Snorkeling in Phuket

Got up early this morning and headed off for a morning snorkeling adventure with the Mitchells. Stopped at three islands off the coast of Phuket. Saw James Bond Island Mom, the one from "The Man With The Golden Gun". Hope to make it their before we leave. Had a slight rain shower for about ten minutes but we still had a good trip. I saw my first clown fish in the open ocean today. Good spot by Grant.

Location:กะตะ,Karon,Thailand

Marine Biologist help please

So we went beach combing this morning here in Koh Lanta and discovered an interesting sight. Poo, we first thought, but then discovered it was growing.


Upon closer examination we figured out that some sea critter was deep in the sand and pushing a continuous tube of sand out of the ground.


It grew at about two inches a minute. We tried to dig deep under it but the critter was either quite deep or very fast because we were unable to apprehend it. We then noticed the little piles everywhere along the beach right at the surf line.


Can anyone help us figure out what our mysterious critter is?

After that Grant decided to go explore a bit more.


What is this he says?


Check it out


Two flip flops....



Oh wait it's a hermit crab.

Had a great day on the beach and exploring the island.

Location:Sala Dan,Thailand

Thailand vacation

We have made it to the beach in Thailand. Three nights here in Koh Lanta and then off to Phuket to meet the Mitchells.






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Location:Sala Dan,Thailand

Snow!!!

This ones for those of you sweating buckets just getting dressed in Singapore.

First snow of the year yesterday here in Songdo. Started about 11:00am and didn't stop until 7:00pm. And...........

No school today

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Sting

Great evening out with Kelly and our great friends John Groom and Jessica Lichtig Groom. It was Jessica's birthday and we went to see Sting at the Olympic Park Stadium in Seoul.








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Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Deep sigh

Sitting here at 9:30 PM on a Saturday night. Spent the day with Grant at a Korean wedding, toy helicopter shopping then musical rehearsal. Now he is asleep, Mike and Linda have gone home after a wonderful visit, Kelly is in Tokyo for a class, I have a glass of Flor de Caña in my hand and the remote to start a man movie. Great weekend with the dude but can't wait for Kelly to come home tomorrow. So until then I think I'm pretty happy right where I am.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Thanksgiving #2

What a great day enjoyed by all. We are so thankful for all our great friends here in Songdo. We are so lucky and excited to have Mike and Linda here visiting. To all those friends and family not here with us we miss you all and hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Thanksgiving

It's Wednesday in the states but Thursday in Songdo. Our nine pound turkey is in the oven. Good thing it wasn't 9.1 pounds otherwise it wouldn't fit. Tight quarters in the Korean oven. 40 people will be here at 1:00, hope WE all fit.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

DMZ

Mo and Lo with North Korea right behind them.

This is the location my face book app grabbed. Thought it was pretty cool.

Location:Dolasanli,Paju,South Korea

Cool things coming up

Nana and Papa will be here in about 30 hours. Yeah.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Movember

Movember is moving along nicely. Round two of photos is tomorrow. Check out the link to see the clean shaven video.
http://vimeo.com/53565347

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Oh my. Flushed in S Korea

Just had to share this one with you all.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/news/regions/asia-pacific/south-korea/south-korea-claims-worlds-first-toilet-theme-park-v

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57548161-1/flushed-with-pride-korea-celebrates-toilet-theme-park/

Location:Suwon, South Korea

Clarification

Just to clear things up a bit. I have been referring quite a bit to my "in-laws".

Mike and Linda, also know as Mo and Lo, or Nana and Papa are Kelly's parents, which makes me the favorite son-in-law, and Grant is the solo Grandson on that side of the family.

Mo and Lo have been planning the trip to Korea for some time and we are VERY EXCITED to have them come visit.

I have a very great relationship with my fantastic in-laws, which most people probably can't say. I cannot express the true joy I am feeling to see them in six days.


(Love you Nana)

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Portland???

Woke up this morning and wasn't quite sure weather (spelled that way on purpose) I was in Portland or Incheon. It definitely looks and feels like a November Portland morning. Our up and coming visitors, my favorite in-laws, will be here in 6 days. I guess Mother Nature is wanting them to feel at home.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

The wall

Grant and Jessica on the climbing wall. The kids all call Grant the "spider" since he can make it up all the difficult routes on the wall. However I think he was enjoying swinging on this attempt.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

A Korean Wedding

Mark and I attended our first true Korean wedding this weekend. The last wedding was half American an partially in English so we were thinking that it didn't count. (-;

Hanmi (the groom) worked security at Chadwick and is a lovely guy. So happy for him. He's also in the military so the wedding had all kinds of special pieces. Eunji (the bride) entered under a canopy of swords...so cool!










The handsome (yea...ok. I'm a sucker for a buffed up man in uniform) officers kept watch over the bride and groom during the proceedings.



My favorite part of the entire ceremony? When men and women from the "audience" came through the canopy to give single roses each to the bride and groom as a "goodbye".







We then all headed to the buffet hall for grub. There were three different weddings happening at the wedding hall so it was pretty crowded. Then again....everything is crowded in Asia.






It was a lovely afternoon. If I ever have another wedding I am definitely having some military swords involved! Oh wait....(-;
K

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4C camp day

Grants teacher Ginger Phillips hosted the 4C camp day. We pulled some tents together, the kids brought snacks and class was held in the playground all day. The weather cooperated so it was a nice sunny fall day.


Hot chocolate and morning meeting.


More snacks


Tent time


Singalong, no camp fire. Korean regulations.
Lunch time will be hot dogs roasted over the BBQ.

After lunch was treat time, which of course was related to a lesson. How long does it take to toast a marshmallow?


95% of the kids hadn't toasted a marshmallow over a fire. When the marshmallow started to droop they asked, "what do I do with it?" The answer I gave was eat it. They thought I was kidding.
It was a fun day had by all. Now it's time to break camp, the worst part of every camping trip. At least it's not raining.

Location:Chadwick international

Party time

We had a great anniversary party last night at Il Mazzio with a bunch friends. It's fantastic having so many friends here, yet we still cherish those that are in other places around the globe.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea

Joining the crowd

Today was the "Good Market" which is basically a huge garage sale in Central Park. The Hevland family joined the crowd and got ourselves a table to sell off stuff that was cluttering our closets.

Have to say we did pretty well. Only brought back about 15% of what we took with us.

Location:Central Park, Songdo

Mater 2.0

It has been a long week with many ups, downs, and status quo's. I hiked a huge mountain Monday and Tuesday, grant has been busy with swimming and the climbing wall and Kelly has been busy education the youths of Korea.
Wednesday brought a change to our Korean family. Our trusty Mater has moved on to new lucky owners, Tamarisk and Shelly. While we have, let's not say upgraded, we will just say changed the scenery. So we are now driving a 1997 green Galloper.




This one has 80,000k on it where ol mater was at about 206,000k. We also have an iPod connection which we are very excited about.

The most interesting part about this new car is the fuel it uses.




I filled it up today. Approx 52 liters for around 58,000won. Rate of exchange is about 1.00$ US to 1,100 won.

Location:Songdodong,,South Korea