Having the Elder's in our home

is always a special treat.

We were able to have these Elder's over quite a bit for General Conference,

discussions with a friend of ours,

Family Night,

and Sunday dinners.  They ALWAYS brought such a calm feeling with them into our home and I felt so blessed to have gotten to know Elder Beh and Elder Campbell for the short time they were here.  Such good missionaries to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There always has to be a crazy one...right?

Notice Elder Beh and Aaron...I guess that is as crazy as they can get.

Molly thought that was pretty funny.

One last time

flying the A-10 in Korea for Aaron's Sqaudron Commander.

Col. Renner waiting in the A-10 after his final flight.

The kids are getting their water guns ready to squirt him down after his flight. 

Jenny greeting him with a kiss.

"Get Him!"

"Now can I get you?"

We miss the Renner's but know they will make such a positive influence on their next assignment.

They both were great examples of what leaders should be. 

Thanks for the memories!

We were honored

by her presence.

Everyone could feel something special about this woman
the moment you walked into the room. 

We called her Grand-mere-ma-moo. 
It's what she wanted to be called.  A grandmother to all. 
Why is she in Korea?......."because of God" she said. 

My dear friend Sister Jackie who is here making a living saved for months so that she could bring her mother here to visit from Cameroon.  I feel like after meeting Jackie's Mom, I now have an insight as to why Jackie is so special.  Amazing women. 

Grand-mere-ma-moo holding my baby Juliet.

She sang and sang to the babies in her African language. 

Juliet loved it.

Jackie's Daughter-in-law Sara and grandbaby Clementine trying to play with Juliet.

Clementine was feeling a little out of sorts that day.

Mari(Jackie's friend here), Juliet, Mom Joanne, Sister Jackie,

Mari's daughter, Grand-mere, Me and Mari's daughter.

Grand-mere will be here for a little over a month and I can't wait to visit with her more before she returns back to her country.

The Facial Expressions on Family Night

Every Monday evening we try to have Family Night.....even if Daddy can't be there....we forge ahead.

Well....... 

We all take turns:

-doing a lesson out of the scriptures

 -picking a hymn or primary song we all can sing

-saying the family prayer

-choosing an activity

-or-

-preparing or choosing a treat to hand out

Tonight it was Isaac's turn to pick the activity and he chose

Nintendo 64's Mario Cart. We sure missed having Daddy here for all the fun, but as you can see, it was a little intense...I don't even think they knew I was taking pictures of them.

Have you ever seen a bug like this?

Because we sure hadn't

and we were all so very captivated by it.

It could maneuver in such a fascinating way.

So interesting!

Two Little Girls

who love to be held by their Daddy. 

Look who loves

to be on her tummy

 and hold her head up so high.

Sweet little baby.

Memorial Day at Malipo

We did the annual Malipo Beach Osan Branch Activity on Memorial Day and had so much fun.

This beach is off of the East Sea (or also known as the Sea of Japan if you're Korean) 

Here are Grammy Jo and Emmaline walking back our way after playing in the cold water.  Emmaline I don't think was too happy to be walking away from the ocean.

There are a bunch of military members here without their families and they are so good to play with our kids.  Here is a dragon they helped build with some of the kids.

Here is another brother burying Molly and her friends.

Logan Barney, Molly, Lana Barney

The job is complete.

Logan, Molly, Lana and Haley Knudsen are now trying to get out.

I love these people. 

Left to right: Bridget Cox, Mindy Clifton, Eunhi Barney, Brother Clifton, Incha Clifton, Me, Jihyun Knudsen and Christina Doherty.

A few more things

we did while Tyson and Erin were here. 

Of course we had to take them to Everland and here is Tyson with Emmaline on her favorite ride. 

We call it the flower ride.  We all actually really enjoy going on it. 

It makes me laugh and laugh and laugh because of the terrible butterflies I get.

 

Molly's Tae Kwon Do class did a demonstration.  They showed their forms and broke boards for all to see.  She was so proud to show us all that she had learned.  Molly is the 3rd one from the right sitting on the ground.  Master Mun, her teacher is standing on the back row on the very right.  Master Mun's father is sitting in the middle and he teaches the adults.  They are both very respected in this community.

These next pictures were right before they left on the bus for the airport.  

Emmaline really loved having another Aunt here to love and to love her right back.

Thank you Erin. 

Don't you love our family photo? 

I looked at this and thought....okay the poor baby....why is no one holding her in this photo?

 

Oh, see someone does love her.  Tyson giving Juliet one last love before he leaves. 

Thank you Tyson.

Thank you for coming.  It was so fun to have you here and what a treat it was!

Geongbokgung Palace

The other really cool thing about having visitors, is we get to experience these amazing places with them.  This palace is located in the heart of Seoul.  It was built in the 1300's and it is beautiful.  When you're inside the palace you forget that you're in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.  I first saw this palace with Aaron, Leighton and the kids and we knew that we just had to bring Tyson and Erin.

While we walked inside of the palace walls....I think a certain little girl was having the time of her life.

She imagined......

and climbed.....

and sat......

and ran....

and played.....

 and ran....

and played some more.....

until she was finally swarmed by some onlookers who thought she was irresistible.  They stared and took pictures of her for about 5 minutes.  A few of them got really close to her and touched her hair and arms...thankfully her Aunt Erin was right by her side....because when this happens it can be a little intimidating.

Erin and Tyson in front of the King's palace.

While Emmaline was busy running around, Mom Joanne, Tyson and Erin visited with these nice people from England.  Their son was getting married to a Korean girl and they were there for the wedding. 

 Okay.....now this was too funny.  This actually hasn't ever happened to Aaron and it was just so funny that it happened to Tyson.  These two gentlemen you see here (one with Tyson and the other one you see holding the camera) wanted Tyson's picture and Tyson graciously let them.  He put on his best smile and everything for the photo.  Too funny!

This was absolutely beautiful.  This structure was built for banquets and parties. 

Royalty would also boat around for recreation. 

"Hey, a door just my size"

 "Oh, you caught me imagining again."

Aunt Erin also had her fair share of imagining as well.



We had to say goodbye

to Uncle Leighton and Papa Stan...and it was so sad. 

The other sad thing is that I cannot find the camera card that has all the pictures of them being here. 

So I hope to add some more photos once I find those pictures.  We did many more things especially with Uncle Leighton being here for the first time and we so enjoyed his company.  Thank you Dad and Leighton for being here with us.  We loved it!

Grammy Jo stayed with us for a few more weeks and guess what.....we had some more visitors come. 

This time it was Uncle Tyson and Aunt Erin.  I felt so special having some of our family come all this way to see Korea and us.  One of the first places we took them was the Korean Folk Village in Suwon.  It was a beautiful spring day and this is a great place to see Korean culture.   It is set up so we can see how Korean's used to live.  People actually do live here to keep up the gardens and animals. 

We love this place.

Emmaline really had no idea how cool

all these structures were around her. 

She was just happy to play in the dirt

and run around with Isaac.

This is a temple tucked way back in the woods.  Not many people we think know about it because it was very quiet and we were the only ones there.

This I love!  At lunch time all the kids who came on a field trip pull out there mats and tiny little containers full of seafood, kimbop(rice and veggies wrapped in seaweed) lots of different kinds of vegetables that I don't ever recognize and of course white sticky rice.  We were walking through all the kids getting many, many bright smiles saying "Hello!"  Well, Mom Joanne waved and said hello back and these kids were so excited that they gave her some of their food.  It was so precious and they were so excited to share with her.   

Here she is with some of the horses that were in the Equestrian Performance. 

They weren't too friendly.  This one actually tried to bite Mom.

I loved this picture.  If you look close you can see Emmaline's arm around her Aunt Erin.

This is one of those things you would not see in America.  You could cross this rocky bridge and not one worker was there observing.  You go at your own risk.  Can you imagine the lawsuits in America if someone were to fall?   Apparently they don't really deal with lawsuits like we do in the States, but it was great fun going on this bridge.  I just told Tyson to hold on to Emmaline tightly and he was very obedient.

Erin and Mom are standing on that rocky bridge, but I didn't get it in the photo.

Like I said, we love the Korean Folk Village.  We took Dad Stan and Leighton as well to this place and they enjoyed it.  A movie was actually being filmed that day, so Leighton had a real treat watching that take place.