He's 6!! Thanksgiving and a few randoms

We celebrated Aiden's 6th birthday Friday-Sunday. It was the least we could do since we didn't have a party...my Mommy guilt about this is sure to really kick in next year and I'm sure we will have an obnoxiously big birthday party to makeup for the year we missed :)! On Friday we drove 1 1/2 hours to Tiger World...an in door water park and ski slope...only to find out that it had been shut down for the week for repairs!!! Many, many tears later (our poor little guy...we felt HORRIBLE...more Mommy guilt!) we decided to go to Everland and try Tiger World again closer to Christmas. I told him to look at it as a 2 for 1 deal. Here is a pic of what was waiting for us though in the parking lot at Tiger World. We have no idea why it was there or what it means, but as I'm sure you can imagine it was good for a laugh!

Only in Korea! Santa was at Everland! If you're wondering...he is Korean. Aiden told me it's because Koreaners (his word...we're working on Koreans) have a Santa just like Americans have a Santa!

Christmas World at Everland....they do a BEAUTIFUL job with Christmas decorations!

On Sunday morning we woke up and celebrated Aiden's birthday. It was fun for him. He wanted me to put transformers in his cake with blue icing...his wish was my command! His PopP asked him if could drive yet and he said "That's in 10 more years." I don't even know how he knows that...he is growing up WAY too fast!

Aiden with his presents the morning of his actual birthday.

Showing off his Darth Vader watch from Jack
Aiden with his cake...he also wanted a #6 and not 6 individual candles.

Now we're going to back pedal a bit to Thanksgiving. This is Aiden's class Thanksgiving feast. They did a program for us and then we ate. Aiden was an Indian and was VERY proud of his costume he made!

He's in the back row second from the right.

This is Aiden's "I'm Thankful for" He wrote which you can't see because he wrote in pencil "I'm Thankful for Mi Dad" (spelled just like that) and drew a picture of himself and Dad in his "Air Force hat". I started crying...it was the sweetest thing and as you can tell from Patrick's smile he was pretty proud, too!
This is how we celebrated Thanksgiving. All of the pilots and their families cooked for the 300 maintenance guys and their families. It was very fun and rewarding. Most of the guys are single or are here without their families, so they haven't had a home cooked meal in a while. The pilots served all the food and took care of the prep and clean up. It was a neat experience. Certainly made us thankful that though we are far away from "home" at least our family is together!

After the feast a game of flag football ensued...Pilots vs. Maintainers...the Maintainers won...of course...they were on average 10 years younger and 6 inches taller (and thinner!) than the pilots and I am proud to report not a single bone was broken, sprained or pulled! Patrick is 2nd from the right in all black w/ a grey t-shirt underneath his jersey...looks like he's offsides to me!

After the feast and football we decided to take the kid's to Planet 51 at the base theater. Some friends met us and we had the place to ourselves. This was at the end of the movie...all the boys were on stage doing air guitar!

Here go the few randoms since it's been a while since I posted...easier than doing a bunch of little ones!

The Balettie's came and slept at our house about 2 weeks ago and we got snow....don't know if you can see it, but I think it shows up pretty good on Christa's jacket.

Aiden riding the pig at Patrick's squadron...the A-10's nickname is the Warthog. Aiden thinks he is awesome...the thing over the pig's shoulders is bullets! MeMe and Aunt Carolyn when y'all come out that guy's got y'alls names written all over him :)
Boy was Laina excited when she found this...FINALLY...a PINK helmet! The normal green does not go well with her hair!

We went to the base Christmas tree lighting last night. This is Aiden and his friend Cody waiting for Santa...he came in on a fire truck!

The tree...it's a little more Charlie Brown, than Rockefeller Center, but the kid's had fun and that's all that matters!

These are pics of our old houses bathrooms that Gramma has been patiently waiting for! Notice there are 2 shower heads...1 outside the tub and 1 in. That's because our bathtub was a traditional Korean soaking tub and they don't use there tubs to take a bath, just to soak, so they shower off outside the tub before they would get in. There are drains in the floors.

This was our only bathtub in the house...crazy, huh?!
This was 1 of our 2 other bathrooms. Do you notice there is no tub. Just a shower head and a drain in the floor. The other bathroom was just like this one. Can you see why we couldn't wait to get out of there!

MeMe's Last Few Days

First off as I'm writing this President Obama just flew in...the flight line is our view!! We're all moved into the new house. We really like it. I'll post pics soon!

Well, as I'm sure you can imagine we were all VERY sad to see MeMe go. We had such a good time with her here and, of course, she was a HUGE help! Poor Reese tried to get in the car with her when she left...kind of hurt our feelings, but we're moving on :) I think Patrick said it best when he said "It feels like a member of our family left ." Enough about us being sad though...we'll see her again in 11 months...who's counting?! We did lots with MeMe during her last week...

This is the 4/9 market. It's in our town and it's on everyday that has a 4 or a 9 in it. It was fun to see...mostly food from the local farmers here, but there was also clothing and purses, etc.
This was a booth filled with all kind of kimchi's...NOT our taste, but interesting!
This is a bad pic because I had to sneak it when the guy went around the corner....it's a rug store...oriental rugs and Persian rugs. My Mom got four...a couple from Afghanistan and I can't remember the other 2. It was really neat to see and listen to him explain it. They are a pretty good deal, too...way better than US prices!
Here we are at the Flower Market. It was AMAZING! It was 3 huge warehouses just filled with flowers and they were a GREAT deal! I got 2 dozen roses and 6 sunflowers for less than $8!! We'll be going back there a lot!
Here's Mom and Laina in front of the poinsettia's...I can't wait to decorate for Christmas!

Laina and I in front of some orchids...we are now the proud owners of 1...we'll see how green my thumb is! She really liked these blue roses!
I just thought this was a pretty picture!
This is how they sell the flowers...it's really neat!

More flower stalls.
It was a good day at the flower market!
Mom and I went and got pedicures at "Dr. Fish". It's very popular in Asia and everyone told us we had to do it. You stick your feet in this pool full of fish and they feed on the skin on your feet. I did not enjoy it that much. I thought it tickled and was kind of gross in general. Mom was a much better sport than me. You're supposed to leave your feet in for 15 min. I lasted 3-4 and Mom about 7.
Mom was laughing at me because I kept making these faces.

We decided to take the kid's the next day. Aiden got into it. Laina...not so much!

Here's Aiden with the fishies munching on his feet!
MeMe finally got E to dip her toe in the water. When she was done she said "So, the fish are doctors?" Out of the mouths of babes, huh?!
I keep saying things just get lost in translation! This was on the main road in Itaewon...the shopping center right outside of Yongsan, the Army post in Seoul.
Us in front of the Itaewon arches.
We met up with the Balettie's again and this is all our babies hanging out! Mom and I in front of Seoul Tower in Itaewon. We had an early birthday party for Aiden, so he could open presents with MeMe...he chose a football cake...pretty cool, huh?!
MeMe with her sweet grand babies!
With his cool Star Wars toys from MeMe!
Elaina ate lunch leaning on MeMe like this...it was really sweet!

The last supper...we went to an AWESOME Brazilian Steakhouse called Fogo.
This is the kitchen...if you look in the last pic you'll see our table was right next to it. He just stands there grilling...he was dripping sweat...we felt sorry for him.
They make dessert in the middle of the restaurant...it's the Korean version of Banana's Foster. They call it Banana Cream and it was DELICIOUS! The Smiley's have a new Friday night tradition!

My Sweet Aiden

Since this is somewhat a family scrapbook I wanted to write this down, so I wouldn't forget it. Aiden will forever be our "sweet" baby. Not saying that Ms. Laina Paige isn't sweet, but trust us...she's got nothing on her big brother. Anyway....I woke up not feeling so hot today and decided I would go the doctor since my Mom is still here (sniff, sniff, sniff...she leaves tomorrow:( we're all so sad. Aiden asked her if PopP could just move to Korea!) Again, anyway....I got home from the doc with a we're not sure...just rest and take tylenol and advil. Aiden went and got the chicken noodle soup out of the makeshift pantry and said "Here, Mom, you can have my soup. I'll make it for you. Chicken soup always makes me feel better. " I said " Thanks, buddy. That's so sweet, but Mommy can't eat chicken noodle soup." He said "No, Mommy. Look right here. It says gluten free for gluten free Momma's"! My heart melted. Then, I said I was going to lay down for a little while and take a nap and he said "I'll come with you Momma, you need someone to snuggle you to get better." Truly...does it get any better than moments like that?! I SO love that little guy!

Everland, Kojeun and Dongdaemun Market

I know, I know...it's been 10 days since our last blog. We've been busy!!! Which is good for a blog posting! Last week Mom and I took the kid's to Korea's version of Disney World. It's called Everland. It was fun, but definitely NOT Disney World! They have the "It's a Small World" ride just like Disney, but it smells awful because they have to do so much to treat the water. They also have a haunted mansion ride, which is not at all haunted. You get a little gun and shoot at green dots all over the wall...that's it...I guess they just wanted to copy the name. However, the kid's had a blast and we got season passes because the kid's want to keep on going back!

The kid's and I with Everland's version of Minnie Mouse...I can't pronounce her name...notice all of the Christmas stuff. They have it all set up and it's really pretty and fun to see over here, since a lot of Koreans don't celebrate Christmas!

Mom and I with the kid's in front of the Everland stage.

Aiden going on a ride all by himself for the first time!!

We went to a really cool antique furniture store called Kojeun Antique. (We bought a new entertainment center or at least that's what we are going to turn it into. It's an antique and was definitely not designed for a flat screen tv) They put your kid's up on this Chinese Princess' bed with a bunch of toys. The kid's thought it was so neat and keep asking to go back! I still can't believe they let them play on it. It was like 250 years old! We also went to Dongdaemun marketplace and it's the arts and crafts market. It is truly a designers dream. They had stalls with millions of buttons, different beads, broaches, sequined patches, bow making things, ribbon, you name it and you could find it. It was really amazing! This picture is of one of the bead stalls. We had to sneak it. They did not want pictures taken of there stalls!

This is us in front of a doughnut stand outside of Dongdaemun. Imagine every one's surprise! Koreans are not typically big sweet eaters. Dad and the kid's tried them....they said they did not compare to a good Meche's (Lafayette place) or Krispy Kreme doughnut, but a fun treat!
This was the BEST surprise we've gotten in a while! We were coming out of the subway station and who do we see coming down the stairs??? The Balletie's...they were our best friends in Tucson. It was definitely a God moment...we randomly ran into each other in a subway station in a city of 20 million people?! We've stayed in touch through the years and are SO happy to be stationed close to them again. The last time we saw them I was 3 months pregnant with Aiden. That's why we love the Air Force...you never know who you're going to run into and where!
The whole gang at dinner that night at a restaurant they took us to called Olive & Vino....GREAT Italian food.