Stokes in Peru

Marianella and I realize that it's inevitable-sometime in our future, we'll be on a family vacation with the boys and disinterest and boredom will be tattooed on the boys' faces and in their body language.  Perhaps it will be as we march them through a museum or seat them at a folk dance show, but it will occur and it will probably arrive sooner than we prefer.  And when that day arrives, we may just retreat to photos of this trip to Seoul, where pure joy was written across their face throughout the visit. Our primary reason for the quick flight across the Yellow Sea was to update the boys' vaccinations (okay, so not much joy was on their faces during that experience, but that was the exception),  and then we stayed a few days and soaked up what South Korea's capital has to offer a family with 14 month old twins.  The boys are still at an age where the entertainment options are limited, but they are expanding and it was wonderful to see their wonder and excite

Greetings All, When we disembarked from the airplane on our return flight to Beijing from Minnesota in early January, I exclaimed that we would not be flying the friendly skies again until necessary, which would be our return flight home in June.  After spending 18+ hours in transit with four month old twins, I would have chosen the padded cell of a sanitarium over the cramped cabin with the impatient countenance of our fellow travelers. Chillin' at the Hotel: As time distanced itself from that flight and the hazy skies of Beijing kept repeating themselves daily, Marianella and I began toying with the idea of a short trip during spring break, both to escape the bleak landscape and to refresh our memories for the longer trip that awaits in June.  Flights to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Seoul were considered, but in the end, we tabled them all.  After putting the boys to sleep at the end of each day, the prospect of planning a vacation, no matter how brief, was too much for our f

Bryce is in red, Raymond in blue: Greetings Peeps, Did you experience in your childhood, after the excitement and candy rush of Halloween, gazing at the calendar to see the imminent approach of Christmas and how the march of the days would slow to a glacial pace?  I haven't had that experience for nearly 40 years and certainly adulthood with each passing year has most often moved as regularly and swiftly as a Swiss train (or how I would imagine trains to run in Switzerland). I admire Bryce's choice of apparel: Raymond evidently has begun working on his portrait pose: However, since departing Lima on August 24, the unpleasant experience of childhood has rushed back not only in memory but in execution.  Adult logic told me that September 30 was a handful of weeks and then days away-but the time away from Marianella and the boys has been rather challenging, particularly once the work day ended. I'm coming Mama, hang in there!: But the calendar has continue