Back from Korea...

We made it back safe and sound from Korea. It was a long trip…over 36 hours of traveling which included a two and half hour drive to Incheon International Airport, four flights (one to Hawaii, then LAX, then Dallas/FW, and finally Chicago O’Hare), lots of waiting in airports (will the fun never end?) and topped off by a three hour drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s home. It was LONG and VERY PAINFUL! I do not want to do this much travel with young kids by myself again any time soon!! It took a lot out of me. I got so much gray hair from this trip…I’m going to finally break down and color it! It took us all a good week to get over the jet lag which seems pretty good considering the 14 hour time change.

We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving meal at Aunt Tiffany’s and Uncle Jeff’s home with their new baby. She is just the cutest little baby girl I have ever seen! It was good to finally get to meet her and hold her. After Thanksgiving Mark got a nasty cold and then ended up with an ear infection. So, he is on an antibiotic and seems to be doing much better. He did feel the need to share his cold with me, yuck! I’m still not over it and Andrew sounds like he is getting it also.

I have been for my first OB doctor’s visit. Everything went great…I really like the doctor I have now. He was able to find the baby’s heartbeat! I’m still smiling! I’m 12 weeks and my due date is June 28th. I had my first ultrasound this past Wednesday and got to see the baby who was very active…arms and legs going and body wiggling...very cute for an ultrasound picture of him or her. It is way too early to tell the sex yet…just have to wait until the next ultrasound around 20 weeks. So, sometime in February we might know?

Seoraksan National Park

November 10-11, 2008 – We headed off for a short but much needed getaway to Seoraksan National Park. It was a beautiful three and a half hour drive through South Korea. Once we arrived we check into the Mt. Seorak Tourist Hotel. It was a nice clean room at a great price with marvelous views. The fall leaves were still striking in all their colors even this late into the month. After getting settled in it was time to take the cable car ride up to the top of the mountain near by. Mark kept saying we were flying while on the cable car. Once we got to the top we hiked the rest of the way up to the summit of the mountain. It had been raining and we were hiking on rock so it was a very slippery hike. Some of the higher mountains were even a bit snow covered! It was quite a lovely sight. As is typical in Korea, there were some women hiking in heels! CRAZY, from my point of view!!!! The Korean women like to hike in style I guess? The next hike we did was the Two Waterfalls hike. The waterfalls were impressive and the hike was not only gorgeous but peaceful also. By then it was time to eat dinner and head back to our room to watch a movie and go to bed. The next morning after breakfast, we hiked the trail that starts behind the very large Unification Buddha near our hotel. It was another outstanding hike up to a prayer hall inside a cave called Gyejoam. The huge boulders all around had Chinese characters carved into them. By the time we got back, it was nearly 2 pm and time to start the long drive home. We stopped at a rest stop for a late lunch on the way out. Overall, Seoraksan was wonderful to get to spend time in God’s amazing creation together as a family.

Thanksgiving - November 8, 2008

Saturday, November 8th, the Somers family (Owen, Lynnience, Alexander and Zachary) and our family took a full Thanksgiving feast over to Moonja and Jong Gun’s home to teach some 20 of their students about Thanksgiving. It was an enjoyable and educational day! The three older boys did a short presentation on Thanksgiving for the Korean students which I recorded and you can watch on You Tube. The Korean students were all good sports about trying the very different foods. They were not sure what to do with the gravy since they do not have anything like it in their diet. Some tried to put it on the side to dip food in which did not work out so well! I’m sure the food was somewhat bland to them since most of their food is spicy. I don’t think any of the students came back for seconds but the Americans sure did! It was very delicious!

Who's the dummy directing traffic?

Two dummies and two U-Turns! (second dummy was driving and not available for a picture)

Happy Halloween!

Andrew "the Ninja" and Mark "the Pilot" checking out their loot!

Last night in China...October 26, 2008

Eating dinner and the kids showing off there finds from the market on our last night in Beijing, China.

Time to come home...

October 27th (5th day in China) - Mark starting getting sick around 0100 on the day we were to fly back to Korea. We stopped counting after the 6th time he threw up, poor little Mark! After breakfast at the hotel in which Mark threw up all over Joseph, we loaded our baggage on the bus for the trip to Beijing International Airport. We flew on Asiana again on the way back to Incheon. Mark only threw up once on the flight! The bus ride back to Osan AB went smoothly and Mark slept thought most of it. It was an incredible trip to China! Thank you Lord for this magnificent experience!