October in Seoul

WE SURVIVED OUR FIRST ENTIRE MONTH IN KOREA (SEPTEMBER) ...

HERE'S A GLIMPSE INTO OUR OCTOBER 2007!

This beautiful family is mine! Jim was fortunately down in Seoul for an exercise (as you can see by his uniform), so he got to take the boys Trick-or-Treating with me! We went to a high-rise American apartment building, full of Majors and Lieutenant Colonels. We figured they out-rank us so maybe they will have more/better candy....? I'll leave to to wonder whether or not that was true. Joey is the Lion and Jimmy is the Frog.
Here's an awesome very candid shot of the boys starting another wrestling match over who would get to investigate Mom's lunchbox! Check out those teeth!
Yes, it is getting chilly, so on go the gloves, hats, shoes and jackets. It takes like 20 minutes to get them dressed for a walk, so walks are now longer just to make it worth the effort. Surprisingly they are pretty good about wearing the stuff. I can't believe the gloves stay on --- better than the shoes. Joey left, Jimmy right.

Had to include the cutest shot of some Korean Kindergartners outside the largest KyongBeukGong Palace in NW Seoul. They are so darn adorable in their matching school uniforms. Everyone wears uniforms, private or public schools, through high school.

Another stroll on a warmer day. Jimmy's chewing on a toy telephone while Joey gets a better view.

Take care everyone, hope your Thanksgivings are great!!!

7 Month Old Cuties!

JUST SOME RUN-OF-THE-MILL EVERY-DAY PICTURES OF OUR HANDSOME LITTLE MEN!

SEPTEMBER 2007

I think Joey is trying to eat his SeaHorse puppet --- named "Sanjay", he is an Indian SeaHorse and has a similar accent to Hapu on the Simpsons, when Jim and I do puppet shows for the boys!
Our just barely firstborn... napping. How precious!

Joey regularly sleeps like he's just been shot!
Joey (left) and Jimmy (right) blurry with excitement! Evidence that supports the "Joey does not like his socks" conclusion. He always takes them off, prefers them as toys in lieu of clothing, I guess.
I had NOTHING to do with this, Nanny Corrie put the Favre hat on Jimmy, honest!

Jimmy either tired or mad or sad, don't know which because I don't remember what sound he made after I snapped the pic!
Joey on the left, Jimmy on the right. Jimmy normally looks like he has a plan, an agenda. This picture would support that claim, wouldn't you say? As a disclaimer, I have to add that the area rug is indeed ugly... apartments in Korea rarely have ANY carpetting, so we had to take what we could get to get these guys some comfy floor covering to crawl and fall on!

Anyunghaseo - in Korea!

We are now living in Korea!

We got to Korea on August 25th. The flight over went very well actually because the Army paid for four whole seats and Korean Airlines gave us the bulkhead row with two of what they call "bassinet seats". They are little baskets that attach to the bulkhead. The boys slept most of the way and that left Jim and I with 2 seats each, which was a blessing. We couldn't have asked for a better flight.

We went straight to a nice on-post hotel, www.dragonhilllodge.com, which was a good way to be received. We had to inprocess the next few days and after 8 days we moved into our house on-post. It's a pretty nice place and definitely large by Seoul standards. Jim lives up north in Tongducheon Monday - Friday, getting to come down to Seoul on most weekends. He is a Fire Support Officer for 1-72 Combined Arms Battalion and I am working in the 8th United States Army G5 (Future Plans) shop. 8th Army (www.usfk.mil) is commanded by LTG Valcourt and the United States Forces Korea is commanded by GEN Bell. They both work in buildings right next door to me, which is awful when you are a lowly Captain. Don't worry, though, I make a mean cup of coffee!!!

I will continue with some of our latest pictures of the boys and stuff we've been doing around Seoul!

This is a shot of Jimmy and Joey sporting their "Mommy support", donning the helicopter outfits! Starting to get a bit chilly, so they are wearing light jackets that they got from their California cousins Tara and Liam.
We went to the little Oktoberfest on post in late September. Petra, a very good friend of mine form Lawton, OK, lent us these cute baby Lederhosen outfits to wear! Petra is a German-American and also has twins, but they are already teenagers. It was really nice of her to share such special outfits with us. The Oktoberfest was a little disappointing since we've both been to the real deal in Munchen, but at least I won the arm-wrestling contest and Jim got 2d in the man's division. He probably won't like that I published that. Anyhow, our prizes got us a really nice free dinner but we both had little scabs on our elbows. Too funny!
My big boy Jimmy trying to eat a Breze (pretzel) at the Oktoberfest! So much for that low-carb diet, I had to have a couple liters of Bier, a Breze and a Jagerschnitzel.
Ah, finally, proof that we do explore the city and not just hang out on post! Jimmy is practicing his diplomacy in preparation for his run for the "world presidency" in 2048. We were on our way in the subway to MyongDong, a shopping district, when these ladies were insisting on communicating about the boys despite our lack of Korean knowledge and theirs of English. We decided we needed to commit "namja" to memory, it means "boy". This is important because she just got up and grabbed Jimmy's crotch in an attempt to determine his gender!
Lastly, here are the boys on their 8 month birthday sporting their cousins' colors, the Dodgers and Lakers. Just in case you are wondering, no, Jimmy did not pull Joey down backward right after I shot this picture, but they do that often enough! It's like Ultimate Fighting Championship on a daily basis. Such cuties, eh?

Yellowstone National Park

While in Wyoming at Jim and Raye's, we took a day trip to Yellowstone National Park, which as every American should eventually know, is an amazing place. You can't see everything in one day, so we limited ourselves to Mammoth Hot Springs and Old Faithful.

Below are Joey and me, Jimmy and Jim in front of Mammoth Hot Springs, getting more use out of our Sherpani Kiddo Backpacks. They are pretty convenient once you get used to slinging the kid onto your back while they're inside them! Joey didn't seem to mind wearing his "Cool Dude" sunglasses, but Jimmy didn't wear them for long. I'm not sure if that was because HE didn't like them or his Daddy didn't like them on HIM....?

Well, this next picture is NOT Yellowstone, but my favorite lake, Jenny Lake. Jim's parents took the kids for us for 3 days and 2 nights and we stayed in Jackson. One day, we rented Kayaks and got out onto Jenny Lake. I was pretty frantic the whole time. With the Tetons behind you, it's pretty intimidating and the water was cold since it is NW Wyoming, although August. It was the first time Jim and I had sea-kayaked and we would both like to do it again, especially in this breath-taking setting. We just love this part of the country.

Back to Yellowstone. We waited quite a while for Old Faithful to keep her word, but she finally did spew and we realized -- too late -- that we were downwind! So, we got sprayed by sulfur-smelling geyser spit. Say that ten times real fast! Thankfully, Grandpa was there (below) to protect Jimmy while Grandma (nearby) protected Joey from the icky smelling mist. It was funny, though, looking back on it.
Ok, as advertised, Gramma protecting Joey as the mist builds behind her --- most of the benches cleared out as people saw it coming, but with two babies and a Lab in tow, we sort of had to stick it out, quite a logisitics tail.
And, lastly, there's my Jim with our Lab Bonnie, who will be staying in Wyoming with Gramma and Grampa while we go to Korea for 2 years. We will miss her. She's a bundle of energy and incredibly loving.

August in Wyoming

The boys flew for the 3rd time (at the ripe old age of almost 6 months) from Central Wisconsin Airport to Wyoming to visit their other Grandparents. They did well considering it was actually three small flights with all the connections, but it was a pain in the butt with each of us carrying a diaper bag, stroller, our own carry-on, and a boy! We are not looking forward to doing this all the way over the Pacific in two weeks!

Below is an awesome "caught in the act" shot of Jimmy, who apparently snuck into my wallet while left somewhat unmonitored on his Grandpa and Grandpa Kane's living room floor! That look in his face is priceless. He always looks like he's plotting something, so this was finally proof!

Jim's parents rented some horses from a neighbor for all of us to enjoy in their neighborhood, which is the Grand Teton National Forest. Gorgeous. Here is a shot of Grandpa Kane who, despite being born and raised in the Chicago area, has become quite the Western Mountain Man since retiring out to Wyoming 4 years ago.

Here is one of those mandatory poses, of the Kane Grandparents with our boys, all decked out in cowboy hats for the occasion. They are standing on their front deck, pretty beautiful, huh? We like it better in winter there because of the skiing, but it surely is gorgeous in the summer, too, with so much outdoor activity just outside your house! Jim Sr is holding Joey and Raye is holding Jimmy. Looks like Joey is ready to take off on Grandpa!
This is a shot of me with Joey and Jim and Raye, during our hike up Darby Canyon. It's a 4 hour round-trip hike that start in Idaho and ends in a cave in Wyoming. It was incredibly beautiful. We just bought the Sherpani Kiddo Backpacks the day before in our favorite Ski-Hike shop in tiny Driggs, ID. We couldn't find any in all of mighty Jackson, Wy, the day before! Anyhow, it was quite a workout, especially with 20 pounds of baby on my back! They were really good until the last 10 minutes, thank goodness! We packed sandwiches and ate them at the top while the boys had a bottle!
Back to the horses, Jim and Jimmy on a very tempermental and stubborn horse!
We also went to Yellowstone during our visit, which is only about 1 1/2 hours from Jim and Raye's house. I will post pictures from that day soon.

August in Wisconsin

Hi everyone, it's been forever, so I better get to updating this thing, three months late!

So, my boys Jimmy and Joey and my husband Jim and I had 23 days of vacation in August, split between Wisconsin and Wyoming. It was a gorgeous summer in both places, but to keep things simple, I will go chronologically and start with pictures from Wisconsin.

This first one is of Joey and his Godmother, Jeanne, my brother Mike's wife. They are sitting on Mike and Jeanne's deck in their backyard near Shawano. We stayed with Mike and Jeanne and we had a great time with them, drank a lot of beer, ate some awesome home-cooking and saw a lot of people we hadn't seen in a long time!

I am the youngest of 7 kids, so it is rare that all of us get together. My mom invited us all to Club 117 in Bonduel (where I graduated from High School) for Sunday dinner. The food was great, but it was especially nice to see some family members we hadn't seen in years. The boys met a lot of people for the first time and I think they presented themselves well since they got held mostly by others instead of by us! This picture below is my brother Pat's wife, Lynn, holding the other twin boy, Jimmy.
My Mom really wanted to go to the NorthEast Wisconsin (NEW) Zoo, so the boys got to experience their first zoo very close to home! It's in Suamico, which is just a couple miles NE of Green Bay. The grounds were very pretty but since it's in a such a small town, the assortment of animals was not too impressive. A nice place to go for a walk to enjoy the trees and flowers, mostly. Below is a picture of Jim with Jimmy and my niece Brooke with Joey. It was a beautiful day!
The boys even got to go on a ride in a HUGE tractor, courtesy of "CPR Custom", my nephew Chris' custom field-work business! His dad, my brother Pat, drove the tractor over for us and the boys went for a spin with Jim. They definitely thought this was pretty cool!

Our time in Wisconsin just happened to coincide with the Bonduel Lions' Club Corn Roast. It's a much bally-ho'd event in SE Shawano county, that although I lived there 17 years, I don't think I ever attended before! So, you pay $3 and get ALL THE CORN YOU CAN EAT! It's awesome fresh sweet corn, but the best part might be ALL THE BUTTER YOU CAN POOR ON THE CORN! Of course the butter is awesome fresh locally made stuff, which I just realized does not have trans-fats. Bummer, now it's just not as neat of a memory. I like to be rebelious sometimes. This picture below is Jim, my sister Connie and my niece Brooke. This was accompanied by a fair amount of Miller beer, of course!