Casino!

So today I was walking home from my meeting, and I spotted Fuzzy Elle into mischief.  She was playing the games at the casino!  First, she was playing the slot machine.

Later, I found her playing a different game.  By the way, do you like her outfit?  She decided to not wear the hat today because she would stay inside.

Fuzzy Elle's trip to Reno

So Fuzzy Elle had a long trip out to Reno, Nevada.  First, she was dropped of by Mommy, Katie and Levi at the airport in Norfolk.  After going through security and waiting for about an hour, she found out the her flight was delayed to New York, so she and Daddy got onto a different flight to Dallas.  Once in Dallas, Fuzzy Elle and Daddy had some dinner and waited for the next flight to Reno.  That flight ended up being delayed for about 3 hours because of a few maintenance problems.  During that time, Fuzzy Elle had fun playing on Daddy's computer in the terminal.

Eventually, Fuzzy Elle and Daddy got into Reno and the hotel at about 1 in the morning.  They thought they would be ready to sleep from all the flying, but had trouble falling asleep!  They ended up watching Game of Thrones together, then falling asleep.  The next morning, Daddy had to go to work, so Fuzzy Elle got some time to herself to take in the sights.  She saw snow in the mountains!  In July!  She was so excited to see snow.  Tomorrow she plans to go to the casino.

Road Trip!

Fuzzy Elle had a big adventure this weekend with her best friend - and brother- Elmer!  She decided on Thursday that she wanted to go to Grandpa and Grandma's house in Texas to help decorate for Christmas.  After Daddy went to school on Friday, he ended up getting off early.  That gave them plenty of time to drive to Texas in one day.

Fuzzy Elle, Elmer, and Daddy drove straight through 4 states with only one stop for gas to get to Texas.  It was really late when they got there and they were all very happy to have a nice warm bed to sleep in.  The next day was Christmas decorating day!  Aunt Ami, Uncle Paul, and Aunt Kimberly all came over to help.  Fuzzy Elle liked putting up the tree the best, while Elmer liked putting up lights outside.  After a long day hanging out with family, the Elles were exhausted and ready for bed.

The next morning, Fuzzy Elle and Elmer decided that it would be a good idea to leave Texas early so that they could get back to Florida before bedtime.  They said goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma and were on the road.  They hoped to drive fast.  The first state they drove through was, of course, Texas.  It had rolling hills and some trees.  The Elles liked the view.

After a couple hours, they got to the border of Louisiana.

There was a pretty sign letting them know that they had entered a new state.  They knew they liked Louisiana from their trip out to Texas.  The people were really nice at the gas station.  After a few more hours, they came to the next state line - Mississippi!

The border between Louisiana and Mississippi is the Mississippi  River.  It was a big, pretty river with a cool looking bridge.  In fact, the Mississippi is the largest river in America.  It was huge down in Louisiana and Mississippi.

After a long drive through Mississippi, the Elles were glad to get to Alabama.  They had already been driving for about 8 hours and needed to use the potty!

It was dark by the time they got back to Florida.  They were very tired from a long drive through the day and ready to lay around and call Katie and Levi.

Fuzzy Elle and Elmer can't wait for their next adventure - a flight back to California!

Korea

Fuzzy Elle has been very busy the last couple days.  We flew from Japan to South Korea on a C130 cargo plane, along with the explosives that my helicopters will shoot.  The plane ride was pretty fun, but very full.  We were all squished in tight.  We even had to crawl over the top of a big container if we wanted to go to the bathroom.  Fuzzy Elle posed for some pictures at the beginning of the flight, then slept for the rest.  She wanted to be a Marine like the rest of the guys on the plane, so she wore hat.  Do you think it is cute?

It was a much shorter flight than going to Thailand, so that was pretty nice.

I had to work on Friday, but I had Saturday off.  Fuzzy Elle and I decided to go climb a mountain.  We met up with Brian and his son's monkey Unggoy for the trip.  After breakfast, we hopped on the subway to go to the bus.  When we came out on top, we noticed that we were in the middle of a market.  We smelled it before we saw it.  They had a lot of fish and pork, along with pretty much everything else you can think of.  Fuzzy Elle was very curious.  We saw eels in a tank.

And octopus for sale

And a lot of fish

And grubs.  Dried bugs.  Ewww.

And even pig heads.  Not sure what you do with them, but they look happy.

We had lunch at the market, then were on our way again.  This time we were on a bus.  It ended up being about an hour bus ride, so we talked to you guys for awhile. We heard that Katie wasn't sleeping.  She made silly faces at us, so we made them back.  We got to see a lot of the city on our way out to the mountains.

We met a Korean guy at the bottom who talked to us for a while and invited us to hike with him to the top.  It sounded like he comes to the mountain pretty often.  He ended up being a really fast hiker.  Our first stop was at a temple for water.  The water was flowing from a spring in the mountain.  The Korean guy (Mr. Han) said it was ok for us to drink and offered us some.  It was yummy.  The water was even coming out of a turtle's mouth.  Cool.

This is our friend, Mr. Han.  He was a really fast hiker.  

We found some snow on the side of the mountain.  It must have been really cold last week.  It wasn't too bad today, but the snow was still melting.  This is Elle on the snow with Unggoy.  They were friends since they were about the same age.

We finally got to the top.  It was a pretty hard hike with a lot of stairs.  Mr Han didn't seem to have any trouble with it at all, but the rest of us were tired and ready for a break.  We said goodbye to Mr Han as he went down the mountain.  We stopped for a few pictures at the top.  

We balanced some yen on the side of a near-vertical rock.  The Koreans told us that it was good luck.

Fuzzy Elle was happy to make a new friend.

We enjoyed the hike down, then went to dinner in Daegu.  Overall a really fun day.  

Thailand and the Philippines

Fuzzy Elle had so much fun the last couple days in Thailand and the Philippines.  She started the day with a trip to the Elephant Park.  They had a cute little elephant that was super friendly and knew how to do tricks.  She would lift her trunk and cross her legs on command.  Really cool!

Next, we went over to the Exotic Animal Center.  This place was awesome.  They had Tigers, Monkeys and Snakes.  We started out by petting a Tiger!

Then we saw that Monkeys were available to hold.  Most people were holding the monkey like a baby, but Fuzzy Elle thought it would be cooler for the monkey to be on my shoulders.  I agreed.  The monkey was very interested in Fuzzy Elle.  I had to make sure he didn't steal her.

Next, we went to see snakes.  They had a show and snakes in cages.  We started with snakes in cages.  This little guy is a tree snake.  Notice how he's so green?  He would be very hard to see in a tree.

Then we went to see the cobras.  They are big snakes that puff out their bodies when they are ready to strike.  Very poisonous and dangerous.

I guess there are enough of them around that they have babies.  These eggs were just outside of the cages.  Fuzzy Elle and I were hoping that they didn't hatch while we were standing there.

Next, we went to the snake show.  The guys brought the snakes out in a box and started tossing them out onto the stage!

Then, he sat on the ground with them and made them mad so they tried to bite him!  He was super fast though, and they never got him.

Then they held the snakes for people to get a closer look.  Fuzzy Elle wanted to kiss the snake, but the snake charmer thought that was a bad idea and pulled the snake away.

The snake charmer wanted to show us that the snake was real and still had fangs, so he had the snake shoot some venom into a glass and showed us.  Then he showed us the fangs.

The next day, we were on a plane to the Philippines, then back to Japan.  Fuzzy Elle enjoyed the flight.  It was a little crowded, but we were with friends.

Cherry Blossoms

Fuzzy Elle went to explore the hotel today.  She loved it!  We found light-up cherry blossoms outside by where I eat dinner every night.  Fuzzy Elle decided to climb up into the tree.

Can you believe we found Sakura in Thailand?  So cool.  I told Fuzzy Elle that Katie would love this place.  She agreed.  Fuzzy Elle loved the flowers even more because they were pink.  She thought that we should try to find trees like this to put up in our yard for Christmas.  What do you think?

Airplane Ride!

Fuzzy Elle and I went on an airplane ride last night.  Our job was to bring 2 helicopters from Japan to Thailand.  We started by loading them into a really big airplane.  Fuzzy Elle got to sit on the wheel well while we loaded.

We were pretty proud when we got 2 helicopters loaded onto an airplane.  We decided to take a few pictures of our work.

Fuzzy Elle wanted to sit on the nose of a Huey.

Then she got to sit on the Cobra gun.  Awesome!

We were really tired after all that loading, so when the plane took off, we went to sleep.  I brought my special sleeping bag that Katie had used in Okinawa, so I was nice and warm and comfy.  They even turned off all but green lights for us to sleep well.

Once we got to Thailand, it was time to unload our airplane.  We went the opposite of how we loaded it, with the Huey out first, then the Cobra.  It was a really long day, but it was fun.