Valentine's Day, Wild West Night and ELMO!!

Things have been pretty slow around here. It's been really cold and it doesn't make us want to get out and do much. We get a warm day here and there, but for the most part it's just really cold. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel though...2 weeks from today we are headed for a 2 week vacation to SUNNY Thailand! We can't wait...I'm sure there will be lots to blog about!

Valentine's Day came and went without too much fanfare. Aiden had a party at school and we had friend's over for dinner. Aiden asked a Colesie, a friend from school and our neighbor's from Pope's daughter, to be his Valentine. It was really cute (after I got past the whole he's my baby boy thing). He asked her while she was at our house and here's how it went...
Aiden: Colesie, will you be my Valentine?
Colesie: I have a boyfriend in Texas, Aiden.
Aiden: Well, will you be my Valentine?
Colesie: Okay.

Colesie showing off the Valentine that Aiden made her.
A & E at A's school party...I couldn't get that little girl to get out of the picture...I have 3 with her!
Aiden made me (aka his REAL valentine) ;) a flower!

The next night the Officer's Spouse's Club put on Wild West Night. It's there big fundraiser. We did pretty well, too. It was a lot of fun. They had it set up like a casino with a live and silent auctions and lots of raffles....I even won a really cute plant stand and 2 ugly Korean figurines which I think might make cute bookends one day.

Smiley's and the Ferguson's (of course) at WWN!

We went to the O'Club to watch the Superbowl....it's on at 8am on Monday morning here. The guy's get the day off to watch it!

Kim and I cheering on the Saints!!

Then to Elaina's GREAT joy Elmo came to town!!! They came and did a show through the USO. She was over the moon. She got to shake all the characters hands. It was so much fun to watch it through her eyes. She never stopped dancing. At one point all the characters were trying to make each other feel better (it's based on Dad being deployed) and all the characters were hugging, but Zoe wasn't getting a hug. So, Zoe said "Hey, I need a hug." and before I knew it Elaina was running as fast as she could shouting "I'll give you a hug!" It was the cutest thing...I'm sorry to report that she didn't get the hug, but she got a handshake a little later.

Waiting on Elmo to start...she NEVER stopped smiling!
Got to give Zoe a handshake...how cool!

Dancing along with the gang!

At the end of the show...sad to leave!

Now here are just a few randoms I think are fun.

Elaina with her favorite girls over here, Chloe and Kristana, they are Noelle's girl's. We go swimming after school every Thurs and they were putting on a 'show' in the water!

Us in our party suits...mine has new patches!

Patrick's patches, that you can't see real well, are all of the places he's flown in combat (Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan). My little patch is the LA state flag because that's my home state, my proud to be an American patch and my just for fun Butter's babe patch (Patrick's call sign is Butters)!

My Korea patch, We like 'em Big and Slow patch (get your mind out of the gutter...I'm talking about the plane!) and my Smiley face because I had to have a Smiley face! Patrick's other side is his proud to be an American patch and he's supposed to have a home state flag, but he doesn't feel like he has a home state, so he left his blank. Next time we wear them I'll take a picture of our "backsides" because there's more!

MLK day skiing, Geoyongbuk Palace

It's been a while and we've been pretty busy. For MLK day we went skiing with a group from Aiden's Taekwon-do class. It was fun. We put Aiden and Elaina in lessons and they both did pretty good. Aiden skied the whole day and Elaina had about had it after 1 hour, but then the last hour she "got it"! We couldn't get her to stop. She would just point her ski's straight and go! Skiing in Korea is not ideal. We were hoping it would be really slow, but the slopes were SO busy. You had to wait in line forever and the skiing was not good. It only took about 2 minutes to go down the mountain. There is supposed to be some pretty good skiing about 4 hours from here, so maybe next year we'll try it out!

The kiddo's ready for skiing lessons! There goes Aiden!

Go Elaina Go!!

The fam on the slopes at Jisan Mountain!
The whole group

This is Aiden's whole Taekwon do group with Master Moon (who Aiden is with) and that's Grand Master Moon in the center. He is the one who taught Chuck Norris!!

We took a "warmer" (read highs in the low 40's) to go to Geoyongbuk Palace. It's where the King and Queen used to live. It's in the center of Seoul. Today the Presidents house is up behind it. It was really interesting to learn about. I think we'll try going back in the Spring and hopefully the flowers will be blooming!

The "soldiers" in front of the Palace

Trying to get the whole front of the Palace. Those two specs in the middle are A and E

Kiddo's and I in front of a giant drum...no idea what it was used for!This is where the parties were. I told Patrick I wouldn't be upset if he could find a way for them to open it back up for my 30th!!

They also had all of the Chinese calendar characters (Koreans follow this as well). Elaina is the year of the dog...Aiden was jealous and told us he wanted to be year of the dog!

Aiden is year of the ram.

I'm year of the monkey.

Dad's year of the horse!

I just thought this was a neat pic of the Korean hanbok tops (traditional Korean dress) The kid's playing a game the kid's at the Palace used to play.

These are just for fun...we've just discovered that Elaina is shockingly flexible!!! Wish we could get her into gymnastics!

The Splits!

Folding herself in half! Impressive, huh?!

God is a girl

So, we were driving home from Seoul today and Aiden asked the question "Where did God come from?" Patrick and I were doing our best to explain it to a 6 year old and all was going really well. Then he said "God is a boy, right?" We had just started to say that "Yes, God is a boy" when the peanut gallery decided she would pipe up and put Aiden in his place and very forcefully informed him that "No, Aiden! God is a girl!" We just love our babies...they certainly keep up laughing.

The Party Suits!

So, there is a tradition in Korea in fighter squadrons to have 'party suits' made. I have one and Patrick has one. They are fun! I, of course, had to be different and had shorts made (instead of the normal dress). I also just got some new patches made for mine, but have no photo's as of yet, so standby for the new and improved party suit!!

Some of the girls showing off our party suits. They are 'Dragon Green'...the squadron here is the Dragons! A lot of people like to get wigs...they're too itchy for me!
Noelle and I

Me in my suit and Patrick in his party shirt. (Next time he wears it I will get a pic of the back...it has Elvis on it...we have no idea why!)

Some of the girls at the O' Club

Cutie Patootie and me in his party suit

Pretty cool, huh?! Notice how big the collar is...it's called the 'Elvis' collar...again no idea why all the Elvis stuff. We need to find out!

I'm going to throw in two more "fun stuff" pics.

Also, here's another Aiden story:

Dad: "Aiden do you want to play soccer?

Aiden: "Yes, Dad. But, is going to be college or professional?

I guess he is aiming high, huh?!

Also, we just found this out and we think it's pretty cool...Aiden's Taekwon-do instructor and his Dad teach together and his Dad trained Chuck Norris!! Isn't that crazy?! We told Aiden he owes us because we got him the best of the best!;)

Our little man got his first Taekwon do medal for earning 20 stickers...no easy feat and a HUGE accomplishment...if you couldn't tell by his giant smile!
In my opinion the single greatest thing about Korea...the tailors!! We have each had a cashmere coat made and Patrick has had 3 shirts made and they are now working on his first suit....and the prices are SOOOOO good! It's fun! Once the suit is finished I'll be sure to post some pictures!

New Year's, Everland, Girl's Trip to Seoul

Here's a few pics from our recent activities. My girlfriend, Noelle, and I threw a small New Year's Eve party at her house. I did the cookin' and she did the hostessing. It was fun!

The hostesses with the mosteses!
Most of our New Year's gang...that's Patrick's head way in the back!

Noelle and I also went on a girl's trip up to Seoul. Our goal was to find the Forever 21(western shopping with American sizes. You have no idea how much we miss that!) and to find the midnight market. It's a market that literally does not get going until midnight! We found it and were TOTALLY unimpressed. All we thought when we were done was "we could have been sleeping!"

Noelle and me in front of a really cool and very western feeling shopping area called Myeong-dong
This is a Korean department store (ie there Dillard's). It's tons of stalls all piled on top of each other. Interesting, but really hard to shop in. It was pretty overwhelming.
I did find this! Too funny, huh?!
Victory!! We found Forever 21 and stocked up!!

Our last adventure before the kid's went back to school was to Everland. They have there sledding hills set up and we thought it would be fun.

The kiddo's in front of the entrance. It's the year of the tiger in Korea and it only comes around every 60 years. You can go on a 'safari' in Everland and the bears do tricks. It's neat to see the animals that close, but you also feel a little sorry for them.
We made it to the sledding hill...that's Elaina and Dad right in the middle.

The kiddo's and I. We were trying to show you what a beautiful and clear day it was. We don't get many clear days in Korea...too much smog! The fam in the 'fairy garden'. All of these flowers are fake. A giant flower made of real cactus's!

We thought Christmas break was over, but Aiden got a great surprise! We got about 8" of snow and Christmas break got extended by 2 days! Seoul got more snow than they have had in 70 years!!

Elaina, Chloe and Aiden. We took them sledding on the base. Doesn't the snow make everything look so pretty?!

My Wii is okay!

So, one day Aiden will be totally mad at me for this post, but I just think it's too funny not to share!
The other night the kid's were playing with that foaming bath soap that you can get at Bath & Body Works in the tub. Aiden accidentally got some you know where and as you can imagine it hurt pretty bad. So, Patrick told him just to sit in the tub and it will eventually wash out. About 30 seconds goes by and Patrick says "Aiden how is your wee-wee?" Aiden looks at him totally confused and in all seriousness (between tears) goes "No, Dad. My Wii is okay. My pee pee got hurt." Patrick and I fell on the floor laughing. Out of the mouths of babes, huh?!