spring break, take 2

the "secret garden" was just beginning to wake up for the spring but was still pretty (even with pre/teenagers in it),

& we walked our little & big legs off (training for when natalie gets here?). lunch was in a hole in the wall. biggest & middlest will eat anything these days, littlest was pigging out on kimbap, don't know what 1 got, i got eggs in my ramyuns. bah. i really need to get over this food-a-phobia. i know, i know. i've tried. whatevs.

next we went back to namsan tower. we've been there a lot. that's ok-still cool. we didn't go up this time-just hung out around the base. took the cable car up & back (thanks 1 for not torturing us with that dang mountain again) & got some nice pics. ate some ice cream & just sat for a bit before taking the cable car back down.

so happy to be on family vacation.













he may be-i can't tell.













all but 1













we really do comb this child's hair. everyday.

cables from the cable car. the pics from inside the car of the scenery outside didn't turn out so well. i won't subject you to them.

since i'm already here...spring break! v.1

we decided to take a mini-vacation & head to seoul for a few days. would have enjoyed a more exotic/adventurous locale but as we are a little unsure of our (ok, 1's) employment status in a few months, figured we should stay close to home & well within a miniaturized budget in case we need to get the heck out of dodge anytime soon. so off to seoul we went.

we tried to be adventurous & left the truck home. 1 always gets way too pissed off having to drive to seoul & i'm too much of a chicken to do it so we took the subway all the way up, all the way around & then all the way back. not too shabby but for the lack of seating (maybe next time we'll reserve a seat on the "real" train) & that one time on the way home when the train stopped & everyone got off. more on that later.

we left on wednesday afternoon & got there wednesday early evening.

and we took stellan with us to let his family know that we are praying for him in south korea.

view from the window-"backyard" of the hotel













pretty flowers on the way to the hotel













cherry blossoms! love them!

middlest was in desperate need of some haircare & the salon up there beats out here & osan's by a mile. 2 hours later (and after much griping on middlest's part about how long it was taking), we emerged with straight, washed, trimmed, pretty hair. spent the evening hanging around the hotel. had some dinner & went on up to the room. biggest & middlest has their own room (what was that i said about a budget?) & were loving that. 1 & i put littlest to bed & went downstairs for some grown up time. the waitress sucked. that was the highlight. yippee.

thursday morning i had a massage appointment. still not an american style massage but getting closer. what is the korean obsession with massaging in group & with the lights on? i think that is one thing i will never get used to! after that and some breakfast, we went exploring. first we went here:

it was neat. but we decided that if you've seen one palace, you've seen them all (1 has seen more
than one. i trust his judgement).

the architecture was beautiful,




























































and apparently blogger really dislikes me. and won't let me upload anymore pics. it may be that it dislikes my fancy camera & its huge images but whatever. it's messing with me-has been since last night. so spring break will be continued in the next post.

random

let's see. where to start?

around here we've been:

1-potty training. this is very exciting for us-maybe not so much for you. check the other blog if you want details. i'll get them up there soon. i think.

2-starting baseball/softball. biggest had his first game this past weekend & his first ever in the park homerun. that was pretty cool. middlest has her first game this coming weekend. all her games are in yongsan. that's not pretty cool. traffic in korea sucks. i don't have much else to say about that at the moment.

3-really starting to lose our interest in school. spring break just left (oh, yeah, i meant to post about that...) & summer is right around the corner. we're still pushing through it though-in hopes that we can finish out the year on a good note. exploring new curriculums for next year. no clue what we are going to do. this ought to be interesting.

4-seeing a break in the weather. whoo hoo! it has begun to warm up & littlest & i take the dog out every day (except for today since it was apparently monsooning a few months early). she loves to walk him but has had a few nose-dives as a result of him getting a little too excited & her feet not moving fast enough to keep up. poor baby. skinned elbows & knees. haven't lost any teeth yet-something to be thankful for!

5-my natalie is coming! my natalie is coming! my sister has purchased her plane ticket & is headed to the land of the morning calm. err...will be headed...in a few months. i have a feeling that i may see more of korea in a week than i have seen in 1 1/2 years. she is planning & scheming & reading & interneting & hanguling & i don't know what other PARTICIPLES i can come up with. ha. so far on the list...hiking at a park, DMZ trip, maybe the (omg so frickin dusty i can't believe i'm contemplating going there again) korean folk village, a korean vegetarian restaurant (if we can find it...snort), many rides on the trains/subways and i really don't know what else. i don't think i'm brave enough to drive to incheon to pick her up. i may take the subway up & then the bus back. which also means i have to keep her awake on the bus. ahem. i have trouble staying awake on the bus. this ought to be interesting. but we're excited to see her & show her this place that we have temporarily adopted as home. i hope my legs can take it. and, oh yes, she is contemplating NCN. cause she's read that that is what the koreans do. and she wants to do what the koreans do. so we might do that. i'm psyched.

(i forgot what number i was on so i had to scroll back up...i think i have ADD or something)
6-2 festivals over the next 2 weekends. the strawberry festival is this coming weekend. strawberries & a folk village. littlest will be in heaven as strawberries are her favorite. i will, however, be in hell. again with the dusty folk village. this is a different one. maybe it won't be so bad? (yeah, yeah, and i'm gonna have 10 kids before it is over. apparently that question was answered today. ain't happening).

the flower festival is the next weekend. all i know is that it is a flower tour. and biggest & middlest groaned when i told them. these are free tours-with lunch included-offered by the nearest big city in the interests of friendship between us and our host nation. it is a great way to get out & see some things that we may not otherwise know about. we always have a great time on these trips! and maybe i'll actually remember to post some pics & a small summary of what went on. mmmhmmm. we see how that always turns out!