Destinee and the Hop Song

I hope this little video comes through...I've tried before to put video on my site but it never had worked, but I got re-inspired when I saw my sister-in-law's site and video of her little girl...so hopefully I can get it to work!! It's a cute taste of Destinee's sense of rhythm (or maybe lack there of) you can be the judge!! ;)

Daddy and Daughter Dance

Destinee is in Girl Scouts again this year and they had a Daddy Daughter Dance ...NMO...(No Moms Allowed) and she missed it last year so I wanted to make sure she got a fancy night out with her favorite "boyfriend," her Dad!! Chris has some better pictures on his fancier camera that I will try to "extract" and post!! They had a great time just by themselves!!

The 1st grade Tooth Fairy

The first picture is so you can see her hair-even though the hair ties aren't matching her outfit-they were when we went to the church Halloween party-I even glued chiclets to some ponytail holders so it would look like teeth-but they got so glued together I couldn't use them for her school party....and then the second picture is to show the toothbrushes and flossers sewn onto her outfit!! Just for you Aunt Di!! :)

Halloween party at our play group in Osan

Dalin looks cute in this picture, but for the whole week leading up to Halloween-Dalin was just miserable with a fever and leg pains, etc. and was just a beast to be around...but hopefully you can tell what he is but in case you think he's Julius Caesar, let me clue you in that he is Cupid complete with arrows and a quiver, and crown...and of course Kyle was the Easter Bunny-Mommy was Mother Nature and Destinee was the Tooth Fairy-she's at school when this picture was taken!! We all match or coordinate thereof for yet another year!! Daddy was working just like last year so he got out of dressing up with us :( but he was supposed to be Father Time so that we could complete our Mythical Creatures theme but oh well maybe next year!!

Did you find some cereal!!??

We came in one morning and found this in our kitchen storage area-YUMMY mess!!

Kyle joined in the hat wearing trend!!

Kyle wanted to join in after it got dark and Dalin was nice
enough to share his new hat!!

I'm so happy with my new hat, I don't even want to stop to pee!!

His new "cave searching" headlamp hat...no really we did go "spelunking" in a lava tube there and we REALLY did need Dalin's little hat!! And he was so excited about getting his new hat and gettting his picture taken, he forgot all about having to pee-UNTIL right as we took the picture!! Thank you perfect timing!!

What a picture!!

This needless to say was a little intimidating, but an awesome opportunity none the less!!

Go Herbie Go!!

Saw this new version of a classic in a parking lot in Oahu this summer!!

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

Yeah I got the blog working....I've been trying for a while now and it wouldn't work for me....just a cool picture that we took with our underwater camera case!!

My My My What a long time I've slept

The title refers to a book we read around here called Lazy Bones about a bunny who wants to lay in bed all day, but it definetely could refer to how lazy I've been in updating our blog. After the Hawaii trip nothing here really seemed worthy of reporting I guess!! But now I'll get back on the ball and start putting some more pictures of life happenings around here more frequently!! Just a few back track pictures of some COOL underwater viewing in Hawaii!! Then we'll get on to the business at hand-mainly day to day life and hey Halloween just ended too-that means costume pictures!!

A Fun Time was had by all!!

Well I think that's probably the jist of our Hawaii pictures that people might like to see because there are so many more because Chris gets snap happy to say the least. We'll update some more on our boring life here in Korea after a tropical getaway later!!

The Pineapple Field is crawling with them!!

Just a quick pose after the Pineapple Maze-which in 2001 used to be the world's biggest maze!! So needless to say we got lost a few times, hence the "Where in the heck are we? " pose!!

What is this yellowy goodness!!

Kyle's first taste of corn (or one of his first at least) at the hotel in Hawaii and it was all over from there-especially for the bedspread!! ;) But anyway, a small price to pay for the quiet it allowed us!!

Hulas and Ukeleles

Just your everyday Sea shell bra wearing six year old (much too small I might add) and your ukelele playing three year old!! You're not too modest are you Destinee??

Shouldn't you be beating your chest Daddy Tarzan!!??

These were the fun Banyan trees that have very thick and strong trunks/roots and also have TONS of long "branches" hanging down almost to the ground and so everyone took a turn swinging on them-except Mommy-I tried but couldn't quite get my whole body up and swinging!!

Should I eat you...or just stare??

This was Kyle's first view of a fish I think at the Waikiki Aquarium and he just would stand there and wonder. Besides these fish were the size of two of him so they must have looked really interesting or intimidating, I don't know which!!

The Million Dollar Oasis

Just a silly picture of us "worshipping" the green stuff-we don't get to see it around here very often!! It was a welcome sensation to take off our shoes and frolic in the grass!!

Dining Out 2007

One of the few times Chris and Ruth get to dress up and go out for a "fancy" dinner-notice my newly shorn locks!! (shorter hair for all those normal people who don't understand my jargon!!)

2nd edition Mud Pies and Dirt Cakes

There are too many pictures of mud-related activities so we'll just show the before and after pictures!!

Ooh Pretty Lights!!

This 4th of July's fireworks were very pretty and impressive. There of course was the little festival that they have every year as well with the fire trucks and bands, etc. I don't have a picture of it but we all had matching Old Navy flag tees!!

National Geographic here we come!!

The title says it all!! These were amazing to both of us.

Camels in Korea!!??

This was the kids first look at, much less riding of an "exotic" animal-they were definetely cheesing it the whole time!!

Korean zoo....oh no what will we find!!

Actually we found some very pretty things and had some really cool photo "ops" for Chris's new SLR camera. This fountain was right at the entrance and it was very pretty-and then the other picture which wasn't supposed to get included in this particular entry but oh well was definetely a Korean ghetto rig-it was a fun climbing cargo net connected to this large concrete pole in the middle of the ground but as the kids get closer to the top it starts to sway back and forth and you look at the ground where the pole, you would suppose would be concreted in the ground or anchored in some way but of course it wasn't-it was just like someone had dug a big hole with a post hole digger and just dropped it in and thought that would be sufficient....well needless to say we got the children down lickety-split (that last phrase was courtesy of my mom!!)

Shrinking Violet?

She did pretty well on our hike, but sometimes hiking isn't Destinee's cup of tea....so this last picture is a good view with a smile on her face....Kyle's hat is cute huh!! I actually filled it with COLD mountain stream water and dumped it on his head right before this picture and he didn't care a bit!!

The "Hulky Hiker"

The leaders in nursery always call Dalin the "Hulk" because he's just so "brawny" to say the nice way that he's big and mean-no but he is rather big and sometimes can just be a little overpowering-so we each took pictures on this one rock at Chiaksan National Park and we told Dalin to do the strong man muscle pose-and well this is the result!! The second picture is of Dalin after completing a 2 mile hike with the family and then continuing on with "Mountainman" Daddy for another 1/2 mile or so to see yet another Korean temple-Destinee, Kyle and I said we'd seen enough temples and would just stay put!!

Our little turtle

Chris is always calling Kyle his little "turtle" mainly because of this first shot and a few others that he's straining his neck and resembles a turtle peeking out of its shell, so now I've gotten addicted to anything turtle for Kyle to wear or play with....call it mother's love or stupidity whichever fits the bill!!

PULL...PULL...PULL!!

So unlike my big brother and his family documenting one of their first family hikes on their blogspot, we in the Strommer crew know all about hiking (mainly because it's one of the few things to do around here!!) but anyway this was one of the many national parks that we are making our rounds to-this was probably about 3 hours north of Osan and was definetely "off the beaten path" which we like-any chance to get away from the Korean life we take full advantage of!! When I saw this root protruding out of the ground I had to take the opportunity to poke fun at Chris saying he couldn't get it out of the ground!!

What a long time it's been!!

Well now it's the middle of August and the last entry I submitted was in the middle of July-whooo I've been lazy...nonono now let's give me credit-we've also been on a two and a half week vacation in Hawaii with the inlaws and we just got back a few days ago-so beautiful tropicalness pictures to follow soon!! :)

More than just a Flower

Destinee joined the ranks of Girl Scouts this year as a kindergartner-she was a Daisy, the first level and next year she's already excited to "bridge" which is what the second picture is-they didn't have Brownie uniforms for the next year so they bestowed on them these paper bags with the Girl Scout symbol on them and everything.

A Spiritual Place for the Whole Family

I had previously posted a picture of us at the temple, but it was missing our latest addition to the family. Now here's a complete picture of our family "standing in holy places" of the world.

The Hulk turns 3!!

Well he finally made it....there were questions in our minds whether Dalin would ever live to be another age....with all the boyish activities he involves himself in (mainly scraping his knees and every other exposed body part on the concrete on a regular basis) falling off pool slides, and other various dangerous but normal for Dalin incidents. He had a sports related party with all the majors-basketball,soccer,baseball, and football-he even had a soccer ice cream cake!! Oh and by the way "The Hulk" is his nickname in nursery at church-he just stomps around like he's gonna crash through something or someone as the case may be. :)

Distinguished Graduate

Well Chris finally did it...he got through the training and all the stupid homework to be called an NCO...(non-commisioned officer) for all those unlucky enough ;) to be associated with the military!! Basically he got promoted and even earned a hand shake from the two star general on base for being a "distinguished graduate" from his training-meaning the top 10% in his class. So congrats to our newly pinned (June) Staff Sergeant!! GO AIR FORCE!!

Out with the Old... In with the New

Well almost all of these recent posts have just been updating readers on events that have happened since we got here and most occurred last year....(like the mud festival for this year is in a few days)but that's enough updating-I'm just gonna stay current from now on-the 2007 here and now!!

DIRT CAKES AND MUD PIES

Just a few snapshots of "gettin down and dirty" at the Boryeung Mud Festival...This is no ordinary mud, this is the mud mask, mud bath, paying big bucks to slather yourself in it kind of mud!! It does feel better than just rained dirt kind of mud...it dries to a powder pretty quickly and you do look pretty funny-the bottom picture is of some Koreans that pose as Mud statues ALL DAY at this festival-they do look pretty "statue"like-except for the one guy that has a drink in his hand. He kinda ruined it!!