What a weekend! LOTS OF PICTURES...

As I told you, we were in Seoul this weekend right after Thanksgiving. We left early on Friday to do a little shopping at Yongsan and to hit up Itaewon. I just had to have some more fake designer scarves and some fake Uggs. Hey you can't beat 20 bucks for a pair of warm boots to just need to throw on! And they weren't even 20 bucks with the exchange rate these dates! Dave hates them, but I don't care! Emma and I will rock our cheap sheepskin boots. After lunch we headed to our hotel. Did I mention we got to stay at Lotte World's hotel?? It was so much nicer than the Ritz! They even brought us a mini full size crib for little man and Emma had her own bed! Anyway, we did some exploring around the Lotte Center. I say center because this place is massive. It has a hotel, ice rink, department store, discount store(Korean walmart), mall, theater, and the amusement park!! We made it down to the ice rink, but no one wanted to brave taking our precious Emma out on the ice with crazy Koreans skating aimlessly into people, kind of like how driving goes around here. We mainly just explored the place, had some snacks and waited for Dave's friend Aaron to come meet us for dinner. We ate at the Sizzler. Yes the same branch that is in the states, but very different. The hostess placed us in the very back or the "family section" where kids were crawling all over the floor, running around, just plain craziness going on in there. It was a fun experience though. We finally made it back to our room and crashed. We got up early(thanks Mason) and headed to Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast and then onto the park. This place was so neat! It was all dressed up for the holidays, just something a little odd...Happy Christmas, no Merry Christmas? We found out it says that because of the way the words are translated from English to Hangul. Either way, it was very Christmasy and made the whole visit that much more special. Emma couldn't ride a lot of things but really enjoyed just looking at stuff and talking to the characters and her Korean paparazzi. Yes, they were out in full force. My poor children are going to wonder why people don't dote on their every need in the states! Oh well. Ok, this is getting way long...and no pics up yet. Short story, it was really cold out today so we mainly stayed on the inside part, yes it has indoor and outdoor. I am going to upload a video of the Christmas parade, forewarn it's almost 10 min long! I had to get it all though because it was CRAZY! If you have any questions about the pics, just comment and I will answer them...there are so many crazy things in the pictures I can only imagine the questions an outsider would ask! Hope you guys enjoy, I know we did! Two crashed out kids to show proof!

P.S. #1 Yes Emma got her bangs chopped off by a Korean hairdresser, it's not what I asked for...I would have remembered saying "Can you please give my beautiful daughter a mullet?"

#2 In the first pic, Mason looks like he is falling out, but I assure you he loves to sleep with his head thrown back like that, ask my BFFs and Dave. I always freak out that his neck is going to break...ok, that's it.

Turkey Day con't..

I have to say, for our first Thanksgiving of doing all the cooking, I think it came out GREAT! Our menu consisted of, turkey, ham, dressing, green bean casserole, party potatoes, sweet potato casserole and oh gosh...I just realized I left the deviled eggs in the fridge! Oh dear! I guess I have to eat them before tomorrow, we are going out of town for the weekend. Oops. We also made pumpkin and pecan pies. Go us! Well, go Dave. He did most of the actual cooking, I just prepped. Emma and Mason enjoyed it as well, especially Mason. He was licking his plate when he was done. He had TWO servings each of dressing and potatoes! WOW! Emma of course liked the ham and rolls. Bread freak. The cooking went really well considering the size of Korean ovens. They are TINY! We couldn't even do the turkey in there...we had to get a roaster for that. Dave fortunately has this weekend off, I know he's thinking...I should have told her I had to work! One of my BFFs and I have convinced our husbands that we HAVE to go the after Thanksgiving Sales at Yongsan in Seoul. Dave also decided to take the kids to Lotte World! It's the Korean version of Disney World. Should have some great pics from that after this weekend. So, if you don't hear from us on the actual date of Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving! We miss and love you all, and it won't be soon until we see everyone!

Thanksgiving Teaser

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hall Family! More pics to come later!

Dave, Lyndsay, Emma and Mason

Our Little Man

I had some photos I took of Mason last week that I forgot to post and then some from today. He is turning into a little comedian just like his sister. I had him sitting on the vanity in our bathroom while I was getting ready and he just looked so cute I couldn't help but take pics! The Cheerios pic is from today. Mason has just recently started eating this yummy treat since he would much rather have what everyone else is eating over his baby food! I guess he saved some for a snack later, because I found him crawling around with this stuck to his head. LOL! He had no idea why I was laughing so hard or why I had to run to get the camera before the cheerio unstuck itself! Hope you enjoy.

A Day out with Daddy!

With the big move coming up soon, Dave has been working and flying more than usual. We thought he was going to be flying this weekend, but he ended up hanging out with us! So, we made him get out of the house! We drove down to Seoul and had lunch at On the Border. So yummy! We all know that Mason loved the sticky white rice but now we know that he loves Mexican rice too! And tortillas! From lunch we drove to the Army post at Yongsan. It's always fun to see a PX bigger than your living room! We had a brief walk through Insadong, I don't think Dave was loving it as much as the BFFs do...oh well girls, we still have time to go back! I made Dave and Em try the chicken on a stick. On the streets in Korea, you find food booths that serve just about everything, Korean food wise. The chicken on a stick is WONDERFUL! It has a spicy sauce that they glaze the chicken with just before the hand it to you. Emma liked the chicken but thought it was very hot! Emma found Ronald McDonald in Insadong, who would've thought?! And we ended our evening at TGI Fridays. Not much that we did, but we saw a lot just being stuck in Seoul traffic for about half the day. We are hoping that Dave is able to go back next weekend and we will be doing more subway than car...traffic stinks.

I am officially...

a Korean mother. Well American that has adapted the Korean ways! Most mothers and grandmothers over here will carry their children on their back. I have seen many Ergos around the country and Korean made carriers as well. Anyway, when the weather gets cold, the mother wraps a blanket around her and the baby. I hadn't been doing this when going out and was getting scolded, A LOT! Finally, I gave in and this is what we looked like! I didn't get one bad look or grandma shaking her finger at me and pointing to Mason's cold legs! Yay Lyndsay!

Insadong & BFFs

Saturday was supposed to be a lovely day of Christmas shopping for myself and my BFFs, Sarah and Courtney. It quickly became a whirlwind day due some events but we still had a great time, in the little time that we had!!! We made it to Insadong, Courtney had never been. She loved it!! Buddhas for everyone! Big, goddy gold ones! We wandered up and down "Mary's Alley" frazzled in the rain and wondering who exactly we were buying for. I think a couple of times, we would look at each other and ask, "who was this for again?" Good thing we are BFFs and we keep track of that stuff! LOL! No shopping trip would be complete with a trip to Starbucks and singing gospel music. Wait, you heard me right. There was a small group of singers who really wanted us to join them on "Peace like a River." Courtney thought this would be a grand idea. Needless to say, the very kind Korean singers thanked and blessed us. I will have pics of that soon. Or, see Sarah and Courtney's blogs for them at a later date. :) We are hoping to squeeze in a few more shopping trips, kids or no kids ASAP! I mean, we have to get Sarah to buy black market maternity clothes before she leaves! hahaha. Oh, in Korea you have to hold up the "peace" sign and say "Kimchi"(not cheese), or you are just not cool. Period. :)

Spam and Rice...

That's what Mason had for dinner tonight at Shabu. I was feeding him "bap" or rice, when the Korean ladies brought me a small bowl of something I didn't recognize. Maybe it's because I've never had Spam! Dave knew what it was from the get go, he likes Spam...gross. Anyway, Mason loved it and couldn't get enough, he even choked himself trying to get the whole slice in his mouth. Emma loved dinner as usual...she was the one who picked Shabu for dinner. She even greeted the ladies with her trademark "Annyonghaseyo!" and over dramatic bow. All in all, it was a great dinner. I included some pics from Baskin Robbins ice cream cakes. A little over the top ya think?? Emma wanted them ALL. And yes, those are matching GAP hoodies, I bought them on the streets of Seoul...who knew?? LOL!