Marina's new wheels

Paige was sure proud to ride around on her princess bike as well as the trusty old plastic three-wheeler.

Even Hudson got into the action.

The kids have REALLY enjoyed spring. It seems like it would never get here. We got out the old tricycles and cars and blew the dust off of them - and found out that Marina had outgrown them all. So we all loaded up and went down to the local bike store and got her an early B-Day present. Of course her B-day isn't until August, but we figured she would like to have some wheels to ride through the summer. She told us when she woke up, the morning after we bought it, that she was remembering her new purple bike and promised to ride it every morning, except for meeting day. The most important feature was the bottle cage - which the mechanic added especially for her.

Trying a Tri

True to form, we are only one week late on this blog posting. Last weekend we traveled to Galena, Illinois to participate in the Galena Triathlon. This venue has become an annual trek for the Vail family, so we decided to give it a "tri".

On the way up there we picked up aunt Lisa Lerwick in the Quad cities. It was great to see her again and catch up. Of course it would have been nice to "catch up" with her during the race.

The house we rented was set back in the trees a little bit and it accommodated our two families (+ aunt Lisa) perfectly. The kids loved spying on the birds that would come in to feed on bird feeders. Galena in general was gorgeous and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a get-away weekend. Of course "scenic" usually means hilly - which added another dimension to the race. The 59 deg lake temperature was another "eye opener" to say the least. We really appreciated out wet-suits this year.

The other racers (Rob, Lisa, Luke, Darren) all had previous times at Galena to beat. This being Don's 1st one there, he can honestly say it was his best Galena Triathlon time ever!

For more race coverage visit Rob and Andrea's Blog.







Sunday was Rob's b-day and he miraculously had enough lung left to blow out some candles.


Don refueling - the best part of the race :)

Paige's Skating Lesson

Since Big Sister Marina has been enjoying her ice skating lessons, we got a 4 week intro to skating lesson for Paige. She seemed very excited and anticipated being an "ice ballerina" as soon as steel hit ice. Unfortunately when steel hit ice - it was a bit slicker than she had imagined. After the 1st big fall she implemented a protest against anything below 32 Deg Fahrenheit. Thanks to a quick thinking instructor, the lesson was modified to include sitting on the instructors lap and drawing on the ice with a magic marker. After re-establishing that ice is not mean by nature - she was able to skate from the instructor to the door to end the lesson. Of-course she was so proud to tell mom that she had skated all by herself, even if it was only to cover the 2 feet to the door! Wish us luck for this week....


Mr. Adam pampering Miss Paige with a little ice drawing following an Ice to Rear incident.

Definition of a Metallurgist:

Definition of a Metallurgist:

A pseudo scientist, who uses undetermined suppositions, indefinite theories, and inexpressible hypotheses; which are based on unreliable information, uncertain quantities, and incomplete data; derived from non-reproducible experiments and incomplete investigations; using equipment and instruments of questionable accuracy, insufficient resolution, and inadequate sensitivity, to arrive at timid, tentative cloudy, abstruse, and non-committed conclusions prefaced by the phrase, "IT DEPENDS".

Highlights From Japan

Right now I am sitting in the NWA Worlds Club lounge, waiting on my flight, so I have plenty of time to reflect on the trip. This trip was excessively busy, but there were several highlights.

1. Watching the Japanese react to being bought out by an American company - the medicine is not as easy to take as it is to administer :)

2. Listening to a New Zealander speaking Japanese - no mistaking that accent, even in a different language.

3. Flying in the upper deck of a 747 - WOW.

4. Getting to see the Awesome Cherry Blossoms.

5. Trying to eat round noodles with metal chopsticks.

6. Changing trains a record TEN times in ONE day (UUUgh).

7. Touring the Toyota Headquarters.

8. Shaking hands (bowing) with the President of DENSO (DENSO is to Toyota, what DELPHI is to GM.

9. Riding the Shinkansen again....what a rush to travel that fast on a train.

10. Eating desert at one of our Friends house in the depths of Japan - tasted real Japanese culture.

Japanese Friends

Unbelievable Cherry Blossoms!

On Sunday, Yoshihisa came and picked me up at the Hotel and we traveled by train to the Sunday Meeting. Fortunately there was gospel meeting, so we went to lunch at a local Chinese Restaurant. It was just like ours with a slight twist to give it a Japanese flair. I felt right at home Sheila :) I then went back to some of the friends home for desert, and on the Gospel Meeting. WHAT a treat. Jim Easton was visiting the area, so he participated in the meeting - A New Zealander. His sermon was in Japanese, but it was refreshing to have an English conversation over supper. The three brothers took me to a local Japanese restaurant where we enjoyed Sushi and Tempura. Tempura ranks as one of my favorite Japanese dishes, right next to Shabu-Shabu.

Back in Japan

Just an update from Japan. I got in last night, after a 13 hour flight. With the 14 hr time change, it is stall hard to sleep even though you feel like a zombie. I got up and had a nice breakfast in the hotel - thankful for some Western cuisine (although the eggs were really runny). Yoshihisa is coming to pick me up to take me to meeting this morning - once again it will be the highlight of my trip.

I have posted a couple of pictures that I took from my room's window. There is a beautiful view of Akashi Castle. It is also the season for the cherry trees to bloom, so it is very pretty - hopefully I can snap a couple pictures when I am out and about today.