Why I love Colorado

I spent the past weekend in Colorado with my family for my cousins wedding. As excited as I am for England, every time I visit Colorado I never want to leave and wish Matt and I could move here tomorrow. This weekend was super busy and filled with a lot of fun family time so this post will have a lot of pictures to display all the reasons why I love Colorado!

Me and my cousin Chelsea

One of the main reasons why I love Colorado is my favorite person ever lives there. I hate that we never get enough time together and having to say goodbye today without having a future visit already planned out was really hard :(

The incline in Colorado Springs

Reached the top!

Our treat for reaching the top

 The second reason of my love for Colorado is there is always something fun and active to do and the views are amazing! The wedding was in Colorado Springs so on Saturday before the wedding we hiked the stairs of the incline. It was a really hard hike and the altitude killed me but the view from the top was amazing! And note to self bring a lot of water next time you do something like that!

Garden of the Gods

This picture needs no explanation as to why I am in love with the views Colorado has to offer! 

My cousin, aunt, mom and I

My cousins wedding

Pink cake, it's a girl!

And finally the most important reason why I want to live in Colorado is family. All of my family lives there and I miss being around for holidays and family events. The wedding ceremony was wonderful and the reception was a lot of fun! The cake at the wedding had pink filling which revealed that they are having a girl due in October! I wish I was going to be around to see the beautiful addition to our family, but I guess Facetime will have to do for now. 

Time to go back home and back to reality. In other good news my best friend Lindsay got engaged this weekend! I am so excited for her and her fiance and their wedding gives me another excuse to come back to the states! 

Matt got his ticket home from Korea and will be arriving August 6th! wahoo :) We also have tentative date of August 20th to fly to England! Crossing my fingers I get my visa in time so I can leave with Matt. 

Permanent Change of Station

We have already known for awhile that our next base would be England, but until yesterday we did not have our permanent change of station orders in our hands. The military has a funny way to tell you one thing (hint: you are moving to Alaska) and then doing something completely different (changing those plans to moving to England!). So I was extremely happy to hear from Matt that we finally got the documents making it official for his new base! Now that we have that piece of paper we can pretty much schedule everything for our move (except booking our tickets). In the next couple of weeks I am going to be running around trying to pack up my entire life so I can meet the movers in Delaware to ship all of our belongings to the UK. In a few short months this will be where I will call home! 

Mildenhall Vilalge

Excited for Summer

A lot has been going on since I got back from Korea. I was the matron of honor in my best friend Galin's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and the bride looked stunning! It was a very hot and humid weekend but it didn't rain and so we got to enjoy the reception under the stars.

My little brother Dylan had a great time busting some moves on the dance floor :) Galin planned and put together everything for the wedding. It was a lot of work on her part but it was worth it because it looked amazing!!!

This past weekend I went to a Nationals game. The Nats played the Twins and lost in the 11th inning 4-3 :( Even though they lost it was still fun to go to a baseball game with my family.

I am excited for the start of summer. I have a couple vacations planned and I am leaving Thursday for Colorado for my cousins wedding. It will be my third time this year going to Colorado but I am not complaining I love seeing my family and the rocky mountains. More exciting news is the start of summer marks the season Matt will be coming home. Only about a month and a half left :)

Busan Beach for Memorial Day Weekend

Matt was able to get a four day weekend for Memorial Day so we decided to take a trip to the coast of South Korea and visit Busan Beach. The beach was really pretty and kind of different from the beaches back home. They don't have a boardwalk and the actual sand part is pretty small. I thought the bridge over the water was really pretty.

We took the bullet train down to the beach which was an awesome experience traveling 170 kmp! Matt thought it would be fun to not plan anything before we left so I tried to put my controlling personality aside and go with the flow. :) When we got to the beach we tried to find a hotel and after seeing some over priced places and one hotel that looked like it was used for a scene in a horror movie we finally found a hotel. The first night we got Korean BBQ and the dinner was delicious! 

Practicing my chopstick skills

Friday night there was a Korean music festival called May Khristmas 2013 right on the beach so we got a couple drinks and enjoyed the music on the beach. We could not understand anything they were singing about but it was a fun experience. 

Saturday we head to the beach to relax. The sun decided not to show up till around 1pm but it was still warm enough in the morning to lay on the sand. The water was way too cold to go into for me but a lot of Korean kids jumped right in, in their clothes and everything! At one point during the day I realized Matt and I were the only ones in a bathing suit and everyone else was in regular pants and shirts on the beach. Even though they were in full clothes the Koreans still loved to jump in the water. It was a fun day of people watching. 

At one point in the afternoon I realized something was happening on the beach about 10 feet from were Matt and I were laying. We realized it was a video shoot for a music video and after seeing the amount of crowds surrounding it we think it was Psy te guy who sang gangnam style. 

 

It was really cool to watch the dance and see it all take place. In the first picture in the background you can see two big red boats in the water. At one point during the shooting of the video these boats sprayed colorful water everywhere for the background of the video! Matt and I are hoping to see this video on MTV one day :)

The last night there was a beautiful full moon over the water. It made for a great ending to a great weekend! 

Today is my last day in Korea :( I am so sad to leave Matt but I know it is time for me to go back home. Especially since one of my best friends is getting married on Saturday! I will be starting the countdown till Matt gets home for good and we start our life together in England. 

DMZ

On Saturday Matt and I got tickets for a DMZ tour. DMZ is short for the Korea Demilitarized Zone. It is the are that separates North and South Korea. The bus left base early at 7am and it was about a two hour drive. The tour took us to about four different tourist sites before we actually got to drive into the DMZ.

One of the tourist sites was a train station the South Koreans built in hopes that unification will happen between the North and the South and the train will go from South Korea's capital Seoul to North Koreas capital Pyongyang. We were able to buy a fake ticket to Pyongyang. The train station cost $8 million dollars to build and has been deserted since it was finished.

My ticket to North Korea

Matt and I in front of the train station

The best part of the tour was actually getting to go see the line that separates North and South Korea. The process is really serious and you need an armed military guard to take you to the line. Before you go everyone signs a form stating if you decide to cross the line, they are not responsible for you. From where we got to stand you can see the North Korea guards on one side and the South Korea guards on the side you are standing on.

The big building in the back is in North Korea

The blue buildings are used for the North and South Koreans to discuss politics

North Korean guard

Matt and I in front of the DMZ line

The experience was once in a lifetime and I am so glad I was able to share it with Matt. It is crazy to me that things like this still go on in the world. The only thing I wish we could have done was go inside one of the blue buildings. Matt got to do it last time he went and part of the blue building is in North Korea. The North Koreans were doing construction so we weren't allowed in the buildings this time. We did get to see the changing of the North Korean guards which was really cool to see too.

Matt and I are going to a city called Busan for the memorial day weekend. Busan has two beaches that are suppose to be really pretty. I am excited to get off of the base and go explore other areas of Korea!

JMU in Korea and Soju

I had a great weekend doing a bunch of tourist things around Korea. Saturday Matt and I went to the DMZ. The experience was unreal and I will post about that tomorrow with some great pictures!

On another note, when I was shopping around Songtan I found a JMU jacket! So crazy JMU made it all the way to South Korea :)

GO DUKES!

Saturday night Matt and I went out with some of his friends. I tried sweet tea soju and cherry soju. Soju is the Korean drink of choice :) Let me tell you it tastes so good, but does not make you feel so hot the next morning!

Me and Min Ju

Drinking a bowl of cherry soju

Also Saturday night I found out one of my best friends, Torie, got engaged! I am so excited for her and her fiance and cannot wait to celebrate with her when I get back in the U.S.!

Sunday we decided to go to Seoul to get lunch and have a couple drinks at this craft beer pub. I tried a sample paddle of about four different beers. The beer was really good and surprisingly the Korean brewed IPA was my favorite.

We spent the rest of our Sunday relaxing and watching episodes of the League (such a funny show, if you have never seen it check it out!)

Last minute trip to South Korea!

I made it to Korea! I had been waiting for over a month to get my passport back from Andrews AFB (they needed it for paperwork stuff to get me authorized to live in England) and last Monday they called to say it finally came in. I booked a direct flight for the next day and hurried to get everything packed and done in time. The flight was 14 hours long and I could not sleep the whole time, so I ended up watching 6 movies, so boring! I knew how to catch the bus to the base, so Matt met me at the bus stop on base. I am so much happier being here, it is nice to have my husband around again. Sometimes I know it would have been easier for me to have moved here with him, but you learn from your choices and we now know we will never be separated (unless we have no choice) ever again!

Oh Korea how I have missed you! haha

The first place I wanted to go when I got here was this thai restaraunt off base. The food is amazing and  it did not disappoint this time :) I got the chicken, ginger and onion stir fry and it was delicious!

Yum!

The weather is nice here. It gets kind of hot during the day, but it is not too humid yet. Matt's dorm does not have air condition yet, so it gets a little warm during the day. We are going on a trip to the DMZ tomorrow. The DMZ is the area that separates North and South Korea. The bus leaves super early at 7am and we don't get back till late. I am really excited to go see it, especially with all of the news that was going on last month with North Korea. I will post about it with pictures when I get back :)

Anyways, I am extremely happy and enjoying my time with Matt!

My best friend :)