Seoul Tower/Love locks

One of my favorite trips was when we first went to Seoul Tower. It was my first time using the trains here in Korea and Blake's second time :) So I put my faith in him haha since he seemed so confident. This is one of many signs. There are also maps along the train stations to help you know which way you would like to go and which train you need to get on. Just like the picture below to the right indicates :) After many stops and transfers we finally reached our destination. From the ground you can see the tower. Pretty cool huh? I thought so :) The next step was a hike up a steep hill (about half a mile) to the cable car. From there we had to go up a bunch of stairs (it got hot pretty quick). A video for your viewing pleasure (excuse Blake's finger-you may see it again in MANY other videos).

We quickly purchased tickets... and were soon on our way to the cable car.

Once we were at the top there was a wall (we can't remember what it was for and we couldn't understand the plaque).

We were at Seoul Tower!!

Down at the base of the tower there was some entertainment...

There was a lot of cool things to see, as well as some 'asian' culture :D

I Have to say though that the most favorite part of the day was the Locks. Before we had even left the base Blake had explained that we needed to make a stop really quick at the local shopping mart. "What for?" I asked, "To lock some stuff up" came the reply from Blake. I had just assumed that maybe he meant the backpack I was carrying, that maybe there would be a place to put it when we didn't need it right there. so I let the thought go of whatever it was for. After we initially reached the top and before we went to take pictures of the cool performers we saw, "hold on," Blake said "I want to show you something" we walked a ways and found an area that looked to be lined with metal christmas trees, with a fence guarding the edge of the cliff where Seoul Tower was, I looked closer and this is what I saw. The metal tree was actually covered, COVERED in locks. I hadn't made the connection yet and was still unsure of what was going on. It was very pretty to look at though, all the proclamations of love sitting right there on the fence was wonderful to see. you could really feel the Love. Blake began rustling around in the backpack and pulled out the sturdy silver locks he had bought that morning. "I have to make it official" he said with a smile. I hope you don't mind being locked to me forever. I couldn't help but giggle and he pulled out a blue marker and began to write. I was totall surprised, what a wonderful surpise!! Our love was going to be locked together forever!! And he planned it out all by himself!! What a wonderful man!! He wrote on his lock - "Blake locking our love for eternity" and on my lock- - "Indira Supermega awesome Love man" (love man is a tiny cartoon character that Blake likes to draw when he's being cute or romantic, or wants to make me laugh, it's his go-to guy if he needs some help with his emotions; hence the name: Love Man) This is a picture of him locking it UP!! and the next one is of the finished product. We locked it on the fence as opposed to the tree so we could see it better :D

My stay in Korea has been wonderful, my husband has made it super great!! it's a super secret blessing in disguise that I'm able to stay a little bit longer, and although it may complicate things slightly we are glad that it happened. Hope everyone is doing well. We love you all!!!

p.s. Blake is trying a new year's resolution "to keep in better touch with my family" he tells me. so once a week on Sunday he's either going to write a blog here. or he'll be writing a letter home to mom and dad, so look out!!!

Snowboarding!!

GREETINGS FROM O2 SKI RESORT!!!

hello hello!!!
this is the two of us posing for pictures, Indira on the left, and Blake is on the right, the pictures aren't exactly symmetrical I know, they are from different camera positions. so I hope nobody has OCD. (it bugs me a little bit) ha ha ha. Anyway, we had a blast. This was Indira's FIRST TIME EVER snowboarding, and also Blake's FIRST TIME EVER snowboarding. needless to say we're both a little bit sore. There was a lot of falling down.... A LOT!!! We spent most of our time on the "junior" slope, it was slow going but Blake got the hang of things pretty quickly ("of course you'd make yourself sound soooo good" -Indira). Unfortunately Indira didn't have snow pants on or the right gloves so we make a pit stop to get her suited up. Her jeans were getting wet and making things more difficult. But once we got her a good pair of pants and some 'real' snow gloves (as well as a renewed conviction) we gave it another shot. Again the going was slow but by the end of the day Indira could slow down, and stop all by herself. She could turn left or right whenever she wanted to. She was boarding instead of just along for the ride. her quote ---> "Once you get past the being afraid part, that's when your body starts doing what you want it to" Of course the proper gear can make a world of difference. The trip didn't start off that great, somehow the people who took our information didn't load our equipment onto the bus. So we were without boards or boots from the very beginning. THANKFULLY our tour guide was super helpful and rented us boots and boards from the ski resort itself. Even if it took about 45 more minutes than expected (we should of had our gear from the beginning) things still worked out. (Insert smiley face here)

SO!! once we got our gear on, and once we got situated with our things in a locker, (An ordeal all in itself having to have the correct Korean change to even use the locker), and once we got Indira some gloves and some pants helping her stay warm, the trip began to get really fun. Indira became braver and started learning faster, learning to slow down on her heels, and not letting the snowboard dip the front end planting her face in the snow. She's a quick learner for having a pushy, aggressive, inexperienced punk (me ^_^) helping her along instead of a real instructor. I am very proud of the progress she made in facing her fears. The very LEAST fun part about the trip was riding the ski lifts. For whatever reason it was incredibly WINDY. So cold temperatures become FRIGID temperatures, and the worst part was there was no way to get around it. The gondolas (the box you ride in, instead of sitting in the frigid open air) were shut down because of the wind. They move around a lot more because it's a solid object, as opposed to a regular lift where the wind can just whip right through the passengers and skis. It sucked. Probably the coldest temperatures I've ever been in. I know because through the 4 layers of pants I was wearing, my legs would start to get cold about half way up the lift, and I'd almost be shivering when I got to the top. Needless to say, Indira had a tough time deciding that riding the lift was worth stumbling down a hill with your feet stuck to a board. This picture is of one of the more advanced slopes that we didn't go on. You can see the Gondolas stationary.

The picture to the right is of two of the 'expert' slopes. One of the hardest parts about learning how to snowboard for the first time was the conditions. The O2 resort had only 2 'beginner' hills, only one of which where we spent our time. The Problem with only having one beginner hill on a mountain with fabricated snow is that most of it turns into ice. The hard part about being a beginner, and learning on a slope that is mostly ice, is that falling down hurts a lot more than it rightfully should. Falling down on your butt on solid ice is a lot more painful than falling down in three inches of fresh powdery snow. Fortunately near the end of the day (when we were at our highest skill) it had snowed enough to give us the courage to go a little bit faster, the fear of falling on solid ice somewhat diminished. This was the 'Beginner' hill we spent our time on, along with a picture of the gondolas that were shut down.

We had a wonderful time though and gained some experience points, as well as strengthened our bonds of Matrimony. It was most excellent even though I was completely exhausted by the end of the day (can you tell?) it was excellent. I had enough to say, "I don't wanna do this anymore" ha ha ha, truly I felt like I got beat up by 5 big mean mafia guys.
There will be more blogs to come (again we're sorry that these are so slow in coming) the snowboarding trip actually happened this past Saturday, the 8th, so now we just need to play catch-up. We love everybody and hope to hear about your adventures as well!!!

OOOH OOOH OOOH!!!! ""PROMPT""

"what was your favorite part about this holiday season? a favorite gift? a special memory? a bonding experience? traveling? whatever it is, tell us ALL about it!!"

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas all!

Had a nice relaxing Christmas day here in the Shade. We stayed up Christmas Eve til about 11, 11.30 watching It's a Wonderful Life, always a classic. Did you know that that movie initially did horribly when it first came out? It didn't even make enough money to cover the production costs at first, but then apparently became a staple as tv channels began looking for holiday programming. The kids all stayed up pretty late (2 am?) BDan and Keaton watching videos on YouTube, while Julia and I worked on the finishing touches of some Christmas presents. That meant we only got up and at em around 9.30 am. Pretty wild. Mom and I were up the earliest, about an hour before everyone else, and contemplated waking everyone else by jumping on their beds like we did to mom and pop as little kiddys on Christmas morning.

I love our Christmas traditions, the stockings first and then just passing around presents and eating cinnamon rolls, watching newly opened movie-presents and lying around in our pjs. Mom made a delicious lasagna we had after all the presents were opened. This year Brother Garcia came over to take some quick pics of the family- Mom put them up on her facebook- and we just finished a grueling game of Mexican Train.

I love my family. So glad we could come out to spend the holidays with them. I love love love Brandon's family as well, but the two are very different creatures. Weather pending, Brandon and I will head back, loaded up with presents and my old things from high school to sort through, stop for some WaWa hoagies at the top of the NE extension and be home in time for Christmas with the Stumps Tuesday evening.

Love you all, thanks for being an excellent family. :D

Liberty

Plus a bonus pic:

PPS- that killer Viking hat mom's wearing in one of those pics? That was the last-minute present that kept me and J up so late Christmas eve. Totally forgot how much I had left to do to finish it, but it was definitely worth it.

Adventures and Excitement

OKAY!!! as we're waiting here for Christmas for the Moho and Sumner family to kick off we figured that we'd do a little bit of updating so everybody knew that yes we were still alive and that also we have been doing lots of exciting things. NOT to say that sitting at home together and finally being able to enjoy married life as a newlywed couple properly should. But Indira is going to be here a total of 5 weeks. There needs to be some planned activities. But fiiiiIIRRRRSSSTTT...

INTRODUCTIONS!!
This is the hotel that I had booked for Indira for the first couple of days that she was here, she would've stayed there longer, I made my reservations later than I should've, so we had to be out by Wednesday. Yes those are Christmas lights, Yes I put them up before Indira even arrived to surprise her with a romantic "honeymoon suite" and yes our bed is completely unmade, or sheets were dirty so we had to go downstairs and ask about them. they took the sheets and this is before they had brought new ones... <--- ---- (That was a Filthy Lie)
Our first adventures off base (once we got her registered into the system so she could get back on) were sort of limited. We didn't do a whole lot as it was FREEZING I think the wind chill was in the low single digits. ICY as you can see in The picture the sun was going down as well, and of course that made it even colder. we didn 't do much this first day, it was pretty much, "let's go out to eat!!" This was when Indira tried Kimchi for the first time, it was slightly spicy to me, and not at all spicy to her (you know Mexican taste buds) ha ha, but it wasn't anything too bad. I've heard that there are lots of different typed of kimche out there, and really, depending on where you go is what decides what kind you get. here's a video of that dining experience along with some pictures...

The food was really really good and we plan on going back again soon. There's lots of places that I want to take Indira, 4 that I can think of off the top of my head right now here sitting and thinking about it. So yea, there will be more posts about food and restaurants and such so stay 'posted' heh heh heh

see you all SOON, there's more to come, we promise! lots of adventures and fun AWAITS Love you all. -Blake (and Indira, she's passed out early, not feeling well and such)