Korea!

Life is finally back on track in the Olson house! It was rough going for the first few days home as we all took a turn being sick and as a result paid the doctor three visits. Graham and Amelia had an extremely difficult time adjusting to the 14 hour time change once home. Jeff and I think we suffered from jet lag, but the truth of the matter is that the kids didn't let us sleep at night anyways, so we weren't sure if we were tired from dealing with them all night long or from dealing with out own internal body clocks being off. Regardless, just over a week later, and we're all doing well!

Before we left, the flight is what concerned me the most. I had visions of being stuck in a chair with unhappy preschoolers for 15 hours and it wasn't pretty. But, I'm honestly able to say that the flight was the easiest part of the trip! Graham and Amelia did a fantastic job and earned many compliments from those sitting around us! After traveling for a week, we obviously have lots of stories to share, too many in fact to write down in a blog. So, I think I'll just let the pictures and their descriptions do the talking....

Daddy Jeff and Graham checking out the live crab at the grocery store across the street from Halmoni and Haraboji's condo

Amelia did NOT like the smell of the crab. Actually, Amelia didn't seem to really enjoy many of the smells of Korea. This pose was a common occurrence for her.

Family trip to E-Mart. This store sells everything from groceries to clothes to toys and even pets

Quick stop at the local playground

Sleeping on the subway-a very regular occurrence for these two. And yes, we had them in strollers when we were out and about. Between the jet lag induced exhaustion and the fact that the amount of walking we did was extreme, there was no way these two would have been able to survive so they very happily rode in their chariots.

Amelia at the Coex Aquarium

When I was in Korea back in College, a favorite hangout for my friends and I was the Coex Mall. Here we are at Coex sitting in the exact same spot that I sat in with friends more than 10 years ago!

Outside Seoul Tower

Graham and Amelia in front of a few of the "Locks of Love" at Seoul Tower

These trees covered in locks go on forever. The "Locks of Love" tradition was started back in the 80's. 'Locks' and 'love' are considered to be synonymous so visitors began leaving padlocks with notes attached as a way to lock their love forever. Knowing of this tradition, we of course had to leave our own lock...

Our lock and note. For those of you that have ever eaten a meal with Graham, you know that he made up this prayer and insists that we hold hands and say it each time we sit down together as a family.

Graham and Amelia taking in Seoul from the top of the tower. We are officially very far from home here....

Happy Birthday to Daddy Jeff! We're enjoying a traditional Korean meal at a local restaurant.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Fell asleep on top of her magna-doodle at lunch

Amelia and I outside of the Somerset Palace-the hotel we stayed at when we traveled to bring her home!

Octopus for sale on the streets of Insadong

Ginseng anyone?

Daddy Jeff was impressed by these mushrooms at Namdeamun-the biggest we've ever seen!

This is the restroom that Daddy Jeff visited before I called him ...does anyone else see a problem with this? We'll just blame it on jet lag! :)

Dunkin Donut break at Seoul Station

Having a slow morning watching a little "Bubble Guppies"

Once of the other things we did while in Seoul was visit Eastern (the Korean adoption agency) and met with both Graham and Amelia's foster mothers. I have lots of pictures of this and a lot to say about this experience so stay tuned....that experience deserves a blog post of its own.