Fall is here! Yay!

We are having such beautiful weather here! So glad monsoon season is over! I love rain but not so much when it's everyday for a month straight...

This last wednesday Tim and I were finally able to go hiking up Mt. Dobongsan. We had been trying to go hiking basically all summer long but it was either too hot, or raining, or when we did have a clear day Tim would have to work. Anyways, we finally had a nice day to go so we went and it was so much fun! We had a great time together and it was such a good work-out too! The trail we took was 3.2 kilometers=about 2 miles. The first mile wasn't too hard but the second half was all rocky and we had to do a lot of rock climbing using ropes and some parts had rails to hold onto. It was really tough...but we made it to the top! I got really freaked out once we were at the top though because it was really narrow and the opposite side from where we climbed up was just a straight drop off! So it was pretty terrifying to think if we tripped or anything we could just fall off the mountain =/ yikes! So we didn't stay up there very long, just long enough to take some pictures..

View of Mt. Dobongsan from the subway station.

Tim feeling the cool water.

There were several temples throughout the trails.

Coin pond inside the temple.

We saw a lot of rocks with korean writing from the 1600's.

The river.

We had to climb stairs like these ones throughout most of the trail. Really worked those calves.

Really big rock with more korean symbols.

Our first view of Seoul from the mountain.

more stairs.

And even more stairs.

Getting really close to the peak, you can see Tim at the bottom.

Big rocks.

View looking down from the peak of the mountain.

Another view looking down, you can see the rails we had to use to climb, and how steep it was.

Tim and Me, at the top of Mt. Dobongsan.

View of Seoul, from the top of Mt. Dobongsan.

I had to get a picture of this guy, he was jumping down from the peak rather then holding onto any ropes or even climbing down holding onto rock.. as if we weren't on a peak of a mountain. One slip and he could have fallen a hundred feet to his death. I just couldn't believe it.

Anyways, so that was our hiking trip. Can't wait to go again.. maybe we will try a different trail, or a different mountain all together. There are several mountains in Korea to choose from. Other than hiking, we haven't really done anything too exciting.. we've been cleaning out our storage room going through all the totes and boxes that were sent here from our parents houses...trying to clean out all the junk we don't want and sorting it all out. Were trying to empty out totes to use for the rest of our things once we move next. Well, I need to get back to cleaning out that room and getting some other things done, will try to keep this updated more often.

Still busy, busy, busy...

Just have a few minutes to update right now, but wanted to do it before it gets crazy again!
This week was busy with getting Ashley out to see things before she had to go, then taking her to the airport. There are only 2 bus times a day going from Camp Red Cloud to Incheon airport, the morning bus at 7am and the evening bus at 5pm. Since her plane left at 5pm, we unfortunately had to take the 7am bus and sit at the airport from 8am-3pm. We saw Ashley off at about 3, and caught a 3:30 city bus back to Uijeongbu and then a cab to our apartment. We didn't get home until about 4:45. Oh and our cab driver decided to run a red light, and got pulled over! In korea, running red lights is a common thing, traffic laws really aren't enforced here as much, so people see them more as guidlines. This was the first time we have ever seen someone get pulled over, and we've seen hundreds of people run red lights, cut people off, go twice the speed limit weaving through traffic.. it's crazy here. And in the 2 years we've been here this was the very first one we saw get pulled over and we just happen to be in his back seat. We would normally be annoyed that we had to sit there and wait on him getting his ticket while the meter for our cab fare went up..but we were too entertained by the fact that policemen do infact exist in korea, and he was actually doing his job-enforcing the law, so we didn't care.
Anyways, we made it home nonetheless, and were finally able to get some sleep after being up for 24 hours. Oh yeah did I mention Tim's on night shift so normally we sleep during the day and are awake at night, but that day we had to wait to sleep since we had to go the airport.
So, today Tim had to be at his promotion board at 8:30am, his turn to go wasn't until after noon since there were several other people there and he went last. But he passed! They asked him 30 questions and he only missed 4, and he passed his inspections. So now he is promotable for Sargeant, and will probably be pinned some time in early September. We are both very excited!! I knew he would do just fine, he was so nervous though! Oh and I got to see him in his class A's again =) haven't seen those since our wedding, nothing sexier then a man in uniform ;).
Oh yeah, today is our 4 year anniversary from when we started dating! So we are celebrating that and him passing his promotion board tomorrow and going on a date for dinner and a movie! I can't wait!
Anyways, I really need to get going, I have a lot of housework to do now that Ashley's gone.
I'll try and keep up with this thing better now that we are back from vaca and no more company, it should be a little easier.

Busy week ahead of us

Wow. It's already the end of July. This month seemed to flyyy...
Ashley leaves on the 4th =( we'll be sad to see her go, but it was great having her this summer, we had a great time hanging out.
Tim goes to the promotion board on the 5th to get his E5. I think he's a little nervous, I'm sure he'll be fine...he just wasn't expecting it to be so soon, he thought he had until the middle of the month.
This next week will just be really busy, trying to cram in all we can for Ashley's last days here, getting her to the airport and figuring out how we're going to get her there by 4am since the earliest bus doesn't leave CRC til 7. =/ I don't know how we'll do that, if we'll just go the day before and stay in a hotel? Or take a taxi early in the morning... either way it's going to cost a lot.
Also, this week I need to check with our realtor about a satallite dish (shhh...don't tell Tim =)), I'm getting one installed so we can get AFN and Tim will be able to watch football this year, it's part of his birthday presant from me, his birthday is on Sep. 3rd. I should have gotten it last year or the year before so that we would have gotten more use out of it and he could have watched football, but I had no idea how to get it until just this weekend.
So anyways, busy week...
Oh, Tim's on night schedule now so that's going to make things a little difficult with doing stuff with ashley, and taking her to the airport, he's just going to be really tired all the time, and for him tired=grouchy...
Well, I need to get going and start some laundry and eat dinner. More later!

Summertime♥

Wow! It's been a few weeks since I last updated... and I don't really have a good excuse.
I decided that since my insomnia decided to come back to visit I could take advantage of these late nights being awake and update this thing...sooo...
After our trip to Hawaii, Ashley came back to visit just a couple days later and will be here all of July until August 4th. We spend a lot of days at the pool relaxing, and staying inside on the rainy days (which basically is every day now, woooh for monsoon season.) We have gone to Seoul a few times and plan on going again this week with Timmy to the Korean war memorial museum. Just last week Ashley and I had gone to Seoul to do some shopping and walked right by the museum not knowing that Hilary Clinton was actually there at the museum speaking that day! We found out the next day that she had been there and were a little bummed that we could have seen her speak. Not like we really care about her but it would have been cool to say we saw her in Seoul.
Well, I don't really have anything else to share. I'm just trying to enjoy summer(even if it has been storming a lot), and go to the pool as often as possible...I love summer =)

Hawaii

Sunrise at Bellows AFB
Look how crystal clear that water is.

It's been awhile, and this will be a short one. Just want to share some pictures and give a little update.

Tim and I have been in Honolulu the last week and a half, we are just loving it! Only 2 days left though =( we leave monday morning.

The first 5 days we were here we stayed with our family at Bellows AFB in cabins right on the beach, litterally, when we walked out our front door we were about 60 feet from the shore, it was absolutely amazing!! On tuesday, our family had to leave, so Tim and I went to Waikiki beach and are now staying at the Hale Koa hotel, which is awesome but the beach isn't as great as bellows. The waves aren't big at all and it's kind of rocky, but it is just as beautiful.. in fact the water here is more crystal clear then at bellows because of the waves being smaller.

Anyways, today Tim and I are going to drive to Bellows for the day and play there. Probably boogie board most of the time.

Some things we have done while here are: Luau's, one at the polynesian center, the other here at the hale koa. Snorkling at Hanauma bay. Driving around Diamond head and seeing the blow hole, sea life park to see turtles, and other scenic points. We went to pearl harbor two different days, the first we just walked around the memorial but were to late to get tickets for the Arizona, the second day we went early for tickets to the arizona, but befor we could make it back for our tour that afternoon, Tim and I got food poisoning and were in bed sick all day. Not a fun experience at all.

This trip has been so great, so glad we were able to come! We both needed a break from Korea.

Anyways, I need to get going...

More later!

This place has a lot to take in

Today I took Robin and Ashley downtown Uijeongbu to show them all the shopping and point out the bars and restaurants we enjoy going to here. Within the area there is a marketplace where they have vendors set up selling fish, fruit and vegetables, various korean dishes such as kimchi and sushi. Also they had vendors set up selling clothes and souveniers. They had an area where they sold all sorts of imported items from the states like candy, liquor, canned food items. We walked around this area for a good 45 min-1 hour. After we saw everything I took them to the underground mall which is also downtown. It's just this huge area underground near the subway station that has a ton of vendors set up selling shoes, purses, jewelry, clothes and they also have several cellphone shops. We didn't spend much time down there though, there just wasn't much down there that we were looking for.
We're about to go to beef n' leaf so that Robin can try it(Ashley was here last year so she's eaten it before). So I need to get going! More later.

Our family is here!

Robin and Ashley arrived safely, Tim and I got to the airport around 8 to pick them up. We had to wait 2 hours for the bus, so we just hung out, got some mcdonalds breakfast. We made it back to our apartment around 11:30am, and have just been hanging out and playing rockband. I think today will just be a chill day and relax. Tomorrow we will probably walk around and show them the area near our apartment and possibly take them to a beef n' leaf to try out some korean cuisine.
It's so nice having them here, it makes this place feel a little like home.
Time to get back to hanging out with the fam.