Korean Folk Village

For Memorial Day we went to the Korean Folk Village! VERY interesting and FUN! Over 240 homes, shops and other attractions in authentically reproduced Joseon-dynasty villages from the various regions of Korea. LOTS of the old buildings are authentic, having been moved to the Folk Village from the countryside. This picture was really taken at the end of the day when Ana was DONE and napping! :) We are sitting on huge kimshi pots at the entrance to the village.

There was a huge kids section full of rides!

At the exit were these swings that Marc and I played on!

This is the "Farmers Music and Dance" performance! It was my favorite of the shows. Ana was fun to watch during it as well...she was JAMMIN. Funny!

This was the "See Saw" performance. Truly amazing!
This was the "tight rope" performance.

This was a staged traditional Korean wedding. Ana had to pee so I missed most of it but Donald thought the part were the bride got put in the cage was the best part! :)

Just hanging around town!

Grannie and Donald got here about a week ago and have adjusted great to the time zone and life! They will be here until 11 June and we have tons planned. This was the first day they were here. We went to the base and Marc did "the base tour".

Grannie's first chopstick experience over here! "Happy Teriyaki" is one of our favorites and it is the least scary! We are breaking her in slowly.Tom and Pooks have decided they like Donald's room and bed the best! They have been there everyday ALL day since he's gotten here! They missed their Papaw too! We took them to the flower market this last Sat. and we all picked flowers to have in our rooms!

This is a market that our apartment complex put on for one day last Sunday. It was great. A "jump jump" for Ana to play in, decent vendors, and a live band that we heard in our apt. until 10pm! That was good and bad. It was good for Donald and Grannie to see...broke them in before we took them to the scary market! :)

Donald, Grannie, and Marc went to the 4/9 Market (aka scary market I blogged earlier) during Ana's nap today. "Very interesting" was the comment from Grannie. But they came home with strawberries and some sort of Korean melon and seemed to have fun. I'm trying to talk Donald and Marc into a 'father/son bonding moment' and have them try the bugs! :)

Step-meda

I don't know the "real name" for these but we finally broke down and bought one. We have "visited" this one for weeks now and finally got "our friend'' to drop the price enough that we bought it. A lot of our friends who have been to Korea come home with one of these and we have always liked them. They do tricks too! They come in three pieces and can be arranged in a couple different ways. There are MANY different styles and it was hard to decide which one we wanted. But we liked this one! The vases on them are called "celadon pottery". I LOVE this pottery. There is a dark green type that I've got my eye on as well! Marc got these for me for Mother's Day.

Chopstick Champ!

Just last night we tried a new place for dinner that our friends had told us about. "Sam Il" is a Bulgogi House and is SOOOO yummy! This will be a favorite while we are here. This little girl all of a sudden picks up the chopsticks and it was like she had been raised with them! Marc was appalled as you can see.

No big deal....just kept eating her beans....

SO PROUD!

Everland AGAIN!

We went up to Everland for the morning this past week. We didn't do many rides this time. There is so much to see and do...we did things we hadn't done yet! Some funny Everland characters. Ana wasn't too sure.
Ana and Joshua being sweet.

We found a type of "splash park". She started pretty tame but it didn't take long before she...

was totally immersed in the water!

SOAKED! Good thing I had a change of clothes! :)

Everland has a ZOO attached to it as well. So we did a quick visit to the new Monkey exhibits. We are hoping to go back over the Memorial Day weekend to finish the zoo!

Insadong Street/Lotus Lantern Festival

We took the bus up to Seoul again this past weekend. We had heard that Insadong was another fun place to shop and experience the culture. AND IT WAS! This Thurs. (24 May) is Buddha's birthday and there was a HUGE festival celebrating him. This is Insadong Street. FULL of shops and vendors. I thought this dude was interesting!

This was part of the parade. You could see right through their clothes!!

Part of the parade.

There were TONS of booths. There was an area of booths of Buddhists from ALL over Asia. These guys were from Sri Lanka.

These are lanterns you could buy. The "Lotus Lantern" symbolizes your inner light.

The colors were amazing!

Then we came across the "craft" booths. I WAS HAVING A BLAST!! Everything is SOOO kid friendly and FREE! This was a booth that had paint brushes and paint on a table and anyone could help themselves and paint this picture!

This is me playing the adult version of "dress up" as I tried on a "Traditional Korean" outfit.

There were performances everywhere. This one was a meditation/yoga deal.

I wanted to make my own lantern and I finally found a booth to do it! Marc and Ana were so patient with me and hung out while I played.

The festival was wonderful. There was a Lantern Parade later that night but we were all tired and needed to get home. I heard the lantern's all lit up was breathtaking!

Happy Mother's Day!

I can't believe that only a year ago we got our sweet little girl! Mother's Day is such a special day for me and I am so grateful and truly blessed that God has chosen me to be Ana's forever mommy! God's plan is SOOO much better than my plan ever was....and whenever I get frustrated with how things are going with my life, she is a constant reminder of how God is in control and how much good always comes out in the end if I just let it all go and trust in Him! Ana and Marc made me brownies today! YUM!

Icheon Pottery Festival FOR "Gotcha Day"!!

Gotcha Day 2007!
Icheon, South Korea

Gotcha Day 2006!

Moscow, Russia

We went to Icheon for their Pottery Festival and it was a blast! There were booths of the most beautiful pottery...this entire town is know for their pottery. There was a "kids" area that had crafts and games. There were statues and artwork everywhere. Family, Food, and FUN!

In the kids section there was this tent set up with 4 potters who helped you create your own vase! We thought this would be a neat souvenir and great GOTCHA DAY gift for Ana to have!

SHE LOVED IT! She kept saying she was playing in the mud!

After you formed your vase you took it to the "design" area where you could put your designs on it. We all participated!

When we finished it I took it to the "finished" area and asked when to come back for it. After some SERIOUS language confusion a nice lady who spoke English came up and told me they will MAIL it to us in two weeks. When I wrote out our address and explained it was at an air base she kept saying she didn't think we had the correct information written down. I assured her it was...who knows if the vase will find us but it not, we've got great pictures and good memories!

Then we went over to the BUBBLES!

SO FUN!

I tell ya, I don't know who had more fun...we were there a LONG time and I finally had to tell both of them it was time to see what else we could find!

This butterfly was beautiful! No that extra kid in the picture isn't ours...just a sweet kid who wanted to play with us! :)

GAS MASKS!

This is the reality of living in South Korea. With North Korea only being 1.5 hours away...this is our precautionary measurements if North Korea decides to do something stupid. I had a "Spouses Orientation" this past Friday and learned A LOT. Mostly how to evacuate the country and what we need to have prepared to do that (at all times) if needed. The bases motto is "Ready to Fight Tonight"...we were taught to be "Ready to FLIGHT Tonight"! Kinda funny in a twisted sort of way!

"Not Quite Right"

The on going theme for Americans in Korea is that things are just "not quite right". I had heard this prior to being here and I didn't get it. I get it now. I am going to try to show/explain this for you all throughout the year. There are SO many examples and I will from time to time post the "not quite right" that I'm talking about. I mean no disrespect, this is just funny stuff to share. The funny thing here is the second sign..."Digital Door Rock"...I'm guessing it should say LOCK! The deal with the "Stamp"...they will make a stamp for you with ANYTHING you want. Most people do their name... it's pretty neat.

Is this the suppose to be the "TEXAS CLUB"?

Where is it made?

Again, I mean no disrespect. I greatly appreciate them trying to use our alphabet because I haven't gotten very far trying to figure out their symbols! It's just "not quite right"! :)