It’s been several weeks since returning from my family trip to the Bahamas and my tan faded long ago. But apparently I needed a vacation from my vacation because I caught a cold right after returning from my trip. I’m finally feeling much better and am getting caught up.
My parents took me and my husband, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my twin 12-year-old nephews on a Disney cruise. While I could’ve done without all the Disney characters and crazy crowds/kids (I’m not a cruise lover and yes, I suppose I rubbed elbows a bit with Grumpy dwarf), there were some nice highlights from the vacation. Some of my favorite memories included:
- Spending time with my whole family. Growing up, we hardly ever went on vacations with my parents, my brother, and me altogether (since I’m 9 1/2 years younger than my brother). So, it was nice to have a big trip with all of us.
- Hanging out with my twin nephews. They’re a hoot. They loved playing games on our iPad and iPhones and they were always cracking me up.
- Lounging around on floaties with my hubby in the beautiful Blue Lagoon. I could’ve stayed there all day!
- Escaping to Serenity Bay, the adult’s only area on Disney’s private island Castaway Cay. The rest of the island was an absolute madhouse, but this secluded section was pretty deserted and oh, so gorgeous with its clear turquoise waters.
- Seeing a screening of Toy Story 3 in 3D on-board the ship. The movie was so cute!
- Taking a “how to draw Goofy” class (that’s me above with one of my nephews and my sister-in-law sketching away)
- Dining at the Palo adults only restaurant on the last night. The food was absolutely amazing!! And there are my parents below enjoying a delicious dessert.
The trip came and went so quickly and I can’t believe it’s already July. It’d be fun to do another big family trip again. Maybe next time we’ll do it old school and rent a house in Mammoth during the summer.
Thanks mom and dad, for a great and memorable family vacation!
Hope you’re enjoying all the festivities of the season. For more merriment visit Emmett holiday cards of Christmas past. We’ve subjected our poor pooch to eight years of these silly photo shoots, so no wonder why it looks like he’s fed up with the yuletide cheer!
by jenn on August 9, 2009
in Family
Yesterday, I received an amazing e-mail from a complete stranger. A woman named Dee contacted me to let me know that she had a clipping of an LA Times article from April 2, 1967 that mentioned my grandpa, Ernest Fukuda. He’s the one wearing the bow-tie in the photo above. (He wore bow-ties a lot and always left the house with a hat. How dapper!)
Dee wrote that her mother had saved articles that she found interesting and that she recently discovered this clipping among her mother’s things. After reading this story about a ballot measure that my grandfather helped petition for, Dee was curious to learn of the outcome. She did a search and found my post about my grandpa about how he helped the amendment to pass so that Japanese-American Los Angeles DWP employees who were removed from their jobs during the WW2 internment would receive years of continuous service toward their retirement plan.
I’m very grateful that Dee was so kind to scan in the article and send it to me. Thank you, Dee for sharing this meaningful piece of history with my family. We will treasure it!
What do you know about your family history? How far back does your family tree go? Unfortunately, my family doesn’t have a whole lot of information about my relatives beyond my grandparents. And even that is fairly sparse, especially since my grandparents didn’t talk to much about their pasts when they were alive.
Fortunately, last year my auntie discovered some old family photographs on my dad’s side. Above are my dad’s mom’s parents. The Nishioka’s owned a barber shop in Seattle.
When my parents were visiting last week, I asked them what else they knew about our family history or who was in these photos. I wish that they knew more. This makes me appreciate the blogging world even more as it captures our day-to-day routines, our thoughts, our dreams. We get snapshots into each other’s lives and read the stories that go along with them.
Here are my great-grandparents again a little older along with my grandmother (the younger girl) and her sister. The females are wearing traditional Japanese kimonos.
This is a photo of my dad’s dad, Howard Lee, and his parents. My grandfather is the tallest boy standing in the back right between my great-grandmother and great-grandfather. This was taken in San Francisco’s Chinatown. My parents had a hard time identifying who all the other children were in the photo. Despite not knowing much about who these people were, I’m grateful to at least have these family portraits.
A few years ago I created an art book in honor of my grandpa Ernest Fukuda (my mom’s dad). He was the first Japanese-American to be employed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. We’re fortunate that my grandpa wrote up his life story and was interviewed in 1991 by the L.A. DWP for a series of oral histories of the DWP. Along with the interview transcripts are several letters from 1943 through 1984 documenting how the internment impacted his career and how he advocated for reparations for Japanese-Americans who were sent to internment camps during the war. My grandpa worked with then councilman Tom Bradley on a charter amendment which was passed in 1967 to permit the DWP retirement plan to honor years of continuous service for four Japanese-American employees, including my grandpa, who were removed from their jobs during the war.
I started this post yesterday and actually did a search to see if there was anything written online about my grandpa. I discovered a photo of him in the Japanese American National Museum archives which my family had not seen yet. And as I worked on this post today, I realized that yesterday, July 14th, was his birthday. I didn’t even realize that until now. He passed away 10 years ago and would’ve been 106 yesterday.
He closed his life story with, “I ask for nothing more than peace for all mankind.”
What legacy do you wish to leave? What are the stories you want future generations to know about you?
by jenn on April 22, 2009
in Family
“Earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quote simply tickled me!
Today my mom and aunt came over to visit and my aunt brought these bright roses from her garden. I’m enjoying having all these fresh flowers in my home to remind me of the beauty of Mother Earth.
Hope you had a beautiful day!
