December 2010

2010 proved to be a busy year for our family.  Not only did we welcome Danny home from a year in Korea but we moved to Anchorage a few months ago.  In addition, we celebrated Phia's birthday, got together with our family for some good ole fashioned tamale making, and celebrated an absolutely wonderful Christmas. 

The birthday girl wanted a cookie shaped like a cupcake.

Fun with silly string.

Just the beginning.

Getting ready to enjoy our hard work.

Tracking Santa in between tamale rolling.

New Christmas Pj's to open presents.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our friends and family. 

Korea Vacation Randomness

Just a few more pictures that I wanted to share with everyone.

Outside the mall we visited.  Just a typical city street scene.

Danny's famous in these parts.

Maybe the people will be too drunk to notice the misspellings!

Our final moments together.  Notice he's already back in uniform to head off to work and I head back to the States. 

A lesson in etiquette . . .

Being the non-international traveler that I am, I found the bathrooms quite interesting.  When I first arrived Danny reminded me that the flush button on most toilets is a button on the top left side of the bowl.  He recommended that I don't push any other buttons on the toilet as water or some strange looking contraption might rise up and spray water all over me.  Of course, I had to investigate. 

If you look closely at this picture you'll see a red button on the top left of the toilet and some plastic all over the seat.  Most of the public toilets looked like this and the purpose is to provide a sanitary spot to rest upon. The directions said to push the red button and a new piece of plastic would move over the rim.  It only worked once.  Equally fascinating was this button I keep seeing in all the bathrooms.  It's called an etiquette bell.  Heading Danny's advice, I didn't push any strange buttons for fear that something embarrassing might happen . . . until the last day I was in Korea.   

I finally pushed the bell!  It basically a speaker that makes a lot of toilet flushing sounds so the people in the stall next to me or the waiting outside don't hear any personal noises coming from my stall.  I thought it was a pretty clever idea.  The only problem was I had pushed it right before leaving the stall and it didn't shut off right away and as I opened the stall door I saw about 10 ladies waiting in line looking at me.

Even though I don't read Korean the signs to the bathrooms were pretty obvious:

Korean Cuisine

Korea is well known for their use of meat and vegetables in many dishes.  Kimchi (a traditional Korean food of fermented vegetables and spices) often comes to mind when people think of Korean food.  Here's an example of the food laid out in front of us at a restaurant that serves beef bulgogi.  Notice all the side dishes.  The meat was cooked in front of us and then we wrapped the meet up into pieces of lettuce and added any sides we wanted for flavor. 

Korea has every food you can imagine - great italian food (who knew) to Brazilian steakhouses, American favorites such as Dunkin Doughnuts (we don't even have that in Alaska) and my all time favorite Korean fried dish, yakimando.  

Brazilian banana dessert.

Possibly the best tasting waffle served with ice cream and fruit that Danny and I shared.

Dunkin Doughnuts trying to take over the waist bands of the world!

I can't forget a picture of my favorite food in Korea - Yakimando.  Kind of like an egg roll and a spring roll merged together and hopped into the fryer! 

Adventures in Korea

Thanks to Uncle David, Aunt Elena, and my Mom (they watched the kids) I was able to visit Danny at Osan AFB, Korea.  We toured, ate, and drank as much as we could in 6 short days. 

First I flew over Japan to get to Korea.

Then Danny and I took a day long tour in Seoul.  Forgive me for not writing down the names of all the places we went.  The first stop was to a temple. 

There was a celebration going on at the temple so the place was decorated with these lanterns.  It was really beautiful. 

We then watched the changing of the guard at a Palace.  Not sure if the facial hair was real or not.  We were also wondering who was guarding the palace while these guys changed command.

Here we are with some local people.

This pagoda was on the Palace grounds. 

Danny decided to get into costume before visiting a traditional upper class Korean house.  A class of people called the yangban lived in these houses that included separate quarters for men, women, and servants.

First, I had to put Danny to work in a traditional Korean carrier. 

Notice the hanging doors?  They were held up in the summer and brought down during the colder months.

You'll notice the openings near the bottom of the floor - they would build fires in here and this is how they would heat the floors.  I guess radiant floor heating has been around for centuries. 

I can't remember the name of the game but it's a traditional Korea game where sticks/spears are meant to be thrown into the small holes on that post.

For lunch we ate at a traditional Korean restaurant and toured some outdoor markets.  Our tour lasted until about 5pm at which we were exhausted.  More pictures will follow. 

Graduation Time

I know it's taken many more years than I expected but I finally graduated with my Bachelors in Political Science with a Minor in History.  I began this journey at the University of Alaska Southeast, transferred to the University of Alaska Anchorage, and finally finished at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  I know that my family is happier with my nose not stuck in the book!  I couldn't have completed my degree without their loving support.  I also appreciate all the support from friends throughout the years.  Thank you all.

  The day before graduation was pedicure day and Phia got her first pedicure.  I had to include the shot because she's cute and she's actually looking at the camera.

Shawn Turns 8!!!

Shawn had a sleep over before his actual birthday and then an ice cream cake with Phia and I.  He had his heart set on a Pokemon game that included a Pokewalker.  Similar to a pedometer but more fun because the more you walk the more Pokemon you catch. 

Happy 6th Birthday Phia

Phia celebrated her 6th birthday at Chuck E Cheese with family and friends.  Aunt Elena was nice enough to get her a cake since we were running late in driving down from Fairbanks.  It's winter so it's to be expected.  I think it was the birthday she always wanted but as soon as Chuck E came out she was so shy. 

Happy Birthday my Phia. 

Winter Fun

I have been really bad about posting on here. I take lots of pictures I just never get around to posting them so I thought I'd take a minute this morning and load a few. We went to the Ice Park in North Pole last night for Girl Scouts. I only have pictures of Phia as I never could catch up with Shawn. Also, we had to make the customary visit to Santa to tell him what we wanted for Christmas.

Ice cave.

Bowl O'Phia