October / November

We started a new tradition of eating something orange (usually it was something pumpkin) everyday for the month of October.  Thank goodness Tanner brought some canned pumpkin back from the US or else I would have had to pay $8- $10 US a can here.

Pumpkin pancakes were a hit!

As was pumpkin soup

We volunteered to lead an English story time at a local library, we all loved it.

A day in the life of Ford.

Sadly an only child from 8am-4pm, however he seems to be entertaining himself...

Trying out the Asian way to wear flip flops.

 

He has been obsessed with trains lately.

Beck has been my translator lately.  His Chinese is getting really good!

We were SO excited to have Darren and Cherilyn visit.  We had the BEST time showing them around and our kids were in heaven as well.  We were so happy to have our 1st friends come visit and hope there will be many more!

We took a day trip to a water town just outside on Shanghai.

Tanner had to work in Beijing so Darren and Cherilyn went with him and explored.  They spent a beautiful fall day on the Great Wall.

Ford is now in Nursery at Church!

 

Halloween fun at the kids schools.

Tanner and I took a quick trip with our good friends the Stucki's to Korea.  We had a great time and are already planning to go back next fall. 
Seoul LDS Temple

We happen to be there during the lantern festival, it was amazing.  Korea had some great street food, Tanner and Aaron loved the calamari.

We took a tour of the DMZ (the border of North and South Korea), it was pretty intense and interesting. 

This is called Table 2 and is where UN and other talks are held.  We would have been able to go in but it was closed for maintenance.

Propaganda Village, North Korea

No one actually lives there, the buildings are a facade.  The North Korean's used to broadcast for years all day long from a huge loudspeaker for all to come to the city of paradise, thus its name.  This is also the largest flag and flagpole ever constructed. 

The bridge of no return

This is where POWS and defectors used to be exchanged.

We celebrated Tanner's birthday! 

Tanner and I cooked our 1st ever Thanksgiving with just our family.  We had a great time and really enjoyed our $70 Turkey!  Reese loved helping me shop.

Tanner made chocolate souffles with chocolate pumpkin sauce, they were amazing!

I visited Beck's school for a morning and loved watching his morning exercises!

Vietnam

We spent the October break in HCMC and Mui Ne Vietnam and had a great trip!  The first morning we took a river cruise up the Saigon river to see the Cu Chi Tunnels, it was really incredible.  We got to crawl through some tunnels (that have been widen since the Vietnam War), shoot some crazy machine guns and eat some yummy Vietnamese food.  It was really interesting to see how innovative and creative the Vietcong were. 

 

 We then took a 4 hour drive northeast to a little beach town called Mui Ne.  Our hotel room was right on the beach and by 6:30 the next morning the kids were already in the ocean.  We rented scooters and explored the town finding some red sand dunes, rice fields and some local fisherman.  We spent the rest of the time at the beach, at the pool and eating great food.

The last day we headed back to Ho Chi Min City, checked out a local market and meet up with a friend from high school.  He took us to this amazing restaurant where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt frequent.  We had a great time catching up and meeting his girlfriend.  We are already wanting to go back!