Nancy and Michael's Visit

Do you remember how last year, as soon as Nancy and Michael left everything got really crazy, and it took me until the end of the month to finally post something about their trip? Yeah, I remember that, too. And things haven't really changed this year, except maybe (if it's possible?) we're even busier. Last year, we moved apartments and flew to Jeju for three days. This year, we're moving countries and Kennedy and I are flying to Japan for three days. Apparently, we don't learn our lessons!

But, I am going to try to get this post done before May 30th, and then it might be quiet again. Except for those weekly posts. I don't think I could ignore those if I tried. (Though I should probably see how I'm doing for this week and get some photos loaded!)

I spent my morning working on getting myself a little more organized. I've felt like I'm kind of at a standstill...can we live without that pan or pot for three weeks? Can I pack a few more books? Do we really need this many clothes for just three weeks? But, once I booked those tickets to Japan and realized that I need to have all of the bigger suitcases in "final pack" mode before I leave, it became clear that we're just going to have to live without that stuff. If I don't get started now, I'll never finish in time!

We still have some big jobs to do, and not a lot of free time in which to do them (some of them complicated by the fact that we no longer have a car), so things are a little tense around here. Emotions are high as we think about all of the changes to come and the people and things we're leaving behind. But, we're doing our best to end well.

This week, we have concerts for both kids, Kennedy's first swim meet, Cade has a field trip, and Eric has the 8th grade gala, as well as the regular stuff like swim lessons and Awana. The kids are really excited about field day on Thursday, too. With any luck, next week won't be quite as busy in the evenings, but it seems unlikely since there are still people we need to schedule final dinners with. We're got to give it our all right now, even though it doesn't always feel like we have much to give.

Our time with Michael and Nancy was really good, though, and it gave us a chance to get some major things checked off of our bucket lists. They arrived really late on Tuesday night after a delayed flight and an "express" train that blew right by Hannam-yok, making their trip much longer.

They hit the ground running on Wednesday, though, with Michael getting up early with Eric to go play basketball at school. He and the kids had school that day, and Kennedy had two tests, so we thought it best that they both just go, in spite of our guests. I took them to school in the late morning, and then they visited the kids and hung out with Eric for a bit before taking the "scenic route" home.

That night, we had big plans to go to the National Museum of Contemporary History for the night view of Gyeongbukgong Palace, so we picked up some Moroccan sandwiches at Casablanca (one of our favorites!) for a quick dinner before our neighbor came down to watch the kids (and by "watch," I mean be in the house with them while they all read or slept!), and then we were off!

I took my time getting the perfect shot (or the best I could do...I wish I could see some of the shots that the real pros up there were getting...at least I looked the part with my tripod and stuff!), so they had time to peruse the museum for a bit before we headed down to the Cheonggyecheon to see the lanterns that were not yet lit. (This is what they look like lit up.) Then, we began the trek to find a taxi and eventually made it home.

On Thursday, the kids were home from school but Eric had to work, so we played lots of cards and had a relaxing morning while Reece got in a 3 1/2 hour nap (because that's what toddlers do when you're all waiting on them to wake up!). Once he woke up, we took the van to school and walked through Itaewon to one of our very favorite restaurants--Petra Palace--for the last time. We had chicken and hummus, lamb and laban, tabbouleh, and of course, naan. The only thing I'm sad we skipped on was the falafel, since there's is delicious, and I probably won't get to go back. Oh boy. Now I'm hungry, and I already ate lunch.

After we stuffed ourselves with Lebanese food, we headed to a store right across the street that has been on Kennedy's bucket list ever since it opened in November. I have no idea what Line Friends is, and I don't care to put in the effort to Google it, but it is extremely popular among Koreans (what isn't?), and it would seem, 3rd grade girls. The store was not stroller-friendly, nor was the line of Koreans waiting to take their picture with an over-sized stuffed bear, so Reece and I hid in a corner while Nancy and Michael escorted the kids around the store. What a thrill it was!

By the time we were done, Eric was done with his meetings and he met us as we meandered through alleys on the way back to school. He put sincere effort into finding a restaurant that he went to years ago with friends but hasn't been able to find again since. The upside for us was walking by one of the touted "best coffee" shops in Seoul for a refreshing iced coffee. It was pretty delicious, but no doubt I won't make it back to Peer Coffee, either, in our limited time remaining.

For dinner, we continued our world food tour with a trip to Busan Galbi (and a return to Itaewon...we got lots of walking in!) for Korean food because no trip to Korea is complete without it! We had both pork and beef galbi, kimchi pancake, and dolsot bibimbap, as well as the many banchan. Probably another last for us as it's not a cheap meal, and we've got money to save (though it is much cheaper now that Reece is a picky eater; he definitely ate more than his fair share the last time we had galbi!).

Well, I still have tons to do this afternoon in order to get us all bathed, fed, and out the door for Cade's concert tonight, so I'd better get to it. Nancy and Michael still had three more long busy days after this, so I'll have to get back to it another time! I'm off to get Cade from the bus!

National Museum...revisited

Oh man. I swear, I just blogged. It might take me awhile to get back to blogging twice a week! I sit down and feel like I have nothing to say. And then, I get to the end and realize I'd better stop writing or I'm going to have to go find more pictures. #bloggerproblems

I'm also struggling a bit with re-structuring my day with Reece only napping once now. I haven't given up entirely yet. I did get him to take a short afternoon nap a couple of days ago, but it's not consistent, and I'm struggling with when and how to get things done now. As soon as I sit down and try to figure out something reliable, he'll change something in the routine, so we're just gonna wing it for a bit longer.

By the third week of winter break, we were on our third round of sickness. Reece was healthy for five days maybe before another nasty cold got him down. There was a lot of snot, a lot of crying, and very little sleep (either at night or during the day).

On one particularly bad day, following one particularly bad night (Reece "sleeping" with me in our bed while Eric "slept" on the couch; I may have gotten about 3 hours of sleep throughout the entire night!), Eric decided to take all of the kids on a drive so that I could take a nap. It was only about 10:00 in the morning and Reece had taken about a 15 minute nap after screaming for nearly 30 minutes. I had no patience left. Reece had a sore throat, and I think his congestion was preventing him from sleeping comfortably laying on his back. A nap in the car turned out to be perfect for him.

And it did wonders for me, too. I slept for nearly 3 hours (the equivalent of my nighttime sleep!) and was showered and dressed when they returned. So, after a quick lunch, we headed out. After all, an afternoon nap for Reece in his crib was out of the question. The stroller was the way to go.

I had been wanting to re-create a picture that I had taken of the kids on our first trip to the National Museum during our winter break of 2011-2012, and it seemed like a good afternoon for it. For some reason, that picture of the two of them looking out over the reflecting pond (top of post) has been one that's stood out in my mind. Of course, my assumption that it would be simple to reproduce four years later, now that my children are older, more mature, and follow directions well, was a little off the mark.

Simple directions like "stand in front of that wall" and "move to the left a little" were too much for two kids who were on a mission to find rocks to try and crack the ice. And then, reminiscent of the first trip, Cade suddenly had to go to the bathroom, Reece woke up cranky, and the moment was over. Nonetheless, it's evident they've grown when looking at the two pictures side by side, right? Okay. That was the goal.

After we explored a little, got a few pictures, and found a geocache outside, we headed inside for a little scavenger hunt. The children's museum was already at capacity for the day, and while Eric tried, the look-at-my-cute-white-kids routine didn't work this time around. We were forced to hang in the adult portion of the museum. However, iPhone scavenger hunts always make the mundane seem a little more exciting.

And then, because I'm that mom, I made them take a few silhouette shots on the stairs outside the museum. I'd been thinking about taking this shot for well over a year, and I'm kind of proud of myself for actually making it happen. They may not be exactly what I was picturing in my mind, but they'll do.

Now, I must finish that laundry, and do some dishes, and maybe clean the house a little, and work on the pantry, and feed Reece lunch, and...oh, we have an exciting afternoon planned! haha!

Ballard and Mt. Rainier

Well, last week was one of those weeks. The kind where you're running around all the time, but you pretty much accomplish nothing? Oh yeah. It's a great source of pride.

We decided that the kids and I will do AWANA this year (I'm still not convinced this was a good idea!), and there was a lot of paperwork and things that had to be done in order to gain base access to participate. My friend and I took about four trips to the security office on base to get our fingerprints done before I was finally successful. What fun.

In addition to all of that, either Eric or I (or both) were gone most evenings last week, so we were really just getting the bare minimum done. The kids did homework. We ate dinner and cleaned up. That was about it! We tried to get out for bike rides, but our evenings feel so short these days.

And, of course, just as soon as we had all of the biking gear we needed and everything was figured out, one of Eric's tires went flat and we were so busy that it was probably about five days before he was able to get it fixed. He finally got it taken care of on Saturday, and we were able to ride 11 miles on Sunday. Biking is definitely our new favorite way to get to Seoul Forest because the line for the parking lot was ridiculous!

This week, we're working on preparing for Lindy's visit. We finally got some of those little things done that had been bothering me like throwing away stuff the old tenants left behind and hanging pictures on the wall. This is a four day school week for the kids before the Chuseok holiday weekend, so we've got the lazy bug in preparation for a few days off. It keeps getting harder to get out of bed in the morning!

It's always my goal to get through the last round of pictures before another one comes along, but it rarely works out. I'm close to finishing up the summer pictures, but no doubt the pictures of Lindy's visit will be delayed (if I actually manage to take any that is!).

After our trip to Skamania, we had a couple of down days to get some more shopping done, and then we began the countdown to our departure date. It was time to start saying those last goodbyes once again. So, we spent one day with my brother in Ballard, visiting the locks, hanging out at the park, and walking through town to find dinner. It was a beautiful day, and a great way to spend some quality time with him before he started his new job and we were headed back to the Land of Morning Calm.

The next day, we got up early and headed up to Mount Rainier for the camping trip with Eric's aunt, uncle, and cousin that we'd been talking about all summer. Unfortunately, we were only able to fit in one night, and we really didn't get much of a chance to check out the beauty that is Rainier because of our time constraints, but it was fun nonetheless.

Reece was more than happy to hang out in the pack'n'play, go for walks in the stroller, and sleep in a tent. In fact, I think it was one of the handful of nights that he slept straight through. The glory of the great outdoors! And the big kids, sleeping by themselves in the new tent that Eric picked up for hiking, slept in past 9:00 the next morning. We actually had to wait for them to wake up to leave because Eric had pretty much packed up everything before they got up!

But right now, as I reminisce over our summer, my youngest is chatting it up in his crib and starting to communicate that he's done in there. So, I'd better break out of the bubble before things get ugly!

Sun Lakes and Skamania

I've got to admit, it's hard to be motivated to update here when there really is nothing to update. We celebrated Eric's birthday with some really good Southern BBQ right here in Seoul, though it required a really long walk and darting through the rain with a stroller and one umbrella shared between the five of us. His friends at school took him out to lunch, and I think everyone he knows baked him something, so I was off the hook, thank goodness. Aside from that, we're just here, living life. I'm thankful for some hum-drum in our lives.

Reece has been napping well and sleeping fairly well at night, considering he's got a tooth poking through on top. He finally starting signing "more" right after I published the post about how he refused to sign. (He'll probably stop sleeping well as soon as I publish this one!) He also likes to show us when he's angry or frustrated by balling up his little fists and shaking them. Such personality that kid has!

I've decided to do Awana with the kids this year. It's nuts, I know. So far, I've been to one informational meeting (which provided very little needed information), spent several days doing insane paperwork to gain base access, spent a week trying to get fingerprints done unsuccessfully, and spent an evening registering kids without every actually registering anyone. It has been kind of a disastrous start. Things can only improve from here. I think.

We've been spending a lot of time riding bikes along the Han now that we finally have all of the needed equipment. Kennedy and Cade had to trade bikes because Cade wasn't able to start and stop by himself on his "new" bike. It took some convincing, but we're grateful they were willing to work with us, as now Cade has to ride a pink bike and Kennedy is riding a green one that's covered in skulls. Don't tell them I told you. Cade has been eating as much as he possibly can in hopes that he'll soon be tall enough to ride his own bike! He probably just needs about an inch.

After waiting around for Reece to nap on Sunday (oh, did I say he was napping well? well, not always...), we decided that he would fall asleep faster in the bike trailer than he was in his crib. It had been over an hour of waiting, so we headed out instead, which gave us the freedom to ride as long and far as we wanted without worrying about when his next nap would be or getting home to make dinner. I prepped everything for dinner beforehand, and we were off. We rode nearly to Yeoido Island, almost five miles, before turning around. I was impressed with how well the kids did. Even when Cade crashed and burned because a guy walking wouldn't get out of his way, he still got back on and finished the ride.

I do feel a little guilty that Reece shouldn't technically be in a bike trailer until he's a year old, but I'm comforted by the fact that the bike trails here are in much better shape than the sidewalks. I know that if we haven't yet damaged his neck in a stroller on the sidewalk, then the chances of neck damage in a bike trailer on the path aren't too high. And I'm definitely sticking to the paved trails with it; it's enough of a challenge without crazy sidewalks and pedestrians!

It's a little frustrating knowing that we've put over $300 into this little hobby here in Seoul in the past month, and we're really going to want to continue it during the summer. Which means, we're going to have to invest just as much or more in all of this gear in the States, too. I guess that's just life for us.

The one thing that we did buy in the States last summer for our future in bike riding was a bike rack for the "rig," so the kids were able to bring their bikes to Sun Lakes, among other places. That one picture at the top? That's the one picture that I took while we were at Sun Lakes. Pretty impressive, huh? Of course, I brought the camera all the way over there. I unpacked and put it in a little drawer in the dresser in our room. And that's where it stayed for three days until I packed it back into the car.

We had a great time in Sun Lakes, but with the heat and always hauling around baby stuff and beach stuff and too much stuff in general, the camera was left behind every time. Eric and the kids played miniature golf. Eric and the kids played at the pool. Eric and the kids rented a pedal boat. Eric and the kids played at the beach. Reece napped. I read.

That's not entirely true. Reece got to swim in the pool a little bit (it was freezing cold!), and he floated in the lake, too. The boy really does enjoy the water, but he prefers that it always be at a comfortable temperature--a little more Philippines, a little less Washington. I also rented a paddle board for an hour, and aside from thinking that I was hearing my kids yelling for me, was generally able to relax for awhile.

And since Lindy had joined us on this trip, our child to adult ratio was even, and she definitely took her (un)fair share or hanging back so that Reece could nap. We stayed in one of the new duplexes at the resort, which was big, beautiful, and cool, so Reece took some really good naps while we were there! The big kids got a chance to learn some social lessons, as they played with the neighbor kids on the front lawn. They're used to automatically being included because they're the only white kids around, so having to ask was a little out of their comfort zone, but they did a good job.

After Sun Lakes, we headed down to Lindy's house and settled in there. We were only there for about three days before we took a short trip down to Skamania to visit our friends from Seoul. It was the first time that we had seen friends from Seoul while we were in the States, and it was a little surreal. We've had some people talk about or try to make plans to see us during the summer in Washington, but most of those haven't been people that we usually spend much time with when we're in Seoul, so it didn't make much sense to us that we would spend time with them while in Seattle.

This family is new to Seoul, but both the kids and the adults hit it off right away, and since they live in this amazing place just a couple of hours from where we were staying, it was hard to say no when they suggested we come visit. They actually have a home of their own for the summer, so it's easy for them to have everyone come and visit them. It sounds like their guest rooms are booked pretty much every night of the summer, though! They had friends that had just left before we arrived and family that was coming just after we left. Busy people!

We drove down on Monday morning--not leaving as early as we'd hoped, as always--and arrived about lunch time. After a quick lunch, we headed down to the park in their neighborhood which is sandwiched between a lake and the Columbia River. After an hour or so tubing behind the jet ski on the river, we headed over to the park and watched the kids swim while the adults sat in the shade chatting. A couple of our other friends from Seoul, whose parents live in Portland, joined us for dinner.

In the morning, after a big breakfast, we headed out to hike Beacon Rock. After our hike, we drove out past the Bonneville Dam and then to lunch on the Oregon side of the river. After a late lunch, we headed back to Lindy's through Oregon, stopping at Multnomah Falls on the way. And even though it put us on the road much later than we'd hoped and messed up Reece's nap much more than I would've liked, it was totally worth it. It was beautiful, in spite of the fact that we didn't have time for even the short hike. I think we could visit them every summer for the next years, and still not see all of the beauty there is in that area!

And now, Reece is awake, he's going to be hungry, and I still haven't done many chores, so I'd better get back to the hum-drum!

Jeju Island

Baseball is back in our lives, so I'm taking advantage of the few quiet moments I have since Eric and the kids left and before Reece wakes up from his nap. Not surprisingly, I've been working on this blog post all week and am still far from finishing.

The past week has finally allowed us to fall into some semblance of a routine. Reece has been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks...nope...not gonna say that. It's bound to end once we say it out loud.

Last Friday night, we went out for dinner for our anniversary. It may be the fact that we went minimalist this year; our only plan was to go into Itaewon for dinner at a steakhouse that we'd been hearing about for years, but the evening went off without a hitch. It really isn't even a story worth telling to the world. After four years of "exciting" anniversary dinners, I think we were entitled to one that didn't involve adventure. (Here's one from a couple of years ago, if you're up for reminiscing.)

We'd known that with the prices at this particular restaurant, we didn't want to bring the kids, so we'd been waiting for the right occasion. Apparently, our anniversary was it. We spent almost $200 on dinner, similar to last year, in spite of the fact that we didn't order the $85 bottle of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay (can you believe that?!), but this time we left the restaurant full. And that makes a big difference. It will probably be a long time before we return, but the Butcher's Cut delivered in terms of food and ambiance.

And since I no longer document our everyday happenings (unless you keep up with my Instagram!), these pictures our from our trip to Jeju at the beginning of the summer. We crammed a lot into a short trip, so I'm going to cram a lot into a (short?) blog post.

Eric has known that basically as long as we've been in Korea, I've wanted to visit Jeju Island. Everyone talks about how beautiful it is, and with regular, cheap flights between Seoul and Jeju, it's supposed to be an easy trip. The singles like to take weekend trips down there, and I didn't want to miss out. One of those "Korea bucket list" things.

So, when the middle school decided that the 8th grade would do their Week Without Walls down there and they needed someone to go down and scout it out, he volunteered us. All of us. The weekend after school got out. The weekend before we moved. And then flew to the States. Yup. Good timing.

The upside, of course, was that we didn't have to pay for his flight, we didn't have to pay for our accommodations, we didn't have to pay for transportation (and we had a personal driver!), we got to see a lot of the island, and we didn't have to pay for most of our food. How can you turn down a trip like that?!

So, we went. We did.it.all. In two and a half days. Holy whirlwind. The 8th graders will be down there for five days, and we did it all in half of that time. Granted, it meant we didn't have to do the 10 mile hike with all three kids in 80 degree weather, but we still did a lot. Thankfully, we got to do just about everything for free, too!

There's no way that I could possibly remember now everything we did while we were there. It's a good thing that Eric took good notes, because he had to remember it all! It's a good thing that I took a lot of (iPhone) pictures, because otherwise I wouldn't remember anything that we did!

We had to get up at about 6 am the day we left because the trip to the airport was almost twice as long as our flight. Thankfully, aside from the ticket agent not printing Reece a ticket and the fact that I left my wallet with my Alien Registration Card (needed for all international travel) in our kitchen cabinet (I still don't understand that one...chalk it up to moving), the travel part was uneventful. Does that count as uneventful? I guess in our world it does!

And then we hit the ground running on our arrival! We had the famous (in Korea) Jeju pork for lunch, which was our first experience eating Korean food with Koreans in Korea. They ordered everything for us and taught us a few new things about how to eat our Korean meal. The pork was really good!

In the afternoon, we checked out Maze Land, but didn't get to do the mazes, Sunrise Peak, but didn't get to do the hike, Jeju horses (miniatures), but didn't get to ride them, and finally stopped for McDonalds before crawling into bed at 10pm. A long day for all of us! (Oh, and they did actually get to ride the go-karts that we went to check out!)

The next day we were up early-ish for breakfast at the hotel and then into the van for more driving. We visited a senior center and an orphanage. We went to a tangerine picking farm (where we watch pig sliding!), Eric and the kids rode on a submarine, we checked out the haenyeo, and we visited one of Asia's biggest Buddhist temples.

We made it back to the hotel a little earlier this time, but we still had to eat with our tour guides as Eric worked with them to nail down the schedule for their trip this fall. We ended up having our late evening decompression in the bathroom while the kids fell asleep in the room. There's nothing like traveling with kids!

And the next morning, we were off on our return trip to Seoul to finish up the last minute packing. I think it's safe to say that we're all a little jealous that he gets to go back and spend a week actually doing all of the things that we just saw. But, would I want to go back with 85 8th graders? I don't know.