Is there a Korean Tooth Fairy?

Last night Isaiah's very loose tooth just fell out on its own right before eating dinner. This week he has been telling us that Brandon needed to floss out his tooth, and yesterday being such a busy day for us he forgot to ask. But out it came. He was very pleased. His other front tooth is also loose just not quite ready to come out yet. Maybe with this one gone, it will help the other one to come out sooner. We talked last night before he went to bed about now that we live in Korea, do we now have a Korean Tooth Fairy. He said that he thought that she was going to be Korean. When he woke up this morning to find 1000 won, he had a new theory, it was that we have an American Tooth Fairy who just asked the Korean Tooth Fairies for some Korean money. At any rate, he is getting so big. And yesterday was a big day for him. During soccer this year for Isaiah has not been a great experience due to the fact that he didn't get to play any games. Well while I was at a baptism of one of the primary kids in our ward. Brandon took the boys to Isaiah's Parent and tot kick the ball (we call it this). After his practice Brandon noticed that the age group older than Isaiah's hardly had any players on it and so he asked the coach if Isaiah could help them out. The coach said that he could and afterwords told us that he was very focused for a four year old. We then proceeded to tell the coach that he was almost six and that we were told that he was too small here to play. The coach told us that he had five year olds on his team. Hum? I wasn't able to witness the game, due to the fact that I was walking to the field and we didn't bring the camera to capture the event. But, Isaiah was thrilled! He got to play the goalie and is following in his brother's footsteps and turned out to be great at it too. When asked, Isaiah told me that the score was 10-5. Brandon said 1-0. But they won and that's all that mattered.

Early Birthday

The boys took me out this morning to an early birthday breakfast. And then off hiking up in the Ap'san Mountains. I have been wanting to go for quite some time now and when we found out that they were only about 5 minute drive from Camp Walker, we are going to be going quite a bit more often. There are quite a few temples inside the Ap'san Park and we were able to witness a Monk chanting while people were worshiping. If you look close enough, you may be able to see the Monk inside the temple. We had a blast! The hike we did was pretty steep, and with two of us with colds it was pretty tough. There is a gondola that will take you up the mountain and
so next time that is what we will have to do. Then the boys took me out to eat to my new favorite Korean resteraunt. They cook the meal in front of you and then they hand you some leaves and you put rice, meat, mushrooms, rice cake, soy beans, then roll up the leaf and dip it into soy sauce. Yum! What a fun day!

Cooking at Daegu-Gyeongbuk English Village

We were lucky enough to have an in with one of Brandon's coworkers who asked if we wanted to take a cooking class tour. Some of the tours that we have taken are sponsored and are free and so we decided to go on this one because it didn't cost us a thing and we may actually learn something. It was fairly close to our area and got home pretty early. So off we went yesterday morning. We were at an English village which is pretty much a week camp for Korean children to go and experience English was of life the best they can here in Korea. Quite a lot of the staff is from Colorado and some in Canada. They have little simulations for the kids where they board a stationary plane and when they get off. They are in some new place. It is a beautiful campus and they treating us well. We were taken on a short tour of the campus before our class started. Wow! Looks expensive and probably is for families. Then they took us up to a class where we had an instructor with assistants. Our assistant was the instructor's husband who had never cooked before. They let the boys become involved and it was fun for everyone. We made Bulgogi and Pah-Jeon (sea food pancake w/onions). We were told that Bulgogi is the favorite dish of the Koreans. Kind of like what Pizza is to Americans. We came home with a few new recipes and one dish that the entire family loves including Isaiah which is a bonus. I took a picture of the Bulgogi. The large white things in there are big mushrooms. They also have a great noodle in there I think is called cellophane noodles. Well,this is one recipe that I am going to have to try to make. Now all I need is a nice wok. The man in the picture is the President of the campus and wanted to get his picture taken. He kept staring at Brandon and telling him that he was very handsome and his hair was cool. That is how the people are here. This behavior is not unusual. What a fun day.

Halloween

Our Halloween is over here. The base decided that they were going to be celebrating Halloween on Saturday, so we have been out Trick-R-Treating and are now left with massive amounts of junk. The boys school started off with a character parade on Friday where I also got a picture of a little girl who lives in our apartment complex dresses as a Korean princess. Had to show everyone, she looked like a doll. She wouldn't look or smile at me. My boys decided they wanted to rid our world of evil. Isaiah Ben 10, our planet is rid of aliens and Braxton Superman clearing out all of the evil and helping those in need. I was in charge of our ward's Trunk-R-Treat and so I put in a very bad night picture of all of the kids in the branch. Large kids in back are YM and YW. A few families didn't come, but that is about the size. Had a great time. Glad it's over.

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer

Both of the boys have started soccer this fall, both were equally excited. Well, little guy was more excited! Soccer has not been equally exciting for the boys. Braxton started practice about the time we moved in our apartment. The day of Braxton's first game was the day that Isaiah started practice. In advance we were told that Isaiah was too little to be playing soccer and had to be 6. His practices were going to be a parent and tot class meaning no coach and the parents are going to be kicking the ball around with their kids. Hummm? 5 1/2 doesn't cut it here. Most of the kids on the team are 3. Big difference in what they can do. Isaiah was allowed to play last year and we tried to tell him about this in advance so it wouldn't be a shock to him, but he still had high expectations. Some of the parents wanted to start small games with the kids, but found that the three year olds don't know what they are doing, so they decided against the games. The first picture is Isaiah finding out there wouldn't be a game. Poor kid, he really was good last year.





Braxton is turning our to be a very good goalie. He has been liking that position this year and will play that at least half of the game if not half. These picture were taken at a game that Braxton had a few weeks ago with a team that had to be bused about an hour to an hour and a half. If you look closely at the other team, out little 7-8 year old team are playing 11-12 year olds. They held them off for the first half of the game. No points scored, but our team was wiped out after the half and struggled with helping Braxton out. The score 0-4. I am proud of my little goalie.

River Run

This river is directly across from our church. This is the river that I have been running on. It used to take me 20 minutes to walk to the river, but Brandon found a new way home from church and it now takes 7 minutes. I am taking the pictures from the loud ugly side, but I love the view and so the ipod just gets turned up a lot louder.

This is how it's done

This is how they move people in and out here. Everything goes in and out the windows. I just thought I'd show how this works here. Quite amazing! I also thought That I'd show you the view from our window. Sorry the best picture was through the screen. The square thing on the the ground is a water fountain that the kids can use in the summer. The boys can't wait to use it. In the distance behind the trees is the larger of the two playgrounds and where the boys ride bikes.