Happy Lunar New Year!!!

The Lunar New Year is a big deal here--the kids got 2 days off of school, and Tyler got 3, so we decided to head out and see some of the countryside. We drove 2 hours east to Chiaksan National Park and did some hiking. It was freezing but beautiful.

 This is about as good as our family pictures get these days. Someone is always moving or talking or looking the other way.

 Kalia was spoiled by her big brother and dad and got carried a good portion of the hike. 

There are buddhist temples along the hike, nestled in the mountains. 

 Shayla with the guardians at the base of the temple. (sorry about the sideways--I rotated before i uploaded, but somehow it didn't work).

 Me and Garrett

 The temples are so beautifully maintained

 Miya exploring the temples

 A giant bell outside the temple. Korean bells are famous for their sound, and are different in that they are struck from the outside of the bell (notice on the right the wooden beam that is swung to ring the bell)

 Shayla was our photographer on the hike so we got lots and lots of beautiful scenery shots.

 There were lots of rocks stacked on each other along the side of the trail.

 Shayla art

 The girls 

 The boys

 Since it was 16 degrees out the waterfall was frozen solid. The kids had fun sliding down it.

 Everything was going great until Kalia had an accident. That ended the hike and we booked it down the mountain to get her changed into dry clothes. Poor thing was shivering by the time we made it down.

This is beondegi. Beondegi are steamed or boiled silkworm pupae. I'm sure you will be shocked to know that Tyler and Garrett tried it. They were gagging for the next 15 minutes, and shoving Triscuits in their mouth to try and get rid of the taste.  

When you come to visit, we will let you all try it :)

 We had fun playing Spike Ball in our hotel room, while the little girls played "beauty parlor." No photos of that, but we did wander through a Hanji Museum the next day after church. Hanji is beautiful paper art made here in Korea.

 These dressed were made from paper.

 the boys were thrilled with the museum :)

 Miya and kalia found a Frozen hanji that they loved.

 Kalia loves to dance!

 Also made of paper (Hanji) 

 We got lucky having the superbowl coincide with the Lunar New Year. It was so fun having a SuperBowl party Monday morning! The game started at 8:30am here.

Spike Ball fun with Garrett, Shayla, Grant and Felicity

 After the Broncos won, the girls got dressed up in Hanbok and we went to a cultural celebration.

 Emi is so sweet and smiley!

 Good thing we made Kalia wear clothes under her hanbok :)

 Playing the Korean drums

 I think this was a Chinese dragon the kids got to dress up in and dance around.

 Garrett on a Korean swing

 G, S and F in front of an old-fashioned mill-stone

Miya and Eva made paper kites and then had fun flying them around the palace. 

Such a fun celebration! In Korea, you don't turn a year older on your birthday, you turn a year older on the Lunar New Year. You also have to eat a traditional soup in order to age. Koreans also count a baby as 1 year old as soon as they are born, so a lot of the Korean kids in Miya's class are 8 (in Korean years:)

Here's to a wonderful 2016 to everyone!

Happy Year of the Monkey to you all!