stopped at Wal Mart where he bought $300+ worth of Yugio(sp?) cards, which are apparently a lot cheaper here in the US. Peter and Lily took the kids and Yuuki to Lagoon to ride on all the roller coasters and Nathaniel said the best part was listening to him scream. Sunday we went to Temple Square.

I think one of the fun parts was teaching him to play card games like 5 Crowns and Skip-O. But the best was carving pumpkins, something he had never done. He was hesitant to pull out pumpkin guts but got really into the whole process of carving. We mistakenly bought pumpkins this year that were as hard as rocks! Yuuki's was the worst! We had to pound in a screw driver just to get some some of the cuts started. It was like sawing wood! Poor Yuuki must think we are all crazy Americans. They don't have Halloween in Japan.

Nathaniel showed him off to all his friends and they came over and asked him a bunch of questions. It was very cute. He spoke very limited English. Half the time we weren't even sure if we had really understood each other and then we ended up speaking broken English to every one else out of habit.

The only bummer was getting him up every morning. We set two alarms for him but he would just sleep right through them. We would stand outside his door and knock and yell his name and once Nathaniel just went in and turned on the light. The first night he slept on top of the blanket because he didn't get that he was supposed to pull them back. He didn't know how to use the shower and was puzzled by the automatic doors on our van. He also insisted on washing his clothes every night, even though he had plenty to go three or more days.

The last morning he had to be out the door by 6:15am to catch their bus to Salt Lake Airport and we were all pushing him to move. It was totally futile. We didn't even get him to emerge from his room until 6:05. I was ready to tear my hair out worrying he would be late, but Peter drove to BYU in good time and got him on the bus at the last minute. No tears this time, thank goodness, though I know he was not looking forward to going home. Too much fun!

My unbelievably untidy house

We pick up our Japanese exchange student from BYU tomorrow. His name is Yuuki Matsumoto and he doesn't like vegetables, but likes to watch Major League Baseball and play tennis. He is almost 15 yrs. old and says he is looking forward to "eating delicious food" and wants to "visit tourist attraction." We have been brainstorming as a family about the weird things we could cook him with lots of vegetables:)

We've had two Japanese exchange students before but this will be our first boy. We were signed up as a backup family and the lady in charge calls us up on Monday afternoon and doesn't even say hello before she says, "Is your family all well?" Apparently they have lost a bunch of host families at the last minute due to swine flu and she was calling me to tell me she needed to bring over the paperwork to me now. I told her we were in Idaho. She agreed to meet me at my house at 8:30 the next morning. When she showed up she wasn't shy about telling me I needed to "tidy up a bit" because these boys are from very nice circumstances. Hmmmm. You call me on Monday afternoon, we arrive home from vacation at 11:15 that night, and then expect to show up first thing in the morning expecting perfection?

I gotta say, I actually thought the house looked pretty good, even for a non-coming-home-from- vacation-super-late-the-night-before-and then-getting-kids-off-to-school-early-the-next-morning-day.
But, whatever.

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

We told the kids we would do something in October because we spent the whole summer at home (unless you count the staycation.) We had planned on going to Bryce Canyon or Goblin Valley, but then Nathaniel got sick with what is likely swine flu and so we didn't make reservations in anticipation of all the other kids getting sick. Instead, I had the rest vaccinated and no one else ever did. With the October 15th tax deadline hitting Peter pretty hard I was in charge of the last minute trip. I wanted to do something where there were some hot springs. It only took me about 3 hrs (Nathaniel says 4) but eventually I figured something out.
So this is the house where we stayed:
http://www.happyinlava.com/stawberry_fields.htm
It was a good deal and was a super cute house. The hot springs were HOT. There was this old guy I was talking to who brought along his meat thermometer. 112 degrees. Holy crap. Nathaniel, Sarah and Rebecca almost became poached eggs and melted quickly but John was all over that place--although he was red as a beet. He swam through everything with his water wings (which I feared would melt any minute) and had himself a ball. We kept thinking it would either relax him or wear him out but that never happened.
The town was so small I couldn't see how anyone could stand it. I was very glad we brought all our own food because there was really nowhere to eat. We cooked everything at the house. Played lots of games and I did a puzzle, read a couple of books, and just soaked it up in the hot springs--for as long as I could stand it anyway. Luckily there was also an indoor pool with a rock climbing wall and stuff. We roasted lots of marshmallows by the fire pit outside the house and played at the park on the merry-go-round. On Sunday we went to church and heard the funniest and best talks I have ever heard on communication between men and women in marriage during Sacrament Meeting. I could have sat there for another 2 hrs. just listening to this couple. I have vowed to write them a thank you letter. We'll see if that ever happens.

Idaho was beautiful as we drove home in the sunset with the rainclouds hanging over all the open space.