Traveling With Kids: The Master Class

August 16, 2017 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

I should feign humility, but I’d really like to think that if I have any skills at all (besides making babies) it’s traveling with kids. After all, I have spent the last two years conducting some very intensive research on the topic and we have all lived to tell about it. May you find it helpful and if not, take heart, horrific travel experiences make for great stories; consider it your contribution to mankind.

Also, my experience is obviously geared around younger kids, so my advice will be too. I would like to think that by the time my kids are older they will pack and carry their own stuff, watch movies and eat junk food for the duration of the trip, and leave me the mess alone. Don’t you dare spoil it for me.

Some tips and tricks for traveling with (young) kiddos:

Don’t.
- Ha. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. For real now.

Talk up the trip.
- Build excitement about the trip. Talk about riding in the car/plane and about all the things you will do and people you will see when you get there. Try and make travel days something to look forward to and not to dread.
Wear them out before leaving.
- Let them play outside or run round before loading up. The last thing you want to do is try and travel with kids with pent up energy. When flying, after we get to the gate we try and let the kids run around, climb stairs etc. for a bit before boarding. Our airport in Korea has a play area for young kids; check to see if your airport has one.
Travel days are SPECIAL.
- Things that would never fly on a normal day are totally ok on travel days. These are the days that there is no moderation, no balance, and no one is trying to win a parenting award. There are limitless snacks and too much TV, and that is OK. The only people judging you are your fellow kid-less passengers, and they too may one day know just how real the struggle is.
Snacks.
- “Healthy” (crush proof) snacks: Feel free to pack Cheetos and gummy bears, but eventually you may to want them to stop eating that, lest you want to clean up puke. I try to pack mostly things that if my kid ate their weight in it, I wouldn’t be too concerned. Find the balance between some special snacks and things that will make them be excited but not too sugary/sticky/etc. Ex. pretzels, applesauce pouches, dried fruit, trail mix, cheese sticks.
- Pack snacks in Nalgene bottles: Still want to take fragile snacks? Can’t live without Goldfish? Fill up an old water bottle with snacks to keep them from getting crushed and spilled in your bag.
- Ziplock bags: Great to have on hand to distribute snacks and/or collect trash. Each kid gets a baggie to hold their snacks and they can be refilled as needed.
Movies.
- We also try and bring some device for the boys to watch movies. Make sure to charge devices the night before, maybe load a new movie or two, and bring headphones and a headphone splitter if they are sharing.
Wrap up some new (or even old) toys.
- Go to your local dollar store or bargain bin and stock up on small/inexpensive toys and grab some cheap wrapping paper to wrap them. We try to space out letting the boys open them so they have something to look forward to. We have even wrapped up some old toys before, so this would be the perfect time to wrap that toy that you loathe, and pray it disappears into the airplane abyss.
Clean crafts.
- Color magic
- Stickers
- Painters tape
- Magna Doodle
- Wikki Stix
- Tongue depressors with velcro dots on the ends for building
- Temporary tattoos
  - All respectable children should have at least a half-sleeve by the time you arrive.

Driving tips:

Car toys.
- We have a special basket of toys that live in the car. What makes them special you ask? THEY LIVE IN THE CAR. They don’t come inside, so there is automatic anticipation to use them. #momhack
Landmark incentives.
- Ex. You can have another snack/open another toy when we cross the big bridge! It gives them something to look forward to and keeps them from running through treats too quickly.
Talk about what you see.
- When I can tell the kids are getting antsy (“I wanna get outtttt” on repeat) I sadly turn off our audio book and talk to the kids about the scenery. Judah has learned lots about back hoes (and I’ve realized I don’t know nearly enough names of construction equipment to be a proper boy mom) and water towers…and I have only almost driven off the road as Judah excitedly spots them and shrieks “NOTHER BACK HOE, MAMAAAA!!”.
Maximize your stops.
- Sometimes your kids need a slow, no stress kinda trip with lots of stops, and thats ok, but otherwise, we try and make the trip as short as possible. We try to multitask at each stop, ex. I will nurse Z and Isaac can let the boys run around at a rest stop or Isaac will do diapers while I pump gas and grab food. Road trips are great all, but sometimes it good to just get to your destination.

Flying tips:

Consider bringing carseats.
- We brought carseats on the flight for the first time on our last trip from DFW to Seoul. It was a game changer for us as Isaac was sitting in a middle row of 3 with the boys so there was no way to barricade them both in, and I was one row in front with Zoey. Our boys are pretty good road-trippers, so putting them in their carseats made them seem much more calm and happy to stay in their seat than ever before. I don’t think it is right for everyone or for every trip, just consider your kids ages, temperament, and length of flight. Also, you have to make sure you carseat is FAA certified; it should say on it or have a sticker if it is.
Get the bassinet seat.
- If you are flying, especially internationally with a baby (usually ~1 and under, but it is based on height and weight), a bassinet can be super helpful. At the very least hopefully you can get baby settled in it so you can eat hands free. Check with your airlines as some will reserve it for you ahead of time, and some have you request it on a first-come-first-served basis at check in. You also have to be sitting in the first row of the cabin to use the bassinet. I will say it is basically Murphy’s law that if your baby is fussy and you finally console them and get them to sleep in the bassinet, the the seatbelt sign will turn on and you will be asked to hold your baby. I have definitely gotten to the point of exhaustion where I just want to say, “LISTEN LADY, I assure you that if it gets bad enough, I will grab my baby, but for the love of ALL THINGS, pleaseeeeee don’t make me move them yet.”-the pleas of an exhausted mama.
Cheap toys.
- We try and bring toys that we wouldn’t lose sleep over if they got left on the plane accidentally, as everything ends up getting spread out over the course of the flight. Again see: wrap up dollar store toys.
If you have small children, bring water on as long as they will let you.
- Staying hydrated can make all the difference in how you feel at the end of an international flight, so bring water if you can. Usually with young kids, as long as you set it aside while going through security so they can scan it, they will allow it. At the very least bring an empty water bottle to fill up on the other side of security.
Bring empty sippy cups.
- Instead of worrying with bringing milk or juice for our kids, we just pack them empty, and ask the flight attendants to fill them. They have always been happy to oblige.
Cabin pressure.
- I feel like this is common knowledge, but when flying with babies-toddlers, just try to nurse/feed or have them sip something through a sippy cup during take off and landing to help their ears adjust to the change in pressure. Between 3 kids and more flights than I can count, we have never had an issue.
Fly Tot.
- We also have this thing called the Fly Tot that we love for helping little ones stretch out and sleep. It is basically an inflatable footrest so that they can lay down. You should guess we are all too happy to through money at anything that might help my kiddos sleep. We have been really happy with it. See the Fly Tot here.

Things to consider:

Baggage allowances- most airlines allow for an extra bag as the infant’s diaper bag, a collapsible stroller to be checked at the gate, and then extra allowance to check pack n’ plays, carseats, or larger strollers. Check ahead of time!
Some airlines will allow you to select a special kids meal (hot dog, spaghetti, pizza, etc.), infant meal (water for making bottles, premixed formula), or even an older infant meal (baby food, juice).
Early boarding- most airlines will let you board before they board the main cabin. This will allow you to get everyone settled and claim your overhead compartment space near your seat.
Airports will often let you use express lines for security, immigration, or customs if you have your hands full. Don’t be afraid to ask. I’ll never forget after a particularly horrific day of travel we walked up to the immigration line and it was ENDLESS, and I promptly pushed our stroller to the DIPLOMAT/FLIGHT CREW/IMPORTANT PEOPLE line and Isaac’s like, “…babe…” I responded with, “Isaac our kids are screaming, exhausted, and covered in throw up (I told you…horrific). Leaving this airport ASAP would be public service.” *They didn’t turn us away, they must have seen that glimmer in my eye that told them I was fully prepared to fight someone.
JUST ASK! There may be extra seats and often times the flight attendants will take pity on you and give you some extra room. Or you can go as far as asking them to move the people around you so that you have more room…I have totallyyyyy never done that. Survival of the shameless.
Always bring a change clothes. If not, you are basically daring someone to throw up. Now I know. See: Why You Should Pack Clothes For Everyone.
If all else fails, bring earplugs.
- You can’t win them all. If you have tried everything, sometimes your kids may just fuss. Crank up your favorite jams, pretend the kids aren’t yours, and try to tune it out. 🙂

And just for your reading pleasure, a few humorous moments:

When turn around to find your son making a call on the TSA telephone.“Sorry, mom, I’ve got to take this”.

Or when you are going through security and think your husband has the child, your husband thinks you have the child, and then you hear, “um, excuse me, is that your child over there?”. (See your child running through the airport about 20 yards away.) Nope…never seen him before…

When you are so over parenting on an airplane that you literally ask the grandma sitting next to you if she wants to hold your baby…and you get him back 5 hours later. ALL THE PRAISE HANDS.

When your kid refuses to sleep any during the 14hr flight, and finally passes out…while landing. Hello, unconscious Judah.

When you are headed off for an international trip and you see a well dressed family and wonder where the heck all their stuff is….(that is only half our luggage).

When your child makes a new friend because he unexpectedly refuses to get on the escalator and you only realize after he is out of reach. #goodparents

Well, I’m not sure if I have helped, or actually convinced you to not travel until your kids graduate. So, if you get brave, may we see you in the clear skies or the open road. ❤

Summer in the States

August 9, 2017August 9, 2017 / Ali Craft / 3 Comments

I know you were all waiting with baited breath to hear that we did indeed, by the grace of God, endure our first (and second) trans-continental flight as a family of 5. There were fits, sleep fighting, and tears (only a little from adults). The only saving grace of these flights is that it’s doesn’t have to be pretty, we just have to survive. And then there is jet lag…

…and since we are clearly idiots or experts, a traveling with kids post is coming soon.

We spent the summer around some of our favorite people in the whole world, eating good food, playing outside, and not remembering what day it was. Hello, eternal Saturday.

With Isaac’s family we took a little trip to Atlanta to see the Braves play in the new stadium. Naturally, after driving 6 hours with 3 kids, as we pulled into our parking spot at the stadium it started raining. After a 2 hour rain delay, the game finally began at 9pm. Anyone know what it’s like to try and contain un-napped children in public after they should be in bed? Cue snacks…The boys are getting old enough that things are holding their attention more (HALLELUJAH movies on the plane), so it was fun to see them excited for baseball. We finally made it to our hotel around 11:30pm. I’m pretty sure our summer motto was “What bedtime?”.

We also found time to squeeze in two trips to The Varsity between baseball games and a trip to the aquarium. If you are ever in Atlanta and haven’t eaten there, go. Also see: why our pants our snug.

After our time with Isaac’s family we swung through our old college town to see our best friends for a few days on our way to Texas. And as if we didn’t know we were best friends before, who in their right mind invites your family of 5 with 3 three and under to stay at their house?

The boys thought they were in heaven between the ducks, geese, chickens, horses, lake, bikes, trampoline, and rope swings. I still have no clue how we got them in the car when it was time to leave.

https://youtu.be/hEyRieFsRAM

Then it was on to Texas to see my family. We took a little trip to Austin, TX for a long weekend. We went to an awesome indoor play place (hello A/C) and children’s museum, and swam at the hotel in the evenings. The boys slept well those nights.

We also made it out to The Oasis on Lake Travis for dinner with friends. The view never disappoints.

On the way home from Austin we took the long (out of the way) route, to take Isaac on a little tour of Texas. We toured the Shiner brewery in Shiner, TX, stopped by the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham for some ice cream and a quick hello to a cousin who lives there (hey, Stephanie!), and then headed on to College Station just so we could drive through enemy country.

Have I mentioned the best part of both family road trips was that our kids were in the other car with their grandparents??? We didn’t want to deprive them of quality bonding time, after all…

It was the best summer we have had in a long time. The kids traveled so well and we got to see so many people we love. Now that Nana (my mom) and Nino (Isaac’s mom) have summers off, we just need to find a way to get Grandad (my dad) and Poppy (Isaac’s dad) off work and it will be PERFECT! We survived one more trip over the Pacific and it’s right back into work. School started for teachers last week and kids came this week, varsity tennis starts today, and our schedule is full of catching up with people we have missed all summer long.

What a gift we have to have family all over the world.

P.S. Here are some new pictures of our school! They worked all summer redoing the entrance.

Lately

October 18, 2016October 18, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

Well well well…time flies and here we are half way through October. Life is full in every way. There was that 3 week stint about a month ago where I was certain someone was trying to kill us between 2 ER visits with the kids and me being actually sick above and beyond the normal pregnant sick…but yet, we prevail.

For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been coaching the varsity girl’s tennis team. It has been a blast, and winning a lot doesn’t hurt either; we are currently second in our division, but needless to say we are all looking forward to getting our afternoons and weekends back soon. We have two weeks left in the regular tennis season *praise hands*, and then next month I take my top 4 girls to a week-long tournament in Okinawa, Japan. Everyone seems very concerned about me going “in my condition”, but they don’t realize I am crazy/stubborn/travelled at 37 weeks domestically when pregnant with Judah and 35 weeks internationally with Asher.

Isaac is doing well. Parent teacher conferences are Friday, which is quite the event for a math teacher in Korea. It will consist of anywhere from 40-50 ten-minute parent meetings between 7am-6pm, where Isaac tries to convince parents that their kids are actually very bright and gifted.

He is also doing his typical get-in-super-great-shape-while-his-wife-is-getting-big-fat-pregnant thing that I just love him for. As my ankles swell and my shirts become too short he’s all like “look at my muscles”. God love him.

I’m over here like:

The kids are great, making us love and hate life at the same time. On to a bit about them.

Judah

Judah is growing in spades. He loves to do all things adult including washing dishes, pushing the stroller, blow drying his hair, getting dressed complete with belt or tie, and trying to shave or style his hair like dad.

He has also taken up the awesome habit of throwing things out our 6th floor window. We obviously discourage this due to the risks it poses to our belongings as well as the passerbys down below, but the stubborn toddler persists. The other day Judah threw his baby doll out the window, so after a recon mission Isaac and Judah came back with a the doll, a spoon, crayon, and a piece of our laundry drying rack. I do take great comfort in the fact that our real baby coming-soon, won’t fit through the bars…

Remember that time he threw a glass tumbler (pictured: bottom left) out our sixth floor window and it didn’t break? So fun.

Last night, I let Isaac know I was headed home from practice to which he responded, “Grab the whisk on your way up”. Cool, Judah. Here I am like a creeper in the bushes looking for our dang whisk and a neighbor walks by and stares, so we exchange awkward hellos, while I’m sure she wonders what the h I am doing lurking in the bushes. Little does she know I’m not being weird, just retrieving my kitchen utensils from the bushes… carry on.

Judah loves to help these days, as any parent knows, the help of a toddler is NOT help. But he is learning. He loves to take the trash down with dad. I assure you Isaac loves it, too, and it in no way makes taking the trash out take 5 million times longer.

Also, Judah has decided he hates sleep (ignoring compulsory comments from our parents about how they have no sympathy). On average, Judah has been taking around an hour and a half to go to sleep after the usual bedtime story, bible, songs, prayers, and milk. Please note that this frequently makes an unnamed pregnant lady an hour and a half late for bed, also.We have only casually looked at getting new locks for the door…It was hilarious though the other day when Judah began speaking about himself in the third person during one of his nightly last-stands after what was likely the third book, 4th cup of milk and 50th kiss, saying through his tears “Judah crying”. Ha, yes he is.

Our tortured child, in his warm cozy bed, with a sippy cup of milk, alligator and baby doll all covered up, and tucked in with extra love, songs, and stories by both his parents. LIFE. IS. TERRIBLE.

I think one of our most challenging evenings with Judah, after putting him to bed, Isaac ran down to the corner store and I jumped in the shower. I was fully aware that Judah would likely get out of bed, but I was thinking if I hurried, that I would be out before he came out for the first of many times. Wrong. So here I am, having just stepped in the the shower (our shower is a shower head mounted on the wall of the bathroom with a drain in the floor) when I hear Judah crying “mamaaaaaaa” outside the door. Knowing Isaac was gone I figured I would just ignore Judah, quickly take my shower, and then put him back in bed.

But the crying didn’t stop, it just continued to get louder until, with my back to the door I hear Judah open the door. I decided “I am not even going to look at him. I am just going to take my shower and deal with him when I am done”. A few moments later, as I turned around to rinse out my hair I now see that Judah has come in, shut the door, and is standing dripping wet, still whining “mamaaaaaaa”. Well played, son. I rinsed out my hair, shut off the water, grabbed a towel to dry off Judah’s hair, stripped off his wet shirt, and repeated our nightly motto. “Judah, it is time for bed. When you get out of bed you are disobeying…”, as I hauled our semi-bathed child back to bed. It is ALWAYS interesting around here.

And some of the sweeter things that have kept us from putting him FREE TO GOOD HOME:

-lately whenever Isaac or I cough or sneeze Judah asks, “you okay daddy/mama?”

-when we call for Judah to come he responds loudly with “I’m gummingggg”

Asher

No longer “baby” Asher, this boy is also growing like a weed. He has been walking since June and is always on the move. About two weeks ago his vocabulary exploded, and now he is surprising us with new words daily. Good pictures of him are about as likely as a picture of Big Foot since he never slows down. It took 2 months and serious illness to catch these two. You’re welcome.

He has a fiery temper (no comment) which seems to have developed as a defense to fend off a bossy older brother. Also, like all my precious spawn, he hates to be held. As soon as I sit down, he eagerly runs over to crawl in my lap which seems sweet and always gets my hopes up, but then he just crawls all over me, ends up punching me in the face and kicking me in the uterus, and then slides off my lap. Little baby jerk.

He loves to eat and is always happy to clean his and Judah’s plate. He also has a friend in Judah, who is always willing to sneakily score snacks for the two of them when mom and dad aren’t looking.

yogurt for two = massive mess for mama.

He is officially off formula and we are working towards losing the nap time bottle of soy milk, Lord help us all. I am fully confident that he would happily give up Isaac and I for life before releasing the death grip from his beloved bottle. I figure as long as he is weaned before college.

And here is this picture again from our last post about kid’s cafes just because I think it’s hilarious and I can.

Baby numero tres

This little one is happy, healthy, and growing. I will be 27 weeks on Saturday. Despite the consistent daily nausea and a grocery list of other pregnancy ailments, I still enjoy being pregnant. The fact that we grow can humans still blows my mind. While I feel all warm and fuzzy about feeling like crap, I know Isaac must be growing weary of conversations like “hey, what’s for dinner”, to which I respond “do we really need to eat dinner every night??”. My pregnancies are never easy breezy, but Isaac is a trooper and we get some pretty awesome kids out of the deal so we press on.

Baby one: Weekly hand drawn chalkboards

Baby two: Periodic bump pictures

Baby three: First picture taken is a doctor’s office selfie 25 weeks

And just to ensure we never run out of stories to tell you guys, we started potty training this week. May your prayers be with us.

Kid’s Cafe: A Parents Escape

September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 / Ali Craft / 6 Comments

Folks…America needs to get on this ASAP. This is basically like ten steps above a Chick-fil-A with a play place. The price might also be ten steps above Chick-fil-A, but there are days I would literally throw my wallet at anything promising to entertain my children while I sat down (note: my wallet is probably empty anyways).

Kids cafes are a big deal here in Korea, and admittedly, we have not been taking full advantage. We’ve only been to two, but with baby three on the way, something tells me kids cafes could soon be playing a large part in keeping our sanity.

These cafes are all over, often with different themes. Last week we explored our second, and now favorite kid’s cafe, Lilliput. This one was about $13/kid for 2 hours and you had to buy food or a drink. So while my kids play I have to enjoy a delicious snack, or drink?? … Twist my arm. They even have staff that are there to monitor and play with your kids while you sit. I’m thinking we might move in permanently.

When you come in you leave your shoes in a locker, and take a pair of snazzy Lilliput sandals to wear, helping to ensure the place stays nice and clean…a very Korean custom. You pay for your time at the counter and are given a menu and shown to your table.

We went with another couple (hey, Mandy!) and their two kids, so we got lucky and were given this private sitting area all to ourselves! I am working on the assumption that they may have wanted to hide the rowdy foreigners, compared to the usually calm, quiet, and composed locals, but then again maybe they were just being nice.

*Imagine here a picture of our super swank private area that I forgot to take a picture of.*

If you squint and look past the mom and son playing, our hang out area was just next to the ball pit, with a low table and pillows for lounging.

Not pictured is a sweet lego area/craft area that the boys will love when they are older.

Here is Judah cruising on his Land Rover.

Asher playing a rousing game of hand the shoes to the kind employee. They both loved it.

This “sandbox” is actually filled with little wooden cubes! Way better than bringing home sand.

Introducing the cleanest ball pit ever, with clear balls so you feel less like there is something terrifying underneath. Also, that wall is interactive so you throw the balls at it in different games. Fancy.

Here is a not so appetizing picture of half finished delicious food, I was too hungry to take a picture before eating. We had margarita pizza, carbonara, and french fries. This is what happens when a pregnant lady misses lunch…

And if you had any questions about our spectacular parenting…mid-bite of pizza I looked over to see this. Naturally I took a photo while Isaac rescued him. I won’t admit how hilarious I find this photo, so don’t even ask.

Side note: since you obviously wouldn’t wear your nice Lilliput sandals in the fancy bathroom (I would, but I am basically an untrained monkey) that comes complete with baby-sized toilet, they have bathroom sandals for your selection. Kids sizes too, so cute.

It was so lovely to visit and enjoy a meal with our friends as our kiddos played. I feel like at this stage of life for us the only way to have an adult conversation is to get a sitter, or have people over after the kids are in bed (lol at that because that’s when I go to bed,too).

So if you need me, you can likely find me at Lilliput.

Tow Trucks in Korea: Another Adventure

September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

One day about a month ago, Isaac and I gathered our resolve, and our children, loaded our car and headed out to conquer Costco. Usually, we go with a bus of people from our school that takes us there and brings us back, so we don’t have to get there on our own. Since our schedule has been so hectic, we decided to take a “quick” weekend trip.

Despite not really knowing where it was and the fact that our GPS couldn’t find a route, we were off. We were about 20 minutes into our grand adventure when we heard a thud followed by the noise of something dragging under our car. I’m no mechanic, but it didn’t sound good. I made it over about 3 lanes of traffic to the side of the road and stopped. We did the obligatory car inspection that looked at little something like this…

Yep. Looks like it’s all here.

We then had a look under the car to discover something important looking hanging down. For the stories’ sake, let’s call it a piece of our muffler. We did the obvious thing and began to google our car’s apparent aliment while I placed a long-distance call to my father to try and figure out just how necessary this thing was (turns out, you really do need it).

After realizing that driving it was out of the question, (of course not without me trying to talk my way into driving it by myself to our local body shop about 20 minutes away with all the windows down to combat the possible carbon monoxide inhalation (I seriously thought something along the lines of, “I’ll just hold my breath”)), we began the task of figuring out how to call a tow truck in Korea. We got the number to one, just leaving us with the slight hang up that: A) we don’t speak Korean (especially the vocab to describe our/any car issues) and B) we can’t even tell them where we are. So off Isaac went in search of a kind stranger that could translate for us, while I sat in the car with the children as we slowly melted in the heat. He came back after having no luck, so off I went to take a stab at it.

I walked into a hair salon just next to where we broke down, and luckily found some girls that I could just barely communicate with between my google translate and their limited english. They were so precious and pulled out all the stops telling the tow truck where to go, welcoming us in to wait in the cool A/C, bringing the boys fresh squeezed juice and snacks, and doting on them non-stop.

I am guessing they probably didn’t have kids of their own as they were mortified when just after opening his cracker, Judah dropped it on the floor, so I picked it up and handed it back to him. First child of laid-back mama problems?

When the tow truck arrived, there was a small game of “guess our car problem charades” before the issue was diagnosed. We decided Isaac would ride with the tow truck to take care of things and I would catch a taxi and take home our rapidly expiring children for their nap. We were initially told that it would take 3 days and about the equivalent of $130 to get fixed. Upon further inspections they came back and said it would take only an hour and $65 to fix. Has that ever happened to anyone in America, ever?? Typically your experiences look at little more like something along these lines:

So Isaac decided to wait for the car and grab some lunch to kill time. He ended up ordering some mystery dish that he described as “interesting”…better him than me, the pregnant lady that has gagged lately at the thought of things as simple as bagels.

Meanwhile, I used every tool in my mama tool belt to keep my over-tired children from opening the doors in the moving taxi. Each time that would grab at the handle the taxi driver would freak out and say in Korean what I would imagine to mean “No, they can’t open the door while we are moving!!”…must be another cultural difference…

After pulling up Kung Fu Panda on my phone and rationing and eating every last piece of candy stashed in the diaper bag for emergencies such as this, we arrived home safe and sound.

Isaac arrived shortly afterward with our car in full working order. It was an eventful day that sadly did not produce any groceries. To prove that we hate ourselves, the next day we decided to take our newly repaired car and children on an adventure an hour out of town to IKEA AND Costco in holiday traffic…and we have lived to tell about it, barely.

On to fight another day.

Is it broken?: An unsuspecting nose and finger.

May 17, 2016May 17, 2016 / Ali Craft / Leave a comment

We are those people. Injured? Sick? We head straight to google. Need an x-ray? Nah. We are more self-diagnoses kind of people…at least until things get really bad.

images

That brings us to a few weeks ago. If you are not in close contact with middle schoolers, you may not know this but, they have a very limited attention span. So here’s the scene. We have been learning basketball in P.E. class, so we were warming up with a game of knockout, and I decided to play. I will not bore you with the details of the game if you are unfamiliar, but I will suffice it to say that the sweet, sweet, angel of a student in front of me got distracted while waiting to receive the ball, saw the ball coming at the last second…and…ducked. There I am with about .5 seconds to respond and I tried to get my hands out to catch the ball but Just. Didn’t. Make it. Poor, poor little {wedding} ring finger never saw it coming. I promptly removed my ring so as to not have to cut it off later, and continued to play until I won, because duh.

Seen here heroically finishing a blog post.

Four days after the tragic finger incident, there was the nose incident. It was Monday afternoon and we had just gotten home from school and were frantically getting ready for dinner plans with some friends. I needed to shower so I laid out clothes for Judah and Isaac started getting him dressed. Just as I got out of the shower, Isaac came in to the bedroom holding Judah by the hand and says, probably more sternly than I have ever heard him speak, “You need to discipline Judah.”, to which I responded “Um…in general orrrr did something happen?”. Somebodyyy may accuse me of occasionally being a softy, so I didn’t know if I was just getting a general verbal spanking. Apparently while he had been holding Judah in his lap to put his shirt on, Judah had not-so-thoughtfully thrown his head backwards, directly into daddy’s nose. My initial response? Let’s not talk about that. I took Judah by the hand, and disciplined as sternly as I could through tears from laughing at the absurdity of our lives.

In lieu of going directly to the doctor we:

Googled.
Called nurse friends.
Looked at old pictures to see “if his nose had always been that crooked”.
Called our super speedy local family doctor and asked “ya, I know you don’t have an X-ray machine, but dontcha think if we stopped by you could tell if it was broken just by looking?” (After all, the doctors office was on our way to our dinner plans.)

We called our friends to let them know that we would still be there, just maybe a little late pending the decision to go to the hospital…Isaac made the official call, after reading that rarely is there permanent damage done by not seeking immediate medical attention, so we skipped the doctor and proceed directly to our fried chicken dinner with friends. #priorities (FYI, fried chicken is hugely popular in Korea).

Isaac eating chicken (if you look closely, his nose is crooked)

UPDATE: We still don’t know if either were officially broken, because you have to go to the doctor to know that. Isaac’s nose is fine, it was bruised for a few days and it is just recently not tender to the touch. I can’t bend my finger fully and it still hurts, and most regrettably I can’t wear my lovely wedding ring. But hey, things could be worse, we could be stranded in an airport with two kids and 40,000 Koreans…

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Until next time…

{Part THREE} The final chapter of our (NOT) quick trip to Jeju.

May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 / Ali Craft / Leave a comment

The never-ending blog post of the never-ending “quick” trip is coming to a close. And all God’s people said, amen!

(If you missed part 1 or part 2, here ya go)

The next morning, after a restless night of sleep, we headed down for breakfast and to see if any headway had been made in flights. We were told that we had new flights scheduled for 7pm, and that we would check out the hotel by 12 and kill time until heading to the airport. We thought we would try and get the boys to take an early nap since we would be on the go for the rest of the day, which resulted in 2 hours of telling Judah to lay down while we sat in a pitch black hotel room. We stored our bags at the hotel and headed off to lunch.

Then it was off to find some formula for Asher just in case of emergency, of all the things we can make do without, soy formula is NOT one of them. We flagged a taxi outside of the restaurant, carefully jumped in with Judah still in the hiking pack, and just as we started to move I remembered: THE PACI! I vividly remembered it falling under the table at the restaurant and thinking, oh I’ll get it later. In that chaotic moment, my minimal Korean came to mind and I hollered, “Ki-dah-ryo-ju-se-yo!” (WAIT, PLEASE!). I threw open the taxi door, ran back inside, ducked under the table, grabbed the paci, and was back in the taxi in seconds. Considering that was the only paci we brought, and they don’t sell the kind Asher likes in Korea, that could have been very very bad.

We got to the grocery store with no problem, and found the formula we needed. Victory! We were a little bummed out that we had forgone site-seeing to get formula, so we figured we would wander around for a little bit before catching a taxi back to the hotel and then heading to the airport. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ocean directly behind the store. Which brings me to another favorite memory from the trip. In the last month Judah has taken to calling any liquid, milk. Cup of juice? Milk. Water fountain? Milk. Judah had been asleep in the hiking pack after finally giving up the fight while shopping. We were walking along the ocean front when he wakes up and seeing the ocean, yells “MILK!!!”. Not quite, buddy.

We made it back to hotel to meet the group, grabbed our bags, and hopped in a taxis to the airport; we were so close to being home. {cries quietly}

Ok. I can’t even keep this up anymore. We get to the airport and get all checked in. This was the scene. People as far as the eye could see. Us and 40,000 of our closest friends trying to get off of this island. (At one time, the flight from Jeju to Seoul was the most heavily trafficked air route in the world.)

We made our way through security to realize that we hadn’t even seen the half of it.

The next six hours looked a bit like this:

Lines so long at the bathroom you just resolve yourself to be dehydrated. No line for the men’s bathroom because, duh.
Getting stepped on/over and almost going all mama bear crazy because people are about to step on your sleeping baby.

A toddler that refused to nap/sleep because there was obviously a party to partake in.

Koreans finding cardboard boxes to break down to sit on to avoid sitting directly on the ground. You should know that as shoes are taken off when entering the home, they are apparently also taken off before stepping on your cardboard box… that you got from the trash.

No real nutrition, as airport restaurants ran out of food, leaving us to share snacks from duty free. Macadamia nuts, chocolate covered macadamia nuts, and dried mango do not a dinner make.
Leaning back to back with Isaac to find some reprieve.

Ajummas (Korean grandmas) that kept giving Judah food. While the rest of us may have gone without dinner, Judah certainly did not. There was fried chicken, kimbap (let’s just say it’s like sushi), cookies, rice cakes, candy, more cookies. Because if there is one thing that a sleep deprived child needs it is sugar. Isaac would try and take a bite and then give Judah only half, but the adjummas weren’t having it, so they would give him two the next time. Also fun, is when they offer him something he doesn’t like, so I try to keep him from spitting it or at least don’t let them see it, so what happens? They offered him more, while I sat there discreetly holding the last half chewed bite they gave him…

…so we showed up to the airport at 4:30pm for our 7pm flight. That became a 9pm flight. That became a “please come check later for info on your flight” flight. At 10:45pm, among shouts of joy and possibly actual tears, we boarded our plane home. Now, THIS was the happiest we have ever been to see a plane.

We made it home just after 2 am. We are alive, and have since recovered from the illnesses we somehow ended up with after our ~~relaxing~~ getaway. It was one of those events that is so traumatizing, that the group was bonded together for life, so to my Jeju trip family and the ones of you that have stuck through this whole story and are now equally scarred:

{Part TWO} Did we survive? The conclusion of our trip to Jeju island.

May 12, 2016 / Ali Craft / 1 Comment

Day 2 of our trip: ~2am in a dark hotel room in Jeju island, Korea:

Isaac- “Are you shaking the bed?”

Ali- “What?? Huh?? No…”

(we were both confused but fell right back to sleep)

It was only when we woke up to a text from my dad asking if we had heard about the earthquake in Japan that it all came together. Luckily we were far enough away to only feel the small tremors, but it was certainly erie to realize that we are all at the mercy of “mother nature”. Anyways, let’s just say that the tone had been set for a day full of unexpected moments…

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Site of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake- Japan’s Kyushu Island

We were up early and headed back to the hotel restaurant for a buffet breakfast, thankfully with plenty of “western options”. You guys, if I have not mentioned before, let me just tell you, of all the things we love about Korea, Korean breakfast is not one of them. Basically, Korean breakfast looks the same as Korean lunch and Korean dinner, and 8am is just a little too early for these people to be eating kimchi.

After breakfast, we loaded up the vans and were off to a day of adventuring and hiking. Rain had been forecasted so our faithful tour guide suggested that we follow the planned schedule as long as we could, and reevaluate if it started raining. Cue rain.

Our new plans were announced within minutes and we were off to Aqua Planet: Jeju. Going to the largest aquarium in all of Asia as your back-up plan isn’t too shabby. It was Judah first visit to the aquarium out of utero (and let’s be honest, that view wasn’t the best), so we were excited to take him. We also made it the whole way to the end with Judah and Asher in there respective carriers, which was a major victory; we got to actually look at fish as opposed to herding kiddos.

Luckily, we beat most of the crowds by going first thing in the morning; as we left I am confident that no less than 75% of the population of Korea had shown up.

Then is was lunch time, our favorite. We had our pick of two of Jeju’s most popular foods, black pork (from a kind of pig native to Jeju) or fish. I will say that while in the States, Isaac and I are huge fans of seafood, we generally steer clear of it here as it often refers to squid (don’t think yummy calamari) or “fishy” fish that we have never heard of served with bones. While in America we almost always eat our fish filleted, it is said that Koreans like to eat it on the bone as it seems more fresh. Well, you do you, Korea. So we, and all the rest of our group chose pork which came with a variety of other proteins. It was served in the traditional Korean barbecue style, around a small grill with a retractable vent hood, where we cook the food ourselves.

Sweet baby Asher had fallen fast asleep right as we pulled up to lunch, in true baby form. I just planned to do the mom thing and eat with one arm, but our tour guide asked the waiters if we could make a pallet for him out of the floor cushions in the floor dining section. They happily obliged. When we sat down to eat, all the tables around him were empty, but they quickly filled, and as the ajummas (the name for older ladies in Korean) got seated at the tables near him they couldn’t help but crowd around to take a look and readjust his blanket. It was all in good nature, but thankfully our tour guide made sure that they didn’t disturb him (other wise I would have had to go all mama bear “DO YOU KNOW WHEN THE LAST TIME HE TOOK A GOOD NAP WAS” on them). Crisis averted.

Next up was the Haenyeo Museum. The term haenyeo refers to female divers that dive for shellfish, seaweed, etc., without the use of diving equipment (their only tools are googles, a basket for their catch, and something to help them balance). This is a tradition that has been practiced for hundreds of years.

To this day, although the tradition is dying out, there are still many women that continue the trade. The funny thing is that since this kind of work is becoming less popular, the ladies that still participate are even as old as 80+ years. Our tour guide’s aunt is a haenyeo that still practices at the age of almost 70. These women are basically rockstars.

Sorry, I couldn’t help but put that gif there. Moving right along. By the time we left the museum, it was a full on downpour outside. We bundled up the kids in their carriers, and made a mad dash for the bus, the kids laughing hysterically as they bounced around. We were wet and tired and all ready to be on a plane headed back home. HA. Ha. ha.

We loaded up the bus and were headed to the airport, until the bus pulled over unexpectedly. Everyone began to murmur, wondering why we had stopped. Then there was a quiet announcement at the front of the bus, our flight had been cancelled due to weather. Cue one of the funniest parts of the trip. I turned around to make sure that the people behind me had heard the news; we would not be sleeping in our own beds that night.

Me: “did you guys hear the news?”

Ladies: with two thumbs up and big smiles “ya, we are stopping to get coffee!”

Me: “uhh, ya, but did you hear about our flights?”

Ladies: “wait, what???”

Needless to say I had to be their bearer of bad news, but on the other hand, we now had plenty of time to kill at a coffee shop while people tried to make us new arrangements. Our colleagues and their caffeine habits have certainly helped fuel our “coffee is life” fire.

Our hosts made us new arrangements near the airport, so off we went to grab a few snacks and dinner before dropping off us at the hotel.

We got to our hotel feeling especially exhausted and whiney, only to find our previous night’s spacious accommodations were a thing of the past; we would be sleeping Lucy and Ricky style in separate twin beds. We made a bed for Judah halfway in the closet, and called for a crib to be sent up, only for them to send the world’s largest porta-crib to our world’s smallest room. The air in the room had also not been switched over from heat to cool yet, so it was a balmy 83 degrees. Opening the window was also not an option because the bad weather brought wind gusts over 50 mph, and the window would just slam shut. We thought we could out smart the wind by propping open the window, only to create a room sized whistle as we channeled that 50 mph wind through our room and under the crack of our front door.

I only considered breaking the window and using this 5 times.

You are likely looking for the escape hatch from this post, I too feel your pain. I will stop for now, and if you are looking to put off doing something you hate more than reading this story that will never end, stop on by next time for the real conclusion of our trip to Jeju.

P.S. I’m not sure where this should logically go in the story, but it is worth mentioning that as we entered our hotel, we were greeted by a family of giant Asian teddy bears. Ali out. *Mic drop*

{Part ONE} A “Quick” Trip to Jeju Island

May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 / Ali Craft / 2 Comments

This story is so absurd, it wrote itself; please enjoy our sufferings. After our pretty intense escapade to the Philippines, we thought an overnight trip to Jeju, a small volcanic island off Korea’s southern coast, would be just the thing. All the older/wiser/people with a brain, are welcome to go ahead and start laughing now. Our school is part of a foundation of Korean foreign schools, that so kindly host trips each year to show the staff Korea. Our trip began with a 5:30am departure, no big deal after our 3am departures to and from the Philippines; the kids were champs. Never mind me leaving my phone on the bus in the chaos of unloading, thankfully it was a bus from our school, and Korea is well known for the fact that if you lose something, odds are good that someone will turn it in. Yay, Korea. Now, just look at that happy bunch.

We got all checked in and were given our boarding passes, which is when we realized that we were already supposed to be boarding, and so the adventure began. You must know how this story goes, we are in a massive hurry so of course, the security line has never been longer or slower.

I am still wondering if I will ever be able to go through security without breaking out in a sweat from wrangling bags, children, boarding pass, etc. I have no doubt that I looked as though I had just run a marathon, or died trying.

Isaac waited for all of our bags to come of the conveyer at security while I took off running with Asher in his Ergo baby carrier and holding Judah, as though the large group of Americans wasn’t drawing enough attention. We are so obviously the poster children for traveling with kids.

We made our flight by some miracle and the awesome Korean speakers in our group that could fully communicate our distress. We thought we would never be so happy to see a plane……….(there just really aren’t enough … in the world for this, so we will just keep moving)

We made it to Jeju and were met by our wonderful hosts. We loaded up on the busses and headed off down the rocky coast to breakfast as our tour guide told us all about the island.

FYI: This is the beautiful Korie, fellow teacher and child wrangler extraordinaire, whose help is the only reason we didn’t consider jumping off one of the scenic cliffs.

This was the scene at breakfast. Our efforts to get stranded there and spend the day staring at that view and drinking coffee were thwarted by our ever patient bus driver. After we had been nourished and most importantly, caffeinated, it was off to the bonsai tree garden.

It was so nice and relaxing. Although we love Seoul, there is a rather large problem with air quality especially during spring, so walking through the garden had us all like:

Next up was the traditional tea ceremony at the tea gardens. One of the things that Jeju is know for is for its tea crops, especially green tea. Isaac and I took turns attending the ceremony since apparently children, boiling water, and ceramics don’t mix. While I did my tea thing, Isaac changed diapers and wrangled kids, and while Isaac did the ceremony, Judah and I made soap, sounds fair right?

Next was a delicious lunch of Korea barbecue. There was a beautiful pool on the patio that the boys had some fun splashing in.

Just when we were ready for a nice long nap in the sun, it was time for a nice windy hike up a hill with fussy kids. We got a late start up the hill as we had diapers to change and caffeine to chug (have you noticed that our move to Korea has increased our reliance on Jesus and caffeine??). From the end of this trail you could see the two small islands that are the southernmost part of Korea. Fun fact: Jeju was the last strongholds that Japan had at the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea before they were completely driven out.

We opted out of the next sight seeing venture (a cliff or something) to let the kids nap on the bus. We did get off long enough to poke around the tourist shops selling the popular Jeju treats: oranges, green tea, chocolates, vitamin C tablets from Jeju oranges, sea cucumbers…guys, this is a real thing, and bleh. We “sadly” missed out when the group tried this. If you haven’t heard of this sea creature, you just need to google it.

Then it was off to the hotel to get settled. We had a lovely room and a balcony with a killer view.

Dinner was a buffet at the hotel restaurant complete with crab legs, yes, please. We ate our fill, and then some, and just when the kids started to make a scene (read: after) we headed out to the let the kid(s) run around.

We finally headed back to our room for the night and happened upon and interestingly labeled door. I try to live without regrets, but I don’t know that I will ever forgive myself for not giving this a go…I mean really, the fact that this stuff is still around in 2016 makes me happy and concerned at the same time. Something tells me that Koreans must not be quite as “lawsuit-happy” as us Americans…

We got the kids in bed and may or may not have been asleep before our heads hit the pillows…that was until the earthquake.

Is she serious? Did we survive? Did all of our fun plans get rained out? Did our flight get cancelled? And then delayed? And then the airport ran out of food???? I guess you will just have to tune in next time for the conclusion of our “not so quick” trip to Jeju island.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016 / Ali Craft / 4 Comments

Let me guess, you stumbled upon this post and all your dreams came true. Yes, yes we did blog about grocery shopping. We just give the people what they want…ok? Let’s begin.

We have a few options for getting groceries. There is a street nearby that we did most of our shopping at when we first moved here; it just has a bunch of fruit stands, a couple small grocery stores, and a bakery. There is also a small store about a half a mile from our house, two that we pass if we walk home, and one that we pass if we drive home. We obviously have no shortage of choices.

All that being said, we try to make a trip once a week to the Korean version of Walmart, Emart (we have mastered the art of saying Emart in Korean: *clears throat* “Emart-uh” *takes bow*), where they have the largest selection, free parking, and lots of international staples (read: tortilla chips and sour cream). Actually, I realized in writing this post that where we shop is also determined by if we need bread or not. Most small grocery stores will not carry bread, or will only have a small (one shelf with maybe 6 small loaves when fully stocked) and unpredictable offering. I imagine that this is because Koreans don’t eat as many peanut butter sandwiches as we do, go figure.

Moving right along…most of the Emarts here are located in shopping malls. This is ours.

Just like most major stores here, it is multilevel with the moving sidewalks connecting the floors. Hang on tight, Judah.

Each section and sometimes even specific products have employees there to sell their item. If you are shopping for shampoo, odds are there will be someone in the section to help you make your selection. Need toilet paper? They are there to help. The employee’s outfits are also worthy of mention. Depending on what section they work in, they have different and…interesting uniforms. You would think the kiwi lady would look more excited…

They always offer free samples throughout the store. This has proven to be a great way to try different Korean specialties like vinegar juice, spam fried rice, and squid.

Oh ya, and right around the corner from the toothbrushes and electronics, you can pick out a new family pet!

Oh and another useless “fun” fact. If there is a promotion here like buy one get one free, it is referred to as 1+1 (buy one, get one). This is why we sometimes end up with three cans of off brand Pringles when we really didn’t even need one (Off brand items at Emart, er.. excuse me, Emart-uh are called “No Brand”.) Don’t even get me started about “No Brand” being dumb because inherently “No Brand”‘s brand is “No Brand”. Just ignore me.

And let me just say, we are going to be in big trouble if our $10 Haagen Dazs pints go 2+1 (I know you think you wouldn’t, but you move to a foreign country with a limited selection of ice cream and then talk to me about what you’d pay for it.) Desperate times…

As for asking for help, you better be up for a short game of charades and a scavenger hunt if you don’t speak Korean. When we had to start Asher on formula I needed to try and find some that was soy-based. On the first visit, I looked on my own but couldn’t find it and was too tired to try and traverse the language barrier. After a few days of screaming baby, I was chock full of new resolve to find something to ~~silence~~ soothe my child. I went back to Emart and decided to use the ever faithful, Google Translate. I typed up “soy” on my phone and translated it to Korean, found a lady to help me, and then said baby in my {not} flawless Korean while pointing at my phone. After a moment the lady nodded in recognition I thought, “Well look at that; it worked!”. Off we went down an aisle, but I realized she was leading my away from the baby formula section, so I said again in my obviously effective Korean, “BABY”. She seemed to understand, nodded again, and then took me back in the direction I had come in. I thought we had finally communicated clearly. Straight she took me to…wait for it…baby soy sauce. Yep, it’s a thing.

I had a little moment to myself of amusement and defeat, thanked the lady for her help, and took my sad little self back to the formula section to continue the search solo. Spoiler alert: Asher did not perish, it may have been touch and go there for a minute with Isaac and I; I eventually found soy formula on the next trip and life has been much quieter since.

Some days when we go to Emart, we try to knock out dinner in the food court. While they do have Burger King, the rest of the offerings may be less familiar. I believe they have a Korean, Chinese, and noodle restaurant.

Isaac’s is the top, which is a Korean dish call Bee-bim-bop, and mine is some Chinese something, descriptive, I know.

I would go on, but I have to save something for the next post, right? Just kidding…next on the docket is a little tale of a quiet weekend away ending in being stranded in the airport with two kids and 40,000 of our closest friends. Sending love from the future.

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Our Southern Seoul

Making His name Famous in South Korea

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