Karaoke in Korea

This post is way overdue, but last night I was thinking about how fun it was to go karaoke in Korea. We spent and evening out with the area Stake President and his wife and they took us to one of their favorite karaoke spots. I have never done this and have to say it is soooo much fun! The walls are covered in velvet or something of that nature and there are comfy couches to sit on with lighting and a big screen playing video that has nothing to do with the song your singing, but that is what makes it so much fun! It was a great time and all the kids really got into it as well as my parents.

Bonding with Nana

Phoebe spent a day making this cute apron with my Mom while we were in Korea. They picked out the fabric at the market and made it together. Phoebe was so excited to do a sewing project. Since I have minimal sewing expertise, I was glad she had some time with her Nana to make something special. Phoebe LOVES cooking so this was a perfect project for her. It will get lots of use :)

Fabric Market

Another favorite spot of mine this trip was the fabric section of the market. It is full of several streets of beautiful fabrics, tassels, beads, etc. I thought of a couple of my friends that would have gone gaga over this place. My mission was to find some fabric to take home and make drapes for my bedroom. Yes, I have lived in this house for 3 years now and still have paper shades on the windows. Scott and I have tried a few times to put something up, but have not been able to come to an agreement on anything. After spending a couple days looking at the fabrics we decided to just ask how much the cost would be for the shop to make the whole drape. The price was INCREDIBLE and a deal was made :) The nicest family owned and ran the shop. The son spoke pretty good English and was very thorough in being sure everything was as I wanted. They look so much better then I would have been able to do and I LOVE them. It was worth waiting for 3 years. To sweeten my happiness my Mom said she would pay for them as a gift to me! Thank you soooooooooo much. A perfect early birthday present along with bringing us all the way to Korea for an incredible 2 weeks. Now I might just need to have them send me treatments for the rest of the windows in the house!! Oh how I wish this place were here in Texas.

Here is the finished product up in our bedroom

Eating Korean

We were able to have several meals of traditional Korean food. I think Korean food is the most flavorful of asian cuisine. You are served several dishes along with the main entree. If you empty any of these smaller bowls they will come and refill them. Lots of different flavors are in each dish and some are really good and some....not so much. I am lucky that my kids are pretty good eaters and most of the time they were willing to try things and sometimes were surprised at how much they liked something. One night we were at a Steam Pot resturant where you can choose from a large buffet of things to cook for yourself. Luke saw the octopus sitting there and kept asking over and over to have some. I finally decided that this was the probably the time and place to let him have a go at it and he went for it. He started out by licking it to be sure it tasted ok and after passing that test he went in for a bite. Unfortunately octopus is very rubbery and his little teeth had a hard time getting a piece off. He finally did get some and did eat it! I was pretty amazed and think these pictures are priceless.

Daedunsan Mountain

On the day we went up to Daedunsan Mountain it was windy and freezing. The tram to take us halfway up was only running one more time because there were high winds coming and the ticket lady tried to talk us out of going up with the little kids. We took the last ride up anyway and decided that we could hike all the way down. It was so beautiful even though the sky was a bit foggy. Phoebe was uncertain about crossing the bridge spanning between two cliffs, but with a little prodding she made it. With the wind blowing so strong the bridges were a little shaky. Scott hauled either Paisley or Luke for most of the time and made it down with ease. Ethen was like a mountain goat and bounded up and down the rocks like it was nothing. Even Luke hiked most of the time all by himself. My dad, Scott, Ethen and Luke all took the high bridge up to another peak. It was a little too steep to carry a sleeping baby up. Paisley fell asleep and we took turns carrying her, like a sack of potatoes, up and down the mountain. She didn't wake up till we were almost to the bottom. There are rock-type steps going almost the entire way down the mountain and it was an intense workout. By the time I reached the bottom my legs were already rubbery. As we got to the car it just started to drizzle so we had made perfect timing.

1000 Buddhas and more

The Happy Buddha

Inside one of the large Buddhas there were more tiny ones and pretty, colorful lanterns hung from the ceiling.
This place was amazing! Full of thousands of Buddhas, tiny and gigantic ones. Monks live here and keep everything up.

Ethen is up there in his blue coat.

There are exactly 1000 of these large golden Buddhas. 500 on each side of the huge one. A spectacular site to see.

This is a very large bell the monks ring. The kids are sitting on the gong used to ring the bell. Behind that is a giant drum that sounded so deep when you played it you could feel the vibrations through your chest.

These bells are hung in remembrance of ancestors. They make the most beautiful sound when the wind blows.

Pet Octopus and the Markets

One day we went over to the fish market and got a live octopus for our pet. I mean where else can you just pick out an octopus for the day to play with? It inked in the bucket after it got dropped once and only lived for a few hours, but we had our fun with him and then took him over to the office elders to have for dinner :)

The fruit and vegetables in Korea are HUGE!!!! SOOOOOOO tasty and everything is so pretty and gigantic. Apples and pears practically the size of Paisley's head, and carrots that turned our cheeks orange after eating them because they could barely fit in our mouths. Yes, we could have cut them up but it was WAY more fun to just chomp on them whole.

The market is a favorite place of mine to go. You get to see lots of cool stuff and find great deals. The fish market is full of every kind of seafood you can imagine and more; stingray, eel, octopus, squid, etc.
Those are little sharks over Luke's shoulder!

Daejeon Zooland

First stop of fun we had was to go to the Daejeon Zoo. This place was so fun and funny. They have some of your typical zoo animals like tigers and bears, but they also had geese and guinea pigs. Quite the range of animals to see! We took a little safari bus tour that was like entering Jurassic Park the way we had to go through metal gates. The bus took us right up to bears, lions, and tigers. One of the zebras practically came on the bus and since we were in the front seats the kids all took a turn petting it. That was so cool! Even Paisley went up and touched him on the nose.

This monkey was CRAZY bouncing off the walls and making us laugh. It kept slamming into the glass right at our faces and sucking on its toes.

Some yummy ice cream to cool us off

There was also a little amusement park section in the middle of the zoo and the kids ran around for over an hour riding all the rides. This zoo was like the Wal-Mart of zoo's. It was one stop for all kinds of entertainment!

I love this picture of the kids. They are screaming happy on this ride and the Korean's next to Phoebe thought she was so hilarious and cute.

We enjoyed a little show at the end of our day and since we were the only blonde's in the entire place the kids were constantly getting their pictures taken. Everyone wanted their little kids to talk to my kids and get a picture with them. They'll probably end up on the brochure for the zoo somehow because some of these picture takers had some serious cameras. We actually got a lot of that the entire trip. Sometimes people just taking pictures and sometimes coming up to us. It was a beautiful warm day and we had a GREAT time!