Three Little Kings: The Beavers' Visit

My sister and her family came to visit us over Thanksgiving. We had a great time and think we were successful hosting more than 2 people at a time. Check it out:

Just before they arrived. Korea was being all pretty. This is our front yard.

Grant was still on crutches during their visit.

They made it! My nephew Reid was not thrilled with his selfie on the train trip from the airport.

He didn't stay mad long.

It's kinda mean to travel this far & then ride the subway for an hour.

Starting the week off with a bang- Brady & Bekah at the DMZ. The blue buildings & 4 soldiers you can see are South Korea's. The white building is North Korea's & if you zoom in, you can see a NK solider at the top of those steps. That's a US soldier's arm you can see just above Bek's head.

Kids aren't allowed on the tour, so we kept the kids here in Seoul & headed out to rent a wheelchair for G so he wouldn't slow us down. I love the gingko trees in the fall!

Lena found a leave nearly as big as her!

They made it back from the DMZ, we got our wheelchair, and we headed out for dinner.

Myeongdong! One of my favorite places in the city.

Yummy street food - shrimp,

tornado potatoes,

fried ice cream,

& bulgogi to name a few.

Bekah was a fan. She and I have come a looong way since our picky child days!

The moment Hayden had been waiting for. The Cat Café. There are several themed cafes here & I promised him we could go with Aunt Bekah. Brent & Grant are allergic and I didn't want to go alone, so we saved it for a special occasion. This picture shows all the residents & their names.

Meet Kiki.

And Grace.

"Hey, want to go on a date tonight and drink coffee with cats?", not said by Brent ever.

So you have to pay an admission & that includes a drink. The whole time I was enjoying my drink, it just kept expecting to find a hair in my mouth. I wonder why?!

Seriously, I felt like we had to watch our backs. They could walk above us. What if they decided to dive bomb?! Oh! And the most absurd why-are-we-paying-to-do-this part was that we had to place our belongings in a plastic bag because the cats might spray them!

The kids, however, were unphased by the weirdness. They loved it!

Like many places in Korea, no outside shoes so we all rocked the communal slippers.

There are no words. And I don't want to know his name.

Glad they don't serve food.

Ok, enough cat café. I could write a whole post on it. And I think I have the dog café in my very near future (for Colter). I think the 2 of us laughed the entire time we were in there! This pic was just icing on the cake of ridiculousness. Reid had fallen asleep on Brady, so the boys conveniently bailed on the "experience".

Bryce was a good helper. All the kids wanted to push G around.

Rebekah (the beach lover) wanted to see the ocean. It's not too pretty on the west coast so we headed east early the next morning in our 11 passenger rental van. We drove through Pyeongchang where the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held.

We stopped at the rest stop. Olympic themed and very high-tech. The screen shows which stalls are occupied and vacant.

Three rows plus the guys in the front.

We got out at the beach near the Sun Cruise Hotel. It's built atop a cliff as if it ship wrecked there.

Then we headed up the coast a bit to ride the rail bikes.

Me & my partner.

Ocean view.

Here's another bike. Brady's legs hit the bar.

And the third bike.

After viewing the ocean & pedaling through a few tunnels, we stopped at a little break station. Annyeonghaseyo Beavers family!

Next up was this gem. For fear of offending someone with an absolute overload of penis statues, monuments and figures, I'll only post this picture. Taking 7 boys and 3 girls (2 moms that have seen it all & a poor 10 year old) there were no puns, jokes or giggles. None whatsoever. See what Wikipedia has to say is the reason behind the ode to the pee pee:

A tragic legend known as the "Legend of Auebawi and Haesindang" shrouds the statues of the park. According to the legend, a woman was once left by her man on a rock in the sea while he worked, the man was later unable to retrieve her because of a storm, and the woman drowned. After that, the village people were not able to catch fish. Some said that it was because of the dead woman. One day a fisherman peed into the water and afterwards he was able to catch fish, so it was thought that exposing the deceased virgin to male genitalia pleased her. To soothe her spirit further, the local village people made several phallic wooden carvings and held religious ceremonies on her behalf. After a while, the fish slowly returned and the villagers were able to live comfortably again. The place where the woman died was named Aebawi Rock and the building where the religious ceremony is held twice a year was named Haesindang. The ceremony is still honored today as a traditional folk event.

Brent swears he picked this stop for the view.

He was right. The view was worth it.

Bekah, admiring the ocean.

After we explored the park, we hiked down to the water.

I found more sea glass for my collection.

And my little rock climbers were happy.

Then we rushed over to Hwanseongul Cave for a tour before it closed.

On our ride back down the monorail, Brady made Reid give up his seat for this older woman to which she insisted that he sit on her lap. He's so cute.

The next day Bekah and I went to the orphanage while Brady took their kids bowling. We went shopping on Itaewon after the boys got home from school. Lena got a trendy cat ears headband.