This is another one of our fun adventures with the Seoul Searchers group. Would you believe that there is a huge playground and kid's area in the middle of the horse race course? There are races going on around you and you can barely even notice! Supposedly it was built for the Olympics, but I like to think they designed it this way so that the moms have something to do with their kids while the dads do the only legal form of gambling in Korea, betting on horses!

We went on a Friday and they had a few horses out for the kids to see. There were even a few races going on. Even if you go on a major race day it is only 800 won to go to the playground (that's like 75 cents!) It was free for us that day.

 Posing with some interesting Korean characters
 Enjoying the playground! Most of the playgrounds in Korea are sandy, which you either love or hate. I don't particularly love it b/c the boys get SO dirty and end up either being the one throwing the sand on some poor Korean kid or getting sand thrown back at them.



 Here's Cade doing the monkey bars all by himself for the first time!! He made it all the way across!
 Not sure why there was a giant metal shoe, but it made for a cute picture. The cute blonde girl is my friend Shauna's daughter Zoe.
We had a blast and it was close! It is right next to Seoul Grand Park, and you can even get off at the Seoul Racecourse Park subway stop, then find the giant map which shows where the park is.

Still going with the pictures from my phone here. This is from one of our Seoul Searchers outings to a little folk village nestled in the busy city. It was really hot the day that we went!

A nice shot of the Seoul tower from the Village

Koreans have no shame. To them there is no need to be discreet about bodily functions and things that would be construed as perverse in America are commonplace here. Alas, the inappropriate slides in Korean playgrounds.
There's not much to say about those, right? I mean who really wants to come sliding out of a robot's, um, stomach? But don't forget to pose by the giant astronauts that are there for no apparent reason!
The kids had a blast on this thing.
Oh, and most Korean playgrounds have exercise equipment, AND it actually gets used. I'm sure this is only a small part of the secret of why Koreans stay so thin and healthy. That and Kimchi.

So sometimes I go out on adventures and forget to bring our camera, or choose not to carry it around because it is rather large. I take all these pictures on my phone and never post them! So here come a few posts based on pics from my lovely iPhone :)

First we have some pictures of the boys at one of our favorite spots in Itaewon. Denice showed us this lovely English book store called What the Book. The boys always have fun and I love this little reading spot!

Next are a few pictures of the LDS temple here in Seoul. It reminds me a lot of the Chicago and Boise temples, but still a little smaller. It is up on hill, but you can't see it unless you're right in front of it.


The next picture is of one of those great Korean signs. It's always helpful to know that I'm eating at a 'good restaurant'!

Our halloween festivities this year included a school parade, dinner with friends from church and of course, trick or treating!

Here is Cade all dressed up for school.

 Here's Alex waiting for Cade's class to come for the parade.
 There's Luigi!

 Now it was time for the whole gang to get dressed up. I'm sure you've guessed our theme by now! Super Mario Bros.
 Here's Toad
 Luigi
 Princess Peach
 And it's-a-Mario! Dan was very popular as we were trick or treating, and he was even talking just like him!
We had a great Halloween. The weather was perfect, we had a great time with friends, and enjoyed some real door-to-door trick or treating.

 Keeping it simple this year. Cade helped Daddy with the monster one, even carved!
 Glowsticks are substituting as candles because, well, we didn't have any!
 That's Cade with his 'Halloween face'
Have a fun Halloween week! All of our festivities are on Saturday, with a school parade on Friday, so look for pictures soon after!

• Scrapbooking- or I should really say paper crafting. I am working (slowly) on a scrapbook from our cruise, but I tend to do other projects first. Card making, shirt making, and these cute little things for Halloween that didn't even involve my Silhouette!

• Alex Projects- I kept telling myself that once Cade went to school I'd have all this time for this endless list of things. But I really had some things that I needed to get done with Alex. One was the removal of the pacifier, or as he calls it "puff-puff". The second was to potty train. I wanted to do that before the summer so I didn't have to buy those expensive swim diapers, but it never happened. I really wanted to get it done before he starts Primary in January and especially before we move back to the USA so he's in a good pattern before those long flights and travel days.
• Pacifier Project- The first time we attempted this it was the worst 3 weeks of our lives. He was incapable of calming himself without it so he would wake multiple times in the night screaming and crying and we'd go through the long process to get him back to sleep. I really wanted to stick with it, but after 3 weeks of no sleep we finally gave it back. THIS TIME I told him that a baby need his 'puff-puffs' to sleep better and we put them in an envelope and gave them to the baby. He's been just fine!
• Potty project- I've also dabbled in a little bit of potty training but when he started peeing on the floor and such I just stopped. I wasn't ready for this. After a trip I needed to make I knew it was time, though I still wasn't all ready for the journey of potty training. I went to the store to get him a new stroller and Alex spotted an Elmo potty. He said, "Mommy, can we buy the potty?" I said, "Are you ready to be done with diapers?" to which he replied yes. So I of course bought the potty and we started the next day. Cade was hard to potty train. Alex, not. He's only had one accident and one 'wet the bed' incident and was completely potty trained within days. Even when I had him in a diaper over night he woke me up to take the diaper off so he could pee. Sorry folks, no potty training tips for you, he was just ready! Hooray!
• Piano teaching- Right now I have 6 students and I love it! I could handle a few more but I'm happy with 6 too.
• Primary- I am the Primary Secretary of an extremely transient branch which keeps me super busy. We have 112 kids on our records with 7 more to join us in the next week or so. We have our Primary Program this Sunday where all the kids have a line to say and sing all the songs they've learned this year.
• Husband- My dear husband has entered the busier part of his already busy schedule. He's TDY for the 2nd time this month and works almost equally as much when he's home. It's been stressful for all but we do the best we can to enjoy quality family time since we don't have much quantity of family time.
• Me- I mentioned that I had to take a trip. About a month ago I learned some news that changed many lives. My best friend's little sister had taken her life. This is the family that we lived next door to from 1st grade on up. So not only is it tragic to have lost Lauren, but my dear friend Alison was now going through a hell of her own. I felt a strong pull to make a trip to see her. I knew the only way I could do it was to fly Space A on a military flight. Commercial flights were $2500 or higher! I contacted a friend who had flown Space A before to see how the process worked. She replied with some great tips, and then said that if the only thing that would keep me from going was my kids, that she'd watch them for me. What an offer! With that glimmer of hope I pressed forward with plans to go to El Paso and everything fell into place. In my life I've noticed that if it's meant to be, it will all go smoothly. It was still quite a bit of work and effort to get there, but I made it. I made it on my first Space A flight (which is fairly unheard of), and I made it on all of my standby flights once I was in the USA. Our visit together was priceless and really strengthened our friendship. I love her and I'm so glad I could be there for her during this rough time. I had no complications making it back to Korea either. I left Korea on a Tuesday morning and was back late Monday night the next week. Short, but very {bitter}sweet. Thanks Ruth and everyone who offered prayers in mine and my friend's behalf! We miss you Lauren.