178/365

 Today was my birthday, and it was pretty great. First, Dan brought home breakfast after pt, so I didn't have to cook anything, and then the kids and I went for a walk. In the afternoon, my friend, Grace, surprised me with a cake and then we went out to lunch. So sweet. Love her. This evening, Dan came home early with a few little presents and made us dinner. It was so nice not to have to cook at all today. After dinner, we went downtown and decorated a cake for my birthday, which we promptly ate as soon as we got home. I feel so loved and so spoiled. Jeanette came over tonight and gave me some symphony bars and beautiful bookmark, and I was so surprised and so happy! I haven't had a symphony in over a year cause you can't find them here, and they're my favorite! Such a great day.

177/365

Stay little forever, please. 

176/365

Sometimes, getting your exposure wrong, turns out so right!

175/365

chinchilla!

174/365

at lunch today. those silly kids.

173/365

check out that getup.

172/365

this is Emmett's new thing. Weirdo.

171/365

I love getting cuddles. 

170/365

Today I was really, really sick, so here's a picture from a few days ago. 

169/365

I was going to take evie to see how to train your dragon 2 in the movie theater, but that didn't pan out. Luckily, she had fun watching a movie at home with max and popcorn. 

168/365

 

Bowling! Max and Evie are BFF

167/365

soccer player

166/365

he always wants to eat with a spoon, even though he has no idea how to use one.

165/365

that's a good day

164/365

he loves milk

163/365

I mean, seriously. 

162/365

Little monkey 

161/365

Not sure if you can see it well in this picture, but this is the donghwasa temple and an enormous Buddha. It was gorgeous. 

160/365

I accidentally cut mom out of this picture. Oops. Sorry, mom. These are some of the Korean traditional dresses we saw while at Seomun Market today. I can't remember now what they're called, but they're gorgeous. Mom and I spent a good 3 hours at the market today shopping and eating delicious food. I think we ended up with some pretty cool things, including a new camera/diaper bag for me, for my birthday. Thanks mom!

Tonight we got a babysitter and took mom to eat beef and leaf. I think it's her new favorite now. So delicious. Seomun

159/365

Today we did something we've never done before. We went to a different city to see some sights! Gyeongju is about an hour and a half from Daegu, and it was so worth it! What a gorgeous place to visit. It used to be the capital for the Silla Dynasty in like the 8th century, so it has a rich cultural history. All of the buildings have to have traditional, tiled roofs, and there is so much land and greenery everywhere. Coming from Daegu, it was quite an amazing sight! Here, we are completely surrounded by people and buildings, but in Gyeongju there is a lot of room to breathe. It was lovely. We explored the lake, the Wanji Pond, the palace, and the five tombs. We also walked through a traditional folk village, and that was really neat. You got to see what an actual village would have looked like way back in the day. For more information on Gyeongju and all the history and sights, go here.

158/365

This is technically a picture from yesterday's excursions, but I forgot to take any pictures today. Today we went grocery shopping, finally, and then mom, evie, and I went out to the honors school to look around. Mom really wanted to see a Korean school while she's here and I'm thinking about enrolling evie, so it was a win win. 

157/365

 

We walked up Apsan Mountain today and saw the Buddhist temple.  I think mom liked it a lot and we had a blast.

156/365

Happy Sunday!

155/365

 Well, today was an interesting day. We decided to go to Busan for the sand sculpture festival with our friends Schy and Ivan. So, we went to the train station and got our tickets and rode the train to Busan. That was actually a really fun time because Evie LOVES trains, and the ride was pretty short, only like 40 min. When we got to Busan, we had to take a taxi to Haundai Beach, and that was just the most miserable experience. Our stroller was in the front seat, so all five of us were crammed in the backseat of the taxi. Emmett was incredibly tired and cranky, and he just cried and fussed almost the whole time. When he finally did fall asleep, he only slept for maybe 20 minutes because then we had to get out. But the taxi ride wasn't excruciating just because of Emmett being unhappy. Oh no. It took us almost an hour and half to get to the beach because of traffic. So, imagine 5 people in the back of a taxi for 90 minutes in stop and go traffic, and that's why we were miserable. Once we finally did make it to the beach, we got to see some amazing sand sculptures and Evie got to play in the sand and water. Emmett was pretty unimpressed with all of it, so mom and I just walked up and down the boardwalk with him while Evie, Dan, Ivan, Schy, and Edin played in the sand.

After we were done with the beach, it was time to head home, and we were determined not to take a taxi again. So we found the subway, found a nice guy who helped us navigate it, and spent about 90 minutes on the subway to the train station instead. It felt infinitely shorter, however, because we were all spread out and you could actually move your limbs. Plus is was so much cheaper. Once we made it to the Busan train station, the boys went to go buy our tickets home, only to discover that the only tickets available were for a train that left in 10 minutes. So, we booked it through the station and down the escalator to make our train on time. In case you need a visual,  We had a sit n stand stroller, Schy and Ivan had a jogging stroller, and we each had two bags. So this caravan of Americans were running like mad men through the train station, leaving chaos in their wake, and I'm sure the Koreans were not pleased. Sorry, Korea. But, we made our train! Unfortunately, Dan couldn't find anywhere to store the stroller while on the train, so he had to stand with it in between cars the whole ride.

The cherry on top was Emmett having a blow out, disgusting, runny, poopy diaper on the taxi ride home. Thanks for that, buddy. It made it impossible to hold him or do much of anything. Ah, parenthood.

The traveling may have been a bit miserable, but we got to spend the whole day with schy, Ivan, and edin, so it was still a lot of fun. We like them a whole lot. 

this is how he felt about the water and sand

154/365

 Today was a lot of fun. This morning, my mom and I took the kids to the play group on post and then had lunch with some great ladies. Cheese and honey pizza, yum. Don't knock it till you've tried it. After Dan got home from work, we went to Suesong lake and walked around. Evie had so much fun looking at everything, plus she got cotton candy and ice cream. It was a beautiful day to be outside, too, so we all had a great time.

 Practicing my silhouettes and sunbursts.

153/365

bubbles!

her new thing now is that she wants a tail, so Emmett's tie is perfect.

bubbles!!

I thought this face was hilarious. Obviously he wasn't actually disgusted, but it's an awesome picture.

Today we went to the Donga Department Store so the kids could play at their play area. Koreans do this right, for reals. It was an entire floor of fun things for the kids to do, including a giant inflated white balloon to bounce on, but by far their favorite was the ball pit. They were in heaven.

152/365

We went to 83 tower today and it was so fun! We ate lunch on the roof and watched all the gondolas go up and down, plus the food was delicious. They had a whole floor full of paintings that you can put yourself in and we all had a blast. Dan and I will have to go back on a date sometime and go in the gondolas and all the way to the top of the tower. Fun!

151/365

We had kind of a relaxing day today. We stayed home and played, worked on the quiet books, and went on a little walk. This evening we ended up at the park so the kids could burn some energy, and for lunch we went to this Philly cheesesteak place I like, but other than that we stayed home. It was nice.

big shoes to fill

experimenting with different angles. Up above.

150/365

We decided to make quiet books today. Sundays are always so hard because the kids are so wiggly at church, so mom decided that we should make quiet books to help them stay quiet. And we had a lot of fun! We only got a few things accomplished, but so far I think it looks great. Mom tried bulgogi for dinner and loved it. Yay! 

At the park earlier