life with the lieutenant

• Some bloggers write posts and schedule them to appear in the future. Other bloggers (ahem, myself) write posts and try to go back in time to last weekend. If I don't recap it, I'm sure to forget it. And it was fun, so here we go.
• Sadly, we got word that our sitter is leaving very soon for the States. Permanently. So I was happy that I booked her for Steve's birthday weekend so we could do one last big day out in Seoul. I will be honest, it's hard to take the kids to some spots in Seoul because getting there requires a lot of walking and train riding and more walking, and they're lazy they have short legs. They like to be carried or they have no interest in seeing what we want to see because it doesn't involve a swing set. So these days out alone are cherished and will be sorely missed. (Because our camp is closing, there will be no more people coming in, only more people leaving. So our sitter pool is about bone dry. Insert lots of dramatic weeping from me here.)
• We set out to go to the sheep cafe first. Naturally. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I will regret not seeing these things. Going to a regular cafe- why? I can do that in the States! Let's go to one that possibly violates every food and health safety code in the book. 

• And contrary to my popular belief, the sheep are not just wandering around the cafe, pooping on everything in sight and eating your magazine while taking a sip of your latte. They are outside (where you can choose to sit and share your latte) and the cafe portion is inside. We petted the sheep and went in where it was warm. 

• We ordered coffee and a giant waffle to split. I'm not sure why this was our first time ordering a waffle in Korea. I've been missing out on this for a year and a half?!

It tasted even better than my crappy phone camera could capture. Massively thick waffle with bananas, strawberry, gelato, and whipped cream, topped with syrup. I'm hungry just thinking about it.

• Next, we took the most convoluted train ride and somehow ended up in Seoul Station to transfer to another line.

•  Then we got onto a train that was sorta crowded.

Jk we were packed like damn sardines

• We ventured on over to Myeongdong (fancy shopping district in Seoul) in hopes that we could go to Dr. Fish. We spoke with some helpful information folks and they informed us that it was closed right now but we could go to this other place and experience the same fishy thing. So we finally found this tiny place and lo and behold it is the same place that I received the most painful foot massage from (in a different town). Did I even blog about that? Can't remember, but I got a foot massage that felt like the masseuse was channeling Satan's wrath into my every foot bone. The people at this foot place spoke zero English, but luckily (for us) a girl walked in that spoke limited English and she helped translate that NO we did not want a massage-y, just the fishies. We put on the mandatory spa outfits (so cute) and rinsed our feet before sticking them in this tiny little tub full of fish. Steve is apparently much better at maintaining his feet than I am at scrubbing my hooves, because the fish were fighting each other over who got to eat my feet, while Steve's feet remained untouched. Eventually I convinced a few that his feet were tasty too, but the focus remained on mine. 

Fish weren't even creeped out at my boxy feet!

• After drinking our tea and deciding that this wasn't nearly as weird as it was said to be, we headed off on the next leg of our adventure- street food.

•  We really love street food, and can easily make a meal out of it, but with the kids, it becomes more difficult. Not only because you must eat while walking, but also because no one is selling chicken nuggets. And let's not forget that someone might impale themselves while walking with food stuck to a big wooden spear.

Far left- hot dogs covered in french fries on a stick. We opted for some yaki mandu (dumplings).

• We walked over to Namdaemun (a huge market area that sells anything and everything you could ever imagine) to continue on with the street food lunch when we came upon lots of police barricading off traffic. Then we heard chanting and saw flags. Ooh a parade! Let's stop and watch. Only, as they got closer, we realized that this was not a parade, but instead, a protest. Stupidly, we stayed and watched even though we had no clue what they were so angry about.

Silly American, you should not be here. I should hit you on the head with one of my walkie talkies for filming this nonsense.

• I sent photos to a Korean friend the next day and she informed me that they were protesting about part time jobs or something of the sort. Thank goodness in retrospect. Anyways, after that we continued on. Crossing the street we spotted this old gem in the middle of the intersections and modern high rise buildings.

We didn't have time to wander down and see which ancient gate this was, but I still love this picture.

And I'll never get enough of Seoul Tower. Never!

• We ended our evening at a pub in Itaewon filled with people way cooler than us. We had the best beers and marveled at how nice it is to eat your food while it's still hot.

• We got home at 8pm and it felt like 11. 
• Took the crazies to church the next morning.

•  And Monday morning, Steve turned 27!

Everybody gets excited for waffle birthday breakfast! And Sam is always disappointed there is no frosting to lick off of the candle.

• While Steve was at work, I spent the entire day in the kitchen. And I do mean that literally. I woke up and started making the waffles. Dishes. Laundry. More dishes. Then he came home for lunch and I made some pumpkin lasagna rolls for him since we were about out of everything else. Prep more food for the 28 Day Jumpstart. Start pizza dough. Bake a cake. Make frosting. Boil some eggs. Portion out quinoa and chicken. More dishes. More dishes. Swap laundry. Lather, rinse, repeat. (Literally)

A blip of the madness and a fraction of Sam's head

• Meanwhile, the kids mostly played together nicely while abandoning part of their pajamas.

Making birthday cards for Daddy - Molly has quite the signature

• Molly was so excited to celebrate Steve's birthday that she just couldn't contain her excitement any longer.

Bless her heart. She perked back up once I put the pizza in front of her.

• Finally Steve came home and we ate pizza and sang Happy Birthday. Sam was so happy there was icing to lick off of these candles.

• Tuesday yielded more pink eye. I swear to you, the illnesses that prevent preschool are about to take me out. Sam had pink eye in one eye that kept him (and subsequently, Molly too) out of school for a week. Then it was all better! Yes! Then one day it showed up in his OTHER eye and ARGH. We ended up going to Seoul to go grocery shopping and to get Sam a haircut. We needed to get out of the house after the full day of cooking and being inside the day before. On our way out of town, we stopped off at a park exit to freeze walk by the Han River. We saw so many fun things. It makes me excited for warmer weather. (I KNOW.)

Sometimes I wish I could keep him in an actual bubble and not just a sun flare.

Watching a guy kite surf on a skateboard

We watched Chinooks, Black Hawks, and jet planes fly over the river and above the Olympic stadium. These two were in heaven.

• After spending a few hours at the kids cafe on Wednesday, we visited our beef and leaf and Sam seriously chowed down.

• On Thursday, Sam's eye still appeared to be pinkish and once again, everyone stayed home from preschool.

More pajamas

• When I told them that we needed to go to the commissary for milk and bananas and yogurt (the most essential of essentials here), Sam said, "No.... I don't wanna leave the house!" And after saying out loud all of the things we needed to do just to get ready to leave, I had to agree with him. A milk-less Friday morning was kinda rough, but I'm happy to say we all survived it. They ended up going to school on Friday and I was able to get ALL OF THE ERRANDS done! I met Steve for lunch and I finally took a picture of this gem.

Original Dale! Holy old!

• And now.... the three day weekend.