Farm fresh strawberries

It was a cloudy and stormy day... thunder and lightening intermittently through the afternoon. And we went strawberry picking! Yeah! The two munchkins took a nap in the backseat of the car while Matt and I picked strawberries in the rain.

Total time: 45 minutes. Total poundage: 69 (pilsung) pounds. Total cost: a few soaked rainjackets and muddy sneakers.

We came home to put the berries in the freezer- all of them had to be destemmed, rinsed and individually frozen on cookie sheets before being placed in 5 gallon tubs in the deep freeze. This should provide us with plenty of strawberries to make strawberry-rhubarb jam next week, and strawberry-raspberry jam in about 3 weeks.

Our little girl!

We welcomed Miss Linnea Hanson into our family on June 24th at 12:10pm. She was 7 lb, 10 oz and 19.5 inches when she arrived. Her proud brother, Evan, was very eager to meet her. She is a happy and healthy little girl. Everyone is home, doing well, and enjoying the mild summer weather in the Pacific Northwest.

Harmonica Man

A dear friend, and talented musician, Busya, gave Evan a harmonica for his 2nd birthday. Needless to say, this was a gift we've hidden until we were settled in a place where Evan could play the harmonica in his own room. Or, better yet, outside.
He's actually become quite good at it and can play individual notes- not at will, but it does happen frequently.

Evan's great-uncle Bruce is a VERY talented harmonica player... maybe this current passion will turn into a inherited life-long skill- who knows? So, to share his "talent" we've posted a video below. In the beginning he is "reading" the numbers on the top edge of the harmonica... 11, 12, 13 are his favorites.

Rail Fence Quilt

Proud mama, Anna-Jane, holding the quilt made for Jane Elizabeth Edgar. Born April 17, 2008 at a very healthy 8lbs, 10oz. Wow!

Quilt is backed in yellow swirl print flannel. "Rail Fence" pattern in four colors: light blue "blessings" print, yellow "blessings" print, orange daisies/bugs, and green tessalations.




I'm taking a break on quilts while I'm in Washington for the summer... but will be back at it in August! Everyone keeps getting pregnant!

Everland, a.k.a. Korea Disneyland

Upon recommendation from other families, we decided to venture to Everland this weekend. The equivalent of Disneyland, created by Samsung. It's located about 25 miles from our apartment- equating to a 1.5 hour drive with minimal traffic. The layout of the park has a "zoo" with a Safari tour, AmericaLand with roller coasters, European Adventure with roller coasters, and a large central area with a season-appropriate theme. This being spring, the parade theme and decor was heavily floral... oh, my was it floral. We arrived around 10am, found a parking lot, took a bus to the main entrance and, after much pantomiming, figured out how to buy an annual pass- breaking even after only 4 regular-price visits... and children under 3 are free. Did I mention that Evan's not having another birthday until 2010? :)
We started our trip in the zoo quadrant of the park. Evan enjoyed the marmosets, gorillas, white tiger, and the swimming polar bears. They also had many vendors selling trinkets- Evan was particularly drawn to the bubble launcher. He ran back and forth through the cloud of bubbles a dozen times!

Matt and I posing with the posies :)

Lovely 70 degree day. Many shops lined the main entrance, filled with as many Anime and cutsie knickknacks as your heart could desire. We both commented on how they haven't quite capitalized on the character aspect of Disneyland. We only saw one costumed adult posing for pictures with kids. Even the trinkets were very generic, and not over commercialized... they have not learned to paste Mickey Mouse on EVERYTHING.

After touring the Animal Kingdom with 10,000 of our Korean friends... we found a somewhat American eatery (our other choices involved variations on rice, fish and kimchi). Evan is savoring his corn dog- made with a brown rice wrapper instead of corn. I ordered the teriyaki chicken which was served as 4 chicken wings, a pile of rice, a pork filled egg thing and... yes, pickled cucumbers, peppers and radishes. Matt tried the "Bulgogi baked spaghetti" which was spaghetti noodles in a tomato sauce with pieces of beef ribs on top. The whole meal only cost 16,000 Won. A deal by Disneyland standards.

Spinnning whirl-a-gig flowers behind us. Evan was pooped out by 1pm. Good enough for us... let's call it a day! We can always come back again... and again, and again.

Everland (2)

The overhead chairlift brought people from the entrance to Everland (the top of the HILL), to the valley where many of the amusement rides and theme park areas were located. The grade on the pedestrian hills in Everland... wow, I'm guessing a 15% grade. It was STEEP. Definitely not designed for overweight and lazy Americans!

I feel that something was lost in this translation:

The main street was bedecked with flower garlands and sashes. Very festive.

Oh, and did I mention that the employees wore outfits too... our favorites were the sanitation crew, dressed all in white (apparently trash does not convey dirt), with butterfly wings and antennae.

I could fill an album with the number of couples we saw wearing matching outfits. Red and blue rugby shirts, Peanuts characters, yellow hoodies... etc. The pink shirts with strawberry patterned robots were the BEST... but I didn't have my camera out to share that with you. So, you'll have to enjoy the stylish pink polos with dark denim. Do they call each other in the morning to make sure they are wearing matching shirts?? I think that when a girlfriend presents her boyfriend with a matching pink polo, he should take a minute to evaluate their relationship and make sure he's in for the long haul.