the WEISS 7

Ice Skating!

The City of Seoul set up an ice skating rink outside of city hall.  Last week Kimberli and I took the younger girls and Anthony out to skate!  It was cold, but we had a ton of fun!

Christmas Tree Lighting

This week the base held a ceremony to light all of the Christmas lights that they have decorated with.  We took the little girls down so that they could have hot chocolate and cookies.

Jeju Island

 A few days ago Kyli and I went to Jeju island for a photo shoot with North Face kids. The company flew us down for the day. Jeju is a small island just south of the peninsula. It very much resembles Hawaii with beautiful beaches and gorgeous mountains. We spent the day in the mountains which was freezing!! Here is Kyli at the airport at 5am....

We were met by the North Face crew in Jeju and they gave Kyli a jacket and put us on a bus to travel up the mountain.

The bus was used as the "ready room". The 3 kids had to change and do hair and makeup on the bus. It was too cold outside!

This shot was the hardest for Kyli and the little boy she was with. It was about 30 degrees out and they were getting water poured on them by the crew to look like rain. They both did amazing and the pictures looked like they really were enjoying the rain.

They quickly warmed the kids up after they wrapped up the "rain wear" shootings. 

I love this...originally one of the boys were going to do the rock climbing shots but after watching Kyli jump from rock to rock and hearing her talk about how she loves to climb, the crew decided to have her do these shots. The women on the crew were so excited to have her do it and she did a great job and had a lot of fun. It was a long day for Kyli but it was also an awesome day! She loves this!

DMZ Tour

Joey and I went to the DMZ a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome and eerie at the same time. These blue buildings are for meetings with the North Koreans.....they havent been used in years but they were cool to see. That white building behind the blue ones is a North Korea building.

 Way back there is a North Korean soldier....Joey was excited he got to see one.

Those white pegs are North Korea...we were pretty close.

This is a 600 pound North Korean flag flown in "propogana village".

This is a monument to the South Koreans who were brutally axed to death by Northern Koreans while trying to cut down a poplar tree that was obstructing their view from one of the watch towers.

This is known as the "bridge of no retun".

Lotte World!

http://www.lotteworld.com/Global_eng/Main.asp

Kyli recently attended a birthday party at Lotte World – sort of like the Korean Disney Land – so we decided it would be a good trip for the entire family!

Lotte World is home to the world's largest indoor theme park and there are tons of things to do – without ever going out into the cold.

   

 

Even though most of the rides are geared towards children – you still must wear your safety belt.  And, it goes without saying, you’re not allowed to elderly on the rides either!

They had an interesting show where Cinderella did not have a fairy godmother, instead she had Santa Clause and his freaky, flying snow-man pole!  He saved the day though – and she married the prince!

Gyeongbokgung Palace!

We recently visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, which is in the heart of Seoul.  It is an extremely interesting place to visit.

We watched the changing of the guards.

This one was eyeballing Anthony!

There was even an area with a statute for each of the characters from the Chinese zodiac.  Here is Emili trying, and failing, to look like her year.  She’s too pretty!

Here's Kimberli with her dragon - coolest year ever!

Seoul Lantern Festival!

A little over a week ago, the family went to the Seoul Lantern Festival. The Cheonggyecheon river runs through downtown Seoul and a portion of it has been lined with a walking path. This section of the river is used to house the lanterns. Even though it was a bit crowded, it was still an amazing sight.

 

The girls were able to write a wish on the side of a lantern and send it down the river.

Halloween!

Halloween this year was great!

The girls started the celebration by making a Patriots pumpkin:

Then we went to a party at our friends house:

Then everyone went off trick-or-treating!

There was even a huanted house that Emili and Anthony helped out in:

Air Show!

A few weeks ago there was an air show on the local Korean air base.  It was awesome to see what the pilots could do!

Icheon Ceramics Festival

http://www.ceramic.or.kr/eng/festival/gaeyo.jsp

Last weekend the family went to the Icheon Ceramics Festival. I know!  Slow down, you say!  It was actually much better than we imagined.

The boys were able to get hands-on in the crafting process.

And the girls practiced their painting skills.

There were some interesting characters running around.