The Eagle has Flown

I have a love-hate relationship with airports. From a young age I have travelled between families for holidays and arriving at a new place and meeting family then arriving home to reunite with other family members was always a great feeling. On the other hand airports are also a place for farewells and usually I get to the airport thinking of many things that I should say, but can never find the words to say them as I always choke up with the thought of people leaving us (or us leaving people) again. Today was yet another one of those days when we farewelled my mother in Fukuoka. We had a great time with her (thanks for some great memories) and yesterday we decided to go to Fukuoka for the night to avoid a 5am trip on the icy roads. A quick stop in Hita for a wander and lunch and then we made it to a movie in the afternoon. My daughter managed to cry in terror the whole way through the movie "WALL-E" (if anyone has ever seen it you will know there is nothing scary about it at all.....) and then we had some pretty bad okonomiyaki before settling in for the night.... I think we were all in bed by about 8:30pm!

After another sad farewell we did our big shop at Costco then headed home - with an impromptu stop at the ice skating rink. The children tried it for the first time and again their personality differences were very obvious. Where my daughter was extremely cautious, my son was overly confident - literally sliding all over the rink (usually on his bottom). Where my daughter cried each time she fell over my son laughed his head off as he sprawled across the ice.

When we got home we found out that my friend Keiko had delivered her baby at last too so all in all it was a nice end to a sad day! Congratulations Keiko, Chris and Ken!