Merry Christmas From The Bullough Family!

Great Christmas Moments of 2008

Rock Band, Amish Autos!

More Great Moments From This Christmas Season!

Sweet Siblings

Family get-togethers bring out the best in us! As a mom, I couldn't be more proud!

Buddhist Temple

Sunday, day four, the afternoon in Seoul: This Buddhist temple is an active temple. There were people praying to Buddha and lighting candles and going into the prayer rooms.

"Missionary Mitch" thought about proselyting to the Buddhists!

Seoul Korea and DMZ

We only had rain on our first day (Thanksgiving). We found our way to the Seoul Temple and met Elder Bullough there! We went through a session, we had to wear the English translator headphones.
Then we picked up Grandpa and ate Korean food for lunch. Grammy was appalled at how stinky and spicy it was.
That night we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the mission home prepared by Sister Burton, the mission president's wife.



On day two we went and visited a very impressive palace called Changdeokgung. It was built in 1405 during the Joseon dynasty. This palace tour took a few hours to walk through to see all of the buildings and grounds.

We brought a male model with us to pose by the palaces.



At the palace we found our name. Bullough means "eternal youth" in Korean.

Walking through the secret garden meant a lot of stairs. Grandpa Paul needed some help to make it to the top.

This is one of the gates that was an entrance to Seoul it is called Dongdaemun. There is a huge wholesale shopping area there. It is blocks and blocks of stores, markets and vendors. Everything from textiles to pigheads.

On day three we went to the demilitarized zone (DMZ). This area is very well guarded. We had to have our passport checked before our bus could drive into this zone. It is the closest you can get to North Korea. They wouldn't let us take pictures at most of the places in this area. We climbed through a tunnel that the North Koreans made during the Korean war trying to invade South Korea. The U.S. stepped in just in time to save South Korea from an invasion.

This is a fence at Freedom Bridge. It has a rolled barbed wire fence several feet wide at the border. Peace ribbons and messages are tied on the fence.

On day four we went to church at a ward where Mitch had served. They were so happy to see us that they wanted their picture taken with us (just kidding, they were taking a ward photo for their Christmas card and they wanted us in it). During Sacrament meeting, the bishop called Elder Bullough up from the audience and asked him to speak to the ward. After the meeting, several people complimented Mitch on his perfect Korean. Then we had a ward potluck dinner. It is a tradition in their ward to eat together after the meetings every Sunday. Notice how I stand out in my gold outfit. Most people in Korea wear black. If they wear color it is usually pink or tan.

After church we went back to the hotel and picked up Grandpa (who was resting his weary legs) we decided to add some contrast to our sabbath so we went to visit a Buddhist temple.

I will include those pics the next time I blog!

We're so happy to have Mitch home. We love his "freshly home" missionary spirit. He served an honorable mission. He was a great translator for us as we toured Korea. Most of the places that we visited were out of his area, so it was his first time to see them too!

Paris!

We had a fabulous two and a half days in Belgium and Paris! Ashley and Cade were wonderful hosts! Cade drove us to all of the sights as Ashley was navigating on the GPS. They get an A+ for being our guides!
When we arrived in Paris we were starving! So we went immediately to Ashley and Cade's favorite street cafe for Crepes! Yum! They were so delicious!
This trip was definitely filed away in the "Great Memories" file in my brain!
It was a blast to see Ashley and Cade living like Europeans in their "flat". I loved spending time with them! I also loved being with my good friend Mar.

The Louvre

Is it Owen?

Ashley and I were so happy that we had finally made it to the Louvre. It had been a crazy day and we were ready to be inspired. It was a little distracting at first because we were surrounded by statues of naked men. But the naked men statues were soon replaced by paintings of nursing mothers, many depicted Mary nursing baby Jesus. The paintings of all of the babies were so chubby with large thighs and I thought of Addy, but their faces weren't as cute as Addy, so I refrained from taking pics of the chubby thighed babies. I must have had my grandchildren on my mind because then we walked down another hall and I looked at this painting, you have to realize that these are huge paintings...and the baby (who is Jesus) looked like Owen did when he was a little two month old baby

So I took a few pictures of the painting, and I took a photo of the name of the painting so I could translate the French words later.......it turns out, it is a painting of the Jewish tradition, circumcision....sorry Owen, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories!

Busy in Belgium

Waffles...
(This is the famous "Peeing Boy" statue called Manneken Pis ...)


And Chocolate...

And seeing the sights, oh my!!!

We miss you all!

We're Scarey Skeletons!

Our story begins with our precious little witch preparing for an evening of parties. She had already had a busy morning at the mall, shopping for a new Christmas outfit. Even though she was already feeling tired, she put on her best face and good attitude as she headed to daddy and mommy's party with their friends....

by the time she got to Grammy's she needed a rest, but when she got up from her little nap, she was ready to dish... she told Lexi all about her adventures of the day...she also told her how delicious the carrots were that she had just dined on,
but she had to admit that she would like a taste of the frosting on those cupcakes!

Here's Addy's daddy, carving up a storm!

(notice the sweat on the brow)

There was a lot of mess and commotion!

Bryson's girlfriend, Diana, had never carved a pumpkin before! No...not ever...
Diana's mom is from Venezuela...but that's not the whole reason...her mom is also Pentecostal, and feels that Halloween is evil.

Speaking of evil......

Bryson carried on the tradition of carving a pumkin head that was started

by Mitch four years ago.

Our numbers were fewer this year, but we still had a good time...

and we made some great lookin' jack-o-lanterns...don't you think!

and now we return to our precious little witch!

She just wants that costume off, so she can EAT

(and it would be nice if everyone would quit yelling

and making so much noise so she could sleep!)

The Mighty Hunters

Dad, Jeff, Bryson (or Byron as Patrick kept calling him), Grandpa, and Grandpa's friend, Harry Patrick are still smiling at the end of the weekend even though they didn't get a deer.