Life in the ROK

Max takes flight

2009-07-07T22:29:00.001-07:00

Max and Tyler have fun at Moran State Park, Orcas Island. Max and I spent the last 10 days here and will leave tomorrow for more family fun in Los Angeles.
Max practices some of his flying moves
Nice form!

Moran State Park

2009-07-07T22:18:00.001-07:00

Kaylie and Tyler have more fun building sand castles than Max

Max and Grandma

2009-07-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

Max holds his first starfish
and checks out the oysters and crab we caught on my mom and Bruce's beach
I eat the freshest oyster I have ever had, right off the rock
Tyler and Travis admire their catch!

Shabu Shabu

2009-07-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

For Kaylie's birthday my Mom made Shabu Shabu in their newly remodeled kitchen! Tyler and his friend Travis have been working on the house for about 2 months.

Happy Birthday to you.
Make a wish.
Success!

Kaylie's Birthday

2009-07-07T18:49:00.001-07:00

For Kaylie's birthday Tyler, Travis and Kaylie build a catamaran. Here it is after they all abandoned ship.
Not quite as sound as they had hoped.
The ship started to sink pretty quickly after they all got on.
The birthday girl!

Last days in Seoul

2009-06-29T02:46:00.000-07:00

Colleen just finished this painting under the wire. It's the view outside our window on the 24th floor, looking across the Han River. Colleen painted the views from our apartment in LA and our house in Colorado Springs; they are some of my favorite paintings. I love getting a little memory jog everytime I see something like this. Thanks Colleen, great work!

The monsoons started last week. I wore my water shoes and Max wore his so we could stomp in all the puddles outside. When we came back, it was mission complete.

Otherwise Max and Colleen left this afternoon to go to Orcas Island and see MJ and Bruce for a few days. We'll meet up again on July 14th in Los Angeles when the Army finally lets me leave Korea too. In the meantime, cross your fingers the little fat guy up north doesn't try anything funny. Highly doubtful. See you in the US!

Max says Duck

2009-06-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

2009-06-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

My friend Hiromi from high school and her husband Ben came to Seoul and stayed with us. We had a great visiting with them;-)

Max at the Fish Market

2009-06-19T04:08:00.000-07:00

We took Ben and Hiromi to the fish market and they got some great pictures of Max with the octopus and sea cucumbers.

Being a cute read headed little guy in Korea definitely opens people up to Max. Koreans as a culture are very open and loving to kids, but the blue eyes, and curly hair help too;-)

Max liked touching all the sea animals.

Jay let him ride on his shoulders for a while so we could actually get through the whole market and Max waved at all the fish and the fishmongers. These days he waves at everything and everyone...really into saying HI!!

2009-06-19T03:59:00.000-07:00

Max was pretty excited about the skateboard Ben brought with him.

Max's first ride

2009-06-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

Max was so excited to see Ben doing tricks on his skateboard that Ben offered to take him for a ride.

The first time around Max was a little apprehensive about the while thing.

After the second ride he kept doing the baby sign for more...more!

Ben fixed Max's hat so he looked more like a skater.

ED Farewell

2009-06-15T04:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the Emergency Department Hail and Farewell. A pretty good crowd showed up but we are never full strength for parties because there are always people on and post night shift too.

I gave out some awards, for example to CPT (Dr.) Katina Fosen. Max tried to get into the action too.

Awards to MAJ John Godesa and our trusty Ambulance Driver Supervisor, Mr. Yim, who has worked for the hospital since 1969. Before I was born!

And I got an award. A nice little bell, a replica of King Songdok the Great's Divine Bell that was made in 771 and still exists. I thanked Max for all his support and let him have a few words too.

I have learned many things in the last three years in Korea and last two as Chief of the Emergency Department. Maybe most importantly, I learned that respect is an action verb. Sometimes you just have to choose to do it, despite all feelings to the contrary, and have to repeat, repeat, repeat for it to finally take hold. Thank goodness things like that finally get easier after some practice.

Thanks everyone in the ED for all your hard work taking care of our patients everyday, day in and day out.

Carribean Bay

2009-06-13T00:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Caribbean Bay at Everland Amusement Park. Jay has ALWAYS!!! wanted to go and our friends Hiromi and Ben who are visiting us from the states were excited to catch some fake Korean waves. We liked this sign with the Korean Mikey and Minnie that led us into the park.

Hiromi and Max chillin by the wave pool.

Good times at Caribbean Bay!

Max, Shoma, and the Red Car

2009-06-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

Max was so good about sharing his red car today with his friend Shoma! I was so proud;)

2009-06-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

We went hiking early for my birthday but got lost and ended up at a Buddist altar.

Max wondering about the whole inner peace thing. Or Cheerios. One of the two, at least.

He was a little scared by the mean face of the stone lion guardians and had to be coaxed to pet them.

Then he made friends and shared his water with them.

2009-06-08T04:41:00.000-07:00

We finally found the trail and made it up the trail to a nice little view out the left of the trees.

We made it to the peak and gave a hearty, Yes! A couple of years ago I climbed the rock in the background with Chris Strode on a four or five pitch route.

Mom and Max bag the peak of Yongbeong.

Pretty exhausted at the fork in the trail on the way down. Max was such a delight all weekend and Colleen, of course, was such a sweet wife. What a great birthday.

Red velvet delight

2009-06-08T04:34:00.000-07:00

Colleen made a red velvet cake per my request. It was the strangest looking cake coming out of the oven I ever saw. Then it gave me a big birthday kiss with those cake lips. It was an amazing birthday cake.

And some toasted pecans to make it healthy.

Max got some candle blowing lessons.

Jay gets a bubble gun for his B-Day

2009-06-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

Jay opens his birthday present from Max.

Just what he always wanted....an automatic bubble blowing gun!!!

Max tries to eat

and catch all bubbles;-)

Max and Shoma Play

2009-06-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

Is that some sharing I see going on there?!?

Sorry guys there is a safety on that;-)

Max and Shoma pulled out a container of flash cards I made for studying Korean and made sounds like they were trying to read them....so very cute.

We will miss you guys when we move to Italy;-(

Max finger paints

2009-05-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

I bought some finger paints for Max and have been really excited about letting him try them. So this weekend while Jay was gone I set up Max's painting station on his high chair. He was pretty unsure about the whole thing and kept shaking his hand in the air trying to get the red paint off! Here are his first two masterpieces;-)

I like to call this one "Birds take flight"

and this one is "Untitled #1."

Max's new seat

2009-05-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

After reorganizing our storage porch........no garage when you live on the 24th floor...

Max discovered that he had a new favorite seat!

Boat Trip on the Han

2009-05-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

Max eats Korean food

and practices using chopsticks

before our boat trip on the Han River.

Behind us is the Korean Congress building. Yes, Max is wearing a San Diego Padres hat, for all you fans out there;-)

Toddler Cross Fit

2009-05-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Max does his toddler cross fit workout! He is getting very strong;-)

Murph

2009-05-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

Today I did my first full Hero workout for CrossFit. This one is called Murph, named after LT Mike Murphy of the Navy Seals, who died in Afghanistan. After Seals PT, he would do this next. It's a one mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, then run another mile. In body armor. I was ahead after the bodyweight exercises, but Trigg's long legs were his advantage in the run and he beat me by one second at 41:40.

RIP LT Mike Murphy.

Jay goes flyfishing in Korea

2009-05-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

Colleen was kind enough to let me go flyfishing before leaving Korea. I left Friday night on the express bus down to the south of the country and met up with my guide, James Card, in the morning. It rained all day, mostly a light but constant little drizzle. Thanks James for hooking me up with some rain and fishing gear to keep me dry. Behind James you can see the little gorge we started the day in, trying to hook into some barbels, notchmouth, and others. It was absolutely gorgeous, or at least my starvation for nature from being trapped in Seoul made me think so. I was loving it, despite the rain.

Here is my first and only catch. It's a little notchmouth, the only of its kind in the world.

Check out the front of the jaw, how it hooks down then up. It fits into a notch on the upper jaw, hence the name.

We spent the second part of the day fishing a beautiful trout stream up in the mountains. I got a couple of strikes in this little pool but did not hook into one of the cherry trout we were after. Granted, I am a very novice flyfisher and need to get some hours and days and weeks under my belt. This was one of those. Despite the paucity of fish catching, I had a great time in the outdoors, hiking all around, chatting it up with James, etc. A great, great day. Thanks Colleen! You're the best wife ever.

PS A few more photos on Facebook but not so much photo shooting due to the rain. Trust me, it was wonderful.