Cade's 6th Birthday

Let me just give you some insight as to how this blogging thing goes lately...
Day 1: I turn on the computer. That's as far as I get.
Day 2: I turn on the computer. That's it.
Day 3: I turn on the computer and open Lightroom.
Day 4: I turn on the computer and put my memory card in. A few hours later I remember I'm supposed to be uploading pictures. Upload pictures.
Day 5: I turn on the computer.
Day 6: I turn on the computer and open Lightroom...I think you get the idea, and I'm wasting valuable time. It obviously takes me awhile to actually manage to sit long enough to edit pictures and write a blog post!

This was the year for Cade's birthday. Cade's 2nd birthday party was the last big party we threw before we left for Korea, and that was the last time that he had his own birthday party. At the time, we didn't know that it would be our last big party or that we would be moving in less than six months, and we remember it often.

Our first year here, we piggy-backed on a party with three other boys with birthdays in February to celebrate Cade. Heis still the only male staff kid in his class, so we've struggled with who we would invite if he were to have a party.

Last year, in preschool, the school was not very supportive of connecting parents or students outside of school, so we struggled with how to make those connections, and as a result, Cade didn't have a birthday party.

This year, Cade was excited to finally have a birthday party! I brought cupcakes to his class on Friday. I let the kids pick out cake mixes for their classroom cupcakes during the summer. Apparently, I was so thrown off by the fact that he had chosen blue cupcakes that I neglected to read the package. It clearly stated that it only made 12 cupcakes, and Cade has 15 kids in his class. So, these kids lucked out and got some small blue cupcakes stacked with chocolate frosting!

His birthday was on a Saturday, and we were able to celebrate at school on Friday afternoon, so after cupcakes at school, I rounded up three excited Kindergarten boys! Cade had decided that rather than having all of his classmates over to celebrate that he just wanted to have a two or three, so that he could have a sleepover. He was very careful about who he chose, too. When talking about the boys in his class, he kept saying things like, "oh, he's too crazy. he can't be around a baby." This kid!

Eventually, he decided on two, and we sent out the invites well in advance to ensure that they would be available. As it turns out, Kindergarten boys are not quite ready for a sleepover. One of the boys was willing to try it out, ensuring that we could call his mom if he needed to go home early, but the other (or maybe his mom?) wasn't up for it. Either way, we decided that rather than making anyone feel uncomfortable, we'd just have the boys picked up late--around 9:00--so it was the Kinder version of a sleepover, complete with movie and popcorn.

As it turned out, one of the boys would no longer be attending YISS after that day, and so he had the entire class over to his house the day before for a "play date." Eric and Kennedy took him over there after school, and the play date ran really late into the evening. They left around 7:30 (which I thought was really late!), and the kids hadn't even had dinner. This is one of the culture clashes between Koreans and Americans. Most Americans see value in sleep and early bedtimes for their young children, but Koreans don't really have this same value. So, I'm sure there were many kids at the play date for another hour or two, making our 9:00 end time not really seem that late in the scheme of things (it wasn't even a school night!). Oh well.

Eric took the boys home in a taxi while I took Kennedy and Reece home, since we couldn't fit all of us in our little car. Eric had a few Lego games in mind, but one of the boys wasn't really up for any games. He wasn't much of a negotiator, either. It's always interesting to have other people's kids in your house. It didn't take me long to switch from "fun, party mom" to "teacher mom" with this kid!

After they had built the new little sets that we'd gotten for the goody bags, they each made their own pizzas (per Cade's request!). It was clear that one of the boys had never made his own pizza. He struggled a bit with his crust to sauce ratio and ended up with a heavy, soggy pizza, but he ate it anyway.

After dinner and a little more Lego building, it was time for our classic birthday "cake"--brownies and ice cream. Then, Cade got to open his presents and soon they were settled down to watch The Lego Movie, complete with buttered stovetop popcorn. Eric and I were exhausted when 9:00 finally rolled around and dads arrived to pick up the boys!

On Saturday, Cade continued celebrating by opening his gifts on Facetime with family, seeing the school musical Mulan, Jr., and having dinner at his favorite Thai restaurant. It was a great weekend celebrating our 6 year old!

This weekend, we have already had another challenging birthday party excursion (remember this one?). We actually managed to make it there without too much trouble, though we were 20 minutes late and I did make a major traffic violation right in front of two police officers (picture the biggest city intersection you've ever seen and our little Kia driving right through it in the moment that traffic in all directions appeared to be stopped--actually you probably shouldn't picture it!). On the way back, Siri neglected to realize that even in the most remote spot in Seoul, you can be driving down the road with a highway on top of you and another road below you, so she kept telling us to turn onto roads that we could not access. Just when I was starting to think that we were never going to get home because we'd returned to the same intersection for the third time, we ended up in a place that I recognized, and we were able to get home!

Tonight, we're headed to the fancy dinner that one of our student's parents host every year. She's a senior this year, so this is the last year for it. The last couple of years, they have been inviting children, but Eric and I have enjoyed the evening out without them. This year, we'd arranged a babysitter, but unfortunately doctors discovered this week that his mom has a brain tumor(!), so he won't be able to babysit for us, obviously (they successfully removed the tumor, but they can use our prayers). We're going to attend as a family of five this year, so that should be interesting.

My original plan was to get all of my Christmas pictures posted this week, so that I could have those done before the next big round of pictures. This time next week, we will be packed and preparing to jet off to the Philippines early (early!) Sunday morning. I'm so excited for some warm weather and beach time, especially since it's only four hours away and a one hour time difference! Who needs daylight savings time when you can just travel to another country? (And Reece will have been in more countries in his first six months of life than Eric had been to in his first 20 years! #expatlife)

Lindy's Visit

So, this year we had this genius idea to stick around Korea a bit longer after school got out. We knew there would be things to do to prepare for my transition into stay-at-home mom next year, and we knew that we didn't want to do the rush that we did last year--leaving for the airport just moments after we were allowed to leave the country. But, the past 10 days have drug on and on. Sure, I did have a lot to do, and no, I wasn't getting anything accomplished quickly, but 10 days was too long. Even if I have read an entire book (that in no way related to school) for the first time in a year. 

Oh well. We've now experimented with leaving about four days after we got out of school (felt too late at the time), leaving on the last day of school (felt way too rushed), and leaving 10 days after school got out (felt like about a month!). Who knows what we'll do next year?

We are staying an extra 10 days later in the summer, since I don't have to go back to school in the fall. It has always been important to me to back in time to recoup from jet lag and spend some time working to prepare for the year before we're actually required to be back. Eric isn't as concerned about it, and since we still arrive about 10 days before the kids start school, we should be able to adjust by the time we need to.

To say we're excited is a bit of an understatement. Even today, the last day before we leave, has taken for-e-ver! We ended up eating dinner at 5:00 and then watching a movie before bed just because the afternoon went on and on. We're packed with suitcases loaded in the car and can't wait until 11:00 tomorrow morning to finally get the dreaded travel underway!

Eric's mom came to visit us at the beginning of May. The timing worked out well for her to visit Evan and our new nephew (who we finally get to meet in a week!) in Hawaii and then spend a few days with us before heading back to Seattle. We had a holiday weekend with Thursday off, then worked Friday, but had Monday off, as well. Cade had both Friday and Tuesday off from school, too, so we really needed the help!

On her first day, we had a mini swim lesson for Cade. One of the swim teachers at our school offered a class for pre-swimmers to introduce them to some of the concepts in preparation for swim lessons, and Cade needed it! He loves the bath, but isn't a huge fan of the pool. He's perfectly content to sit on the edge and watch the others play, so we wanted to take advantage of this for him. Kennedy got to show her grandma that she can now swim the entire length of the pool--pretty impressive!

After his swim lesson, we had our staff picnic at school. We had BBQ from the base, followed by the annual softball game. The weather was perfect for it, though I wasn't feeling great.

The next day Eric, Kennedy, and I had to go to school, but Cade's school was closed, so Lindy and Cade walked to school and had lunch with Eric in the afternoon.

There were a couple of tourist-y things that we had in mind to do, but it was a holiday weekend in Korea. A big one, obviously, with all of the days off we had. So, we knew that no matter what we did or when, it was going to busy!

Nonetheless, we decided to head out of town on Saturday to visit the Garden of Morning Calm again. Remember our last trip there? The one that we took in December, but I didn't post about until after this trip in May? Whoops!

Lindy had been to Korea twice before, but it was during our spring break both times--not a particularly nice time to visit. It's still chilly and brown at the end of March. Since she was coming so much later in the year this time, we really wanted to show her how nice Korea can be! So, we headed out of town to see the flowers.

It was strange seeing what the garden looked like in the daylight without all of the lights; I think most people would do it the other way around, but we tend to do things backwards. And I'll admit that I am tempted to see it in every season, though I don't think it will happen.

The first time we drove there it took us about two hours because we had the wrong address. This time it took us about eight hours because of the traffic! It was stop and go from about the time we left our house until we reached the garden. Insanity! We passed the time by listening to old Raffi songs from YouTube.

We had packed some sandwiches and snacks in case we couldn't find anything the kids wanted to eat when we arrived, but we made it through those and were still starving by the time we reached the garden. So, we stopped at the first stand we saw and picked up french fry-covered hot dogs on a stick (picture a corn dog, but replace the corn breading with french fries).

The garden was beautiful, and I think we all decided it was worth it (it had to be at that point, though!). Thankfully, our drive home only took about an hour.

Monday was Children's Day, and it's one of those days when any place remotely child-friendly is packed, so Eric and the kids took Lindy on an adventure to find a Japanese prison while I stayed home and worked. He didn't take any pictures, but it sounded as if it was an interesting trip.

Tuesday, Eric and I were back to work, but Cade had the day off again, and we let Kennedy stay home, too. They got to spend some quality time with grandma before she left that afternoon.

I worked hard to get to these before we leave tomorrow. I think you're caught up on the picture-worthy events of our spring, especially since I don't find as many events picture-worthy at this point. When I get around to it, I'll be able to focus just on pictures from this summer. June and July will be pretty quiet as we spend time with our family in Washington, but after this spring, that shouldn't be too out-of-the-ordinary!

The Garden of Morning Calm and other adventures

I've got Senioritis. It's official. And we still have three more weeks of school. So much to do before the year ends! In order to finish grading everything on time, I have to grade 7 articles per day, in addition to some of the regular grading--quizzes and such that inevitably come along. My goal was to get a few extra done on Saturday, so that I could relax a bit on Mother's Day, but it didn't happen. At least I met my quota. I'm keeping up.

Here it is May, and I'm finally posting the last day of my brother's trip. That either means that we had a great time and everything was picture worthy, or it means that I've been a really slow (bad) blogger. I think it's a combination of both.

And I announced that I'm pregnant, but I haven't given an update on that at all. I do plan to do that, too! Obviously, the first trimester was a tough one--the biggest reason why things were so quiet here, but thankfully it's over and the second trimester is living up to its reputation.

On the last day that we had off before Travis left, we decided to pack in a lot--probably too much--live and learn, right?

We started with a trip to iPark Mall. I was determined to finally pick up the tripod that I had been shopping for the past year. My brother is much too supportive of these things! Eric was not thrilled with the purchase and even less thrilled that I didn't buy the cheapest one available. He's still figuring out how much it has cost me per picture that I take using it.

After we picked out the tripod, we headed for some lunch. After some debate, we agreed on a Japanese restaurant. The kids had pork cutlet while the adults had stir fries and sushi. Sushi here always looks a bit different. For one reason or another, Koreans tend to serve it with a mayonnaise sauce on top. Yuck. Nonetheless, it works for me, and it's better than kimbap!

After lunch, we headed outside to the ice skating rink. Cade had been a bit bothered that he didn't get to go skating with us when we took Kennedy, so we had to take him. It was good for Kennedy to get some more practice again so soon, and Cade stuck it out for as long as he could, but I wouldn't say he loved it.

He had more success outside the rink...until he got a bloody nose, of course. Then it was time for us all to be done! Eric opted out of skating, so he took the pictures instead.

We still had big plans for afternoon and evening!

Last fall, our friends went to the Garden of Morning Calm and had great things to say about it. I'm not sure how, but I discovered that in the winter, the Garden is covered in lights and is quite the attraction after dark. So, we hopped in the car and headed out of town.

I think the drive is supposed to take about an hour--maybe an hour and a half. But, of course, we got lost. And ended up in the middle of nowhere on snowy roads. At one point, we finally stopped and Eric discovered that I hadn't used the correct address for our destination. I'd gotten the address from the tourism website, rather than the website for the Garden itself. Before long, we were on the right track again.

We finally made it--well after dark, which isn't exactly what I had planned, since it was the night before we went back to school. And we'd made it, but somehow we'd lost hats and gloves in the process and it was frigid, so the first stop was the gift shop.

Trav picked up hats, gloves, and hand warmers while Eric got tickets and we were off into the winter wonderland. It was a bit overwhelming at first, and being a novice with the tripod, I didn't have a lot of confidence pulling it out and getting in everyone's way like the hundreds of Koreans around me, but I did it, and was even somewhat successful.

We really didn't spend too much time traipsing around the gardens, considering how long the drive was, but it was worth it (to me), anyway. Before long, we felt that we'd seen all of the lights and it was time to hit the road. We had to get up early the next day. So, we headed back to the car, hoping to find some dinner as we drove back to the highway.

As it turned out, most of the restaurants were already closed by that time on a wintery Sunday evening. We ended up stopping at the first 7-11 we found on the road, hoping that they might have something real to eat and praying that if we fed the kids early in the ride, they would fall asleep before too long on the road. Neither plan worked out perfectly. We ended up getting something into our stomachs--Pringles, popcorn and Ritz crackers, as I recall--and the kids eventually fell asleep, but not quite the ending I had hoped for!

We actually took Lindy here last week, so eventually I'll get around to posting some pictures of what it looks like during the daylight hours in the spring, but it was another adventure, I can promise you!

Happy Mother's Day! I hope that you all have a wonderful day with your families! We had a nice, relaxing day, and I felt very loved and appreciated by my family today. Now, I'm ready for bed!

Seoraksan

(Written last Monday, but forgot to post! Old news is better than no news, right?)

This has been a tough week to be on the Korean peninsula, in spite of the fact that we're sheltered from local news. There's no way that we can miss the grief that everyone here is feeling, as a result of the deaths of so many people on the Sewol ferry to Jeju Island. Nearly every business we walk by has the coverage on, and we can't ignore the tears in their eyes as they watch it. So many young lives lost. We're praying that the suicide of the vice principal doesn't lead to a string of suicides relating to the disaster.

It's been an interesting week in other ways for me, as well. My classes were testing all week, so I didn't really have (get) to do any teaching. We also had a couple of department days--long days of meetings to plan for next year--so I didn't even see my classes for two days. The week ended on Thursday, since we observe Good Friday (another reason to love teaching in a Christian school!), so it was a pretty easy week in that regard.

This week was also exciting because even after having our soccer game cancelled on Wednesday because of pollution (that's a first for me!), the girls were still able to win our game on Thursday against one of our toughest opponents to clinch the first place slot. This is the first time in school history that the girls soccer team has held first place, and we're pretty excited! We only have one more game this week, and then the end-of-season tournament is next Friday and Saturday. This will be a busy week, but it's the last one!

Now, if only my students hadn't been turning in work this week! This three day weekend is consumed by emails with thesis statements awaiting approval, grading resumes and cover letters, and grading quizzes. All of that on top of all of our other activities.

On Friday, Eric took the kids to the park to have a picnic with friends while I got some grading done and then went to the doctor. Then, I met them at the park for another hour or so. The weather was beautiful, and the kids were happy to be at a different park and playing with friends.

On Saturday, Eric took Kennedy to his baseball game while I took Cade to soccer and swimming. Our high school swim teacher is offering a few weekend classes for Pre-K kids to get introduced to some swimming basics.

We really hadn't done anything for Kennedy before she began swimming lessons in Kindergarten, and she was fine, but Cade is a different kid. He has a healthy fear of water (where she doesn't), and just basics like putting his head in the water are things he needs an introduction to. I'm not sure that swimming lessons will be a good investment until we can get him over this fear.

Kennedy, on the other hand, is doing great in swim. Even though she took 3rd quarter off, she picked it right back up in 4th quarter, and she can now swim the entire length of our school's regulation size pool both on her front and her back. I was so impressed when I happened to be in the swim office last week and saw her little pink swim cap swimming in the deep end.

Anyway, Sunday, of course, was Easter. Eric and I were pretty lame this year. We don't tend to do a whole lot for Easter--not really baskets or anything big--but we have always had some little eggs to hide until this year. Costco sells big chocolate eggs, but Eric has been going with the kids since I started soccer, and that's not really the type of thing he thinks to pick up.

So, after being exhausted Saturday night and not preparing anything, he got up early on Sunday and hid the Hershey Kisses that Lindy sent for Valentine's Day. I don't think the kids were super impressed, but I think they're willing to take chocolate in any form. We didn't really have plans for the day aside from that.

After Skyping with Eric's mom in the morning, we headed to church. There, one of the families from our school invited us over for Easter lunch. They had been asking us to come over and begging to take the kids for a few hours for the last couple of months, and we just hadn't made it happen, so this was a good opportunity.

They took the kids home from church with them, and Eric and I had a coffee date for a couple of hours, which was nice. We ended up having a delicious lunch, complete with ham, macaroni and cheese, and some really good salads.

After lunch, their middle and high school-aged daughters hid real plastic eggs full of jelly beans outside for the kids to find. They had the best time! (And that was when they let us know how lame our Hershey Kiss hunt had been!) They were even more excited to get to take the eggs and baskets home for next year.

Have I mentioned how grateful we are for good friends here? We don't spend a lot of time with this particular family--their kids are our students--but they're very supportive, kind, and generous, and I've appreciated the time we've spent with them. Unfortunately, they're another family that's leaving at the end of this year.

I can't think of a smooth transition into these pictures, but I will say that it was in the 70s today. Kennedy and I were outside in sleeveless dresses for the egg hunt today, and I'm so grateful for the absence of snow and jackets!

Our second day in Seorak was spent in the snow. We spent the morning sledding on a little hill not far from our condo. They charged us a ridiculous amount for this little hill and sleds, but the kids had a lot of fun. The only downside was the hike back up the hill after the ride down, but such is life.

After sledding, we headed into Sokcho for lunch. After our adventures in eating the previous day, we ready for something a little more reliable--and a little more filling. So, we headed to Pizza Hut. I will admit that after having Pizza Hut about twice in my entire life in the States, I'm embarrassed by how often we have it here. It's probably the best pizza I've had in Korea, though.

It was important that we get some sustenance because our afternoon plans were to finally make it Seoraksan National Park--the whole point of this long drive. Eric went to a bachelor party last spring where they went hiking at Seoraksan, and he had been wanting to get back ever since.

To be honest, I'd been dying to go, as well, but I wanted to go in the fall when the leaves have turned and the foliage is beautiful. He promised me this year, but I don't think it's going to happen. Nonetheless, we went hiking on Seoraksan. In the snow.

Of course, hiking with kids (and hiking in Korea) isn't too vigorous, but we had a nice walk, and it wasn't too bitterly cold.

They got into several snowball fights, and I had a good time capturing the winter scenes. After a few hours, we were done. We still had a three-four hour drive home.

We hit the road without having eaten any dinner because no one was too hungry when we left. We picked up some snacks to sustain us for a bit, and we were on our way.

An hour or two into our trip, we needed gas and food, so we stopped at what turned out to be a pretty lame (by Korean standards) rest area. We got our gas, and then we headed in to try to find something to eat. There weren't many options, and what we ended up with was pretty hilarious. A microwaved hamburger. Bibimbap. Rice. Microwaved mandu. Yum.

But, it was food in our stomachs, and if I'm honest, that was not the worst road dinner we had while Travis was here!

As I said at the beginning, I actually wrote this post last weekend. Much has happened since then, but I just don't have the time to trash such a long post right now. Better late than never, right?

If things go as planned, I'll get some recent pictures uploaded and edited and get a post up this week.

Soccer is finally over, and I've started to make a dent in my grading, so I have high hopes!

And now, I've got to get some more grading done!