Zachariah's Birthday Count Down

Tobias' Birthday Count Down

Zachariah's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Zac's 2nd birthday last weekend...a week late but we waited until his presents were all here. It was a quiet party with just the four of us but very nice. I made yummy chilli and we had corn on the cob. It was the first time Zac had eaten corn on the cob so it was fun to watch him try :) Tobias helped me make and decorate the cake. He likes to help but it sure does make clean-up take longer! I guess that's the fun part of baking...having little hands help make a big mess!!
Zac got a cool new Radio Flyer Scooter from YiaYia & Papou (please excuse me if those are spelled wrong) which he loves to ride around the roof. .He also got a new train book to read at night since we've been reading the same two books for over a month now. Ask Zac to pick out a book at bedtime and he always picks the train books. He got a bowling set, new mega block cars with launchers, some pj's, a few shirts, and a huge inflatable ball which the boys can climb inside of and roll around. We haven't tried it yet but I'll send video as soon as we do :)



I can't believe that he's 2 already! The people here think he's at least 3 'cause he's so much bigger than the Korean children his age. Both the boys are growing like weeds...

Hope all is well with everyone!

Our New Home

Hello to everyone! We have arrived and are adjusting to our new life here in Seoul. I have found a wonderful church community here, which has been in the Seoul area for over 100 years. The church building is beautiful, it's like an oasis in the middle of this never-sleeping city.
Drew has settled into his new job as a 2LT up at Camp Stanley, about 1 1/2 hours north of us. He is able to come home most weekends but we miss him during the week. He is learning all about how to transport people and things around. I think he feels like a dad to a lot of his soldiers, since he's older than most of them, but they seem to really like him as a leader so I think he's having a good time for the most part. We would rather he be down here and home every night but he's getting platoon leader time which is good.

Drew did a wonderful job finding us a new home here. Our apartment is huge and we even have a guest bedroom so anyone wanting to visit will have a place to sleep :) We live on the top floor here (the 13Th)with gardens on the roof and a market on street level. The roof is a great place for the boys to go roller blade, ride the scooter, run around, and meet all the people living in our building. Most of them don't speak English but it doesn't seem to matter much. Everyone is very friendly and Tobias and Zac are constantly given high 5's, hugs, kisses, being talked to in a language they don't understand...the saying "It takes a village to raise a child" is very true here. Your children have 30 million parents in this city! Yes, there are 12 million people that live in the city of Seoul and another 26 million living around the city. It's amazing how many people live in such a small country!! We have learned how to say "hello" and "thank you" in Korean but everything else "sounds Greek to me"!

Our car finally arrived last week, and after days and days of paperwork, registering, and getting my Korean drivers license we tried to drive up to Camp Stanely on Saturday. The trip should have been 1 1/2 hours, but turned into 3 hours 'cause we got lost!! The roads here are scary! Not just because all the signs are in Korean, but the drivers would put LA and NYC drivers to shame! The motorcyclists rule the roads (and sidewalks for that matter). The taxi drivers are crazy and cut you off all the time and the buses think they are NASCAR drivers! It's not as scary as I thought it would be, driving here, but it definitely took a day or two to get used to people driving so close to my car! Drew keeps telling me we need to get a GPS so that we can find our way around but I think it's kinda fun getting lost...we get to see places here that we wouldn't see if we hadn't gotten lost :) We now know where EverLand is if we ever want to go (I think it's a theme park).

Haven't done much exploring yet (except for our getting lost on the expressway) but now that we're more settled we can start taking the subway other places rather than just to post. The boys love the subway! Zac gets so excited when it arrives that people on the train are all looking out the windows wondering what all the screaming is about! The only thing Tobias doesn't like is having to take the elevator instead of the escalator when we have the stroller. Me, I like it when he's confined in a box, at least for a few minutes :) There are a lot of sports and activities for the boys to be involved in on post. Tobias wants to try Tae Kwon Do and golf. I think we'll try the martial arts first.

So lots of new stuff for us to experience, lots of new people to meet, lots of Korean to learn! Though I won't be a good or as diligent as my brother-in-law, Gregory, is at this blogging, I will try to keep this up to date with pictures and stories of our adventure here. Please keep in touch by email or phone. Love to everyone!