Welcome Home/ 90th Birthday Party!

On Saturday we had a big party to celebrate Dan's grandfather's 90th birthday and our arrival home from Japan. We had a great time seeing family friends and meeting

Chinese Dinner

Bob and Karen Lawson came to Long Island last weekend for a Welcome Home party for us/90th Birthday party for Karen's father. We went out to chinese the night before the party. For those of you that read this that are still in Japan, the rice in Japan is MUCH better than here.

Our Room

The day after we arrived to Long Island, I painted the room that we were moving into. Could you take a wild guess why? :)

Before.....
During............
After..........
We are living with Dan's grandparents in a small bedroom for now and will look for apartments once we get our feet on the ground. We are so thankful we have a place for now.

First week in NY

Dan and Kenny! Both have on cute faces!
Dan, me and "Pops."
THE BEACH!!!!!! Only 15 minutes from our front door!
Me and Dan and our WHITE bodies on the beach for the first time all summer.

Our Journey to NY begins

On Monday morning, Aug. 27th, Dan and I headed out of Fergus Falls in our new car making our way towards Iowa to visit our good friends, Paul and Betti Lang. The drive took about 9 hours, so with little mishap we made it there about 6:00 p.m.
Some beautiful Iowa and Minnesota scenery. It was a beautiful day for a drive.
The Lang's treated Dan and I to an amazing dinner along the Mississippi river during sunset. It was unbelievable. We really enjoyed our evening together with lots of fabulous food and great conversation. We appreciated the wonderful dinner they gave us and the time that we had together!

"Pops" the Iguana

While we were in Fergus Falls we picked up Dan's iguana, Pops and brought him out to NY with us. Here is Dan holding him on his shoulder. Pops is now about 3 1/2 ft. long.

Evening Service

On Sunday evening, August 19th we were asked to speak at Bethel church to talk about our time in Japan. I wore my yukata and jinbe.. It was really great to share our testimony and reflect on our year in Japan.
Here I am with Susanne Strom and my oldest sister Lisa who surprised Dan and I for the weekend!!
After the evening service Dan and I went out for dinner with our friend, Blaine and his girlfriend, Nikki.

Family Time

Breakfast with some of my siblings at the Viking resturant in Fergus Falls.
My parents prepared a HUGE welcome home steak dinner. It was fantastic!
Here are some of us sitting around after filling up our stomachs.

Our BIG purchase

Here is our first large purchase as a married couple. An 04' Chevy Malibu Maxx. On our way up to Fargo to meet Joel and Emily Davis the transmission on my 1990 Chrysler New Yorker went kaput...so the whole week that we were in Fergus Falls, we car shopped and finally agreed on a car that we both liked and that accomodated to our needs. This car was a steal and has great features like all the seats fold down, so I can eventually carry all my artwork in there. Also, there is a DVD player in the backseat, so people can watch something if they want to. It's also got XM satelite radio, so I can get christian radio on Long Island! We are very happy with the car.My Dad came with us when we purchase the car. We couldn't have done it without him, he is quite car saavy!!
Here we are at my parents with our new purchase.

Bonfire at the Gundersen's

On Thursday night my two very good friends, Julia and Karessa, came over to my parents house to hang out and have a bonfire. We had a wonderful time together and were very glad to have a chance to spend some time together!

My brother, Steven, and Dan started to bonfire pit up for us. The flame was huge! Finally it settled down!
Here we are me, Karessa, Julia and Jane all roasting smores in the fire.
My mom came down to join us too!!

Landing in New York

Well, there is lots to tell about these last few weeks and sooo many pictures, so I will do my best to share with you all that we have done.



We arrived at JFK on August 14th around 7:30 p.m with Dan's sisters' family all waiting to see us! It was soooo much fun to get hugs and see them all again. We were lucky to see Dan Tunick (Kristi's husband) that evening because usually he works nights as a NYPD, his boss just happened to change his schedule for that day!
Ryan, Kristi's oldest son, made us a welcome home poster for us that said Daniel-san and Tante Chris. It was really great!
This is us with Dan's grandparents (Irene and Bill Trautenberg). We will be living with them until December.
We were thrilled to finally meet our nephew and Godson, Kenny Tunick. He is 10 months old now and is such a fun boy!
The family got together for dinner the night after our arrival for a small celebration. It was really nice to have a chance to relax and talk.
Before heading to Fergus Falls, we got together with two of Dan's best friends and their girlfriends for wings and a movie. We had a great time catching up and getting to know the Melanie and Candace.

We've arrived!

We have arrived to New York, safe and sound. We landed at JFK on Tuesday night and hit the ground runnin'! We have been visiting with Dan's family and friends and taking care of some odds and ends. I offically became a NY state resident yesterday after getting my driver's license and registering to become a voter. Woohoo!! We will be flying out to MN on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and will be there for 10 days. Hopefully I will have a chance to see lots of friends and family!!

Kyoto Trip-Day 2

On Sunday morning we woke up later than planned, so we started the day off around 10:00 a.m. We opened up the hotel room curtains and looked out at the beautiful view that we had.


First off for the day, we made our way south of Kyoto to Fushimi Inari Temple. It's famous for having more than 1000 red "torii." Torii are significant of temples in Japan. If you follow all the torii at Fushimi Inari, you'll end up climbing up Mount Inari...which we ended up doing. Once we arrived at the top, we were amazed at how far we'd come and understood why we were so out of breath!!!

The main entrance torii.


Walking along the torii path.


A beautiful pond along the trek that was full of turtles.


Finally we reached the top. What an awesome view of Kyoto!


After Fushimi Inari we went to Kiyomizu Temple. This was the one of the buildings at the entrance.


This three-story pagoda was beautiful at night.


Here was the view from the top of Kiyomizu Temple.


These guys were so fun to see wheeling around people.

Kyoto Trip- Day 1

We are in Kyoto and having a wonderful time!!! Our trip has been well worth it and we are getting to see everything that we had wanted. Of course the most important thing for me to see was a maiko and I did!!!! I was so happy and will always remember that. We have visited temples, shrines, castles and more. So, enjoy some of our pictures and see all you American's soon!!!!!!!!


Maiko are Geisha apprentices. This young lady we saw during the day in Pontocho, a famous area in the Gion district. You can tell when the ladies are maiko when they wear their hair like she is.
Our friend, Kaino-san from Sendai, asked his sister-in-law Takako to show us around Kyoto one day since she lived there, so the first day we arrived she and her daughter met us at Kyoto station took us to Kinkakuji Temple and Ryoanji Temple.

Kinkakuji Temple "The Gold Pavilion"Me and Dan sitting by the rock garden at Ryoanji Temple.

Along the Kamo river in the center of Kyoto many resturants serve dinner on their patio and attact thousands of people by doing so. We were two of them. It was sooooo romantic!!