The 4th on the ROK

Dan found himself unexpectedly not on call last weekend, which meant that we (or he) could travel more than 30 minutes from base, which meant that we could use our 4 day weekend to do something fun!  People around here take advantage of American holidays - days that Koreans are working - to go sightseeing.  We've heard you just don't want to be out and about some places on a weekend or Korean holiday because of the massive crowd factor...

All that to say, we spent a couple of days in Seoul.  Dan had Monday and Tuesday off, so we went up on Sunday evening to the Yongsan Army Base, where they have a hotel called the Dragon Hill Lodge.  A little mini-vacay!  Yay!  We knew Yongsan would have a fireworks show, just like Osan was having, so we checked in and headed out to dinner and fireworks.

Above:  happy Tessa.

Below (2 minutes later):  unhappy Tessa.

This happens anytime I set her somewhere like this for a photo. All I did was take her out of the stroller and set her on the grass right next to her siblings, and she immediately freaked out!  It's so uncharacteristic of her.  Well, except in this situation - it's becoming quite annoyingly characteristic.

Me and Dan with the kiddos = me trying to get pictures of not just the kiddos.

I seriously don't know how to explain this guy.  At this point of the evening I was feeling a little bit of Air Force pride, since the entertainment at Osan events has always been pretty great.  And I knew on the 4th they were going to have static aircraft displays, kids stuff, etc. and Yongsan had this guy in a yellow I-don't-even-know-if-you-can-call-it-an-outfit outfit!  Interesting!  I guess his talent may have been a little more appreciated had his look not been so distracting.

Well, we were really there for the fireworks, and they did not dissapoint!

To our amazement, Tessa LOVED them!  They started up loud and unexpectedly, and she didn't even bat an eyelash.  She watched, clapped, pointed, and looked super-cute.  Dan and I were way more entertained watching her than the fireworks!

Rayna liked watching the fireworks, but she is not a fan of loud noises.  :)