Between all the scheduled activities (doctor appointments, lunch/dinner with friends/family, shopping for Christmas gifts, shopping for items to bring back to Korea, Christmas gatherings with family over four days for four different groups of people....I could go on and on..), spontaneous activities (hubby getting wisdom teeth taken out--surprise!, taking the boys to play at various places, our restaurant outings to fill our food cravings.....), and the boys' set daily nap time and bed time, it seems like we never stopped. It seems that way, because we didn't.
Our time was filled to the brim with lots of love, fun, memories, and good food, and I absolutely wouldn't have had it any other way. Thank you to every single person we saw. I know your time is just as precious as ours, and we're so thankful we were able to spend time with so many people we love, even if it wasn't as much as we would've liked. I also know there were people we didn't get to see at all or only in passing, and that's one thing I wish we could've changed. There were definitely some necks I didn't get a chance to hug. If that's you, I hope you know you were missed and I hope to get to you next time.
In the meantime, let me update you on our trip back to Korea. We'll start with the day before we left Houston, when I spent the day packing what seemed like everything but the kitchen sink. Over the course of time we were there, I bought items here and there that I knew we needed to take back to Korea and tucked them away in the closet in the room where we stayed at my mom's house. When this day came, I pulled out all of that stuff, all the stuff we came with (clothes, etc.), as well as all of the Christmas gifts we were blessed with.
When I tell you that there was stuff laid on nearly every free space of that room, shelf and all 3 beds included, that ain't no lie my friends. See for yourself.
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| It wasn't long before these two monkeys couldn't fit in these suitcases, because I had them so jampacked! By the way, these are only 4 of the 6 suitcases we took, not to mention the duffel bags and carry on bags. |
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| Ignore the cute hair (NOT!), but check out the craziness of stuff everywhere! |
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| Look closely and you'll spot a few boxes of tampons in that top suitcase. What you can't see is that I have 7 boxes of tampons hidden in there. Yes, I'm serious. If anything was getting back to Korea, it was those tampons. Girls, you know what I mean when I say those might've just been the most precious cargo in those suitcases. I'm willing to try different deodorants and toothpastes that the Korean grocery store offers, but a girl just can't budge on her need for this particular personal item. If I had to duct tape all 7 boxes together and make a backpack out of them to take them on the plane as a carry on, that's what I would've done in a heartbeat. |
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| C & P unpacked their toys here and there as I packed them....let's talk about how fun that is....I'd turn around to get something else to pack and when I'd go back to the suitcase, I'd find a hole where they took something out....ugh! It's nearly a miracle that Bella didn't get packed in one of our many suitcases by mistake as I was stuffing things in by the handfuls when they weren't looking. |
It took the extra suitcase I left at my mom's house when we moved to Korea as well as one of her suitcases to pack our treasures. Even still, I had to leave a few things behind that we simply didn't have room for. On the bright side, it'll be fun for the boys to see new toys the next time we go back there, and we'll have to try to fit them in our suitcases on the next trip.
With all the electronics charging in anticipation of the major usage they would soon be getting, we spent the evening trying our best to relax, even though Parker had just started running a low fever and had a runny nose. If that doesn't freak you out when you're scheduled to travel over the next two days on a total of 3 planes, I don't know what will! Oh, did I mention that Connar had thrown up earlier in the week from a little stomach bug, which meant that everyone in the house had been sick with that darn bug at that point except for me and Parker? Yeah, let's add that to the list of worries before traveling halfway across the world.
My dad, my stepmom Esther, and her girls came over to say see you later. Then, my mom made us a delicious last meal of roast and potatoes (she knows how that is one of Talton's favorites and made it for him twice while we were there), and she even surprised me by inviting some special people over for cake and ice cream to celebrate my birthday that would be 4 days later.
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| Um, please excuse the ragamuffin hairdo on my head. Remember, I was packing all day and wasn't expecting to see anyone or be in birthday pictures that evening. Honestly though, this angle doesn't really show just how bad it was. :) |
Like we had done for the past 5 1/2 weeks, we soaked up every second of time we could until the boys' bed time rolled around. It was important to get them in bed on time that night, seeing as though we were going to have to wake them up early the next morning to catch an 8 am flight out of Houston.
I tried my best not to tear up as we said our see you laters, but a few did escape from my eyes. This see you later wasn't as hard as the first time we left everyone in Houston, because we knew what to expect back in Korea and we were looking forward to getting back to our own space with our own stuff and back in our regular routine.
Korea, here we come!
