Michelle P

Hazel on her birthday. We kept it simple with just mom, dad, and brother to sing to her and watch her eat her strawberry-banana cake (ok, fine, it was a muffin). She opened a few gifts from the grandparents (thanks Nana & Pops and Grandma & Grandpa!) and had a great time. We celebrated thisContinue reading

This little love is ONE year old! This year has just flown by. It has been such a sweet privilege to be her mama. At one, Hazel loves clapping, waving, and saying “hi” to everyone she sees. She loves hair, especially Max’s. She loves crawling, playing on the playground with the big kids, the beach,Continue reading

Resurrection Sunday! My favorite day of the year! He is risen!!! We opened our last “resurrection egg” in the morning to discover it was empty, just like the tomb! The top picture is literally the best I could get before heading to church. Proof that a good camera is absolutely zero guarantee you will get goodContinue reading

Home from our Tokyo vacation and back to that weekday grind. It’s rough, ya’ll.

Our last morning in Tokyo, we squeezed in a stop at Blue Bottle Coffee, Ben’s favorite coffee in the world. He fell in love with their freshly roasted beans when we lived in Monterey. Back then, they only had San Francisco and Berkley breweries, but they’ve since expanded to New York, D.C. (after we left),Continue reading

After Legoland, we walked through some beautiful cherry blossoms to the Mirakin Panasonic Museum where we saw a huge globe covered in LED screens, a robot dance, shuffle, jump, and throw a ball. Super cool!

Some lego creations, including a pink pterodactyl for our little pterodactyl. Also, some oddly translated wall art (click the captions for google’s best attempts).

On Odaiba we had a quick bite and headed to Legoland, Max’s most-anticipated destination. He enjoyed himself thoroughly, and Hazel found a pit of Duplos to hang in. Unfortunately, she also tried to eat a few and came home with a cold. Apparently, it is totally socially acceptable to sleep while your kids play,Continue reading

On Saturday, we took a water bus (aka, fancy ferry) to Odaiba Island. Max enjoyed the ride and we all enjoyed the sunshine. The building with the golden flame is Asahi Breweries. It is rumored that it was supposed to be vertical, but the government made them lay it on its side, either because itContinue reading

After some shrines, a museum, and gardens, we met up with Ben and headed to Shibuya Station. We crossed the intersection at Shibuya crossing, said to be the busiest in the world. I believe it! Apparently some 2500 people cross at the same time in some instances. There weren’t quite that many crossing with us,Continue reading