Danpung

This week we took a trip to Seoraksan (Mt. Seorak) to see the danpung (autumn leaves) - it's supposed to be the best place in the country for it, and it did not disappoint. it was so nice to get out of the city and hike around in the beautiful mountains. The day graced us with the perfect fall weatehr - cool, crisp air, and clear blue skies. A Wonderful Day!

Sinheungsa Temple Area. The buddha statue here was amazing - HUGE!:)

Taking a snack break on the side of the trail. There were a lot of other hikers, and they all pointed and ooohed and aaahed over our cute kids.

They were doing some construction on the riverbed, so there wasn't much water flowing. It was still pretty though. They were moving HUGE boulders, and every time they dropped one it would sound like really loud thunder, echoing through the mountains - kind of cool;)

Stacking prayer rocks lined the hiking trails.

Half-way up one trail was a food stand. We bought Gamja Jeon (potatoe pancake with veggies) from this lady. She came over to our table later, reached over Alex, took one of his crackers from his Lunchable (all the kids had lunchboxes in their backpacks), and then walked back to her grill. She didn't ask. She simply said, "this looks good", and helped herself. It was shocking and hilarious.

We ended the day by taking the cable car up the mountain. Great views from up top.

Yes, that is the ocean you see in the picture above. Mt. Seorak is just a few miles from it in the NorthEast corner of South Korea.

While we were in the cable car, an older Korean couple kept shushing our kids, and at one point the man said, "be quiet, baby" to Madelyn. At first I thought they were trying to hear the announcements on the overhead speakers, but then they were talking too. Clearly, they thought that children should be seen and not heard. Joe said, in Korean, that they were rude, but I don't know if they heard him because they didn't respond to that. This was also very shocking, and a first for us here, because Korean people usually dote on children. We are constantly getting compliments on our children, or people trying to talk to our kids and give them things. In fact, while we were at Seoraksan, there were two ladies by us when we were resting, and they just couldn't get enough of Madelyn. They gave her candy, took her picture, and talked to her for about 10 minutes, enraptured by her every word.

We only had one day here, so we didn't get to all the trails that I would have liked to. But we did as much as we could, and our feet were aching by the time we left. This is our last year in Korea, and I've got a list of things I want to do, that I haven't done yet, and this was one of them. Personal goal - NO REGRETS!:)

Busy Bee

I have been incredibly ever-so busy, busy, busy, doing not much of anything at all really.....mostly being lazy. And when you're that lazy, I mean busy, it's hard to keep up with the blog sometimes. Then you get all kinds of backed up with a million random pictures, and.....where to start?

Back in....whenever....I took Alex on a Seoul Searchers adventure to Namsangol Hanok Village. It's always interesting to see people in these villages making things (like the baskets and sandals below) the same way they've been made for thousands of years. I also love seeing all the little preschooler field trips everywhere we go. They are so well behaved, and usually have very little adult supervision. Alex was getting some paparazzi attention, but I think it was mostly due to my friends little boy, who has the most delicious blond curls on his head:) Alex especially loved the spring water holes around the village. A little scary, but he didn't get diarrhea, so what the heck. He also insisted on having a turn with the camera.

Last week the base had a fall festival, which I had no intention of going to, but..... That morning I woke up to discover that I literally had nothing to feed the kids for breakfast. I decided to take them to Burger King on base for breakfast, and stop at the commissary afterwards to do some much-needed grocery shopping. When we got to the commissary, we were stopped from entering the parking lot, and told that it would open until 10:00 because of the parade. It was 20 minutes at the time, and it would have taken me that long (and probably longer) just to go home and come back again, which I didn't want to do. So I decided to let the kids see the parade....and now I'm the best mother ever;) This parade was....well....somewhat lacking. Although there were some highlights, there were no floats, and it was mostly just groups of people walking down the street - groups like the boyscouts, the girlscouts, the tae kwon do class, the ballet class, etc. Yawn. However, there were very few people lining the street to see this parade, and every group of people walking in the parade had exorbitant amounts of candy, which the practically piled at my children's feet. JT exclaimed that it was the best parade he had ever been to! Obviously our criteria for "the best parade ever" is beyond different, but to each their own. My biggest problem with this is that I was not mentally prepared to handle the temptations of so much candy until the end of this month. It's ridiculous.

I've been taking the kids to the school playground a couple of days a week. Although I've seen this (below) often out and about in Korea, I was not expecting to see it on base. Can you see? I apologize, but I HAD to take a picture. Look closer.

11YEARS!!!!! 11 years in the military, and I have never lost my ID card - I've never even misplaced it....until now. In the last month, I lost my ID card, not once, but TWICE. The first time was horribly inconvenient, and took an entire day (one of Joe's days off) to get a new one. The second time was mortifying, and was accompanied with a torrent of tears, and a near-mental break-down, and then a lot of pain in my feet, legs, and back, after hours of walking around trying to find it (and this was after I had jogged for an hour for my exercise that night, which is when I lost it). The silver lining was that it was easy as pie to replace it, because we already knew exactly what to do.

Katie gave me this idea as a long road-trip diversion, but I used it as a FHE activity. My kids thought it was hilarious. Each person takes a turn making a face, which you take a picture of. Then everyone looks at the picture and tries to copy it. Simple, but highly entertaining.

Back in High School we used to have a Sadie Hawkins dance every year. This dance was a girl's choice dance (meaning the girls asked the boys out), and each couple was supposed to wear matching shirts. I loved those dances, although they seem incredibly lame to me as I'm typing about them right now;) Well, here in Korea it's like Sadie Hawkins every day for young couples. If you are out in public with your significant other, it is perfectly acceptable, and maybe even encouraged, to wear matching shirts. I see it all the time, but even more so at places like Everland and Lotte world. Here are some pictures I've caught as proof of this magnificent phenomenon.

My favorite is when they wear ridiculous matching headbands. This guy and his girlfriend (who you can't see in the picture) are wearing huge, sparkly, red bows (like you see on Minnie Mouse).

And perhaps my greatest accomplishment of all - for the first time in about 4 or 5 years, we actually celebrated JT's birthday IN OCTOBER! Thank you, thank you - hold your applause. Yes, his birthday is October 25th, and every year his birthday gets lost in Halloween somewhere, and we don't end up celebrating until November. But this year we were on top of it. We went down to Osan to eat at Chili's (a favorite for my children's birthdays). The place was COMPLETELY decked out for Halloween - it was the best Halloween decor/ambiance I've ever seen at a restaurant, and all the staff were in costumes. Of course, I forgot to take me nice camera with me, so I didn't get any good pictures of it all. Afterwards we went to the BX and JT picked out his present, which was a Harry Potter castle Lego set.

Happy 9th Birthday JT! Here are some 9 things about Joseph Thomas.

He loves 1) swimming, 2) legos, 3) sandwiches with just mayo, lettuce, and tomato - no meat or cheese, 4) Cheese Pizza, 5) video games, 6) science, 7) Everland, 8) watching movies and Doctor Who, 9) and most of all he loves his family.

He doesn't like 1) tuna fish, 2) math, 3) "boring" field trips (not sure how he classifies those), 4) mosquitos, 5) apartments (because there's no backyard), 6) the movie Rio (seriously?), 7) wearing warm clothes (he ALWAYS says he's too hot), 8) metal glasses (we finally got him plastic ones, and he likes those a lot better), 9) and homework.

He wants to 1) always swim in the deep end, even though he's not completely ready for it, 2) start Tae Kwon Do this year, 3) have free game time (as opposed to doing a chore for game time, which is the rule around here), 4) go to Disneyland again, 5) get a remote-control car, 6) go to Lagoon again, 7) help the poor, 8) live in Utah, 9) and be a toy maker when he grows up.

He is 1) self-confident, 2) loving, 3) funny, 4) energetic, 5) happy, 6) picky, 7) emotional, 8) smart, 9) and handsome!

We love you JT!