Easter Sunday

We had an enjoyable Easter Sunday. We started the day with some family photos. I'm not sure about the joy part of that but it made Mommy happy.




Then we went on to hunting Easter eggs after church. Sara went with the preschool group while Kacy joined the older elementary kids. They both had a good time!

Sara found a better way to carry the eggs than her "heavy" basket.

Here are Kacy & Sara with some of their cousins.

It was a good Easter! Aside from the fun, our kids continued to learn about our Risen Savior.

Easter Weekend Fun

We had a fun Saturday doing all sorts of stuff. Hayley, Kacy & Sara broke out the tent in Grandma & Granddaddy's yard. It was super warm and very pleasant out all day...maybe even "hot."


Then we took on a car washing adventure. You can see everyone getting into the act with Sara even trying to copy her cousin and sister to reach the higher parts.

Sara is a mess in more ways than one these days. She makes us laugh a lot...Kacy too for that matter.

She was waiting expectantly for the water.

Her mommy let her run around barefoot for awhile on the TCIS campus. During that time, she got her feet covered with some sort of tree seeds and sap. It colored her feet light green and was gross, including the smell. Ordinary soap was getting us nowhere so we put her feet in dish detergent in the sink to "degrease" her. It seemed to work pretty well and she came out lemony fresh.


We ended Saturday night by dying Easter eggs. That was an adventure with our 2 kids knocking over eggs and dyes.

It was quite fun...for them.

All turned out well and we had a good time!

Jeju Island

Grounds of the place we stayed at. It was beautiful, although too cold to go swimming outside.

So, after living in Korea for 6+ years we finally made it to Jeju Island. Wow, we really have missed out on this little spot. It is close and relatively easy to get to. Just a 40 minute bus ride to Cheongju Airport, then a 45 minute plane ride and you are on a very nice little island. The trip was not planned by us and we really were just along for the ride, so we had nothing to do with the arrangments. That being said, Darren went straight from the plane to the golf course and spent the next day there too! Tough trip for them, although to give him credit, he would have loved to be with his wife and kids, but it was good for him to get some good golfing in!

While the guys were golfing, the ladies and kids did some touring of the island at kid friendly locations. Our adventure began on Monday, we arrived at the resort around 1:30 we were told to eat lunch and then meet back at 3:00 to go to the Jeju Folk Village and some natural caves. These were both amazingly manicured locations. The weather was great and the kids had an amazing time. One thing that is really rare for Korea...there were very few people around. We were able to just walk around and not worry about other people, which is great!

Jeju Folk Village

The girls are ready for some cave exploration!

Sara hanging out at dinner!

After our touring we picked the guys up and returned for dinner. The next morning was very relaxing as we had to fit in the NCAA Champship game (UNC vs. MSU) Go Heels! Following the game the guys left for the golf course and the ladies and kids headed out for another adventure. This afternoon was Huree Natural Park and the Teddy Bear Museum. Once again the kids loved it. We got to feed lots of animals and just generally enjoy walking around outside and touring. The Teddy Bear Museum was a little bit more "touristy" with lots of people and inside...we didn't enjoy the indoor part too much, just went through quickly, but spent more time in the outdoor portion.

Huree Natural Park--The girls enjoyed feeding different animals and participating in different parts of Korean culture.

Outside the Teddy Bear Museum

When we returned home on Tuesday, we ate a quick dinner and headed to the pool for a swim. I mean we couldn't go to an island and leave without getting to the beach or swimming at all. The kids would have been so disappointed.

The following morning we had to get an early start. We left the resort and headed out to a horse back riding area. This was lots of fun! The kids were excited, got a little nervous on the horses, but quickly started to enjoy themselves again. They kept talking about how they were real cowboys and cowgirls.

Kacy enjoyed riding her horse "Seven" and talks so endearingly about how she misses Seven!

We made a few other quick stops on the way back to the airport, including "Mystery Road", were we were at the bottom of a slight incline, turned the bus off, and then started rolling uphill? Go figure...something with illusions of what is really uphill/downhill. Then another quick stop for some "famous" Jeju Hallabong Oranges.

Thanks to our bus driver/tour guide for making it a fun trip for all!

A final picture from Kacy as we were about to arrive to the airport, we made a quick stop a grabbed some pictures!

We climbed back onto our flight home and were back in Taejon by 3:00. It was a great, yet quick and fully packed trip!

Good Friday

A bit random for our blog, especially after only a few posts recently. However, I wanted to post a few thoughts related to Easter.

Matthew 27 highlights some miracles that happened at Jesus' death on the cross:

1) The veil in the temple was split in half (Matt. 27:51). Matthew Henry's commentary notes that this occurred at a prime time when the priests would be there to view it as it was during the traditional time of sacrifice for the Passover.

2) A great earthquake occurred (Matt. 27:51). Even the earth itself groaned in agony and perhaps protest of the events taking place. Rocks split...maybe they were crying out.

3) Tombs were opened and some were raised from the dead (Matt. 27:52-53).

4) The centurion and those with him believed (Matt. 27:54). This wasn't Christ in all His glory--this was Him at the bottom in full humiliation submitting himself to the will of His Father. All were mocking Him. But these men, close to him and guarding Him saw something that others seemed to have missed.

Matthew Henry notes that Jesus calling out in a loud voice (Matt. 27:50) is also a miracle and shows that Christ is willingly giving up His spirit. He says the voice is the first to go as a man draws near to death and at this stage, Christ's death is imminent.

Although not articulated clearly in Matthew 27, other accounts (such as Luke 23:39-43) point to the salvation of the one robber hanging on the cross as a miracle. Jesus says He would be with Him in Paradise that very day. Again, we have someone seeing Jesus for who He is and responding with repentance.

The account of Christ's death is often read and His resurrection discussed, but sometimes these miracles at the death of Christ are frequently missed. However, they happened. And as one looks more deeply, they each have significance and meaning. Don't miss them.

(If you want to read Matthew Henry's account in more detail and see the actual text, check it out here.)

Alien Day

The elementary school had a fun week for "spirit" week. One day was alien day. The girls had eyes all over their shirts and antennas sticking out of their heads.

Planting Flowers

Darren's grandfather passed away in Arizona. While he was away in the states, the girls and I had some fun times. The day you are viewing was Saturday. It started with my dad calling at 7:00 AM and offering to take us to McDonald's for a healthy breakfast! We had to be ready to go by 7:30...no small feat for all of us still being in bed. We made it. We went to McD's and then drove around town with my parents running errands. We were back by 9:30 and I was concerned because we had a lot of day left. So, that is when I decided we would go look for flowers. It really was the first nice day we had...so we headed up to near the bus station and bought Gerber Daisies, Roses, and Easter Lilies*. We then headed out near the world bus stadium to the "planting flower shop." There we picked up some Petunia's and some plants. The original plan was for us to come home and plant the plants together. However, the adjuma's had other plans. They decided they wanted to replant the flowers, so we did it there in their store and Kacy helped. Following that venture we drove to Subway got some lunch and had a picnic outside. When we got home we fixed our flowers. The girls also decorated the outside of the flower boxes.

The Gerber Daisy's were for me, the Roses were for our girls.

Kacy painting on our flower box.

Sara adding her touch to the flower boxes.

They enjoyed their art work and we ended up with a fun day and lots to tell Daddy about when he returned the next day.

*On a side note, Darren returned home after a week away on Sunday. We was just here a few hours when his allergies started acting up. He got really sick and was out of work for a day and miserable for several. My parents came over one night and we were talking about all the beautiful flowers. We were also talking about how the pollen gets all over the place from the Easter Lilies...it was about that time that we all got really quiet and started putting all the pieces together. 2 dozen Easter Lilies, Darren's allergies aggravated...needless to say my parents took the Easter Lilies home with them that day and Darren's allergies started improving immediately!

Fun at the Zoo with Daddy

On Saturday morning, Daddy took the girls for a little trip to the zoo while Mommy was gone on an elementary basketball tournament.


We rode some rides and saw some new attractions with the animals. One new addition was the rope bridge for some small monkeys to go from their inside habitat to some outdoor trees. They ran right over our heads.


Kacy copied the prairie dogs.


We had lots of fun looking at sheep and goats too.


And we even found a slide.





Kacy was so proud of herself because she went on a very fast spinning ride all by herself. She is getting so big!


Fun times!