How much fun can you squeeze into one week?
How do you celebrate someone who is 100 years old?
How do you make memories that will last your kids for a lifetime?
We’ll explore the answers to these questions and more on this Life in Japan, on vacation in America.
Here we go!
[Life in Japan theme song]
Are you ready? You guys ready for some fun today?
When you want to have fun, it’s hard to top a good amusement park.
This week we’re coming to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia for some high speed thrills.
Alright, we're going up!
We are booking it!
Apollo's Chariot.
Ok guys, we're next. You ready Anna? Yes!
Girls, are you ready? We are ready! Here we go! Hold on! Hold on to that phone.
You can see everything from up here.
And...we're off!
Go Becca! Way to go!
How was that last right Anna? Fun.
That's what happens if you drop your phone or a watch on one of these rides.
It's game over.
This is our next one. Oh my goodness!
There they go!
There they went! Did you see Becca at all?
Did you see her? No?
How was it?
Fun. It was great!
Several in Ruth’s family loves intense rides like this, myself included.
What do you think? Would you ride this with us?
I loved that part!
So, what did you think girls? It was the scariest roller coaster ever. What? The scariest roller coaster ever?
What did you think Anna?
It was awesome! She's speechless.
Keep your hands, arms and loved ones inside the train cars.
Keep your loved ones inside.
We rode the train through the park to get a view of all the rides we wanted to try later in the week.
Today was almost done, but before going, we had one more ride to squeeze in.
[Welcome to the catapult. Please secure the seatbelts at this time.]
Have a good trip.
Well, we are at our place in Williamsburg where we are going to stay for this week, it's a beautiful place.
Plenty of rooms, plenty of space for the kids and we are going to have a blast here this week.
Almost all of our luggage came in but not quite all of it.
Hey Dude! Did you fall asleep?
Should we go inside? Let's go inside. Why don't you see what it's like inside, it's really cool, ok?
Ok, I want to carry something down. Oh my goodness!
It's the Holly House, the Blocks are back with us! We're back! Finally! The Blocks are back in town! Yes!
The day before. Here's Richmond. See all the buildings.
This is where Papa Joe lives.
As fun as the theme park was, the day before was even better, for 100 reasons.
Tonight was such a special time because we got to see my Papa Joe who just turned 100 in April.
And we got to just sit and have dinner with him and hear some wonderful stories from his whole life,
And, it was just such a special time.
Papa Joe
He's telling old stories. He's 100 years old. We finally get to celebrate together with him. It's awesome.
Whoa! This is the swing place.
Yes guys! Yes! Ready?
Yeah, awesome.
What you guys doing? Fire.
Oh, getting stuff, collecting firewood?
This is the sitting place, huh?
We're so close. Sit and talk with me, you have no other option.
I've had 2 people tell me they live in the area from Life in Japaners. What?!
All our friends that live in Williamsburg, hello. W
We are visiting your lovely, lovely state of Virginia and have loved it so far. Yeah!
Izzy kissed a frog. She kissed a frog? Oh my goodness.
Yeah, but we have to protect the frog. Oh, you're protecting it? Yeah.
Spaghetti! Yes!
Anna's already eating. She's like yeah, yeah.
Oh you guys are digging in? Dig in. Chomp, chomp.
After dinner, it was time for a classic camp activity.
We're going on a very special hayride, huh Luiza?
Are you ready for your first hay ride? Yes, ok guys!
This is going to be fun! So fun! Yea!
Everybody's coming on.
Here's our driver today. Hey, what's up.
Hi! What's your name? I'm Ginger.
Ginger! Well, thanks for driving us. You're going to drive us very nicely, right? Oh very nicely.
Ok, very good. We'll evaluate that at the end.
Is this the infamous hayride?
This is the famous hayride.
There's another place where we might be able to go into the woods for a little bit. Would you guys want to go into the woods?
Yeah!!!!
Gonna start the tractor. Oh, yeah.
Whoa dude. Bump, bump, bump.
This is definitely with emotion.
Hey Sarah!
What kind of hayrack ride is this? A fast one!
Ho, ho the ride Becca.
Going through the woods.
Here comes some holes.
Watch the branches!
Everybody still on? We're going fast, we're going fast dude!
Eating the mud! Eating the mud.
Some more low branches.
Oh man. Man down.
Watch out! Watch out.
How was the ride dude? Like that?
Ready? 1, 2, 3 Thank you Ginger for the ride. You're welcome. Thank you.
And thank you Vovo for paying for it!
Look here Paul, I'm pregnant with you.
This is me and Paul. This is our tricycle. Paul would drive me on this thing.
Yeah, you and Isaiah.
Oh, here's another one. You and Isaiah, after Isaiah came back from Japan.
Here you keep this one of Paul pregnant. Paul pregnant. Hahaha.
Look at this picture. Beth is taller than Paul.
Wow. And I'm still short.
You're still short!
Way back then! Poor Ruth. Always the shortest one.
Everybody's reminiscing.
By the next morning, we were ready for our biggest rides yet.
Are you girls ready? Yes? Are you ready? Yes?
Here we go into the beast.
Is there fire? I don't see any fire.
Look at that! Oh my goodness!
My goodness! Oh it's so hot!
He's coming down. He's coming down!
It's the Griffin guys.
Are you ready? I don't know.
I'm 100% ready! Awesome.
Here we go.
Here's what we just did.
You can't film on it.
But boy is it intense.
That ride right there was absolutely fantastic!
Are you ready? Yeah?
Here we go!
So dad, you did it! I did it! I did it!
Oh my goodness look at this one!
Wow.
It's a hanging coaster. Oh the floor goes down. There they go. We are next!
Here we go! They're behind us!
Here we go!
Sarah!
Joshua!
Our biggest celebration was yet to take place, and for this we would need some help.
Oh my goodness, I'm just so happy to see you.
You look as good as ever.
Look at this cutie pie. She's one of the goodest (best) babies in the whole wide world.
Oh, Luiza-chan.
Just look at the camera.
Well, today is a super special day. Papa Joe has come out to visit us at the cottage.
And we're going to have our big 100 year celebration here today. It's one of the main reasons we were are coming back this summer.
To have a big celebration of Papa Joe. 100 years old. That's awesome.
So there have been a number of 100 year birthdays this year, right? This is the 4th. 4th birthday!
So you guys are pros. We've got all the stuff. They are pros.
Listening to stories from a lifetime of wisdom, the whole afternoon flew by.
There's grandma Sarah? Yes.
Oh, here's the feast!
Look at this. What a fun feast.
It didn’t take long, and it was time to get pictures together, have a meal, and sing the biggest “Happy Birthday” song we could muster.
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Papa Joe. Happy birthday to you!!!
Ok, here we go! 1, 2, 3 blow!! Yeah!!!
Did you help make it? Yeah he did.
When you're ready for your smore, then come on over and we'll make it.
Look at Joshua taking pictures of everyone.
This is great you guys.
The day turned to night as we sat around the campfire telling stories.
No one wanted the evening to end, but at last the time came.
Papa Joe, we sure love you and we'll see you on Saturday too.
There’s a lot of ways we could have celebrated Papa Joe’s 100th birthday, but the best way of all was by being together.
It’s not just about being together in person, but being together in spirit.
A family that’s united is a family that’s blessed.
What's happening Sarah? Glowsticks.
Glowsticks, that's what happening huh?
[Dr. DoLittle - Ben Block] Uncle Ben's trying to teach the kids animal sounds and calls.
Well today we are in Colonial Williamsburg. This is a historical American city.
One of the first settlements and we are going to see this historic area here today.
Isn't it kinda like Catan? Like that kind of...
Yeah, so this would be like a settlement. Well, actually, this was a city back then.
They have a glasssmith, they have a black smith, they have carpenters.
Isn't this wonderful?! Yes!
Here's the Main Street.
I want to go and ride on a horse.
You can't ride on the horse.
Look at this, the jeweler.
"Done in the beft manner."
"Beft" manner
Daddy taking a video like always.
Should we go into the little shop and see? Yes, let's go in.
Oh, very cool.
Games from long ago.
You can see what they used to play before there were iPhones.
Look at the window display here huh guys?
That's cool.
That's a cool magnet. The colors are bright.
Is that the magnet from our experience here? From our experience here.
That will be our magnet. Ok, well...
[speaking in a French accent] They are making me a new wig as well, right there at the peruk shop,
Or, as we say in French, Peruk Wig Shop.
Would you tell me the name of your character again?
Um, I am no character, miseur, though I suppose all mankind performs characters, don't they.
My name is ..., Marquis de Lafayette.
Thank you very much.
Look, if you wanted to get around that would be the way you do it.
Old school taxi.
I believe that is General George Washington over there.
Are you the famous General George Washington?
My name is Washington, if that is what you mean. Oh, so that is before you were a general?
No, I'm a retired general. Oh, ok.
But is a very unhumbled man who would refer to himself as famous.
Everything about him is big.
So Dude, this is the blacksmith. This is where they made like axes and swords and all kinds of stuff. Let's go in over there.
So he's working on an axil just from here, so you can tell that this side is much smaller than this size.
It broke off right there.
Oh yeah, a wheel maker.
Hello there. Hello.
What are you making right now?
I am building a pair of wheels for a cart for the carpenter's yard up the street.
The center of the wheel. Wheel rights make more than wheels, you have to build the whole body if you want to make a living.
Look, it's as tall as you girls.
That is crazy, huh?
About the time we were seeing how books were made, the kids were tired and wanted to do was go and pet the horses.
We had to cut our trip short, but we certainly want to come back to this fascinating place.
How was it Joshua?
He was like, ehh.
Some pretty colonial gardens.
Look at these old fences.
These horses are at least 200 years old.
I'm just kidding.
Back at the house, the dreaded time finally came — the time to leave.
What was awesome about this place?
Its in the, it's in the woods. It's in the woods?
And it's by a playground. It's by a playground.
And the pool! That was my first time on a diving board.
That's right, huh?
I liked the diving board. I can't believe I dived. You like the diving board?
Everybody's packing their cars.
The towels. One of the last pieces to go in. Just got dried.
All right.
Holly Cottage you were a good cottage.
She stopped right in the mud.
On our way out, we went with Papa Joe to his church.
There we enjoyed one last special time together before hitting the road for the rest of our journey.
It was so good to be together again that it was hard to say goodbye.
And so we don’t say goodbye, but “Until next time!”
Happy Birthday Papa Joe.