Philip and Jaime Connor

Our second day we traveled from Waco to Lubbock Texas. Texas is one of the biggest states in the US and it took us three days to get across the state. Isaiah was trying to convince us that he should be allowed to ride by trying on dad's helmet. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a park. The kids climbed trees and played around while Phil rested in a hammock. This was a very cool building in the town where we stopped. I thought it was very cool and took a few pictures.

My oldest son just graduated from high school, so we decided to take one last family trip before he leaves home to go on a 2 year mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This was our route for the first day. We left our home in Conroe and traveled to Waco. Here is my family all outfitted for our trip. We have four motorcycles, with one driver for the van. We take turns riding and driving. Here we stopped for a rest. This is Owen running around and stretching his legs. Owen and Isaiah were running around chasing each other. We sat in the shade and ate some snacks. We had a great ride.

Jocelyn and Dallin were playing together on the ottoman a couple of days ago. Jocelyn propped her head on her hands and then Dallin copied her. I looked over and saw it and ran from my camera. It only took me a couple of seconds, but by the time I got back he was getting down! I put him back up next to Jocelyn and she got him to do it again. This was the result.

Dallin turned one and we decided to go to Grandmother Barksdale's house to celebrate. She told us that Phil had also celebrated his first birthday at her house, so that was cool. I made him a chocolate cake in the shape of a racetrack and put a car on top. It was a big hit and he happily dug into the cake and ice cream with relish. It was so fun to be able to be there with the kids' great grandmother. What a great memory they will have of our time in Texas.

Hiking is very popular here in Korea, which makes it the perfect place for us. We also love hiking, although we don't get into the matching hiking outfits etc. that are so popular with the hikers here. One of the first activities we did as a family was to hike up the mountain behind our apartment building. We had a lot of fun, although it was not without some moaning and groaning from our older children. AHHH! WORK, EFFORT! Nathan informed me that he didn't like to do things that "build character". That tune changed as soon as we got to the top. Suddenly everything was so cool and amazing that you could see so far from up there! On our way down the mountain, we took a different path so that we could go into the town and get something to eat. The kids picked McDonald's, as they were feeling especially daring that day. After lunch we walked all around down town Okpo, which was a lot of fun. The kids especially like the tanks in front of all the restua...

While we are here in Korea my kids will attend private school. In Okpo they attend OIS otherwise known as the Okpo International School. It is a small school that caters mostly to Expatriots from all over the world. They speak English at the school, although the kids do have Korean classes. It has been a good experience so far for the three that are attending school there. They have made friends from all over the world. Jocelyn and Caleb both have teachers from England, and Nathan's teach was American, but he recently got a new teacher and I don't know where she is from. Next year they will attend a different school, in Busan, and they will take the bus. I am driving them for the rest of this year, but the school is fairly close to our apartment, so it doesn't take too much time out of my day to drop them off and pick them up.