Bloom where you're planted...: Brimhall's visit!

So I'm finally posting photos of Angie and Jeff's visit (3/31-4/10/2016). We had such a fun time exploring Seoul together and catching up!

With the Brimhall's it is "go big or go home." They arrived Thursday night (March 31st) after flying for 20ish hours to get here, and woke up early the next day to hit Everland (our Korean Disneyland) early.

Part zoo/safari/theme park. The little kids enjoyed the animals while the big kids hit the roller coasters.

Polar bear!

Bet you can't guess what animal this is...it almost licked Emi's head through the window of our safari ride. You should have seen Kristina's face :)

We stayed until 9 or 10 when it closed, and even saw the evening fireworks show and light parade.

Bryce's face just sums up how tired we all felt by the end of the day.

Cousin time! Kalia, Oakley, Emi and Kiku

Love these two sweet babies!

Hugs before enjoying Korean BBQ together

Korean-style, sitting on the floor, meat grilling on the table. Delicious!

Hyrum tried octopus for the first time...

Noraebang--Korean karaoke with this crazy bunch. We were the loudest room in the building :)

Our friend Jesse was also in town visiting--so fun to reminisce about the good 'ole days.

Grant is pulling some Erkle pants, and Felicity snuck in a great photo bomb :)

We had "sushi" for April Fools day

Lunch at Vatos Tacos in Itaewon

Nutella Nachos for dessert--

Tate and Angie enjoying the street food smells and sights.

Hyrum, too.

I loved this Korean man dressed in traditional Korean hanbok, selling newspapers and little hand clappers.

Enjoying the cherry blossom festival at Yeouido

The street food was half of the fun

Bryce enjoying his twisty fries on a stick

Tate loved his meat on a stick, too.

McKay and Hyrum having a cousin bonding moment, listening to the street performer sing.

Angie, Kalia, McKay and Emi

This Korean lady scooped up Oakley from Ang without asking or any explanation.

It was a good intro to Korean culture :) Korean's love babies and don't have the same personal space boundaries that we do.

Oakley trying to steal Hadley's cotton candy...

Overlooking the Han River

Shayla and Hadley

Only a few kids fell into the Han while playing here :)

Jet-lag for Bryce

Watching the street performer--chinese yo-yo

In front of the Geongbokgong Palace in downtown Seoul

Riding the subway with 22 people. We tried not to cause too big of a scene, but for some reason people were staring at us anyway.

On the day of our DMZ tour, Garrett had a basketball tournament. Thanks to some friends who took him, he still got to participate and play bball all day. Later all I heard from everyone was about how many baskets he scored and what a great player he was.

This is inside the JSA (joint security area) where North and South Korea meets. On the other side of the room we were actually standing in North Korea. The soldier is a South Korean soldier.

Hadley, Ty and Shayla on the North Korean side of the room. Because of the jamming towers we didn't have good cell service, but we still tried checking in on FB from N Korea :)

This was the strangest area--the South Korean soldiers stand, face to face all day with North Korea soldiers. Such a tense situation. The North Korean propaganda could also be heard from loudspeakers. Sometimes it is speaking, other times they play music.

It was a cold and cloudy day.

This is the bridge of no return. After the war, prisoners of war were released and told to pick a side. Whichever direction they chose, they could never return to the other side. I feel bad for those who chose the North Korean side.

Someday there is hope that North and South Korea will unify.

Re-creating the photo from when Ricky and Kristin and Jacob and Michelle visited :)

We toured one of the tunnels that N. Korea had made, hoping to use them someday to attack by land and get their soldiers inside of South Korea for a surprise attack. Luckily a defector told the Americans and South Koreans about the tunnels, and we located several of them, and are now conducting tours in them :)