Moab Trip

Last weekend, we went on a family trip down to Moab with my family, Joe's mom, and my brother Dohyup's in-laws. We rented out a nice cabin down there (3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms with full kitchen and a 2-car garage) and stayed over night to enjoy our time together as a family. Joe, Alden, and I were sick from a cold, and Joe's mom and my sister Yeagi got sick over the weekend, but it was overall a fun trip. We left the house around 10:30 am on Friday. It was a crazy day the day before, getting ready and stuff (I had to take care of a whole bunch of stuff including car insurance and car alignment, etc.), and the morning was even crazier because Joe had to get the car aligned again and clean the car, and I had to pack for the whole family. Anyway, we finally got started on our trip, and Joe's mom got sick so we had to make several stops on the way (not to mention me having to go to pee 500 times). By the time we got to Moab, everyone was so tired from the drive that instead of going up to the Arches as planned, we decided to chill at the cabin for an hour and go fishing instead.

This is one of the stops we made on the way. We stopped at Price to have lunch at aFresh Market with chicken we bought at aFresh Market down in Provo. Ha ha. We should've done better research to find out they had one in Price, too. lol.

This is at Ken's Lake. My family went there camping three years ago and had enjoyed it so much. We went back and found that the water was really really low and all the trees and stuff had died! lol. It wasn't as beautiful as we hyped it up to be, but at least the fishing was still pretty good. We caught a lot of crappies and one bass.

Alden had fun fishing with Grandpa. He actually loves to talk about how we went fishing with Grandpa, and everytime we talk about my dad, he makes the reeling in motion with his hand and tells (or attempts to) the story of how he went fishing with Grandpa.

And they actually caught a fish together!!! It was the biggest Crappie of the day, too! Alden was so excited to reel in the line until the fish actually came out of the water, and he got scared and started to back off... lol.

Joe got to catch some fish too, as well as me. :D We probably ended up catching 15+ that day.

 

After fishing, we came back to the cabin and had dinner and relaxed. We played games and watched movies until we went to sleep. :D In the morning, we had French toast and bacon for breakfast and made Korean fried rice munchy thingies for lunch. lol. Then we packed and left the cabin and headed up to the Arches. The weather was just perfect! It was raining in the morning, but had stopped by the time we went out, but it was still cloudy to keep the sun away. It was nice and cool enough to walk around a little bit outside the car. We didn't actually do much hiking at all because of a certain pregnant person and a baby. lol. I got tired walking up to the South Window, which involved a 10 minute walk. Ha ha.

From the left, Jisil's brother, my dad, my mom, Yearim, Dohyup, Jisil, Jisil's mom, Joe's mom, Joe, Alden, and me.

Even though we didn't do much sight seeing of Moab, it was fun to spend the weekend with the family and relax. Joe was nice enough to do all the driving for us, and it was a very relaxing vacation for me. :D Hopefully we can do more familiy trips before it gets too cold!

Sarah's Wedding

A couple weeks ago, we got to go to cousin Sarah's wedding up at Snowbasin. We drove up with mom, and Alden had fun playing with grandma in the car on the way up and back. (Joe and I are usually really boring in the car, and we do "adult talk" and just put on children's song CD when Al requests it. So It was fun having Grandma sing and dance and play with Alden during the drive.

Oh, we did see a car that was completely engulfed in fire. It seemed like it had happened just minutes ago, and there was only one emergency vehicle keeping people away (no firetrucks or anything). We also didn't see any other cars that would've been in an accident or the driver that would've escaped from the car, so... we think the driver may have still been in the car, which would've been horrible!!! Hopefully the driver was okay.

We got to ride in a gondola up to a cabin, and Alden got a little nervous and wouldn't want to sit or stand by himself. But he was being such a champ and posed really well for pictures. :)

The wedding was beautiful and Sarah was absolutely gorgeous! (Oh, I just realized I didn't get any pictures of her.... Oooops..) It was too bad Tom couldn't be in this next picture. Don't the boys look nice together?

We didn't want to stay too long after the ceremony and wanted to get back before it got too dark, so we left before dinner/reception. But we did get this nice family picture. (I didn't realize dad and Faye were in this picture, too! lol)

After we got back, we went to Joe's mom's house and watched a Korean movie with Jamie. :) It was a loooong weekend (we had another wedding reception we went the night before in SLC), but it was fun to spend with the family!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 25 this last week. Wow... A quarter of a century, huh? We did a lot of fun things to celebrate his birthday over the course of a week, and we got to enjoy lots of food!

First, last Wednesday (or Thursday, i don't remember), we went to Coldstone to get the free ice cream "like it" size creation for his birthday. They only asked 30 cents extra to upgrade to the next size, and that's what we did! We got French Vanilla ice cream with oreos, and it was perfect for our little family of three. (Yum, yum...) We didn't share a cup because Joe was feeling sick. Alden loved that he had his own little sample spoon and got to scoop up his own share. :D

On Friday, my brother Dohyup's in-laws came to America to visit his wife. We had a big family dinner at home with mom's best friend Jane Birch. We celebrated both Joe and Jane's birthday (August 15th) with good food and a cheese cake. Jane blew out the candles first - we only had 10 candles, so each of them had 5 candles - then we sang for Joe. Since he was feeling sick and didn't want to blow on the whole cake, Alden got to blew out the candles for Daddy instead. He blew them out one by one, except the last two, he was able to get both of them at the same time (he's increasing his lung capacity much this summer from hours of blowing out candles, blowing bubbles outside, and blowing bubbles in his drink).

On Saturday, my mom bought us Brick Oven pizza (One of Joe's favorites) for dinner. We brought them home and enjoyed them very much (even till next day for lunch). We got Alfredo Chicken and Garlic Chicken pizza, and Alden loved them a  lot too!

On Sunday, we were invited to dinner at our friends house, Cody and Kyra's. They made wonderful taco soup with corn bread, and Joe got to play Eagle Eye on nintendo with Cody and me. Alden had his own controller and had fun watching (although he's really confused about the whole controllers-having-wires-attached-to-them concept). Joe was especially excited because he had been telling me about him playing the game in junior/high school just the day before.

On joe's actual birthday, Yearim, my little sister, made Joe a cake, and I made shrimp/italian sausage pasta for lunch. Joe came home for lunch, and we got to enjoy lunch together. :D

This is the cake Yearim made. It's plain yellow cake (Joe's favorite!) and Mario!!

Alden realized that those white powdery stuff on the cake tastes really good. He started digging in the cake even before we blew the candles and stuff. lol.

Then on Wednesday, we went to Tucanos for lunch with Cody and Kyra. Tucanos gives you a buy-one-get-one-free-meal coupon for your birthday, so we get to go to Tucanos twice a year (it's a little over priced otherwise). Joe loves all the food there, and my favorite is garlic sirloin and barbeque chicken. Alden, for the first time in a while, loved the food and ate a lot of fruits and meat. His favorite was BBQ chicken, and he kept asking for more. Since he's been obsessed about using tools (wrench, chopsticks, tongs, etc.), he loved that they had tongs there to grab the meat. He used them to feed me and himself fruit I cut up for him. :D

Sorry I didn't have more pictures, but it was a great birthday. We had a lot of fun, not just on his birthday, but got to enjoy Joe turning 25 for the whole week! :D We can't wait till Alden's birthday comes, when he will get to enjoy his own cake and blow out candles on his cake (and open presents... :o).

Indoor Summer Fun. :D

We've been having a lot of fun just around the house lately, and here are some pictures of Alden doing fun things.

Cereal for breakfast is great! Alden's favorite cereal is Life.

Indoor bowling. :D

Alden loves talking on the phone. He talks to his grandpa, grandma, and whoever he can on the phone. He doesn't really say much when he's on the phone but he loves to listen to the person on the other end.

Alden's showing more interest in reading books now. He likes to listen (sometimes) to us read to him, but mostly likes to turn pages and point at the pictures. He also likes to follow the actions that the characters are doing.

His all time favorite treat for the summer! Otter Pops! :D He's gotten pretty good at eating these now, and needs almost no help finishing it.

Playing with toys in his room. :D

Using tongs and wrenches to grab stuff off the floor! :D

Barker Reunion

July 31st was the Barker Reunion. We went up to Uncle Larry's in Eden to see the familiy. We got to drive up with Sophie and Laura, and it was so much fun. Tom had to work and couldn't come, so instead, Sophie and Alden got to have a blast in the car together. They were talking to each other, telling each other what was outside the window, sharing snack, etc. So cute! There was an inflatable water slide set up, and Alden and Sophie kept slowing walking up to it, even though they were told not to. They weren't even wearing their swimsuits yet! But they kept taking turns taking a few steps up, and then the other one would walk up as well. They eventually got all the way to the slide, and Joe had to go grab them. lol.

The Barker children. Eleen, LaVere, Bill, and Bettie. Grandma Rigby is the oldest of them, but she looks the youngest!

And of course, Sophie and Alden got to blow bubbles together again.

He didn't end up going on the slide (he's very shy when it comes to slides.. He gets scared and does not want to go down by himself. Sophie did really well and only needed help climbing up. So I had to change him back to normal clothes.

It was a good reunion. It did get very hot towards the end, because the shade we were sitting in moved away from us as we watched the program.... The best part was Al getting to play with Sophie. They play so well together! :D Alden does try to say Sophie's name, occasionally, and he says, "'Eee."

Al's latest interests

Alden goes through different phases of showing interest in different things. Lately, he's been showing interest in these following things.

1. Peter Pan: He loves watching the old Disney Peter Pan animation. He gets so excited when Peter Pan first comes on scene and is standing on the Darlings' roof. He tries to imitate different actions in the movie, such as putting his arms out and pretending to fly, running around and being hunted by Indians, making the tick-tock sound that the crocodile makes, etc. It's so cute when he puts his right hand up and says, "Haaaooo" when the Indian chief talks. Even at the Barker reunion the other day, Alden kept saying "Hao" seeing the man dressed like a native american.

2. Toy Story: I'm guessing everyone's already familiar with Alden's obsession with Toy Story. I won't say much about it, other than that he can recognize Woody and Buzz's names and the theme songs from the movie. When the space song comes on during the credits (yes, we watch the credits too), he holds up his arms and pretends to fly like Buzz.

3. ABC's: EVERYWHERE we go, he points out the alphabets A, B (D), and O. He has really good eyes, too. He can find those letters in almost any font and size, and gets really excited in the car when he sees the letters he knows on  billboards, etc. He loves to do that on TV or any object in the house as well.

4. Blowing bubbles in his drink: He always asks for a straw when he drinks, so he can blow bubbles with his drink. Milk seems to make the most bubbles and stay the longest. He loves to drink milk more than ever now. It gets him to drink more too, even though it takes a little longer to eat now.

5. Blowing out candles: Alden loves to blow out the candles too. My mom has candles on in the kitchen to get rid of the smell of food, and Alden always asks if he can blow them out. We can't wait to have him blow out the candles on his birthday cake in october. Although, we are a little bit worried that he will complain about us not relighting the candles... lol.

6. Chaos: Alden loves anything that falls, drops, get out of order, or makes loud noises. He loves to run around on my mom's hardwood floor and make stomping noises with his feet. He purposely lifts up his legs higher up so he can make louder noises. He also loves to knock down blocks/toys or wring his hands together while jumping up and down.

7. Pointing people out in photographs: My mom has framed pictures around the house, and Alden goes around pointing people out in the pictures. We were surprised that he was able to recognize me in a picture that was taken almost 10 years ago. He can point out everyone in my family and Joe's familiy (he doesn't know Joe's siblings' names yet though), including grandma and grandpa. He can only say "엄마 (mommy)" and "Daddy" now, but we can't wait till he can say everyone else's names so he can point AND name everyone.

8. Cheering: He loves to cheer. He puts both arms up in the air and shakes his arm in the air. Whenever we say "Hooray" or "Yay," he lifts up his arms and cheers. He loves to do that whenever we clear a game while playing the wii.

Pioneer Day

We got to enjoy our Pioneer Day weekend with the Powells. They are very close family friends and the kids are half Korean and just the cuttest ever! :D I used to babysit the kids all the time, and now they've grown enough that they can babysit mine! Ha ha. They came down Friday night, and we enjoyed some fireworks.

Kennedy is writing "Alden" with the sparklers.

Alex working on "Joe."

Next morning, we went on a hike/walk along Provo River trail. We were gonna go to the Timpanogos Cave, but found out someone had reserved all the tickets and we'd have to wait three hours once we got there. Instead, we took a walk from Nunn's Park to Vivian Park, and went fishing at Vivian Park.

At the Bridal Veil Falls. All Alden wanted to do was throw pebbles in the water.

Fishing with daddy at Vivian Park. We didn't catch any, or even get any bites....

Afterwards, we picked up some Subway sandwiches and went to the BYU Duck Pond to eat and look at the ducklings. Then we went to watch Despicable Me. It was such a cute and funny movie. Alden loved it and watched the whole thing even though he had only gotten 15 minutes of nap that day. Alden played with Alex and Kennedy really well, and was following them around everywhere. He was so sad that they had to leave and pretended not to understand when we told him they had to leave. So sad...