It’s been a fun couple of weeks. For the fourth of July we spent the morning at home, weeding the garden and playing. In the afternoon we biked onto base for their festival. Avi has gotten quite good, and is learning the rules of the road. I still strap his bike on mine for going through the gate, but after that he is off on his own!
The festival was fun; bouncy castles, food, balloon animals…and even some contests. Zoe tried her skills at the watermelon eating contest and might have won except that she started eating the rind which takes longer to chew. I won the hula hoop contest, too!
Around dusk we biked up to the base housing car park deck where a bunch of friends were getting together to hang out and watch the fireworks. Zoe spent the evening off with her own friends and Avi was a bit more independent as well. After the big show it was a quick bike ride home. We only let Avi bike on the bike path in the dark, though!
Over the weekend we drove out to the western shore called Taean where we have been camping many times. Well, at our spot there is now a no camping sign! We ignored it this time and still played in the sand on the super-huge flat formed when the tide is out. Built a couple pretty amazing castles. The kids got in the water, but it was too cold for me. It was a bit overcast and breezy. After our stealth camping we drove up the coast to explore for a new spot. And, we found it! There is another place that is a designed camping area – but still not a campground. Campgrounds in Korea are usually stone line and cramped together in a grid. This place was just an area of land – kind of a free for all. Perfect for us. The beach there isn’t as soft, but still nice, and there are some cool trails to explore.
The vacation is also over for school. Zoe has started back in earnest at her studies in the mornings. Avi is now joining us at the school table; once Zoe is started on her homework I can work with him on his new reading book.
For a special treat on Thursday we drove up to Everland after school work was completed. It was empty and super fun. Found out Avi is just about 2cm shy of the big boy rides and Zoe is just about 2cm shy of being too big for the kiddy rides. So either he needs to grow or she needs to stop! That way they can still ride together for most things and I’m not sitting around waiting for both. Zoe is super excited, though, as she’ll be big enough for some new big coasters!
That evening we did go home, and instead camped out at our local Jinwi Citizens Resort. It’s very close to our house, but we wanted to check it out so we are prepared for next weeks session of Camp Blue Bird! Even Bryan rode his bike out to have dinner with us and bring me a lighter to cook the dinner. That night we were surprised by how close we were to all the jet’s landing at the base. It’s was pretty neat until we wanted to sleep. In the morning, all was quiet, and we swam in the pool to cool off before heading home for some rest.
