Meet The Troops

Thursday, July 29, 2010

EVERLAND!

We had an awesome opportunity last week to go to Everland with Peter's company. They arranged and paid for the transportation and got us all there and back. We left early and the kids enjoyed the bus ride there, taking turns listening to Daddy's music. 
It rained a lot on the way there and we were getting nervous about spending the day walking around the park soaking wet. But it really only sprinkled the first 1/2 hour we were there and it cleared up beautifully for the rest of the day. It was very much like Disneyland, but had even more to do. We spent all day and I don't think we even saw half the park. It's definitely somewhere we'll want to go back to before we leave Korea.
It was a little overwhelming (and annoying) at times when the kids were more of an attraction at the park than the actual park attractions!
The people literally blocked us and kept us from walking several times as they snapped pictures and got in the kids' faces. That part was not so much fun. 
Everland also had an African Safari and a Zoo inside as well as all the shows, rides and games. Since our kids love animals so much they wanted to see that side of the park first. It ended up being much cooler than any zoo we've ever been too!
In every part of the part there were things for the kids to play with and play on. It was completely kid friendly and wonderful!
There was a big bird room and if you went in and held out your hand they would fly and land on you...
The kids wouldn't hold out their hands though. They wanted to see them land on us, but they were too scared to do it themselves.
Even the Korean kids flock around ours. See the boy reaching for Faith's hair....they think blonde hair is lucky and are always reaching to try and pet it.
You cannot tell very well from the picture but this case is full of beautiful, colorful butterflies. Almost all of the leaves on the plants have tiny butterflies on them, they are covered. It was more butterflies that I've ever seen in one place like that, all overlapping each other. Joy saw it and loved it and said, "I want to live in there!"
We noticed there were not any 'entrance' and 'exit' signs, they all said this...
And this sign made us laugh!....
We got to see so many cool animals...
But our favorites were in here...
There were so many different kinds of monkeys and tons of baby ones! We spent so much time in the Friendly Monkey Valley, they were all just too cute to walk away from!
This little guy was playing with Joy through the window...
The mommy or daddy monkey kept pulling it back away from the window and as soon as they'd let go, he'd come running back up!
Two of my cute monkeys :)
This one was the most fun though! These monkey's were in a round room that was full of windows at different levels. There was one monkey inside that would knock on a window and then when the kids ran up to it and peeked in he would wave and run away to another window and knock until the kids came over to that window. 
This went on and on for a long time. The kids LOVED it and it was so funny to watch! I've never seen a monkey play like that before. That ended up being the kids' most favorite memory from the day they said.
The kids are getting better about trying the different Korean foods. The girls and I really enjoyed a new funny mix that we hadn't seen before until at the park that day. It was corn and pineapple together. It was strange because the corn was warm but the pineapple was cold. I didn't get a picture of it, but it was very yummy! I would have never thought to put those two together.
Another highlight of the day, PONY RIDES!!
Even Faith Elaina wanted to ride!
Then it was Joshua's turn and he chose the camel.  :)
It went VERY slowly, but he was pretty high up there and loved every minute of it!
Our kids love trains so of course we had to take the train ride around the park. It was beautiful!
You can see the giant roller coaster that Peter didn't get to go on this trip cause we only did the kiddy rides. Maybe next time though!
The gardens were all so gorgeous and it is amazing the way they can train bamboo to grow in different twisty shapes and designs. There are these 'dancing' fountains all throughout the park as well. You can't tell from the picture, but they were shooting and spiraling and jumping around.
You can see the pretty green hills of Korea in the background. 
Joy said she'd like to do a show up on this stage!
Here are their 'Mickey and Minnie' characters but I'm still not sure what their names are. They were all over Everland though. 
We went and saw a show but I only snapped one picture before a nice usher tapped me on the shoulder and with her arms in a big 'X' shape said "No do! No do!"....so I took that to mean I couldn't take any more pictures and put the camera away....which isn't ours by the way. My wonderful friend Lisa, (Thank you so much again!) let us borrow their old one for awhile while we wait for ours to be delivered. Ours died a couple of weeks ago and we ordered a new one online but things seem to take a long time to get over here so we were given a projected 3 weeks time period of when it might be delivered. So, hopefully soon. Anyway, the show was great! They did lots of singing and dancing and acrobatic stunts. The funniest part though was when all the chorus girls went backstage and changed into blonde curly wigs and stayed that way for most of the show. They really love blonde hair here!
We did do some kid rides too. Even Faith could ride most of them! She was very excited about this one that reminded her of Daddy's white jeep....which he doesn't have anymore, but lives on with our friends in Missouri!
Their version of "It's a Small World", like we have at Disneyland was pretty funny. We rode through on boats and there was a section portraying each of several different countries. The United States one was full of Cowboys, Football Players and Cheerleaders...
The other side looked like New York, with a big city scene, the Statue of Liberty and a 'Broadway' sign.
There was a big Aesope's Fable house, garden and play area that the kids really enjoyed.
Inside the garden these frogs were shooting water over the path, the kids loved running underneath them.
Even though Samuel was too little to do much, he was still there and enjoyed all that there was to see!
It was an awesome day and once again we were convinced that "No one has more fun that the Adamses!"