Hayden's first day back to school was on August 28th. Lincoln went back to school from a break, although not the start of a new school year, on September 1st. Eventually we won't be on the Japan school schedule so I like to document his time after the summer. Hayden started in the 3rd grade at Mendel Elementary and his teacher is Mr. Robinson. He is excited for another year at Mendel and loves the fact that he can walk to and from school on his own. Lincoln was also excited to go back to school and has gotten pretty comfortable with his Japanese school experience. It has been just over a year since he started at Fuji Youchien and the teachers tell us he is even starting to speak a little Japanese! We are very proud of both of our boys and are grateful they like school and look forward to going. Here are some pics from their first days.....
First Day of 3rd Grade!
He looks too big in this photo
Daddy ran home for a quick see off...the benefit of the hospital being a 1/4 mile away.
Brother love
First day school assembly
Found his teacher!
Sort of first day of 4's class!
Cheese!
Showing off his new shoes on the walk to the bus stop
At the end of August Eric, Hayden and I planned a trip to climb Mt. Fuji. Because of weather conditions you can only attempt to make the climb July thru early September. We knew this might be our only shot to do it so Eric took off a weekday, we got a sitter for Linc, and we headed out at 3:00am in the morning to start our day. The weather predictions seemed to be changing day by day but we thought we had a good shot at a clear morning with chance of afternoon rain. Hayden was super pumped, mommy was a little nervous, and daddy was cool as a cucumber as usual. We really had no idea what to expect! The climb started out cool but nice. We had a little bit of a view in the clouds for about the first hour. Then it started to rain. Just a sprinkle here and there to start, but it progressively got harder and more uncomfortable. The higher you get, the colder it gets so the rain only made us feel that much colder. The climb was tough in spots, but the weather conditions were really what made the day a real challenge. Hayden was cold and tired about 4 hours into the hike and pretty much stayed in tears the last two hours to the top. I had to keep moving to keep warm so I would go a little ahead while Eric stayed back with Hayden encouraging him to keep moving. It was hard to watch and hear, but so many people passed us and offered him an encouraging word. At the top it started to get a little more crowded so moving was slow until the finish. I waited for Eric and Hayden at the last Tori Gate at the top and watched Hayden make his final steps to the summit. The pics really say it all! At the top it was so cloudy and rainy we did not get any good views, and my hands were so numb I could hardly hold my phone to take a picture. We sat in a large tent with many other climbers and waited for a hot bowl of Ramen. It was the best Ramen of our lives and warmed us up a little. Since it took us a little longer than planned to reach the top we wanted to get moving to hike back down so we wouldn't be too late getting home. Hayden was a champ on the way down despite the continuous rain. The trek down was harder on me and Eric since it's pretty steep and hard on the joints. My knees were in pain but we just had to keep moving. We all took a few falls down the mountain which we tried to laugh off. We made it back down the mountain in about 4 hours so overall we conquered Mt. Fuji in 10 hours. If you ask Hayden if he will do it again, he will adamantly say no way. We were super proud of him for sticking it out, and he is happy to have the bragging rights. We all carried Fuji sticks which got stamped along the way up so that is also a great memento we will always have and display proudly. In the moment I thought why am I doing this and I will never do this again, but the next day I was already trying to plan another trip with Eric on a nicer day after seeing so many friends get an awesome view at the top. Who knows...maybe next July before the move. Most of the pictures I did take were in the first two hours before conditions went downhill. Eric took some GoPro footage also that I combined into one video.
Starting at 5th Station
Let's do this!
Let's go!
Nice views at the beginning
A & E on Mount Fuji
Still smiling
Hayden liked the rock climbing portions
Fast forward 5 hours and I am at the top....I can hear Hayden crying down the mountain.
