He did it!!!!

 

We got a text this afternoon that the results came in early and we were going to have to report to the studio today.  We decided to take off a day because we needed some family time.  But were excited to hear the news.  The news came early.  All of the testers passed their tests.  The other two kids from before were awarded during the first class session. 

Braxton, Michael and Kanaan are buddies and have now advanced together.

 

 

Braxton getting his last lecture as an average Tae Kwon Do student.

 

 

The coveted Jr. Black belt.  He now has to learn to tie the new belt as it is different from the others.  Master Song had each of the children's names embroidered on their belts in both Korean and English. 

 

 

 

We are so proud of this young man.  He set out to accomplish the goal of earning his Jr. Black Belt and succeeded!!!!  He is so amazing and motivated to work for what he wants.  He will go far one day I don't doubt that.

 

 

Adding his name to the Belt Hall Of Fame

 

 

 

 

Being introduced as the newest Jr. Black Belts.  We are so proud of you bud!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas 2013

 

 

Our last Christmas in Korea.

 

Branch Christmas Party and a visit from Santa.

 

We have Joseph and a Wise Man.  This is our entire branch Primary minus about 5 kids along with one of my nursery kids wanting to join in.

We had a great time!

 

 

Our cute little Korean Tree. 

 

 

The goods Santa left.

 

 

Just what he asked for.  He can't wait to start to put it together.

 

This has already been used on his brother and each of the family members quite a few times already.  The Lie Detector Kit is definitely is an item that we will now have to watch ourselves with, along with the kid on the loose trying to determine who is telling the lie.

 

 

The boy's piano teacher took special classes to write the boys names in Korean with beautiful calligraphy.  They were the only students that get an extra gift, she must really love these two boys.

 

 

What a great kid.  He knows exactly what I like.  He smelled the wax melts to find the perfect ones that mom likes. 

 

 

Braxton decided that he was going to go shopping on his own this year.  So he went into the store on his own and decided what each member of the family would enjoy.  They know us so well. 

 

We have some great boys and we have been so blessed this year.  We feel so fortunate in every way and have truly had so many amazing experiences while we have been here. We love Korea and feel more safe here than we felt in the states. But we are very excited to start our new journey.    

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders

One of the greatest things about being out of country is we get a lot of privileges that we wouldn't normally get.  Yesterday was another of those days.  We were able to take the boys to see 12 of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders at a football camp. What a fun day for the both of them.  Isaiah was in his element being the youngest at the camp,  and able to get his own private lessons with Lauren. It also was terrific that she was blonde and beautiful. 

                                                             Isaiah with Lauren

 

Nice catch!

 

 

Isaiah told Lauren that he was very hot and this is how she solved the problem for him.

            Lauren told me that Isaiah was very thirsty and so they both went to get a drink.

 

Nice!

 

 

The boys warming up

 

 

Braxton making a big catch

 

And another...

 

 

Football is a sport that Braxton has been talking about wanting to play when we get back to the states.  This was perfect for him to see how it all works.

 

 

 

At the same time as the football camp the rest of the cheerleaders were giving the girls cheering lessons.  After practices the kids were given an up close and personal show from the cheerleaders along with signed autographed pictures. 

 

 

The group

 

 

The group with

                                                                   Rowdy the mascot

 

 

Autographs

 

 

And more autographs

 

 

What do you know, Lauren is also good at basketball too. 

 

 

Hoping for Checker Belt! Fingers Crossed!

This past Sunday Braxton tested for his checker Belt.  It is pretty comparable to an adult Black belt, they just give the children their checker belt for one year before they can test again for their junior black belt, (they do half steps for kids).The adults get theirs right away.  This will be the highest belt that Braxton will be able to achieve while here in Korea.  This has been his goal since he first started.   We were told that the test would be fast, but we weren't prepared for this fast.  We don't know how Master Song arranges things, but his American kids are always first to test here.  He must tell them that they may need extra time if they don't understand the commands given due to the language barrier.  The entire test was given in Korean and the kids were just instructed to follow the others and stay quite.  They were given hand cues as to what number of form that they were supposed to perform for the judge.  As far as there being a language barrier from the bleachers you couldn't tell. 

                                            This is how Braxton looked the day of his test. 

 

He had to wear this tag to identify who he was.  We had to give a copy of his passport so that everything would be official on the records here.  Korean Tae kwon Do is recognized anywhere around the world.  Some places in the states don't have the same rankings as there are here and Braxton has told us that there have been kids that in the states have comparable belts as he has, but Master Song has dropped them down about 2-3 belts as they don't know the same things that the kids here have been taught. 

 

Just about to enter Champion Stadium.  All of the Warrior kids who were going to be testing. 

Michael, Kanaan, Warner, Braxton and Katie

The kid in the middle is already a black belt he is just testing for a higher level.  From here on out, these kids will have to test here with the officials of the Tae kwon Do Federation in in Korea. 

 

Can you find Braxton?  He is in the back, third to the bottom. 

 

 

This reminded me of Karate Kid the movie.  There are even more kids behind Braxton in the bleachers waiting to test. The boys in the black uniforms at the bottom took each group of testers to the next area.  Braxton said they tried to talk to him in Korean and were expecting him to respond, but he didn't understand anything. 

 

 

 

 

 

Braxton and his group were taken to register.  Their coach was not allowed to enter the rink with the kids they are on their own.

 

 

From here they are being checked to see if the kids match their pictures and if they are who they say they are. 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting to start the test.  Braxton is in the back at the top of the picture.  They had to relearn all of ther=ir forms from white belt on up to where they are now as in this test they will be asked to perform three forms randomly.  If they don't perform well then they fail. 

 

 

 

 

This is the first form that the kids demonstrated.  It was form 8.  It is the only form that they were guaranteed to have as this is the form for the belt that they are on now. 

 

 

 

 

Second station

Here you can see all of the mats that Braxton will have to go to.  There are only four.

 

 

 

 

Third station

 

 

 

 

Final station sparring.  Braxton is in the blue head gear closet to the man standing. The kids were told that they would be sparring against Korean kids and that they wouldn't show any mercy and that they need to give it their all and not hold back.  I was a little worried as the two Korean children who were testing with them looked to be teenagers of about 15-16. Braxton is the oldest in his group at 10 and the other three are 9.  Not a fair competition.  But when it came to the sparring they were able to spar each other. 

 

 

I missed all of Braxton's sparring video as I thought that I was recording when I wasn't.  He knocked the boy down two times during the test. 

 

 

 

 

Braxton and his group walking away after completing the test.  All in all we were supposed to show up at the test at 9am and the test began at 10 am.  Braxton and I left the testing area at 10:10am.  I was shocked at how quickly things happened.  He did a great job!  We are so proud of him!  After his test was when we found out that Braxton still has about two more weeks before he knows the results of this test.  Uggg! More waiting. 

 

Seoul

We decided to take the family up to Seoul this year for Thanksgiving as our time here is winding down and we wanted to do a few things with the boys before we left. 

 

Riding the KTX to Seoul.  This is how it looks for us.  We love the KTX because instead of taking 4 hours, we can get there in under 2. 

Thanksgiving Day we decided to visit the Seoul Zoo to decide if the weather was going to allow us to take the boys to the inside amusement park or the outside.  This was quite a nice zoo, but being as cold as it was most animals were inside keeping warm.  But it only cost us $8 for the entire family to get in.  Not too bad, and because it was an American holiday it wasn't very busy.   One of  the nice things about Seoul is you can take the subway to go just about anywhere for $1.20 for adults and $0.50 for the kids. 

 

 

                                                     We've got a couple of animals!!!

 

After the zoo, we took the boys back to the hotel and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. 

 

 

 

The boys hadn't seen the Seoul temple since we've been here, and so before we went to the amusement park, we took the boys to see it.  It was amazing how reverent they were even from the outside. 

 

 

Last stop of the day Lotte World.  It is World's largest indoor theme park.  Yes, we decided to go indoors because the zoo was extremely cold.  Such a fun time.  This was the only attraction that the hotel's tour desk didn't have any coupons for, but when we got there Brandon decided to ask at the ticket counter if there were any discounts and she showed us a picture of a military id and said if you have one of these.  Yay us!   50% off.  The lines were very long and we have been spoiled being in small big city Daegu where if there is a line the boys haven't had to wait more than 10 minutes to get on a ride.  We did have long lines as all of Seoul  along with ourselves also thought it was too cold to go to the outside amusement park. 

 

 

 

 

 

The inside.  It very hard to describe, but Lotte World has about 5 different floors each with there own set of rides.  They also have quite a lot of rides outside as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this smile! 

 

 

This was a hot air balloon ride that went around the entire inside of the building. 

 

                                                At the subway.  With my two ninjas.
They look just like the little ajummas (ladies) that we see everywhere here in the cold season.  The cold season is from about the end of October to February.  We Americans think the cold season is from the end of November to the middle of February.  We just barely turned on the floor heaters in the boy's bedrooms this past week, only at night as our apartment is still pretty hot.  The Koreans wear long sleeves pretty much year round here, so they are always a little more cold than the Americans so by October they are sporting their winter coats and at this point in October we are still in our small jackets.  Seoul had just received snow for the first time the day before we arrived, it had mostly melted except for the mountain areas, but we still felt cold most of the time. 

 

We split up on our last full day in Seoul, as Isaiah isn't old enough to go on the next tour.  Braxton and I took a DMZ tour while Isaiah and Brandon went swimming and exploring Yongsan. When we were getting closer to the North Korean border this is what we saw along the highways.  Every 200 meters there are military huts with armed soldiers on the look out.  As we got even closer, the towers were every 100 meters along the road. 

 

JSA (Joint Security Area) last picture that you will see of South Korea until we leave.  Cameras were turned off here, and our bus was escorted by military vehicles. 

 

Braxton standing next to South Korean soldier in South Korea. 

 

 

 

 

Both of us standing in North Korea next to a South Korean soldier.   All of the Soldiers here are trained and have black belts.  This is the pose that all soldiers stand in here when guarding. 

 

 

 

Looking into North Korea.  A North Korean soldier stands watching the activities.  At one point he was looking at us through binoculars.  The only pictures that we can take is looking at North Korea from here so yes, you are looking at North Korea here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at North Korea and the Bridge of no Return where the POW's were released from both sides.

 

 

At the Bridge of no return. 

 

 

 

A train from the Korean War left here to remember what had happened.  There are over 1,200 bullet holes. 

 

 

There are still so many families here who still have loved ones in north Korea.  Many come every year to pray for their well being. 

 

 

 

 

At Freedom Bridge

 

 

Another view of Freedom bridge. 

 

Braxton and I learned so much about the Korean War and why we are here still helping South Korea. We truly have enjoyed our time here and will definitely miss the beautiful people when we return back home. 

 

We also took the boys to see Nanta.  A fun Korean show similar to Stomp.  It is about a bunch of wedding dinner chefs who are late in preparing for the dinner.  They make music with their knives, and cooking utensils.  Food flies everywhere and both boys were laughing and enjoying themselves.  We had a great weekend!