Stitch

The cutest little squish I ever did see. I thought I was gearing up for a battle to take one picture of her in her costume but Harper loved this thing. And sitting outside in the leaves.

That little tail.

Everyone tells us Thor looks like Stitch.

Japan: Kyoto, Nara, Osaka

The only reason I am able to fit all of these days together is because I lost one of my SD cards with most of my photos from the second part of our trip. They were my favorite photos and I'll probably never get over it. We stayed the rest of our trip in Kyoto and traveled out to Nara to go to the deer park and to Osaka where Brandon was born.

Watching the sunset from our airbnb. We got lucky and found one in Kyoto that actually had a crib/playroom. Needless to say, I slept a lot better there.

Bamboo Forest.

Almost every time we stopped into a convenience store to get drinks, Eleanor would pick a treat.

One night we all went to the grocery store right next to our place and just threw things into baskets that we wanted to try and went back to our place and opened and tried everything.

How cute are they?!

We had a little bit of a walk to get to Otagi Nenbutsu-ji to see the temple with all the stone statues but it was the prettiest walk.

These trees!

Over 1200 stone statues at this temple. I completely recommend this place. The bamboo forest was SO crowded. We had this place to ourselves.

Checking out the map.

Harper loved being able to crawl around here and get out of her stroller.

My number one recommendation. Fushimi Inari Shrine. When you get there it is packed and so busy. But most people are too lazy to trek to the top and so about 15 minutes in the crowds cleared and pretty soon we had the place to ourselves. It was so pretty and the sheer amount of torii gates is amazing. 

Brandon stayed down with the girls and the stroller because of all the stairs so I flew solo for this and walked the whole thing with my mom.

Black cats were everywhere, winding in and out of the shrine and through the trees.

The views climbing up...

Now for my phone photos...

Outside our airbnb in Kyoto.

The funnest dinner spot.

Brandon and I snuck out a second night once every one was asleep and took a bus to get sushi and wandered the streets. I love my one on one time with this man. I actually hate fish. But I ordered some agadashi.

Eleanor eating her seaweed, rice ball.

She thought the subway was a playground.

Being this girl's mom is everything.

Their shaved ice is literally ice shavings, frozen strawberry shavings and cream.. very different but it was refreshing after walking in the heat all day.

You have to wear a mesh bag over your head when trying on shirts so you don't get makeup on them.

Nara Deer Park. This was mine and Eleanor's favorite thing. You can buy a stack of crackers to feed them for fairly cheap and we got quite a few. They follow you and nudge you and it's the cutest thing. They are everywhere just wandering around. Watch my vlog from the trip if you want to see a more aggressive one nudge me in the behind.

Her favorite place to nap.

When the girls fell asleep me and Brandon would look at each other and think, "Finally. Quick, what should we do? What should we do?!" Haha. Traveling with kids is so different than without. They were absolute troopers though.

People ask me what my favorite thing I ate in Japan was...it was this. Haha! I know it's not even Japanese but this Tiramisu ice cream was SO. GOOD. Eleanor ended up stealing it from me once she woke up. Which was sad, but I'd give that girl anything.

Long day.

Exploring Osaka where Brandon was born.

If you ever go to Japan, these were my two favorite Japanese treats. Vanilla ice cream in a squeeze pouch. Uum, this was delicious and genius. Not sure why we don't do this.

And these frozen grape balls! Not actual grapes. They are just grape flavored popsicle balls but they were so delicious. We bought about 10 bags of them. I'm not going to mention the other flavors because the grape!!! Just get the grape.

This was the moment when we were packing to head home that I realized my SD card was no longer next to me. Harper didn't have it. I checked.

You see that suitcase in front of Brandon and I? I packed our entire family into that thing. All four of us. I was pretty proud of myself.

Bullet train home. Just the greatest parents/grandparents in the world.

Our seats were pretty scattered on the way back and I walked passed these two to find this.

I can't even handle the amount I love these two when I look at this picture.

Another thing if you ever visit Japan, I walked into the bathroom to find this and was so confused. I thought it was some type of different urinal style at first and was sure I was in the men's bathroom but there were ladies walking in the bathroom. Steph then let me know that I had the option to use a regular toilet in other stalls but they have kept a few of these old styles in. You just squat...that wouldn't go well for me. I didn't ever get around to trying one.

Headed home.

Just realizing these two were from the flight there. Oh well.