アイダホクラインの到着!!/Idaho Family is Here!!

金曜日の午後ついに待ちに待ったアイダホクラインの到着。３日間かけて２１時間車でアイダホからドライブして、そしてホテルに到着して少し落ち着いた後歩いて私達のマンションに来ると言ったので途中まで迎えに行く事にしました...あって直ぐマディソンとリリーは仲良く手をつないで歩いてます...：）
On Friday afternoon the long awaited visit of Uncle Jim, Aunt Alyson, and Cousins Lily and Grace arrived. After driving 21 hours over a span of three days, the Idaho Kleins decided to walk from their hotel about a mile and a half away to come visit...we went and met them halfway and Lily and Madison wasted no time becoming friendly again...：）

これから毎日ブログを読んで分かる通り来週はデイブの春休みなのでアイダホクライン一家と毎日忙しくなる予定です！乞うご期待!!
As you will see over the coming blogs, as this is also Dave's Spring Break we have a jam packed week of fun planned to celebrate the Idaho Klein's visit!!

マディソンの可愛すぎる行動.../Cutest Things She Does...

マディソンとエリーは最近とても仲良しな関係に成って来ました：）これはその一人と一匹が仲良くゴロゴロしている所...
Madison and Ellie are establishing quite the relationship with one another:-) Here is two of them snuggling together...

ハローキティの敷物の上でゴロゴロした後手を振ってくれている...
She is waving Hi from rolling on her play mat...

大人用の椅子に座るのが最近好きです...今おやつの時間です。
She likes sitting on a regular chair more than her baby seat... Here she is enjoying some snacks.

ソファの上でエリーをなでなでしながら寝てしまったマディソン...：）
She fell asleep on the couch the other day while petting Ellie then she started to pray...:-)

起きたと思ったらまた座っているまま寝てしまった...ア〜!!
She woke up and sat up then fell back asleep... Awwww!!

マディソンがエリーに寿司を投げてあげている様子...
Madison is playing fetch with her buddy Ellie...

エリーに餌を食べさせてあげている...
Madison is feeding her buddy Ellie...

そして最後に...マディソンが歌を歌っているところ!!!今朝歌の本を見ながらマディソンに歌を歌ったら、２、３時間後に突然一人で歌い始めて慌てて録画開始!!
And last but not least... Madison singing!!! What she is looking at is our devo song book, I was singing a few songs this morning to Madison then later on she started to sing all of a sudden and I ran to grab our flip camera and whola!!

これ撮りたてホヤホヤ...：）
And this just came in...:-)

Flea Attack of 2010!

Yup! The horrible creatures that us humans despise have crawled into the Klein household today... I don't know how long they've been making right at home in Ellie and Coco's fur/hair but I discovered this terrible truth as I rolled Coco to comb her hair...First I thought wow she is getting lots of tiny black mold like spots... Then I froze right there... I didn't know what they were since I've never seen fleas before so I wasn't sure if they were regular tiny bugs like ants or horrible, horrible fleas/ticks... I quickly took Coco and left her in our bath tub as I pulled myself together and looked up what fleas looked like... Yup, they are fleas:-( I really didn't know what to do with this situation but I decided to give her a bath... But I still spotted fleas after thoroughly washing Coco's hair so I asked her to stay in the tub for a while and went to get Ellie. Ellie also had been another victim of the flea attack and spotted a few so I put her in the tub and washed her hair...

After inspecting Ellie for some reason I didn't see any fleas so I gave her a go and let her run around in the apartment but I knew I would have to shave all of Coco's hair as soon as it dried...
As I was turning Coco into a Chihuahua Dave got home and found out the horrific afternoon I experienced... Then I picked Ellie up to show him that I don't see any fleas so I think she is okay, and then I saw one moving around in her thick fur... and it was all over... I would have to shave Ellie also:-( Shaving Coco was very easy as she has human like hair but Ellie has fur that is consisting of an under layer that is like cotton and an outer layer that is more like coarse hair... Both girls were great through all this especially Ellie was amazing as it took me much, much longer to shave all of her fur...

I've sprayed our carpet with a home remedy solution to kill fleas/ticks I found online and we've been able to spot the last few stragglers on the Beans easily so I really hope this will take care of all of it and once again we will have peace in our household... Thanks to the fleas, the Beans will be mostly indoor doggies until Ellie's hair grows back and she can feel confident enough to be out in public with us again.

You may wonder where Madison was during all this!? Oh She was amazing! She would just watch me give the Beans a bath and hair cut, or occupy herself with toys or getting into the Beans' toy drawer... Whatever kept her happy and busy I appreciated:-)

So here are the pictures of our naked Beans to get some sympathy from you readers... Feel free to send them encouraging cards and gifts...:-)

Poor hairless Coco Chihuahua...:-(

Sweet Ellie is consoling Coco...

Now it's Ellie's turn...

最近の出来事.../Recent Happenings...

この頃ブログを書いていないので最近の出来事をまとめて...：）
It's been a while that I last wrote in our blog so I thought I would recap some things we've done the last week or so...:-)

デイブの学校が先週の火曜日に始まりました。全部始めてで慣れる事がいっぱい、特に合計８０人近くの生徒を自分だけで持ち教えた経験があんまりない科学を教えなきゃいけないのでちょっと大変です...そして、私はマディソンと昼間一緒に過ごします。ほとんど毎日がこんな感じです...朝デイブが仕事に行った後ゆっくり起きて朝ご飯を食べます。そして少し遊んだ後お昼根の時間の前に着替えて近くの公園やスーパーに歩いたり走って行ったり(もちろんマディソンはバガブーに乗って)...そしてお昼寝の後はお昼を食べて午後はだいたい海辺とプールで遊びます...なんて簡単な毎日...：）この前ロングビーチのサイトで教室を探していた時に見つけた音楽の教室に行くのが楽しみ...
Dave's school started last Tuesday and it has been interesting with a lot of new things such as planning his own lessons in an unfamiliar subject, science, starting from scratch with his 80+ kids, etc... and Madison and I are back to spending days together... Our normal routine has been to get up way after Dave leaves(Sorry Baby!), eat breakfast and play, get dressed for Madison's nap time in her bugaboo and my jog/walk time to a grocery store/playground/wherever I feel like going... Then when Madison wakes up we have lunch and usually go to our backyard (the beach) to play ending with a dip in the pool to finish our day before Dave comes home around 4... We found a great website that has a huge list of different activities and groups we can join so we are really excited about starting some of those... I found a music class and an art & cultural class for Madison and I to attend sometime soon.

先週の日曜日にステュードベーカー教会に通う事に決めメンバーになりました...そこで出会った同い年ぐらいの夫婦(クリスとグレース)と早速夕ご飯を一緒に食べました。これからとても仲良く慣れそうな夫婦友達が出来てで嬉しいです。昨日大学に通っているグレースが授業の後遊びに来てくれました！サーフのレッソンやテニスマッチと予定がいっぱい...
We just placed our membership at Studebaker Road Church of Christ and have already met a really nice couple(Chris and Grace Melton) that are our age to hang out with... We had them over for dinner last week and really enjoyed spending some time together:-) Oh and they are surfers, cool right? Grace came by yesterday after her morning classes to hang out with Madison and I and we had a great time! We have a surf lesson and tennis match on our future activity list...

バーバパパのぬいぐるみに抱きついて遊んでいるマディソン：）
In this video Madison is showing her love for her Barba Papa:-)

マディソンとパパがエリーとココの散歩に行った時にアパートからビデオを撮ってみました。
Madison and Daddy took the Beans for a walk and I was able to film them from our apartment...

エイ踏んじゃった!!/I stepped on a Sting Ray!!

土曜日の朝エリーとココを連れてドッグビーチに行く事にしました。いつもは車で行くんだけど、この日はエリーとココをバガブーの下の荷物入れに入れて走って行って見る事に...居心地の良い座席に良い子に座って景色を楽しんでいれば良かったのに、走り始めてすぐにエリーが飛び出して来て危うくバガブーでひく所でした...それから２匹とも首輪をして一緒に歩く事にしたんだけど、それもそれで大変。何でかって言うとマディソンが起きていれば絶対エリーとココの散歩ヒモを持ちたくなるからなんです...だから、歩行通路結構場所取るんだよね、しかも半分ぐらい(約１キロ)走った所でエリーが急に変なお婆さんみたいな呼吸をする様になって、仕様が無いからエリーは抱っこ！そんなこんなでドッグビーチに到着です。着いた後お水をあげたらエリーもすっかり元気、パパと水泳の練習開始。ここにいる大きな犬達はほとんどが平気で海に入って泳いでいるけどエリーとココはまず海水に慣れないといけません。だからこの日はパパにゆっくりと水の中に置いて来てもらって海辺へ泳いで帰って来るのれんしゅうです。２匹の華麗な泳ぎをビデオでどうぞ！
On Saturday morning we took the Beans to Dog Beach for some swimming... We usually drive there but we decided to try jogging/walking there and back... Well, it was interesting... We've been wanting to try to put the Beans in compartment underneath our Bugaboo and see if they will stay there and enjoy the view... So we put down a comfy towel and put them in and headed out onto the shore path... Our plan was to jog there and walk back but right after we started to jog Ellie decided to risk her life and get out of her carriage and almost got run over by the bugaboo wheels... Ouch! So we took Coco out and leashed them both and went up on to the side street and started to jog with the Beans running with us... Oh and as long as Madison is awake she would demand to hold the girls' leashes from her bugaboo seat so imagine, a good size of this party taking up a side walk! At about the half way point(0.75mile) Ellie started to wheeze like an old person so we had to pick her up and start to walk the rest of way... Then I was thinking we would never attempt to do this again... Once we got there we had a great time, I gave the girls some water and Ellie magically came to life and they got to go swimming with Dave... A lot of doggies on the beach get themselves in the water and swim but the Beans are not there yet so we've been getting them used to the idea of waves and swimming by gently placing them in the water and making them swim back to shore... Here you can see them in action!

やっぱり週末だけあってドッグビーチは大賑わい、家族連れでみんな楽しんでいました...
Since it was Saturday there was a lot of doggies and their families on the beach enjoying the day...

ドッグビーチを出ると直ぐにマディソンのお昼寝開始、持っていたエリーの散歩ヒモを取り上げた後のんびりと自由な散歩を楽しんでいたと思ったらまたお婆さんの登場！仕様が無く木の下で休憩を取った後抱っこで帰りました。アパートに着いた後、すでに水着を着ていたデイブは寝ているマディソンを連れてプールに直行、私はビーンズを連れて部屋に帰り急いでお風呂に入れた後水着に着替えてプールで合流。そのまま、暖かいプールにいれば良かったのに何でか知らないけど海辺に移動する事に...いつも冷たすぎるから海には入らないんだけど今日は泳ぐ気がしたので歩いて海に入って行ったら...何か平たい物踏んじゃった！しかも動いた！エイだよっ！気持ち悪い〜って海辺に戻ってデイブとお子守り交代です。デイブは信じてくれなかったけど絶対踏んだのエイだった！あんなに平たい生き物他にいないし、この前ここで日が落ちるのを見ていた時漁師さんが小さかったけどエイを釣っていたの見たもん！
私とデイヴの将来の目標の一つがトライアスロンに挑戦する事です。トライアスロンって三種類(水泳、自転車、マラソン)の競争の事です。だから少し海で泳ぐ練習をしてみたんだけど、プールで泳ぐのより難しい！波に揺られながら泳ぐのや海水が口に入って来ながら泳ぐのは思ったより大変で疲れる...これから頑張らないと！
Right after we left Dog Beach to head back Madison fell asleep while holding Ellie's leash and as soon as Dave was able to pry it off her hand Ellie took a nice walk with her sister until she pulled one of those old lady things again that required us to carry her like a baby and stop and take a quick break under a tree... When we got to the apartment Dave who was wearing his bathing suit all day and sleeping Madison went down to the pool and I went up to our room with the Beans to give them a quick bath and put on a bathing suit and came back down for some swimming... We were at the pool for a bit and we decided to go out to the beach. The sea water is a lot colder than the pool water so I don't like it but that day I felt like swimming in the ocean so I was starting to walk into the water and I stepped on something flat and it moved... A sting ray!!! Dave does not believe it but I am 100% sure it was a sting ray I stepped on!! One of the reasons is that the other day when we were on the beach hanging out we saw a guy fish a small sting ray!! Another reason is that it cannot be anything else, what else is flat and moves that is in the water!? I was grossed out after that and quickly came back onto the beach and switched with Dave for the baby sitting role... We also tried swimming in the ocean that day since we do want to try a triathlon someday but it is really hard to swim with waves rocking you and really salty water getting in your mouth all the time... That's hard!

最後に、マディソンがやっと絵本を読む気になって来てくれたみたいです...まあ、３、４ヶ月の間マディソンの本は全部箱に入っていた事もあるんだけど、前は本を読むというよりもページをビリビリ破るぐらいしか興味を示さなかったからこれは嬉しい発展です：）少しだけど、ビデオに撮る事が出来ました！
Lastly, Madison is finally interested in pulling books out and looking through them... I guess mostly they have been in boxes the last few month but she was more interested in tearing the book pages than actually using them in the right way before so that is very exciting to us:-) So we got a little bit of that on film here!

Dog Beach and the Belated Birthday Gift/ドッグビーチと遅くなった誕生日プレゼント

So yesterday we lost our internet connection and the technician won't be out until Tuesday, so lucky for us the lobby WiFi is working, but we have to combine a few days now...so here is what we have been up to...
Most excitingly, we got the girls licensed so they could officially visit Dog Beach!! Dog Beach is a stretch of beach about a mile and a half from our Apartment that is reserved for Dogs to enjoy off leash...Ellie and Coco weren't ready to ride any waves, but they did pretty well for their first time and really seemed to enjoy the beach... They even made a new friend:-)
えっと、昨日インターネットがおかしくなってしまって来週の火曜日にならないと修理しに来てくれないので今、幸運な事に２階のロビーにあるワイファイを使ってここ２、３日起こった事を書いていまーす。
とっても嬉しい事にエリーとココのロングビーチでの登録が済んだので、晴れてアパートから約２キロ離れた所にあるドッグビーチに初めて連れて行く事が出来ました。そこでは散歩ヒモ無しで走り回れるからハッピーなワンちゃん達でいっぱい...大きなワンちゃん達のように海に入って泳ぐ気はまだ無さそうだけど初めて(エリーは２回目の海)にしては２匹とも上出来、とても気に入ってくれたみたい...早速新しい友達も作りました：）

The other big news is that Gma and Gpa's Birthday gift arrived (only three months late)...okay not really...you see they had purchased Madison a very nice playhouse for her first birthday, but when we decided to move across country we had to return it and pocket the money...until spending it on this play kitchen...thanks Gma and Gpa!!
他の大きなニュースと言えば、スティーブおじいちゃんとリンダおばあちゃんからの誕生日プレゼントが３ヶ月遅れて届いた事...うそ、うそ...本当はマディソンの１歳の誕生日にとてもいいプレイハウスを買ってくれたんだけど、遠距離の引っ越しをするためにそれをお店に返品したんです...でも、やっと新しい家に落ち着いたので早速そのお金でプレイキッチンを購入させて貰いました...ありがとね、コネチのおじいちゃんおばあちゃん!!

Saturday saw the Red Bull Flugtag come to Rainbow Harbor in downtown Long Beach. Flugtag is that crazy event where people build ridiculous things and then run with them off a pier and see how far they can fly...we walked down to the area late and it was already way too crowded to get close to where they were taking off so we just snapped a few photos and headed back home for some swimming... Anna found some pictures of past flugtag contestants for some visual reference for her readers in Japan...
土曜日の今日はロングビーチのレインボウハーバーに１年に一回フラッグタグが来る日。フラッグタグと言うのは、いろんな人がグループ事に乗り物を作ってそれ用に作られた高台の上から海に目掛けて飛ぶ距離を競う物なんです。やっぱりのんびり行き過ぎたせいで観客がいっぱいで見れる所無し、なのでそのままグルッと回って泳ぎに行く事にしました。この写真は過去のフラッグタグの写真です。一応参考にどうぞ...






The Queen Mary was on the opposite end of the harbor so we photographed her as well...
これはフラッグタグの反対側にある有名なクイーンメアリー号、今はこの船自体がホテルらしい...とても気になります...

The Visit Part 1/アイダホの家族を訪れるパート１

Since you did enough reading in the last post I think we will just let the pictures speak for themselves (with little captions) about our visit with Jim, Alyson, Lily and Grace and also featuring the Nuts, Pea and Hazel...their two small dogs...
前回のポストで読み疲れた方用に今回アイダホに住んでいる僕の弟の家族(ジム、アリソン、リリーとグレース、そして豆達：ピーとヘーゼル)の所を訪れた事をはほとんど写真で楽しんでください：）

Madison loved the backyard...with all its fun toys
裏庭はマディソンのお気に入りの場所...遊べるおもちゃが沢山

Checking her blindspot...
後ろの車に気を付けて車線変更...

Madison and Lily drawing with chalk...okay Lily drawing and Madison preparing to eat...
マディソンとリリーはチョークを使ってお絵描きでーす...マディソンが食べ物と間違えて食べるまでね...

Daddy trying to model a good hat wearer since Madison usually discards hers...
マディソンに良い子に帽子を冠るお手本を見せているパパ...

BABY GRACE!
赤ちゃんグレース!

Same Jammies...
お揃いのパジャマ...

Sharing the car...
来るまで一緒にお出かけ...

Peekaboo Fun
いないいないばー中

Critter Amazement
クリッターと言うおもちゃにビックリ

Torturing our girls with a cool group shot
３人揃って写真撮影を試みる

Looks like they are enjoying though
うまくいっているみたい...

The sisters
妹とお姉ちゃん

The attempted picture of a hug...see you can't force hugs...previously Lily and Madison had done the cutest hug and we tried to recreate, but instead Madison shoved Lily away and Lily ran to her Mommy and said, "Madison doesn't want hug"
少し前にとってもカワイイ“ハグ”を見せてくれてマディソンとリリー、カメラを用意してそのハグを再現しようと思ったんだけどマディソンはその気じゃなかったみたい...

Lake Coeur Dlene

コードアリーン湖

Picking/Eating Strawberries in Washington State
ワシントン州で苺狩り/苺食べ放題行きました

Dining together...Soooo Cute!
一緒にお昼を食べてる...かわいーい！

The Sharks...
落って来た食べ物を待っているサメ達...

Pool Time
プールの時間