Christmas Vacation in Orlando

David was so excited about our trip that he actually posted the pictures yesterday, but its still my job to add the text soooo.... here we go.

Last weekend the three of us took off for Orlando for our very first Hyun family vacation. We were all very excited to escape the dreary DC weather and get in a little fun in the sun.

Megan took a short nap on the plane, so when we landed we headed straight for Sea World. Sea World was probably my favorite stop on the trip. We took in three different shows, the Dolphin/ Whale show was great, the sea lion show was cheesy but fun, and I must say the Shamoo "extravaganza" at the end of the night was a little disappointing- I expected more whale and less light show, plus the music was VERY loud. Megan waited for all shows patiently and watched them all intently. She still talks about how the dolphins and that "silly Shamoo" splashed everyone and how everyone got all wet. (Not us it wasn't that warm that day so we stayed out of the splash zone. My favorite thing was watching the baby dolphins.

Here's Megan at Sea World. Yes she is actually almost smiling in a photograph. We watched the Dolphing swim under water for a long time.

No visit to an amusement park would be complete without at least one ride on the Carousel.

We stayed at one of the Disney resort hotels. We checked in around 9PM and Megan got a second wind. She was very excited about the puppies on thae wall. Turning the star lights on and off was also great fun, and sleeping with mommy and daddy is the best. She was so tired after each day we didn't have any trouble getting her to sleep.

There were two huge dalmations outside our hotel building and one small puppy watching TV. Megan patted his nose and I think broke out into a round of Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer.
On the Second day of our trip we started out at Animal Kingdom we went on the Safari first thing to avoid long lines and to see all the animals when they were actually awake. The safari is sort of like taking a jeep ride through a nice zoo, except most of the fences are very well disguised and some of the animal can walk right up to the truck. We got up close and personal with a rhinocerous, and an Ostrich held up the whole ride for several minutes when it engaged in a standoff with the jeep in the middle of the road.

The infamous Ostrich.

After the safari we wandered around a little, had lunch and then took off for Epcot. We really only took in the Nemo exhibit-formerly the Seas. The rest of epcot isn't really that two year old friendly. We finished the second day off at Hollywood studios and took in their evening lights and fireworks show. This one was better than the Shamoo show but Disney seriously needs to think about turning down the volume a little- I know this makes me sound old, but seriously- my ears were practically ringing afterwards.
A nice park photographer took a shot of us in front of the tree of life, when we went back to the Animal Kingdom the morning of our last day of vacation. Megan called it our "cation." That morning we took in the Finding Nemo show. Its a half hour musical that was very well done. I think it was done by the same people that did the Lion King musical.

On this second trip to Animal Kingdom we went to get pictures with some of the characters, Megan had practice the day before with Mini and Mickey ( see below) so it went pretty well this time. She seems to be less afaid of the female characters.

Ok well, in typical Megan fashion she didn't smile until after the pictures were taken and we were leaving the area. We got big smiles and a giggle then, so we know she liked meeting the characters and getting her picture taken you just can't tell it from the actual pictures.

Daisy Duck.

We spent the third day and the afternoon of our last day at the Magic Kingdom. Megan's favorite ride was Dumbo-which she only got to ride once each day because we waited the longest in this line- there was no fast pass. The other favorite ride was the Carousel (of course) and we rode that several times each day because it had the shortest line. We also went on Peter Pan, Small World, Pooh, and the race cars- Megan drove....I think that's about it. Megan warmed up to these rides more on the second day. Oddly Megan was more afraid the first time we rode on the Winnie the Pooh ride the she was the first time we did the Buzz Light ride. Hmmm.... Cuddly bear vs shooting aliens- go figure.

Again no smile- I promise she loved this ride.The tea cups were also a big hit- mommy had to sit this one out.

We stopped to rest for David and I and let Megan play at Pooh's treehouse. Its nice to get to have someone push you around in a stroller so you can conserve your energy for thing that are more fun than just walking from place to place.

Here we are at Mickey's House checking out his backyard garden.

This was our first character encounter. Megan hugged Mini but was afraid of Mickey.

We climbed up through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House.

We stayed for the new Magic Kingdom light parade and fireworks, and enjoyed both

We did some shopping on the last day and Megan decided on a pair of Mini mouse ears. All in all we had a great vacation and Megan summed it up best. When we told her it was time to go home she cried and said "want cation more."

Halloween Festivities

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Fall Festival at Cox farms. The make tons of Kettle corn and have all kinds of hay slides, hayrides, goat petting area, corn maze, milking demonstrations, live music and other things. We had a good time even if it was a bit chilly out. Oh yeah, they also had pony rides. wooo hooo!
Megan was afraid to go down by herself- they were rather long slides- but she loved going down with mommy and daddy.

At the end of the day we each got out own mini pumkin.

Here's Mommy and Megan on the barn slide. There were pigs, sheep, turkeys, and chickens to look at while you waited in line, not to mention te hundreds of rubber snakes, spiders, bugs, frogs and other creatures nailed to the walls and roof. Megan had to touch one of the ladybugs everytime we went up. I think I had as much fun as Megan.We had a trial run with the costume da few days before Halloween, we'd already had to take one costume back.I had Halloween off so I spent the day with Megan at her school helping with all of the festivities. In the morning we had a big parade. The kids were all adorable in their outfits. In Megan's room the girls were all fairies, angels or mermaids, and the boys were all pirates or superheros.

Here's my little angel on the swings at school.

Craft time. What a mess.

These two were just too cute. "Look mommy."

Mmmmmm, snacktime. The mini cupcakes disappared icing side first.

Mr. Tom aka Clark Kent, is one of Megan's favorite teachers. He works in the baby room, but Megan visits almost every day. She often talks about wanting to see the babies on the way to school. Hmmm think she's ready for a sibling????

This is Megan's good friend Alice. They're playing ring aroud the rosie.

After Megan's party at school we headed over to the Palmers' for dinner and trick-or-treat. Emily is one of my partners at work. She has a 6 month old Ann who is already crawling, a 2 year old Ruth who talks at least as well as Megan, and a 4 year old Charles. They all dressed up as characters from Peter Pan. Megan and I were an Angel and a Devil. Unfortunately this is the only photo I got of the two of us together. Emily took a couple, I'll have to get a copy to post later. We had a great time. Its always more fun to trick-or-treat in a group. Unfortunately Daddy had to work late and couldn't join us. We missed you daddy.
Here are the adorable trick-or-treaters all ready to head out. No we couldn't get them to stand up and all look at the camera at the same time.

Here's the whole group. My partner Emily is dressed as Wendy and her husband Brett is Captain Hook.

Brett had glow sticks for the kids so the cars could see them after dark. Megan thought her glow necklass was the greatest.

Today we went to Great Falls Park just north of the city. Its along the Potoamac river and there are remnants of a canal that used to bypass the waterfalls. The trees were gorgeous and it was a beautiful day to be outside. Megan was a great little hiker. Here she's found a hollow tree trunk to play inside. She was only a little disappointed that there weren't any slides. Great Falls.

Munching on grapes during our walk.

This could have been a great shot, too bad about the wind and our hair.

Megan climbed every "mountain" she could. Daddy helped.

Augustseptemberoctober update.

Ok OK, I know its been a long time since I updated the blog, but hey we've been busy. Most recently we have sold our house in Houston and are now happily non-homeowners. Here is a selection of other happenings from August through October.

Halmuhni, Halabuhgi, Chagunohma and Chagunahpa came to visit. We had a full house and a wonderful time. Halmuhni arrived first and we took her on a trip to the zoo. Here we are at the children's "farm."
David's parents treated us to wonderful dinners at Peking Dynasty and one of the local Korean resaurants

Halmuhni caught some pictures of Megan trying to climb a tree.
Chillin on the porch after their walk.
Uncle Michael and Aunt Seunga had to sleep in our living room. Megan thought having a bed on the floor was just great.We took a trip to the Air and Space museum- which was very interesting. We had a great time.We even squeezed in a visit with great uncle Ken between the grandparents' visits.
At the end of August Mom and Dad came to visit. Other than the stroller incident we had a great time. Grandma stepped into the path of the stroller and was run down on out trip to the National Mall, but several nice passers by offered bandaids and luckily there were no major injuries. Here are a few pictures from their visit.
We took advantage of the few last warm days of summer to go for a swim.Here we are at the scene of the stroller crime. Sorry grandma. Ok so Bob Dole was out shaking hands and we decided to wait and have out picture taken with him for Brian's sake. We took mom and dad to the same Chinese resaurant we went to with David's parents. Mmmmm yummy. We decided to dress Megan up for the occaision. We rarely use her dresses. Two weekends ago we went down to Williamsburg to the Great Bear Lodge and indoor water park. Megan had a great time sleeping in her own "tent room." It was good to get away for a weekend of fun.
Here is Megan in her bunk bed. She slept there very well while David and I stayed up watching television. Having that partially walled off area for the kids is a great idea.
This is the kiddie are where we spent most of our time. Notice the orange slide in the background. I think Megan spent a solid 45 minutes doing nothing but climbing up the stairs and sliding down that slide.
The green lifevest was great for when we went into the deeper pool. Megan "swam" around and felt like a big girl. She liked the vest so much that she wouldn't take it off even when we stayed in the kiddie area.
Don't let the face fool you- she's having a great time. Did I mention she went down the slide ALOT.

This past weekend we went to the zoo. We went early to avoid the crowds at the giant panda exhibit. Megan really loves her animals.