Heading to Japan

To start out this "blog", I'll chronicle our trip to Japan this summer.  At the rate I'm going, it will take a year to tell about the 12 days I was there.  But something is better than nothing, right?

With that hope, we'll start with Day 1.

Here are a few photos of Boise taken from the airplane on the way to Japan, June 25, 2008.

The Boise Temple

Mom and Dad's house

Gravel pits on top, with the Maple Grove extension curving around.  Dalton Lane on the left.  The back of Mom and Dad's house, and their pool, stand out pretty well.  Just to make sure, here's a closeup...

Mom and Dad's house again

Our house

I've been trying for about 10 years to get a picture of our house from the air, and here finally succeeded for the first time in getting a recognizable photo.  This is just two days after we planted grass seed, so our brown dirt yard stands out pretty well.  This picture is from almost straight-on south; the large trees at the bottom are our neighbors', the large trees at the top are the locust trees along the front of our front yard.

Our house again

This time from the southwest.  This one is pretty blurry -- I finally get photos of our house from the air, and I had the shutter speed set too slow to freeze the vibration of the airplane.  Dang.  Oh well, better than nothing, right?

After a long flight, we finally made it to Nartita.  Actually, it wasn't too bad of a flight -- it's amazing how well the kids can keep themselves entertained.  It was a dramatically easier trip than last time, just a year and a half ago.  Here are some tired people and their luggage as the train pulls in to take us on the second to last leg of the trip -- about 17 hours into the 19-hour journey.