Wandering Browns

To keep up the tradition, I did Landon's yearly birthday interview, and it's amazing that some of the responses were the same as last year! I love hearing his answers to some of the questions, he's a quirky kid.  I took his five-year-old pictures on the beach at our hotel in Phuket, Thailand. So the background is real, not a photo back drop! Favorite colors: black, white and orange "Halloween colors" Favorite Letter: "B" because it starts BMW Favorite Animal: I don't have one Favorite Dinosaur: T-rex Favorite (home) school subject: Science Favorite brand: Exercise clothes (He's become obsessed with Nike and Puma the past few months) Favorite number: 6 Favorite sea creature: Humpback Whale Favorite food: meat, pork chops (news to me!) Favorite dessert: Chocolate cake Favorite toy: cars Favorite activity: stay home and play Favorite sport to play: soccer Favorite sport to watch: frisbee (Austin's co-workers and I p...

 Going into the month of November, I had no idea where we were going to be for Owen's birthday. For awhile, it was looking like we were going to be back in California, and then as we got further into the month, that we would still be in Samgilpo, Korea, but leaving shortly thereafter to go back to the United States. Then, we got staffed to go straight to Vietnam, and we had to be all packed up and ready to leave Korea two days after Owen's birthday. Needless to say, it was a hectic time and I'm just happy we did SOMETHING for his birthday.  First off, though, we took a bunch of passport-style photos to try to get one acceptable enough for our visas to Vietnam. It was a process, and we took way too many pictures. The website for visas kept saying our photos were unacceptable, but not telling us why. Very frustrating, but we got some really cute documentation of Owen's funny faces, so enjoy: Pre-hair cut bangs in his face... Cute, happy boy! Look over...

The Beehive cake and my boys Way back on August 10th, I celebrated my 29th birthday, which might be the most depressing birthday ever. I don't feel old enough or mature enough to be almost 30! Where is the time going? My birthday happened to fall on a weekday in the middle of a very busy period at Austin's work. They gave him impossible deadlines, and he was working his tail off to try his best to meet them. So, I was very surprised when he arrived home on my actual birthday with a beehive cake and an interesting plant. I had ordered my birthday present (new running shoes!) during the Amazon Prime Day, and my parent's present to me was shipping them here to Korea. So, I already had my presents and was not really expecting anything before the weekend. What a sweetie! Sansiviera "Velvet Touch" aka Snake plant or mother-in-law tongue I guess the plant deserves some explanation. Austin was trying to get me flowers. He found a florist and pointed to every p...

 Four years ago this summer, I was super pregnant and nesting like crazy while watching the 2012 Olympics. This summer, I'm watching the Olympics a little at a time, and we celebrated Landon's 4th birthday! Because of our traveling, his birthday celebrations have not always included a kid party, but this year, we had friends to invite from church here in Korea! Landon decided he wanted to go to the local free water park for his birthday party, and some wonderful Korean families joined us. Austin and Owen, the watermelon eater! I had no idea what to expect from this party. I was not sure what Koreans do for birthdays, and I was just crossing my fingers that our guests would show up at the right place at the right time, because I told one lady at church that speaks English and told her to pass it along to all the Primary kids' parents. I planned on having enough food for everyone, and we brought along a couple picnic mats so everyone would have somewhere to sit (...