Twelve Hour Flight, and then some

So, our flight over to Korea wasn't too terrible. We had a few ups and downs, but for the most part it was okay. Here are rtings that might cross your mind as you are traveling from California to South Korea:

It would have been nice if Delta had told us the right terminal to go to when we called and asked them last night, because then we wouldn't have to RE-LOAD all the luggage into the van.

Goodbye family! (don't cry, don't cry, don't cry)

Wow, everyone who works for Korean Airlines is so friendly and helpful.

Wow, everyone else who works at LAX is so rude.

Hey, be patient - it takes time to get four kids and all their crap through the security check! And no, they're NOT hiding any explosive devises in their shoes.

Alex sure looks cute lugging around his carry-on. Yes, his is the biggest one, but it has wheels, and its very light weight:)

I hope that our two hour wait here goes by quickly.

If you're running after your kids, does that mean that your luggage was left unattended?

I wonder if there are any other Americans on this flight.....yep, there's some military guys.

Thank goodness Korean Airlines has kid's meals with American-style food like chicken nuggets and pizza.

Its very cool that each seat has its own personally controlled screen with movies, TV shows, games, etc. to choose from.

It would be nice if Alex actually kept those earphones on the whole flight.

Dang'it, I knew Alex wouldn't keep those on the whole flight.

How many fruit snacks can one kid eat?

I hope the people around me don't think I'm rude for stealing Alex's food while he's asleep.

Hopefully they'll all go to sleep at some point.

Are you okay Alex - Where's the barf bag?!

If that barf bag hadn't had a perforated edge that I had to tear off first, I would have caught ALL of it in the bag!

I hope nobody else can smell this....it doesn't smell too bad.

Hmmmm, that's kind of dumb - when the guy in front of me leans his chair back, my cup won't fit in the designated cup holder.

Well, at least everyone else is getting some sleep.

We're here!

Okay, I know it's technically in the middle of the night for you, but I'm not going to carry you.

Wow, free luggage carts. Too bad they're not free in America.

Wow, we have a lot of luggage (yes, that's TWO towering carts)

No, I'm not going to sell kid's clothes on the black market. I have four kids, and all together they have a lot of clothes.

I don't care how old you are lady, I am pushing a gigantic load of luggage, and I am NOT going to get out of your way!

Oh, so when you said that the USO bus stop was at the other end of the airport, you meant THE OTHER END OF THE AIRPORT!

Yes, the soda cans are funny looking.

Okay, we're just one bus ride away from a bed.

Gee, I wish that the bus had stopped in front of the hotel we're staying at instead of the building next door. Now we have to get all our luggage over THERE!

I thought you kids were tired. Why do you have to act like crazy people in the lobby of the hotel? I hope that some day your kids embarrass you this badly.

Seriously, the rooms cost THAT much?

Oh blessed, blessed bed - so help me if these kids don't sleep the whole night through!!!

Just Whistle While You Work

Woohoooo, I can finally upload pictures - and there are LOTS! (I'm not kidding, there's really a lot). I know you're all anxious to hear about Korea, but I have to post about Disneyland first:)

Joe and I went to Disneyland on our honeymoon. It was a fun and carefree time. Before we left for Korea we took our four kids to Disneyland. It was a lot of fun.......not so much carefree. It is hard work to have fun with four kids sometimes, especially when you're doing 12 hour days at Disneyland. I was dumbfounded that there could be any whining at the happiest place on earth, but there was.

"I'm hot. I want a drink. I don't want to share a drink, I want my own. When are we going to eat. I don't want to eat that. I'm too tired to walk. I don't want to go on that ride. Why can't we go on that ride? Why do we have to wait in line? I want to go swimming. When are we going to go back to our hotel? I'm tired. I don't want to go to bed. I want to go home (Are you kidding me?!!!)."

Kids!!! It was all I could do to not smack them when they were sounding so ungrateful for all the money we were spending!:) However, these were only small moments now and again, and not the whole of our trip. We really did have a great time together, and we would do it all over again. I hope that my kids have some great memories from this trip. I know I will. Here are some of the things we saw and did.

The first day we ate at Ariel's Grotto so we could meet all the princesses. This was well worth the money, because I was not about to wait in huge lines to meet each princess. Oh, and we also went with my sister and her family. We were so glad to have those extra days with them at such a fun place.

The food was actually really good, and each child got a crown and some princess stickers. I love this picture of Alex poking his face through his crown.
Each princess came to our table, and we got to take pictures.

Strange how each princess was personified so well, in dress and mannerisms. Spooky:) My first year of college I applied for a job at DisneWorld. I really sucked at the interview and wasn't hired. I was very sad. Just think, I could have been a princess.....or a street sweeper.

JT wasn't interested in taking pictures with princesses at all.

But Alex was.

We met Alice and the Mad Hatter - again, I was not about to wait in long lines to meet anyone, so we didn't even bother if there was more than a couple of people waiting.

This was the Nemo submarine adventure. Very cool.

On the boardwalk at California Adventure.

Waiting for the parade to start. We waited for about 30-45 minutes, but it was worth it.

The kids got to dance in the parade. This was too cute!

Waiting in line for the new Toy Story ride. Joe and Alex have their 3D glasses on. This ride is awesome becuase it's very interactive, and because even the little ones can go on it.

This area was A Bug's Life Land

They had a splash area, so we went to cool down.

My kids got SOAKING WET! They loved it:) When we were done, I took each one into the bathroom, made them strip, and wrung out their clothes. I tried to get it all in the toilet, but we left a lot of water on the bathroom floor:)

A must-do photo-op with the mouse himself. He's the only one I'll stand in line for:) Unfortunately we missed Minnie, but that was Cora's choice for a souvenier - a Minnie Mouse doll with interchangable outfits. We told the kids that they could each choose ONE souvenier.

The one character that Cora most wanted to see was Goofy, so I might have actually waited in a line for him, but luckily we didn't have to because we caught him right as he was coming out to make his appearance.

The one thing that Madelyn wanted to do most was ride on the carousel...and then I didn't even get a picture of her on it:b

I can't remember what this ride was called, and this isn't the most flattering picture, but as you can see, we all got very wet. I was also soaked a couple of times on Splash Mountain. Cora and I always seemed to get the seats that got the most water.

Typical scene for the little ones, waiting and napping while Mom and Dad and the big kids got to ride the more exciting rides.

The thing that JT wanted to do most was Star Tours (He also got a "double-blasted" light sabor for his souvenier), so they all went while I stayed with the sleeping little ones. While I waited, I watched people. It's interesting the assortment of people you get at Disneyland. It is interesting that no matter what style of clothes you wear, Disney can accomadate you - whether it's punk, nerdy, heavy rocker, goth, white trash, or whatever - Disney has something for you. Also, at Disneyland it is perfectly okay to adorn your head with things that you otherwise would never be caught dead wearing. And yes, Disney has every kind of head adornment imaginable. So funny to people watch. Anyway, as I was waiting, I saw this woman across from me. I just stared at her forever, and snuck this shot of her - I thought she was so beautiful.

Our obligatory pose in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. Behind the castle is a place called Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. Little girl's can go there and get there hair done, makeup, tiarras, dresses, the works. They have packages ranging from "It costs how much for that?" to "Well, I guess a second mortgage on our house isn't asking too much." Madelyn chose a Little Mermaid outfit for her souvenier - just a semi-cheap outfit, not a "package deal".

Here we are in front of the Indiana Jones ride, a personal favorite for Joe and I. Madelyn was very disappointed that she couldn't go on "Doctor Jones" (yes, that's what she calls it).

Here's Alex doing his impersonation of Doctor Jones - one of the best picture of the vacation:)

After seeing the crowds the night before, we wanted to get good seats for the Fantasmic show at night. We didn't realize at first what that would mean. After a hard day of rides closing, tantrums, and clothes being soaked with pee and coke, we staked out seats at a cafe for the 9:00 showing - we got there at 6:00! (and yes, there were people who were staked out before us). Here we are at the beginning of our wait.

Here we still are as it's getting dark, and after we've filled our tummies.

Below is how Alex spent his time waiting. Salt and Pepper shakers are SO fun! The show was amazing, and worth the wait (some of us thought). The crowds are crazy afterwards, trying to get to the front gates. You really have to be aggressive, especially when pushing a stroller. It reminded me of Black Friday shopping:)

The cones in front of the shuttle bus stop are also a lot of fun when you're waiting. I guess that's a big part of Disneyland - waiting, and finding things to amuse yourself while waiting. Joe and I think that the best time to go to Disneyland is January 10th - that's when we went on our Honeymoon, and there were NO lines!

Here we are waiting for Joe and Cora while they went on Splash Mountain with a switch-pass. We're watching the canoe rides, that we didn't go on.

Here are some more friends we met.

Ohhhhh.

T-I-double Gg-R

And that's all folks....at least, I can't think of anything else right now. We got our souveniers and headed to the airport - but that's for another post:)

Quickie

So we're in Korea, and I'd love to update you all on our trip to Disneyland and our flight here and everything else, but I can't get any of my pictures to upload. I'm wondering if it has to do with our hotel's internet service. If it's the hotel's fault, that's the only complaint that I have about the hotel. It's a VERY nice hotel. Anyway, you're all going to have to wait for a bit to get any good information out of me. I don't want to post anything major until I can include pictures. I think we found an apartment, and we could be in by the end of next week. We found an AMAZING apartment, and jumped right on it.....right after someone else did, who offered more money than we can pay:( So now we're settling for choice number two. Once we're there, I'll try to upload the pictures again. The flight over wasn't two bad. We're all adjusting to the time change. The older two kids are already going to school, and Madelyn is on a waiting list for preschool. Joe is busy in-processing, and he starts school next week. And we are all getting a lot of exercise walking around everywhere. We won't have our car here for a month or two. It reminds me of the time that Laurie and I participated in the base challenge to walk 10,000 steps a day (I think that's how many steps it was) - I'm putting that challenge to shame now. Luckily we came at a really good time of year, because it's just past the really hot and muggy part of summer, and we're having really nice days. I'm always thankful to not be more sweaty than I have to be:)

What We Did

Well, we are in St. George right now, and this is our VERY LAST DAY in Utah. It is sad. This will probably be my last post until we get settled in Korea. We have had a great vacation here. Even though we were here for over 3 weeks, in some ways it just wasn't long enough. I wasn't able to see my friends that I wanted to, which is the worst part about it. I had every intention of seeing all you Utah people, but part of my problem was that I really underestimated how much time I would be spending on finishing up my classes while I was here. I'm so glad I got them done, but it really stole a big chunk of my time. It's not like I didn't have any time, that's just not true, but I just didn't plan my time good enough. So I'm sorry to all of you that I didn't see. I love you anyway, and I will miss you very much.

This post is all about the things that we did while in Utah. Like I said, we had a lot of fun.

First of all we had our family pictures taken.

This is the Petersen Family
This was hilarious because we found these ridiculously huge doughnuts, and guess what they were called? TEXAS DOUGHNUTS! I lived in Texas for five years, and I never saw doughnuts like these. Just in case you were wondering, Joe and I did not eat these by ourselves.

We had a BBQ up AF canyon, and then we set up the tent in my sisters backyard and slept in it with the kids.

We visited "This is the Place, Heritage Park" and "Cove Fort". We learned a lot about how the pioneers lived, and felt very blessed that we live in this day and age with all of our "modern-day" conveniences. We also had a near-death experience when Alex climbed up on a bench and leaned out a second-story window that had no glass or screen - scared the crap out of me.

We had some very red sunsets and sunrises, because of the CA fires. We even had ASH falling on us for a couple of hours. Very weird.

Whenever we drive from American Fork (where Ruth is from) to Manti (where Joe is from), we drive through Fountain Green, and we kiss there. Why? Because we first met at a BYU singles ward social, that was held in Fountain Green because the Bishop's grandmother lived there and had a huge yard. So our tradition is to kiss every time we drive through Fountain Green. Last month (August) marked 11 years since we met, and I thought it would be fun to track down the house where we had met. We didn't know exactly where it was, but the town isn't that big, so we drove around for a little while and we found it! And we kissed in front of it:)

My sister decided to draw chalk lines around all the cousins at my parent's house.

Everyone took a turn playing dead

Some looked more dead than others.

It looked like a massacre when she was done.

We had to stop and visit Grandpa Liddell and take the traditional "Four Joes" picture. You see, Joe's grandpa is named Joseph Thomas, and he goes by Joe. Joe's dad is named Joseph Michael, and he goes by Joe. Joe is named Joseph Matthew - I call him honey, but I think most people call him Joe. And then there's JT, who is named after the first Joe, Joseph Thomas. I didn't want to call him Joe. It's too confusing.

We went to temple square with a bunch of the Liddell cousins.

Then we went out for pizza. 6 adults and 13 kids. It was a little crazy, but we laughed a lot.

We went and took a tour inside the conference center in Salt Lake. Some of us were more enthused than others.

We went up to the resevoir in the mountains above Manti, and my kids tried their darndest to learn how to skip rocks.

We took the kids out on a paddle boat at Palisade lake. Joe worried the whole time that someone would fall in - I almost wished that someone would just so he could be assured that life jackets DO work:) Earlier we went golfing at Palisade with Joe's youngest brother.

We also went swimming and went to the splash park. We went to the temple with my sister for the first time. We discovered a bunch of yummy new places to eat - Our favorite was Paradise bakery and cafe, and if we lived in American Fork we would just be fat. And basically we just tried to stay really busy so we wouldn't think about the fact that we've already left a lot of our friends behind, and we're about to leave the rest of our friends and family behind for a very long time. We are very grateful that we had this time in Utah before our move, and we will be taking a lot of great memories with us.