Merry Christmas

Yeah for Christmas !!! We have been in the states for a good part of almost two weeks now ^^ Chris loves America, for so many reasons. But, The family will be heading back to Korea on Saturday, and Jinhee is getting very excited to go home. Chris is sad he has to leave his home again, but what can you do... I guess technically we could just up and move back to the states, but I'd really like to have a job when that happens or maybe be going to grad school. (Got an email saying yes to interviews for school this year... but trying not to get my hopes up tooo high, cuz we know what happens then). So this is the most recent family picture. Hanee did a great job with the picture taking (she's our little model), Grandpa did the pictures and the turned out alot less green this year... something about the flash working right and Grandpa changing the ISO setting... I don't know... I think they looked good. I'll have more up on facebook later. Hanee is making great progress. Right before we got out here she stood up on her own, and about 3 days ago she started to take steps... like 6 of them ^^ she's almost 11 months old and I can hold her hand and walk her around the house... way smarter than I was. To prove it my mom got out the baby book and we looked at when I did all the crawling/walking/sitting up/standing stuff and Hanee has me beat on all of them. Oh yeah and I can't tell you how happy she was she walked. When she first stood up she screamed... not the bad i'm in pain scream... but the cutests scream of joy. She was so proud of her self, and then she just kept on screaming and clapping. Then this time when she walked by herself she did the same thing. Its the little things like that, that make being a parent so great. We hope everyone had a merry Christmas ^^

Oh and Kenzie call us up quick cuz we are going to be going home on saturday... hmmmm... like you need to call today ~~;;

BYU-Hawaii

I've been done with school for just about 3 years now, and I have been trying for the last year to get back in. (still no word on that yet but I'm working on it). I was talking with my friend Jason from BYUH yesterday and he sent me over this picture. 100% real, non scripted just chris. Its funny because I slept through class in highschool, I slept through a car crash (probably saved my life), I slept through class in Hawaii, on my mission I would sleep during discussions and at church (funny story - my very first area is the ward that Jinhee's family attends now, when we visit I know most of the member, there are still members that know me as the missionary that would sleep through anything... and because its Korea they bring it up everytime... you know like "Hey, brother Colton. Remember when you were a missionary here and slept through church, discussions, member visits? Do you remember that... hahaha such good times..") Now at work I sleep at my desk and during meetings. Wow, sounds like need to see a doctor ~~;; Just thought I'd share the fun with everyone. I've got some pictures of Hanee I need to post but maybe do that next week. Our family will be in Washington for the holidays the 13th to the 27th. If you are there give us a call we'd love to see friends. If we missed you its okay "Have a merry Christmas" ^^

Best father daughter activity ever ^^

So there are few things that make Chris happier than his daughter. Shes the best little baby every. But a close second is Street Fighter ^^ As most of you know Chris likes video games (kinda funny cuz to people that aren't really into video games Chris seems like a hardcore gamer, on the other hand real hardcore gamers see Chris as a more casual gamer). One of Chris all time favorite video game series is Street Fighter. I still remember seeing Street fighter II in the arcade growing up and bugging my parents for quarters so I could play it. I remember walking a mile or two to the grocery store with my cousins so we could play at thanksgiving. I remember going to the neighbors house to play cuz my parents didn't let us get video games until high school. In high school I imported street fighter playstation games so I could get them 2 months before they would come out in the states. I'm not really sure why I like street fighter I'm not good at (well not good enough to be a pro) but I just like it. So this year is the first year a new streetfigther game has come out in like 8 years (I think). And it hit arcades first. I've been trying to think of a good reason to go the the arcade and play it but just couldn't come up with one. About two weeks ago we went out for dinner with some friends visiting Seoul and ended up going to Shinchon (place where all the college kids hang out). So while Jinhee and her friend where out shopping me and Hanee along with my friend Chun and there baby kinda just had to walk around and look at stuff. Chris saw an arcade and knew he needed to check for some street fighter IV action. Sure enough they had a post up saying it was in the basement. Chris at first was just gonna look at the arcade cabinet and not really play it (Chris really wants to own a bunch of arcade machines some day). I gave into the temptation put in my 300 won (about a 15 cents now ~~;;) and started to play. I couldn't really set Hanee down anywhere so I just held her on my lap and played. The best part is that you play against other people right. So a kid sits down across from me and we start playing, but since you are across from each other you can't really see the other person you just play against them. Chris totally kicked the kids trash~~ so he sent his friend over to see who he was playing against. There are some foreigners in Seoul but not many hang out in arcades, so when his friend saw that I was a foreigner he would have normally been surprised. But when his friend saw that I was a foreigner holding a baby on my lap and I still won, he had to do a double take. He then walked back to his friend and started making fun of him cuz he not only lost, but lost to the white guy holding a baby ^^ Jinhee's friend took these pictures to show what an awesome dad I am... okay maybe to show how sad Hanee looks ~~;; (She was perfectly happy to sit with dad and suck on her binky). I need to post some other more important stuff but for today this should be good. (Oh yeah, and now that I live in Korea and have access to Streetfighter games straight from Japan ^^, If you need anything from Thailand let me know... I'll be going tomorrow and back on Tuesday)

Ha-nee update

So I know I said I wouldn't be updating for a while... cuz studying and all, but these pictures are just too good not to share. Little bit of background on the photos. Jinhee has been taking Japanese class 3 times a week for the past 2 months now. She wanted to get out of the house a little more after having the baby (I agree, she needs to get out of the house more). One of the people in her Japanese class works at a photo studio, and when Jinhee told the class she was married (to one of those barbarian foreigners, none the less) the guy asked if he could take pictures of out baby (because everyone knows that Korean + Barbarian foreigner = cute cute baby). Normally it costs a ton to get pictures like this done in Korea (between $600 and $1500 depending on your prints all ...) anyhow He said if he could use the photos for his portfolio he would give us the raw pictures for us to print or do what ever. While I was gone in Europe this last week (more on that later) Jinhee took Hanee to get her pictures done. Jinhee said Hanee did good considering it took about 8 hours. We only got a few of the pictures back so far and are waiting to get the rest. These are just two... we have some more and I'll get to posting them later. For now just look at these two... oh and if I might add my totally unbiased opinion, she looks adorable^^ Just a quick note on Chris - I'm still studying for the GMAT and getting ready to apply to grad school again (I take the GMAT for the 3rd time on 11/13 *GO GO*) (Oh Paris and London where nice, I actually got to see London this time I'll have some pictures for that on here or facebook later)

More Ha-nee pictures. Her mom took these and I just thought I'd share them with everyone. Ha-nee is 7 months old now, growing her hair back ^^, she can crawl, eats baby food and is all around adorable. Hmmm... so what else is happening at the Colton house? The summer in Korea seems to have come to an end, by raining all day today and being cold enough at night that I actually have to shut the windows and use a blanket. Chris is thinking about what he wants to do again... I know... so last year the plan was to totaly go back to the USA to do an MBA, one slight problem, Chris didn't really get into the MBA program of his choice. I kinda took it pretty hard so I haven't really done much to improve on that position yet and its getting to be time to start applying to schools for next year ~~;; So, what can I do? Study for the GMAT again... or just reapply cuz I have more expernce now? I think I can do better on the GMAT... but it just sucks my will to live... that and if I do want to do better I really really really need to stop doing everything else in my life for about 3 months... again with the sucking my will to live... I studied for a little over an hour tonight and that felt good so have to see how things go. The goal for the end of the week is to be at 3 hours a day studying, but I need to ease my self into it. Don't want to jump into the deep end with out testing the water. If I don't do GMAT and study again I need to get ready for the CPA exam... and that requires studying too hmmm. Kinda a strange feeling, I know that I want more, I know there are ways to get it, just need get over what happened last time press on and make it happen. Shoot if Mike Phelps can win 8 gold medals... and the Korean swimmer can get 1 gold medal I should be able to take a little test and do okay right... right... ^^ So if not alot of posts happen in the future wish me luck.

*Snap shot*

While I was in Washington the moon was out good so I thought I would get a picture of it. My dad has taken up photography and has much better camera equipment than I do (he bought us our camera and we love it... just doesn't do the same thing his camera does ^^) So we went out and took pictures of the full moon. I took a few shots with his camera (I think this one was probably one he took but still... you know I was there and all.) I'm by no means a photographer... but if i was I think i'd take pictures like this. He as some good ones of Korea I should post later.

Ha-nee update

Ha-nee is six months old today. We are so happy she came to join our family. She is so special and so unique. (Well, I think she is a lot like her Mom). I'll post some more pictures later... hopefully. This one is off my phone so its not that great. You can still see her 매력 (Charming?) points. She has the best smile and big beautiful eyes. On Sunday she started to sit up alone, she practices all the time now. She loves to take baths. She loves to crawl (I'm not sure what its called in English but in Korean its called pushing on your stomach ~~ like the step before crawling) She can make it from the bedroom to the kitchen in no time at all. Jinhee called me after lunch today to say her first tooth is coming in on the bottom (guess that explains why she was so fussy yesterday). She’s amazingly smart and developing soo fast. The only thing we worry about is she is really skinny for a baby (15lbs, Mom says I was really skinny as a baby too, but we are still worried that she eats enough). The picture is from last month ~~ I'll have to take a new one on my phone, or get some from Jinhee's site.

Back in Seoul ^^

Hi everyone... okay so everyone kinda makes it sound like more people actualy read the blog. "hi" to all 3 of you that periodically check to read my rambling. I got back from the U.S. of A last week. I enjoyed my trip. My business trip went good... well, yeah it went good, but I was still a little disappointed with the presentation I gave. Not so much with my part, because I did fine, more so with the fact that I want to believe I work for a global company and I ended up giving the presentation in Korean and English because 31 out of the 32 people attending the meeting were Korean. I mean come on, these are all of the head planning/finance people for the North America and we have only one Mexican and the rest are Korean in some way or another. Just makes me kinda sad, because these are the decision makers and all most all of them are Korean. (I love Korea, but there is no reason for everyone of those people to be Korean.) Moving right on, I enjoyed spending time with my parents ^^ and didn't really like the two days I spent at the dentist... teeth still hurt. Highlight of the trip, other than seeing my family, was Batman: Dark Knight. It was great, better than I expected and I'm looking forward to seeing it again when it comes out here in Korea. I had taco bell at least twice, drank mountain dew code red and root beer and had cheap bacon cheese burgers. Good times. I wish that Jinhee and Ha-nee would have been able to come, I'm glad they were both healthy and happy when I got home. Some time we will make it back to America, and maybe it won't even be weird. (I felt kinda dumb asking my brother to get us tickets in advance for Batman only to have him ask why... and I had to think about why... the best I could come up with was in Seoul I need to get tickets a week in advance if I want to see a movie on opening day (probably similar in big cities like NY or something but not so in our neck of woods in Washington)). Looks like the entire family will be back sometime in December ^^ since I didn't really get visit many of my friends maybe people will be back in town for Christmas!

Oh and this is a picture I took during the recent riots here in Seoul, protesting the importing of US beef. This was displayed in local mart next to my house, I was going to go share my thoughts with the mart owner but Jinhee thought it would be better if I just didn't shop there (I don't shop there anyhow). It says "Our store opposes the importing of MAD COW beef" with a boat full of 'mad cow' rolling in from the USA. I guess that technically I agree... with part of the logic... you know the part about not wanting mad cow beef, i just disagree with the part about it comming from the USA... Korea has a very high mob mentality and no amount of reasoning will break through... on the bright side mad cow free US beef started to sell again here a few weeks ago ^^

Back to the motherland ^^

I have a business trip comming up this month. I go on a few business trips every year. It's actually one of the best parts of my job. I don't like that I am away from family but before I started working with my company I had been to exactly two countries... Korea and home in the USA. Since then I have now been to Japan, Netherlands (twice), France, UAE (Dubai), England, India, Indonesia, Thailand (twice), and China... I think thats all the ones i've been too now. Anyhow, business trips can be fun but they are also usually tireing. This time around I have to give a presentation in our New Jersey office. I've been once before and really enjoyed looking around New York. All that aside the best part of a trip to the states is it means that Chris gets to visit his family. The company pays for a trip for me and my family to the states once a year. Last year Jinhee was pregnant with Hanee and we didn't get to go. So Chris hasn't been back to the states in over a year now. Its funny the things I look forward too about being home. Sad but true a must do for Chris when he gets home is to go to the bell... taco bell... I know, I know 'taco bell' you say. Well, you try living in Korea with no mexican (or American mexican, fastfood mexican) food and see if you don't mind a quick run to the border. Other things I'm looking forward to include: seeing the new batman movie with my older brother, getting some pants that fit me, baby clothes for the baby, hmmm... and I guess spending time with my Mom and Dad (just kidding, I always look forward to the that). I'll be in New York/New Jersey on the 13~15 and in Buckley from the 16~19. I'm not sure how to put this, but its always a little strange for me to be back in the states. I love Korea, and I guess alot of the times I just pass over the fact that 98% of the people are Korean, and I'm not. When I get back to the states I always kinda wonder where I fit in. I'm not really current on whats going on in peoples lives, I'm not up to date on fashion or music... or movies for that matter. And then there is the fact that I think alot of small things in Korean... I'll maybe save that for another post. But anyways, I just usually feel a bit out of place.

Where should we put the penguin?

I love my wife, she is doing a great job at being a new mommy. Saying education is 'really' important in Korea just doesn't do just to the topic. So my wife has already started with educational stuff for baby. Jinhee majored in TESOL and worked as a teacher here, teaching kids. I know she does a great job at it. She asked me if I would help her make some stuff for the baby. I said 'sure' and proceeded to not help her until she was about halfway done. She asked me again and so I sat down to see the progress. (What you see on your right is the finished project) She had a house and the sun and was adding the bird. I thought the picture looked good and said I’d add the bug and the plants. While I was making the bug (its supposed to be a lady bug... but I’m not really sure what it ended up as) Jinhee asked me "can we add a penguin?", with out a second thought I said "no" we don't need a penguin for this picture. My wife, shot back with, "what if the baby wanted to add a penguin, would you tell her no?" See the thing is I didn't really think about it, I just said "no". So told Jinhee that I guess it really didn't matter if we added a penguin, just as long as I got to make. You see that penguin sitting on the ray of sun light. Yeah he represents our willingness to think out side of the box and be creative. Because when you take a step back and look at the picture, who says you can't have a penguin sitting on the sun. And so there he is.

Um... I ordered a pizza and a salad

I have some interesting pictures that have been hanging around on my phone for about a year now. I finally got around to moving them over to my computer. Some of them are funny, I'll try to post them over the next week or sooo.
This pic is of a pizza that looks like some one dumped a salad on top of it. I like salad, and I like pizza, just not so much like this. Because I'm American alot of people assume that I don't like Korean food, before they get to know me (ends up I really like some Korean food, and don't like some of the other stuff.) We were having a little birthday party at work for another employee, and since I had only moved groups (to accounting) not to long ago my co-workers wanted to make sure there was something for me to eat. They ordered this pizza... I'm not sure how to describe how I feel about the pizza, I'm glad they thought about me, and it is the thought that counts after all... but come on. This pizza just does not look very tasty ㅠㅠ;; and pizza is supposed to be good. Its funny because I don't really like Korean pizza in general ( alllll sorts of strange toppings like corn, potatoes, salad, any number of uncooked vegetables) on the other hand pizza hot, dominos, and papa johns are all decent although way way over priced.

I don't think I ate very much of the pizza but still kinda funny to think about it.

The office ^^

This is where I work. I've always wanted to get a good picture of it, but for some reason the camera on my cell phone never comes out that good. So while I was at the park with my family I turned around and took this. (Thanks Dad for getting me a nicer camera). This is the LG twin towers... maybe its "these" are the twin towers... hmmm Chris has never been too good at that grammar. They represent the two founders of LG. I work in the right side about 4 floors from the top. I really wish my office was more like the TV show the office. But for some reason that’s just not how it works in Korea (oh we spend lots of time doing worthless stuff, but it just doesn't seem as funny ^^). The other day I was at work on Saturday morning, (I know, who goes to work on Saturday) and I was the only one in the office. Two older guys that looked like construction workers came by and asked me if they could look out the window. I told them 'sure' and showed them our windows. They said fine and went on their way. I didn't think much about it until about half and hour later I hear a bunch of noise outside the window. Now you know thats no big deal but when your on the 32nd floor you kinda have to wonder what’s going on so high up. Ends of the two gentlemen from before used a ladder to come down to our floor and spent the next 30 minutes putting new covers on the drain out side. I'm slightly scared of heights so it would take a medium sized pile of cash to get me out on the small ledge. Anyhow the two where out on the 32nd floor, ledge no safety harness, nothing, doing some minor construction work. Crazy. Kinda funny, but still crazy.

My 1004

Sleeping like a baby. Just thought I would throw up a pic of my little angel. She sleeps just like mom, with her feet un-covered. Can't tell you how much I love to sit and look at her. I don't wanna brag or anything but whenever I see her I always think "I'm not sure how I made such a perfect little baby but, wow, she is just the most beautiful little girl"... I really really love my Ha-nee Gwen. Oh yeah and Korean kids are cute in general but my half Korean is the cutest keke.

Time for a good reboot -

Initially I made this blog so I could post pictures for my mom to see back home. For the most part thats all that it really ever was, but then http://www.facebook.com/ came along and now most the photo sharing happens there. So what do I do with the blog now? I know that I like to read blogs... I think most people like to read blogs, but I have never been a big fan of writing. In fact I'm pretty sure I don't like writing. I think I don't like writing because i've never felt like I was any good at it. (Still don't think i'm very good at it). "Whats the point?" you ask, good question I was just about to get to that. So instead of worrying about my poor writing skillz, I figure I'll just write like I talk (or used to talk... you know when I spoke English... well, I guess i could write in Korean... who knows maybe I will.) and that should be good enough for me.

As for the direction to take the blog, its still up in the air. I'll just see how it goes for now.