HappyHealthyandWise

It is a 9 hour time difference between Salt Lake City and Kanazawa, Japan.  The wedding ceremony started at 12 p.m. Upon arrival at the Garden where the wedding would take place, Farrah, our 3 year old was hysterical. She kept crying and we could not speak to anyone so we took a short walk around the garden. Once she had a snack and calmed down we were escorted to the Temple entrance. We had to remove our shoes before we could enter the temple. There was a rack to put our shoes on. Farrah just pulled her shoes off left them on the steps and ran in! Once inside, we were led to a large room where the Groom was being dressed in traditional japanese robes. There were chairs on one side of the room for us to sit on. As the other guests arrived, they all sat on the floor, which is traditional in Japan. Farrah was so hyper at this point and she loved all the attention. She ran around the room and ran up to people. Thankfully everyone thought she was adorable and I hope her behavior was ...

Upon arrival in Narita we knew we needed to take 2 trains to get to our final destination, Kanazawa in the Ishikawa Prefecture.  The first train took us to Tokyo terminal. It was 50 minutes ride. The second train was a super fast bullet train. Called the Shrinkhassen, this train took us all the way to Kanazawa in 2.5 hours. By car this trip would take 7 hours. So the train is very fast! It cost about $280 to ride it. Our children are young so we only had to buy 2 seats. But this meant sharing 2 seats on a 2.5 hour train ride! Thankfully we are not large people and could squeeze 3 across. We were glad we brought the DVD player as watching another movie made the time pass quickly for our toddler. We arrived in Kanazawa at 9 pm local time. Our hotel, the ANA Crowne Plaza was right next to the train terminal, just a short walk away. Once we got to our room we were exhausted so went straight to bed. The room had 2 small double beds. So toddler slept with Daddy and I slept with the baby....

This is the story of our trip to Japan with a 3.5 year old and 5 month old. We packed all our stuff in 2 small suitcases and 2 back packs. We went to REI and bought nice Osprey backpacks. Mine is the Daylight pack which I picked the Rasberry color. It was perfect size to fit all the diapers, wipes, 2 extra outfits and toys for baby. My husband carried all the snacks and mini DVD player. I packed all the snacks in small pre-portioned bags. I used Cheerios, Cheese-it's, goldfish, and brought lots of granola bars which were good for toddler and mommy and daddy! We flew to Seattle on Wednesday and had a one night layover before our flight to Japan. I think it helped splitting the trip up like that. Our flight for Narita left at 1 pm so we did not have to get up early or hurry. They play a lot of great movies on the International flights on Delta Airlines. I watched Love & Mercy, Entourage, and Magic Mike XXL once the kids were asleep. The flight was 9.5 hours. The food on the fligh...

We have known for awhile now that my Husband's brother was getting married.... In Kanazawa, Japan. When we first found out they were getting married I was pregnant with our second baby. I told my Husband, B that there was no way I was going on that long flight with two kids. We flew to Japan to visit his brotherwhen I was pregnant with our first and I could not fathom trying to fly 10+ hours with a toddler and a baby. But now F is 3.5 and baby J is 5.5 months. After some consideration and successful flights to Minnesota, Michigan and Atlanta, I decided I can handle traveling with young children! We hurried to Walgreens to take their pictures (both of them crying during their photo) and on to the passport office and expedited their passports (an extra $60 fee per child). My husband researched and ordered us a Macleren Globetrotter stroller. I ordered a breast- feeding friendly dress from Anthropology (Fara dress) and ordered the girls matching dresses from Carters. Plus tights, shoe...