channeling his inner-ajusshi.

my future car.

on june 9th, this little peanut was born. her name is yunah clauss.

my friend, youngsook, gave birth at the same birthing center arrow was born...mediflower. on a trip outside of seoul, youngsook labored in a hotel room and on a bus, and thankfully, made it to mediflower. what an amazing mama.

congrats to nils and youngsook. and welcome baby yunah. we've been so excited to meet you.

the swaddling blanket we got her.

supposedly this towel over her head helps alleviate hiccups. 

i didn't care what it was for, she looked out-of-control-adorable wearing it. 

one hand out! sneaky girl was trying to escape.

a leather bag handmade by a good friend. one of many special handmade gifts from her.

thanks bomi unni. your visit meant a lot to us.

a day at seoul dream forest. 

for some reason, they thought a busy, hot sunday afternoon would be a perfect day to turn on their high-powered sprinklers. the park employee told all the kids and families to NOT play in the sprinklers. um, that clearly wasn't going to happen.

arrow was speedy gonzales, running straight for the madness.

thankfully, we found this small waiting pool perfect for little ones.

zachary had two weeks off before starting summer intensives. so we hopped on the KTX and took trip down south to suncheon and yeosu.

finding a place to stay while traveling can be one of the most difficult and frustrating tasks. and with a small child, the task gets that much trickier. 

it may seem strange to walk in a room and see a semi-oval bed, a mirrored wall and a bathroom with a naked lady in the frosted glass and say "perfect. we'll take it!" but not in korea. love motels are commonplace. this love motel was incredibly clean (practically new), had air conditioning, cable and c'mon....a semi-oval bed!

arrow's first stay at a love motel this "lovely". that's going in the books.

our first stop was suncheon bay, a coastal wetland with the widest reed bed in korea. the park provided free strollers (amazing!). within 15 minutes, arrow was out. it was a perfect place to take a long nap and dream.

cute little tea cups flowers.

arrows emulating a flock of birds.

parasols everywhere.

we were going to take the boat tour around the bay, but once we did the big hike up to the yongsan observatory and saw the wetland in all its glory, the boat ride seemed unnecessary. 

this was a place you couldn't help but feel calm and at peace. the sound of the reeds moving in the wind was especially relaxing. i could've taken a nap too. if only they had strollers for adults...

the first of three viewing points overlooking the bay.

arrow waking up from his nap. 

and ahpba cooling him off with a straw.

the second viewing point. 

and here we are: yongsan observatory, the final and highest viewing point.

the colors and patterns of both water and grass were so cool.

zachary and arrow were downstairs. i was calling for arrow from above and he couldn't find me. even when zachary was holding him up in my direction, he couldn't see me.

they had postcards and mailboxes available. what a great idea.

arrow needing some time to get dirty and explore.

and as always, meeting new people and trying to take their stuff.

she gave him a crunky chocolate bar. 

at that moment, she was arrow's new best friend.

in the fall, this becomes a natural shelter for migratory birds and therefore, a huge tourist attraction. though it would be a great place to visit in october/november and see all the birds, it probably isn't as peaceful with the crowds.

what great descriptions. and i can attest: the goggle-eyed gobies did look ridiculous and somewhat creepy.

a sea of green.

he may not have said it, but i know he was thinking, "ahpba, take me to the moon!"

a moment for arrow to crawl around and play with his new favorite toy, a race car from tiffany.

ice cream and cars. he couldn't be happier.

a stop at waon beach to see the sunset.

there were bundles of bamboo stacked everywhere.

another perfect place to take a nap.

we left before the sun set. too burnt out.  

the bench at the bus stop was super-low to the ground. it was making me laugh seeing zachary sitting there.

good-bye waon beach.

hello yeosu! home of the world's expo 2012.

the theme of the world's fair was "the living ocean and coast." when first entering the expo, there's a huge LED screen (218 meters long) on the ceiling of marine life and a humpback whale swimming back and forth.

the mascots: yeony and sunny. they're plankton.

oh and again...a place providing free strollers. yay!

have you ever been in bumper to bumper traffic where there's an idiot driver trying to maneuver through the traffic by weaving in and out of different lanes, but never getting anywhere and just causing more problems?

well, that was us while waiting to enter the aquarium, except it wasn't just one idiot...it was hundreds of idiots.

we waited three hours (no exaggeration) in line..by far, the longest line i've ever been in. and in a country where most people aren't used to actually waiting in a line, this was chaos. thankfully, arrow slept for 2 hours during our wait.

the lady in the striped dress was the worst. she was climbing over the gates and pushing people out of her way. she needed to get into the aquarium so badly, she left her husband behind.

anywho, i decided to take pictures of her. she was embarrassed. 

ahhhh...we made it and were greeted by the sun.

seeing this made the wait worth it.

would i do it again? heck no.

my favorite exhibit: a beluga whale laboratory that had just a desk, microscope and a poster of whales. 

seemed straight out of a wes anderson film.

arrow & ahpba checking out the sea lions...

and soon after, a crowd of middle-schoolers attacked.

this room was the highlight. i didn't take a great photo. i was too into the strawberry & banana smoothie that was suppose to be for arrow.

pointing at the fish.

aquariums. always fun.

one of the main attractions of the expo: the big o. at night, it spins around and shoots out water, flames, and lasers!

i told arrow i wanted a nice pose of him with the big o, and man, did he deliver. check out that beautiful high-kick.

in both english and korean, it's the "big o"!

we couldn't stay for the flames and laser show, but we caught the water fountain show.

this woman was a few balloons short of floating away.

chilling while we checked out the map.

french fries. mmmm.

some of the buildings/pavilions.

wonder what these buildings become after the expo. family marts, perhaps?

ridiculous.

needed to make sure i captured a good pic of this harabujee and his umbrella hat.

if they would've scooted over just a titch, i would've joined them. these ajummas had the right idea.

the expo workers had the cutest outfits.

on this trip, arrow discovered candy. 

people had been giving him candy for months, but he's never realized it. until now. 

a terrible development.

after the insane aquarium line, we refused to wait in any other lines. so of the 40 different international pavilions, we made it to 12 because they were empty.

the first one was qatar. the musicians were so bored, they were yawning and texting.

zachary really wanted to check out romania. we should've known that it would look like the '90s.

uruguay.

tunisia: gorgeous textiles, pushy ladies trying to sell me anything and everything made from olive wood. if i had the money, i'd buy it all. sorry, ladies.

germany! didn't go.

line = too long for us. 

monaco. over-staffed with koreans not sure what to do.

france had some futuristic rooms and ideas.

the netherlands!

our favorite: lithuania.

amber washed ashore by the baltic sea with fossilized plants, insects, even animals. each pillar had a magnified piece of amber. it was quite beautiful.

argentina felt like a not-so-bumpin' club.

but i did enjoy seeing arrow so amazed by the projector images.

unfortunately, the congo was set up only to sell a bunch of touristy junk.

belgium was set up like a circus. parts felt like an eery dreamworld.

arrow being entertained.

the expo, from above.

on a train ride home, we sat near a group of deaf women. arrow was interested in all the signing they were doing. and of course, got to hang out with them and play with their phones.