Bits and pieces...

Is everyone still enjoying the winter break? I know for a handful of my very good friends in the USA, their kids have already started back to school, so for them... their winter break is over. : ( Ours is still going strong here. Branden and Noah do not go back to school until next Tuesday, January 10th.

I know today is Thursday. But with the winter break, I sorta took a break with my weekly TBT, but rest assured... it will be back next week, I promise! What else...

We have been just quietly enjoying our winter break here at home. Watching a whole lot of TV. Reading tabloid magazines (me). : ) Noah reading yet another Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. And Bran has been still studying his brains out. Considering his high school entrance exam is this month.

We are all packed up and ready to go to Hakone for our little over night getaway. I'm telling ya....I cannot wait! I can barely wait to soak at our favorite onsen place. I can't wait to enjoy some of those amazing black eggs/onsen eggs. Eat some delicious egg custard soft serve ice cream. And just basically soak in the amazing rotenburo which is an outside hot spring. The weather will hit 0 degrees C which is...  32 degrees F for us Americans. So it is going to be quite cold and late at night it could grow even colder. And soaking in a nice outside hot spring... sounds pretty perfect to me. We will most definitely eat at our favorite restaurant there...what we loving call "fake Capricciosa" only because their menu is legit the same, big deep fried rice ball with cheese inside and the whole thing exactly, the people who own this place are legit...so nice and we can never remember the name of the restaurant so that's why we call it that. And it's nice...that they have something so delicious while way up in the mountains, the food is so good there. Considering our year last year....granted for us it wasn't a bad year, but it definitely had it's moments. So...we are greatly looking forward to going to the hot springs. Go to the mountains and hot spring area...and just unwind. Eat good food. Soak soak soak a bunch of times in the onsen/hot springs. And just enjoy some quality family time. I imagine we will be stopping at a conbini/convenience store at night and getting a good amount of snacks to take back to our hotel room and just veg out and enjoy our time there. Soon....very very soon, we will be on our way. : )  Last time we were there...we saw a huge wild boar down a road. And we were like @_@...."holy crap, hope he doesn't charge at us and ram our car" lol. So...hopefully we don't run into any angry wild boars...but other then that, we're majorly looking forward to it.  I just painted my toe nails today and trimmed my eyebrows so, I am super ready now. And we're already like I said...all of us are already packed. : ) A trip that will do us all... a world of good.: )

What else...I want to see the movie Silence. I think for us in Japan it comes out/will be released January 21st or around there. And I think this is being released in the US January 13th. This is what it says on IMDB... "In the seventeenth century, two Jesuit priests face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and propagate Catholicism."...As a Catholic, this looks good and I'm really curious to see this.

I made a great big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup yesterday for dinner last night. And we had a very nice crusty loaf of french bread from the bakery to go with it. Tonight we will finish up the soup with grilled cheese sandwiches on the side. We will be having some peanut butter ice-cream for dessert afterwards.: )

I'll be sure to post something after we get back from Hakone. : )

Our 4th day in Colorado. Mountain overnight stay and hot springs soaking in Glenwood Springs...

Tuesday morning, I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed! I quickly washed my face. Put my makeup on. Got dressed. I was ready and rarin' to go! The rest of the fam-bam woke up and quickly got dressed too. We had an exciting day planned! We went downstairs. Everyone had a very nice big filling breakfast. However, I had a tamale plan for breakfast, so I just had a hot coffee downstairs while my family ate and filled up. Before leaving Denver for 24 hours, we went to my favorite tamale place. I have been going here since I was a toddler. I ordered a half dozen green chili and cheese tamales. I would eat these little beauties along the drive to the mountains. The G is for green chili. : )

I had 4 of these! And OMG were they fantastic! The kids shared one and Noboru ate the last one while driving. We were listening to tunes on the radio. Well sirius XM satellite radio. We went between an 80's channel and a 90's one. : )

The Jetson house along the way! If you live in Colorado, then you know the Jetson house! : ) 

Driving along the highway...

There's lots of gold in these mountains. Here's a mine. 

The Colorado Rockies are scattered with natural hot springs all over! This one is pretty close to Denver. It's okay. But it's no Glenwood! : ) Onwards we go! Glenwood or bust! : )

Eisenhower tunnel.

This place (Silverthorne) will have snow in it the next day! : ) This place has an outlet mall.

Noboru and I used to ski and go ice skating all the time in Breckenridge.

So pretty.

Colorado is famous for it's red rocks. 

Hi Noah! : )

And we're almost there!

Glenwood Springs! We're here! We arrived. And hello there Colorado River!

Glenwood Springs has such a small town feel to it. But it also has this amazingly cool vibe because so many people come here to enjoy the Hot Springs. I have been coming here since I was a teeny tiny kid. : ) 

We stopped for lunch before checking in early at the hotel. And I must share this story with you. There was 2 Amish families inside Wendy's. They were together of course. Now, I was excited seeing them yes of course... because I have always been fascinated by them. And with TV shows like "Breaking Amish" I really got a chance to learn something from shows like that. However, I didn't notice them when we entered Wendy's. Noboru noticed them first. And I must say he was *so* surprised. He said something between the entrance at Wendy's but before entering the 2nd door of Wendy's. He turned to me and said...keep in mind I had no idea they were inside the restaurant so his comment was out of left field for me. So he turned to me and said..."in all my years living and being in America this is my first time ever seeing them in real life and I am so excited!!!" His voice was so excited sounding. @_@  I had zero idea who or what he was talking about. @_@ So, I was just like..."well okay. That's awesome." And we walked inside. Directly in front of us was 6 cops about to order lunch. A group of the most polite friendly cops ever! : ) And they (the cops) were also staring like this...@_@ at the Amish 2 families. The cops looked like this. @_@ Noboru was like this too @_@ I am just having a normal face and not trying to look at all...because I can see they are feeling very self conscious by all the hardcore Carebear Stares. So, I'm trying to do the right thing and not stare at all. My kids are whispering behind me... however I do hear Branden tell Noah...Branden says..."He looks like Abraham Lincoln!" @_@ I turn around and whisper..."please be cool kids. Consider how they're feeling, k." So we order and we sit down. There was not enough seats for the Amish 2 families to sit together. So they sat in 1 booth in front of us and sat in another booth behind us. We were sitting between them both. Was I excited? Honestly yes I was! I had so many questions. Especially since watching that show on Amish people. Question 1 was. I thought Amish people could not wear any English clothes. That's how they call "modern world" clothes and stuff. The ladies were all wearing Nike sneakers and the 1 woman had a logo on her eye glasses. Like Guess or something. So, I wondered are they Amish? Or like liberal modern Amish people? Or could they possibly be Mennonite? Again, I have seen quite a few shows, so I was curious and did have legitimate wonders and questions. However...I would *never* ask or invade their privacy. The entire restaurant stared at them..hardcore stares... their entire meal. And well...with me living in Japan being a very rare foreign face where I live. : ( I understood how terribly annoying that could be. So...while yes... I was excited seeing them. And I had like 100 questions to ask. I ultimately minded my own business. And tried my best not to stare or look. Noboru watched them walk out of the restaurant. He said... where did they park their horse and carriage? I said...Really? @_@ We did not see them walk away on foot and we saw no horse and carriage. However...it was the highlight of Noboru's day. He was so excited. So excited he was considering asking them to take a picture with him. I said...you would probably offend them. But anyways...Noboru was super excited seeing them. And apparently so was the rest of the restaurant. 

I was trying very hard to not capture the Amish families in this photo or make them nervous with my camera...however I was taking pics of my kids for our own memories of our vacation. The boys eating their lunch. 

Two flags on top of the hot springs.

America and Colorado. 

Did our room have the biggest balcony you ever did see or what? That's the Colorado River right there! It's so completely quiet there. Our hotel is literally not near anything. You just hear the river sounds. And birds. It's so tranquil and peaceful there. 

Our hotel room. We love this hotel! : )

This MAC and Sephora went all over with us. : ) Hahaha.

The hot springs place charges something like $2.50 a towel if you use one of theirs. We checked online beforehand. However we just asked our hotel if we could have 4 extra towels to take to the hot springs with us and they said absolutely no problem! : ) Saves us $10 by doing that! Right on! : )

Our bath room was so gorgeous! So clean. Great big slabs of marble counter tops and the shower was marble too.

Bran and I are morning face washers, so we need those wash clothes! : ) 

Bran updating his LINE for his friends again. His friends were like "be safe in the mountains, let us know when you arrive". his friends are all so nice..so he was letting them all know. Teenagers! : )

I went outside barefoot to stand on the balcony and listen to the sounds of the river for a bit.

The landscaping of this hotel is WOW! That grass looks amazing. And then just nature beyond that point. 

Nothing for miles.I did not check my email once while in Colorado. I did not open my Skype once either. When I'm on vacation. I'm seriously *on* vacation 100%.

This hotel is so gorgeous. It's rockin' And even a BBQ for us to use downstairs. Though...no I wouldn't need one...but thanks. : )

And like a 10 foot privacy wall from the other side but nobody was staying there though... while we were there.

You could even have breakfast here if you wanted. We didn't but...if we had extra days there...yeah we would have. : )

This to me is pure bliss. 

The view of the Colorado River from my actual bed and that enormous gorgeous balcony. Best view ever! 

Bath and Body Works, love it, but I didn't use, because we had our own shampoo and stuff we bought at Target...but I brought that makeup wipe back to Japan with me. : )

Yes those are... horses of courses! : ) 

Branden and Noah at the hot springs! We stayed here for about 4 hours and then we came back after dinner for a night time soak. How was the weather? It was chilly. A definite crisp bite to the air. It felt like a crisp end of October day. Not an August day. Which we loved so much... because we love soaking in a mineral rich hot spring when it's cold outside. Makes it even nicer.

We soaked for so long. That the kids hands turned to raisin fingers. Ours did too! : ) And so did our feet. : )  The water temp is 104F/40C. And it does get a tad colder the more right on the hot springs you walk or swim. Far left is super hot and goes all the way to very cool. But the pools are very long and you can pick and find the right temperature you like and soak there. : ) 

We soaked in here forever. Until the sun had set. : ) And good thing we brought in our Vitamin Waters. 

When the sky had turned dark and it was dinner time we left the hot springs. We were starving by that time! We went to Pizza Hut! Noboru's suggestion and the kids were excited. And yes we don't mind eating pizza twice in a row for supper. We love pizza. 2 orders of breadsticks just $5 for both. 

A medium pan pizza just $5 each. 

When you have soaked in a hot spring so long your fingers and toes have become wrinkly raisins. And you're hungry but super happy being on vacation and about to dig in...as soon as your mom takes this pic. : ) After we ate...we went right back to the hot springs. It was now raining a cold rain. The air was no longer crisp but the weather turned downright cold. And hard rain. Not drizzle. We were so stoked to go to the hot springs even more so...now! Just thinking of that nice hot bubbly hot spring waiting for us. Yay! We could not wait! I left my camera in the Jeep's glove box because no way was I going to dare take pics in that pouring rain. And chance ruining my camera...yikes can't you just imagine. @_@ No way. So, we went and soaked. Good thing we had hand stamps, we went right in and got changed and we soaked for about 50-60 minutes. It was meanwhile snowing up in Silverthorne. We wondered if it would snow while in the hot spring too.. but it didn't. It felt fantastic soaking that night. It was all nicely lit up. And it was awesome! After our night time soak. We went to get some Dairy Queen. Hey...we're on vacation. : ) 

Noah's face is so shiny from all the minerals in the hot springs. Hahaha. And the kids ordered bigger sizes than they ordered for themselves the last time. Good job kids! Oh and they ordered both times...Reese's Peanut Butter Cup blizzards.

What a full and fun day! You guys will sleep like logs tonight! This, I am sure! : )

Hello Peanut Buster Parfait #2. We went back to our amazing hotel. Took long hot soapy showers. I blow dried my hair. And we all zonked out. That is the end of day 4. : )