The Howard's Visit

My brother and his family came for a visit during their spring break back in March. First we hosted them, then we had our spring break and travelled to Vietnam, then my sister and her family spent their break with us- back to back to back! That's probably why I'm just now documenting it all. Oh, and we move in less than 2 months. Ahh! No rest for the weary I guess.

They tried sooo hard to wait up for their cousins Thursday night.

Friday morning and we hit the ground running. First, we took the metro to see Uncle Brent at work.

The U.S. Embassy

We toured around Gyeongbokgung Palace.

After the palace, we headed towards Insadong for lunch. First, we stopped at Jogyesa Temple.

They were starting to hang the lanterns up for the spring.

Cuties.

No really. A sweet old man gave them each 5,000 won (@$5) for being cute. 

First meal we had to have Korean. Haley wasn't too fond of the bulgogi.

The rest of the family enjoyed the bulgogi and some bibimbap too. 

Charley perfecting her chopstick skills.

I promised the kids that if they would at least try their lunch, I'd get them some dessert. Poop pastries it is!

Then, a quick run through the poop museum. The stairs made various farting sounds as you walked up them, I think Joy and I cried the whole time!

Still laughing!!!

And it wouldn't be Korea if there wasn't  a place for a few photo ops.

My favorite is the Ben Franklin toilet paper!

At the very end, if you were tall enough, you exited through this crazy slide...

...Joy!!! You just had to be there. 

Next, I took them down the street for fish pedicures. This is all Haley talked about up until this point.

And this was the only 2 seconds she left her feet in the water, I don't think her parents were pleased.

Thomas wasn't too sure either, but he kept his piggies in. Even if it was so high the fish couldn't really touch him.

And Charley...well, if you've ever had the privilege of hearing her giggle, she did just that. She loved it!

Witnessing the riot police in ready formation on our way back to the metro. This was the day that President Park's impeachment ruling was upheld.

Police buses as far as you could see. It was a bit overwhelming to see, but honestly felt like a normal day as the Koreans tend to keep things peaceful.

Charley showing off her cat ears. I buy them for all my nieces since it's not socially acceptable for a 34 year old to wear them.

We got home in time to meet the boys getting of the bus. Thomas must have asked me "where's Grant?" a hundred times that week.

And as soon as we could, we headed back out to Myeongdong for some street food.

Pretty frozen yogurts.

G and Uncle Lucas tasting a tornado potato.

Group pic!

We bought the cotton candy because it was just so cool!

I think they got tired. I feel ya, boys.

Saturday morning we had our last basketball games. I coached both of the teams the boys played on. This picture sums up my experience with my 5-6 year old team pretty good. That's Hayden thinking about shooting and Colter messing with his uniform. 

And my 7-8 year old team. Much better listeners.  

After lunch, we went to the top of Seoul Tower. Charley loves her Uncle Brent. I was kinda jealous.

We watched a cultural dance demonstration.

I make all our visitors pose for a photo here.

Half a dozen cousins.

What a beautiful view. Not. 

Inside the building at the base of the tower are several shops and experiences, including some cool LG screens. Here's Lucas and Joy getting their selfies on.

Haley had seen ladies dressed up around the palace the day before and I told her that those were tourists and the dresses were rentals. We were excited to discover this place where you could rent a hanbok and pose for lots of pictures in their studio.

Korean Hae Lee.

Charley wasn't too sure at first.

Get these girls another $5! Could they be any cuter?! 

Hayden (our aspiring author) said, "Mom! Take a picture of me being a Korean writer!".

This is about all the posing the boys would do.

There were a bunch of models there shooting for something. We snagged them for a picture.

All that stuff was just our first 2 days. I was ready for adult time. Left the kids with our sitter, had some fabulous pizza & then across the street for some makgeolli. 

Cheers!

We had so much fun checking out a few places on Itaewon. I guess I didn't take very many pictures. And it's rare for us to take selfies. But we had to get in on the fun with Lucas & Joy (and nearly every Korean girl in the place)!

We try to not take ourselves too seriously.

P.S.- every time I scroll up to proofread this post, I die laughing. Love you B!

Oh, I lied. The boys did pose for my brother while the girls were getting their hair done. This is one of my favorite pictures in Korea. Colter is too cool. It's a close second to a picture that was taken in this exact location less than 2 weeks later. Stay tuned for that one!

Ok. That was only about 48 hours of their visit & I need to rest before starting part 2.