if we could slow time down.
Last month on September 18th Grammy Jo and Papa arrived in Korea for a visit.
Papa stayed for 12 days and Grammy is about to leave in three more days.
We've been busy showing off Korea to them, but my heart is about to bust as this visit comes to a close.
(Us at Everland waiting to see the fireworks)
I had every intention of posting pictures every few days of what we've been up to, but I think I've been too busy enjoying every moment of having them here. Today Preston and Emily have taken Grammy to the North and South Korean border.
So we're relaxing and missing them........but
now I'm going to sit....and try to get some photos posted.
Here it goes!
One day we ventured off through Seoul. Here we are about to leave the Army Base called Yongsan in Seoul
We visited The War Memorial Museum right outside of the base.
Another day we visited a place in Suwon called the Korean Folk Village.
Here we saw traditional Korean farming, housing, dancing, music and a lot of other things.
Here are Papa and Grammy with Isaac in front of the entrance of one of palaces.
We saw some Korean Dances that were pretty impressive.
This guy had some amazing moves to get this ribbon to swing around.
Beautiful music with beautiful instruments.
Molly making arrows wherever we went so we wouldn't get lost.
Everyone took a turn in the royal carriage.
Between all of our activities we were even able to get our chores in.
Emmaline loves her rainboots and will find any excuse to wear them.
Grammy Jo watched the kids so Dad and I could go on a tour up to the North and South Korean border. It was amazing.
It's just one of those places you do not want to miss if you come to Korea.
Here we are at the top of one of the tunnels that the North Koreans dug to invade South Korea. The South Korean's discovered it several years ago, blocked it off and made it possible for tourists to go and see it. So we put our hard hats on and started off. Here we're feeling a little fatigued, because it was quite a hike coming back up. It was impressive though and sobering to see this huge tunnel.
On a lighter note, the Koreans kept looking at me and pointing to my big belly in astonishment as I was doing this big hike. They probably thought I was crazy for doing this and I admit that I was a little crazy, but I just couldn't pass up this opportunity.
Here is a view of North Korea. If you look closely, you can see their flag pole with their Red Flag that is so big it is too heavy to wave in the wind.
We visited a train station in South Korea that at one point was running back and forth between the two countries, but stopped shortly after a tourist was murdered in North Korea.
This station was like a ghost town. Huge and beautiful, but completely empty. The people you see are from our tour bus.
Here was the most sobering part of the whole tour.
This place is called Panmunjeom or JSA (Joint Security Area).
Soldiers from the North and South gaurd this area 24/7.
The soldiers that have their backs facing me were South Korean, but if you look closely you can see a North Korean soldier behind a white beam showing half of his body. He had binoculars out looking at us the whole time. I never felt scared, but it definitely was eerie.
This soldier is in a Tae Kwon Do stance that keeps him ready to react in a moments notice.
Here are my feet and Dad's feet strattling the North and South Korean border.
They took us into this building where they hold conferences between the North and South. Even this building is split down the middle. The soldiers in here were South Korean.
Our tour guide.
Well that was an extremely long post, but I didn't want to miss not having these memories in our blog. Thanks Papa and Grammy for making this trip to Korea possible.
We loved having you.
Now only a few days left with Grammy and we're going to enjoy every minute.
