First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for all three of my girls!  Little A had a very important doctor appointment at Ajou Hospital this morning, so I was not able to get pictures in the morning of all the kids, and I was not able to walk them to school.  I was defiantly having mom guilt, so I set up Big Sis to walk with a friend to school, and for M&M to go with our neighbor! To make the day even more sad, it was pouring rain all day.

It was about 12:00 when I finally got Little A to school.  Since I had to explain why we were late, and since we were lucky enough to come during her lunch time, the teacher came to the office and I was able to meet her and she walked Little A to her class.  Little A was so excited to start 2nd Grade!

I picked up M&M and Little A after school.  It was still raining, but I was able to get first day of school pictures outside the school.

Here is my big 5th grader strutting her stuff.

And here is my brave 2nd Grader!

After Big Sis got home, I was able to snap a picture of her.  She's in 8th Grade this year!  I feel so old!  When did she get so big?  She wasn't very happy with the picture because she had been rained on and the lighting was bad, but it's better then nothing.

Bear Tree Park

We went to Bear Tree Park today and had a really great time.  The grounds and gardens are so beautiful. We were able to meet up with the Mayo and Filmore Family.  The drive from home to the park is a straight drive on the 17 freeway.  The park it literally right off the freeway, with a huge parking lot.  There weren't any cars in the paring lot, except ours, so we had the entire park to ourselves.

We stopped first at the huge Koi Pond.  The grounds were kept up so beautiful and everything was pristine.  There was fish food with a donation box, so we put in 1000 won and fed the koi fish.

There were so many fish in the pond that it was almost scary.  I could imagine falling in and with how many fish there were, I'm pretty sure they would eat me all up.

To get a better view of all the fish and to feed them, the kids went on a bridge over the lake.  They were able to drop the food and watch all the fish just circle around in a fish food frenzy.  When we ran out of food, they poured in some water from their water bottles and got the same reaction from the fish.

Kevin absolutely loves halloween, so when we saw pumpkins that were the size of Monster, I just had to get a picture for him!

After the Koi Pond, we walked through the Welcome House building and went to the Beartree Garden.  The bushes were so amazing because they were cut to look like insects and animals.  There was a thinking man sculpture and the kids got a kick out of it.  Little A kept pointing at it and saying "I'm thinking, I'm thinking", just like in the movie- The Night At The Museum.

Our next stop was the Pet Zoo, not to be mistaken with a petting zoo.  This area had so many different animals.  There was a gigantic cage in the middle with peacocks.  The kids got a kick out of making bird calls at them and getting the peacocks to respond back.  There were dogs, groundhogs, bunnies, a small bear, and mice.  The kids loved all the animals.  It was a little sad to see the animals because there were a million animals in a small area.  The caged area were not big enough for how many animals they had packed in it.

As we left the Pet Zoo and headed up the walkway to the bear section of the Pet zoo, we walked past the neatest trees!  They were each cut and super smooth.  It was like rolling hills of trees, or waves of trees.  It was such a neat site!  I think I loved the trees more then the flowers.

Our next stop was at the bears.  I was beginning to see a theme here- too many animals in tiny spaces, and the bears were no different.  In a small caged area with about six different sections we found the bears below us.  As we walked by them, we started to hear this weird sucking noise.  Upon closer inspection and observation, we found out that the noise was the bears and they were blowing kisses.  The bears have been trained to wave, blow kisses, stand up and reach their hands up to beg for food.
It was cute, in a morbid way.  But honestly, It was sad seeing the bears just sitting there begging for food with no where to go, no water, no trees and no nature.

We did love the bear statue though!  Right next to the bear cages, was a gigantic bear statue.  The kids had fun climbing all over it.

There was a statue park behind the bear cages with a plethora of animal metal statues.  Each kid wanted their turn getting a picture with their favorite statue!

Little A went dancing and hung on a bear statue.

And Monster found a frog that he not only sat on for a picture, but then spent the next 10 minutes actually bring a frog and hopping all over while ribbitting.

The next stop on the map was the Manchurian Black Bear Garden.  I wouldn't call it a garden, unless a garden encompasses cement and metal jungle gym equipment.

This area included the small little black bears with the white necks.  These bears also waved and blew kisses.  There was a sky walk that you walk through that is directly over the bears.  It was a little heartbreaking seeing so many beautiful animals stuck in a cement cage on such a blistering hot day.

The only bears the I really liked at Bear Tree Park were the mosaic bears on the wall!  Now I could look at these bears all day!  I opted to see the mosaic art while the kids looked at the real bears.

It was about this time that we were all starving!  It was an extremely hot day and the kids were beginning to melt, so we were excited that the map showed a cafe and a restaurant straight up the road.  Since you can't bring food into the park, we were banking on the restaurant to get the kids fed.  We got to the food places and they were all closed- sealed shut!  There wasn't a single worker to be seen.  My kids were starving, so we sat down in the restaurant outdoor seating area and my kids ate their sack lunches that we shouldn't have brought in due to the no food rule.  I was glad I didn't follow the rules, because I would have lost the let's-stay-a-little-longer battle, due to hot and hungry kiddos.

While my kids ate, I went and explored the Songpa Pavilion with Alyssa, Valerie and Valerie's sister.

The Songpa Pavilion is this beautiful pond with a gazebo looking structure.  There were bear statues in the pond and beautiful trees all around.

After the kids ate their illegal lunches, we stopped the Bear Sculpture Park and the kids enjoyed climbing all over another bear sculpture. We had a good group of kids today!

Bear Tree Park has the most amazing greenhouses!  We went into every single one of them!  Each greenhouse had a different theme.  The first one was the Tropical Plant Greenhouse.  Monster loves Andrew Mayo and hung out on his shoulders through the Tropical Plants.

When we got to the Bonsai Garden, all the boys were gardened out, and found a granite table and chairs.  They all sat downs and Monster sat down as if he was one of the guys.  The boys taught Monster how to play rock, paper, scissors.  Since they were all resting, I was able to explore more of the greenhouses without a monster!

I really loved the Bonsai Garden.  It was so beautiful with vibrant flowers and the neatest bushes and small trees.

Alyssa found me and asked if I had seen the Song-Pa Garden yet.  Since I had not, we walked to that one!  It was just as beautiful as she had said it would be!

The end of the garden even had a small man-made waterfall!

The last garden we saw was the cactus garden.  I loved this one too!  I tell you, the greenhouses and gardens are so amazing here!  The cactus area was super hot!  On an already hot day, it wasn't too enjoyable to be in a hot cactus garden, but I walked quickly through it.

My favorite plant was this brown fuzzy plant.  It looked like it could have been an animal with a long tail curled up and sleeping.  I was worried the plant would turn and start talking to me.  It was the most crazy and unique plant in the entire garden!

There are so many things to see in Korea, so usually I'm a one and done type of person; however, I loved the gardens and Bear Tree Park is really close, so I have put this on my "come back any time" list!  I don't know if we would venture back to the Pet Zoo and Bears, but we would definitely come and drink in the beautiful gardens! So, Bear Tree Park, until we meet again.

Chiaksan National Park Camping

We had a free weekend in August and decided to spend it camping, since the weather has started to cool off.  We wanted to camp near a waterfall and temple hike that my friend, Alyssa Mayo said was amazing, so we found the Eco-Healing Campground in Chiaksan National Park.

It took me a while to find the camp directions, I ended up having to put it in Hangul in Naver to find the location.  It didn't take too long to get there, about 2 hours or so.  We arrived around 2:00, and started unloading the car.  This particular campground does not let you drive up to the campsites, they provided dolly's and you cart your stuff up a hill.

After Kevin  unloaded the car, we all set to work getting the tent up and making all our cots.  We bought the most amazing cots a few years ago, Bunk-O-Cots and Kid-O-Bunks!  We have used them so many times, and even friends use them when family comes to visit.  They are so amazing and so versatile, and did I mention, comfortable!

We got our tent all up, chairs set up, and fire pit situated.  This campsite is really nice because they provide a little privacy using bushes between the campsites.  So even though we were only 4 feet from the campers on all sides of us, it still felt pretty secluded.

The bathroom facilities were great!  There were showers, however they were never unlocked while we were there.  But the bathrooms were nice and clean and had hot running water.

We still had some time before we needed to start on dinner, so we decided to explore!  We found a nice path that lead down to the river.

There was a small stream and and lots of big rocks.  The kids ran straight for the stream and started walking over the rocks to get to the other side. The found a small waterfall, and M&M and Little A walked all the way around rocks until they were sitting right by the little waterfall.

Of course our Monster wanted nothing but to follow them, so Kevin and I had to take turns holding him.  The rocks were just too big and the water was just too unpredictable.

We stayed and skipped rocks, walked around the riverbed and walked over big rocks for about an hour.  All our stomachs started grumbling, so we knew it was time to head back and start on dinner.

In Korea it is illegal to have a fire in the ground, so we have a fire pit that we take camping with us.  We heated up coals and then put a cobbler in a dutch over, and then started the dinner right over the fire.

Kevin made the most amazing fajitas!  We had peppers and refried beans to go with the fajitas.  All the kids loved it and asked for more.  I felt so bad because I was admiring the beauty of the mountains and gestured with my hand at the scenery and just at the moment, Kevin walked by with his plate of dinner directly in the path of my sweeping hand.  His entire dinner flew through the air to the ground.  Luckily, there was still more on the grill!

We thought we were super smart to save space and bring a travel baby cot instead of the port a crib.  Big Mistake! Monster hadn't ever slept in the travel cot, and since he could pop right out, he refused to stay in the cot.  It also didn't help that every Korean around us had electrical flood lights that lit up the entire area as if we were at a football game.  Lights, music and loud talking continued through the night until 10:45, when magically all lights went out and all voices hushed.  Monster was so ridiculously tired and out of his element that he just kept screaming.  I didn't know what to do since we were surrounded by people and all the kids and Kevin were asleep in our tent.  So, I did what any good mom would do, I pulled him onto my cot, and gave him my phone to watch the only movie on my phone, Disney's Planes Fire and Rescue.

After a pretty horrible nights sleep, we got up and made our amazing breakfast of pancakes and eggs, except it wasn't very amazing.  We couldn't get the coals hot enough, and we didn't start with enough of them.  After an hour of trying to get the coals hot enough to cook over, we make-shifted a small stove using the ground, a pizza pan, and the long skillet.  We were able to painstakingly slowly make pancakes one at a time.  By the time we finally had the pancakes and eggs made, we gave up altogether on the bacon that we had brought.  Within the time that it took us to make our breakfast, every Korean around us had whipped out a portable gas stove or electric stove and made their breakfast in about 5 minutes.  Couple that with very little sleep and it made for an extremely grouchy mom and dad.

To escape our grouchiness, the kids ran off to a nearby field.  They found a bunch of Korean kids playing and catching dragonflies.  The kids played together and taught M&M and Little A how to catch a dragonfly.  M&M was super excited to come back and show us her new Korean skill!

Kevin and I were not in the best of moods, the kids would probably have called it our worse of the worst, so in the end we decided to forgo the hike and just head home.  However, even though the morning was pretty hard, everything else and the entire trip itself was absolutely awesome and I would do it all over again, except bring a port a crib and a propane stove. LOL!  Can you guess what I ordered on Amazon the day we got home?

Samcheok: Hwanseongul Cave (with Grandma & Grandpa)

Our last stop on our Samcheok adventure today was at the Hwanseongul Cave.  There are two cave entrances right next to each other, but we chose Hwanseongul because we only had enough time to do one and this cave is the largest cave in Asia.  To get to the cave entrance, you first had to walk up the bottom portion of the mountain.  It seemed to take forever to get to the ticket booth.  Everyone was still a little sore from yesterdays 500 meter stair climb.

After walking for what seemed like an hour, we reached the cable car ticket booth and bought out tickets and waited in line.  The girls were super excited about the cable car, because it went straight up the mountain.  It was an intensely steep straight up!  The walls were all glass so we could look out and see just as high we were off the ground.

Once we reached the top, we were at the cave's entrance.

I had all the kids pack some sweaters before we left, and I am so glad!  It was chilly in the cave and they were all cold.

Monster kept putting his hood on and saying over and over again, "It's cold, it's cold. Hat on."

My parents had to check in on their flight, so we went in the cave and figured we would be able to meet up with them.  This particular cave is a one-way cave.  Once you enter the cave, you are committed to complete the entire perimeter of the inside.  There is a narrow one way walkway that takes you all around the inside.  Our hopes of meeting up with my parents quickly faded.

The cave was so gigantic!  It was seriously the largest cave I have been in.  There was also constant rivers flowing and small waterfalls.  The only frustrating thing was the lighting inside the cave.  There wasn't any spots with decent lighting to get a good picture of the cave, and all the pictures we got are super grainy.  Oh well.

A lot of portions of the walkway were narrow or had a steep drop off, so Monster was confined to the hiking backpack.  For the most part he was not happy about that!  All he wanted to do was walk around on his own, we had to bribe him to stay in with candy.

We finished the cave and about 15 minutes later were joined by my parents.  They seemed to like the cave.  I was sad we didn't get to go through together, but glad they had the opportunity to go through it!

While we were waiting for the cable car to take us back down the mountain, we took the time to take in the scenery around us.  The mountains here are super beautiful!  There are peaks and green trees covering the entire land!  It was so pretty!