Hiking Buraksan

Hiking is a very serious activity here in Korea. It is a very hilly and mountainous country and the Koreans spend a lot of time outdoors. We have a nice hiking trail only about 5 minutes from base so we decided to try it on a beautiful fall day.

I wasn't sure how it was going to go over with the kids. To be honest I thought there was a good possibility they would whine the whole time. Well I was wrong! They had a great time! Partly because of all the cool exercise equipment along the trail.

Like I said Koreans take this very seriously. As if walking uphill isn't enough exercise they have tons of other ways to get your heart pumping and your muscles burning along the trail.

It was a nice little hike that took us about an hour and the kids can't wait till we can do it again.

Adult Fun!

Ryan and I are definitely enjoying our time here. On October 1st we went to the Air Force Ball and had a wonderful time with the Squadron and our friends.

It was at an amazing hotel in Seoul and they did a great job with the venue. It was the best Air Force Ball I have ever been to.


Here are my Hawaii sisters! We all went to the commanders course in Hawaii together and will be here together for these 2 years. So thankful to have them in my life!

Then a couple weeks later I hosted a Retro Cocktail Party. It was the most fun I have ever had planning a party.

Here is the drink menu for the night

The drink of the night was the side car. And I even enlisted Ryan to be the bartender for me. What a great guy!!!

That is my Mom's apron and my Great Grandmother's glass!

Lots of people came dressed for the occasion. Very fun!

First Day of School

Another year, another new school! For Alayna this is the 4th school in 4 years! Poor girl!

Both kids were pretty excited for their first days. Calvin started the 2nd grade the end of August

and Alayna started Kindergarten after Labor Day.

Everland

Everland is Korea's version of Disney World. It is NOT Disney, or even close, but it is a ton of fun for the kids. We went ahead and bought season passes so we can go whenever we want.

One of the kids favorite things is this Nerf Ball area where they have tons of different 'shooters' where you can shoot out the nerf balls.

But the big story of the day was that Calvin was just tall enough to ride his first real roller coaster! It's called the Rolling X. It has two upside-down loops! Here Calvin will tell you all about it!

As you can see he LOVED it!

And what day at an amusement park is complete without ice cream?

Exercise Exercise Exercise

Since we are in fact in South Korea only about an hour away from North Korea, the military has 'exercises' quite often. They work long hours and spend a lot of time in their Chem gear. It is no fun for them at all. We experienced our first exercise in September shortly after school began. Here is Ryan coming home from day 1.

And the kids were very interested in all his gear and took turns trying it all on!


Since all the military members of the families were going to be working long hours the spouses and children decided to do a kid friendly progressive dinner. It was a ton of fun for all of us.


We all live in 2 towers on base. Here we are treking up the hill from one to the other.

At the last house we put on a movie for the kids while we got to enjoy a quick glass of wine before heading home to get the kids in bed.

It was a school night after all!

Alayna's Birthday

My little princess turned 6 this year!

She loves being in the kitchen with me, so she really wanted to help bake her cake.

We decided to not do a big party since we had just arrived and she didn't have a ton of friends yet. So we decided to have her best friend Elaina Paige over and go for pedicures

and then have a sleepover.

She picked to have lunch at Popeye's because she loves their Mac'n'Cheese and then chose frozen pizza for dinner. I offered to cook all kinds of things, but that is what she wanted. And the princess gets, what the princess requests.

She had a great birthday and lots of wonderful presents.

But I will say that what I said earlier about sleepovers still holds true......not a lot of sleeping!

Hello Korea!

Guess what? We actually have left the base a few times! Imagine that?! We have tried Korean food. It's just ok in my opinion, but some people love it.

Every Squadron on base has a Korean Honorary Commander and several Good Neighbors assigned to their squadron. We have been out to dinner a few times with ours.


Koreans like to drink. They like to drink a lot. And they like you to drink with them. Their drink of choice here is called Soju and you drink it as a shot often with a beer chaser. I am NOT a Soju fan and always elect to be the DD on these evenings out so I can avoid drinking without offending them.

Right off base is a little village set up for all the military members to shop and drink and spend money. Here are the kids on one of our visits to the "ville" as they call it here.


Aren't they cute??!!