Summertime!

We are happily at Frogtown Cottage and really enjoying our new porch!

Here is the photo album we'll be posting to over the summer:

Summer 2015

or you can check out the loslemleys Instagram.

Summer Photos

From Summer 2014

Jetlagshppedthd...

We have an uneventful trip until the last leg of our trip from Kobe to Savannah was delayed about four hours.

I think we've turned the corner on our jetlag.  It has controlled us since we arrived.

The kids have been sleeping in the car a lot!

We are camping out in our house right now but we are slowing starting to fill it.  We are heading off to some yard sales and antique stores this weekend.

We've ordered the wood flooring and have to wait another week for it to arrive as well.

I'll be checking in to post what we are doing and to share pictures.

Maximo fell asleep in Home Depot

Maximo fell asleep at Carlitos

Lola was like this all dinner - fun first meal out.

Eating our Summer Away

Low Country Boil
Photo Credit: www.unclebubbas.com

As May comes every year, we start dreaming of all the things we can get in the US.  Things we miss from our childhood or just from the past few years.
Living in Japan is different than when we lived in Peru.  In Japan, we can get almost anything we want, at a price.  In Peru, there were things we just couldn't get and shipping was not reliable, even packages from our family.  Over the years, we have learned how to make many of our favorites from scratch - pork barbecue, Tex Mex, and many others.

Here are a few foods and dishes we crave from the US.  Most of them we've ate while we were home, some of them will have to wait another year.

In the South:

• Pork Barbecue at Johnny Harris, at Papas, Blowin' Smoke and anywhere else we could get our hands on it!
• Peaches!  Blueberries!  The kids ate their weight in fruit this summer.
• Boiled Peanuts
• Key Lime Pie
• Cuban Food at Rancho Alegre, specifically for me - Lechon Asada
• (Tex) Mexican - at Jalapeños and at Carlitos. 
• Shrimp - in a low country boil or peel and eat with hush puppies

In the North:

• Grinders (sub sandwiches, but somehow better)
• Sweet pizza from the Pizza Lady, although I miss it from Guilinos Bakery.
• Iced Coffees at Dunkin Donuts - I had at least one a day.  I miss Bess Eaton's crushed iced, but the iced coffee is still good.
• Soupy (local cured sausage - appropriately called Supri Soupressata)
• Portuguese Sweet Bread
• Lobster
• Fried Clam Strips
• Steamers
• Clam Chowder

Others:

• Mango salsa -spicy and sweet!
• Peanut Buster Parfait from Dairy Queen
• Rye toast

And a few of our new favorites...

We had a wonderful date night at the fairly (this means anything that opened in the past 7 years) Local restaurant near Forsyth Park, which was delicious! We then went to Lulu's Chocolate Bar for dessert and drinks.  Another night, we went to Sol which was a great treat too - we had a yummy dish of 4 different kinds of salsas and I had a great shrimp taco with Thai chili sauce. 

But, now we're back in Japan... luckily not too much heavier after eating all this food!  Soon enough we'll start dreaming about this food again, but for now, we're happy to be cooking more and eating great food here!

The Boy Can Swim!

 

Goodbye Water Wings!

Thanks to a couple of weeks of swim classes at the YMCA and being in the water, either the beach, lake or pool almost every day of the summer, Maximo can swim.  He struggles a bit swimming above water, but he can definitely swim underwater!  

Lola has gotten quite confident in her Puddle Hopper as well and tools around the pool without us right next to her too.

Maximo Heaven

I think we squeezed all of Maximo's favorite things into one day! It started at a Memorial Day parade (his first parade!) that our niece marched in with her Brownie troop... then Maximo got to ride a digger with Uncle Pete... sushi for lunch... then we went fishing... then finished the afternoon with an ice cream at Friendly's. And we got to spend the whole day with family!

Maximo was over the moon all day and I don't think we can now top it, nor will I try! He fell asleep at 5:30, I'm now just hoping he'll make it through the night... at least until 6:00 am, but I'm not holding my breath!

Maximo and Uncle Pete driving the digger.

"Fishing", but with no hooks or we'd all have battle wounds!

Aunt Carrie holding on to the back of Max's shirt

so he wouldn't fall off the dock into the water!

A New Member of the Family

A Nikon D5000

John's dad, better known as David, bought us a NEW beautiful camera for a birthday/anniversary/Christmas present. He'll never have to buy us anything again, though I know he'll still continue to spoil his grandson.

As John said today, "That's a whole lotta camera!" and I have to agree. I am really excited about the camera, but know nothing about digital SLRs, so I'm going to have to learn little by little. Luckily, it also has an automatic option too, so I can take pictures while I learn all the manual options. I did play around with it today in Gigi and Grandpa's backyard. It was fun, but I've got a lot to learn. It felt like a pro toting the big camera around my neck and listening to the rapid shutter noise, though my photos fall short of professional quality or artistic style. But, I'll keep practicing!

Here are some shots from today - after I deleted about 150.