Author Archives: Backpackbee

Turning One

EEK! I can’t believe our little baby bee has turned one!

We threw a ridiculously big ‘ol Mickey and Minnie clubhouse celebration. And wouldn’t you know it, a clubhouse celebration isn’t complete without some good grub too! YEY!!

The Birthday menu included the following:
Hammy hamburgers & saucy sausages (grilled hamburgers and sweet sausages with grilled onions and green peppers all slow cooked in tomato sauce)
Clarabell cows condiments
Donald’s dippers (baby carrots with ranch dip)
Goofys grapes (red & green grapes)

Oh toodles noodles (homemade macaroni salad)
Pluto’s punch (juice for the mini clubhouse guest)
Chip & Dales chips & dip (hummus and pita chips)
We’ve got beers say cheers! (homemade brews)
Vanilla Cake with a strawberry filling and ice-cream

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While of course, she may not remember it……we absolutely will and we made sure to document it too.

Bumblebee was surrounded by our/her friends that love on her and support her and help her to grow into her feisty little self.

Thinking back over this entire year seems so long, but yet so short. Where does a year go? This very day, one year ago, the day we first met this amazing blessing for the very first time. Then the realization hit that we don’t do parenthood alone… Bumblebee is a lucky little lady to have these amazing role models in her life. Thank you all!

Backpackbees

Falalalala FINALLY

Let’s play catch up. I’ve been working on this blog post for hmmmmmm weeks now….

I cannot entirely say that my delay in posting is bumblebee…. it’s a mixture of motivation, somethings internally, a teeny bit of bumblebee, oh and my lack of understanding our switchover to Lightroom (STILL) the program we use to edit/import all of our photos. (I may have had a teeny meltdown and shunned it and the blog).

So once our turkey day fatigue lifted, we became focused on the Christmas holiday ahead. This year we decked out our home with three festive trees, well four if you count the little Charlie Brown one I set up in the guest bathroom.

^ THIS is our everything. Bumblebee is growing up so quickly and I find myself struggling with a mix of wishing for time to slow down and yet also speed up to eagerly looking forward to various exciting milestones ahead. In the blink of an eye she will turn O N E… less than a month!! I’ve been over here boo-hooing and all emotional lately over little things. She is love of our lives, YES even during the difficult and sometimes often crazy moments, i’m still incredibly grateful. Because of her, everyday we’re learning more patients, understanding, love and more appreciation of time. You are SO GOOD GOD!!

Christmas morning I woke up to Mr. B whipping up the family tradition of homemade creamed chipped beef breakfast served over homemade toast and fresh coffee. Mmmmm! Something I’ve grown so accustomed to looking forward to each and every year. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it to me. Thank you Mr. B.

Bumblebee was a professional and dove right into her packages with little to no prompting. I had a sneaking suspicion after a few of her sneaky little crawls towards the packages the prior weeks, not to mention the two-time we caught her with wrapping paper torn off in her little hands and dare we share….her mouth. Hehehe!

On the evening of Christmas Day, we invited a friend over that doesn’t have any family in country. It’s such a blessing to be able to share our family, our love and our home cooked meals with someone, especially during the holidays.

We rung in the New Year very casually with our neighbors. Surf and turf, games and adult beverages. It was a very different New Year celebration for us, but a very good one indeed. There wasn’t a lot of discussion about resolutions amongst us all, but for me personally I decided that I wanted to cook, bake and incorporate more vegetables into our family meals. So you will have to stay tuned on Instagram and Facebook to see what crazy concoctions we dish out in our little Korean kitchen.

Oh 2017…. please pleaseeeee be good to us all!

Backpackbees

Birthday Celebration

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For baby R’s 1st birthday party, Momma and Papa bear threw an epic birthday bash!

Check out all of the fabulous little Pinterest and Etsy details! So many details! Everywhere you looked! Eek! Even fun colorful camping themed food! Too cute!

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There were tons of babies just bobbling all around running or scooting from room to room. We all had so much fun celebrating this little baby bear and her special day!

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Thank you for inviting us! Wishing you a very happy birthday sweet baby R!!

Backpackbees

Friends giving 2016

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This year as I sat down amongst eleven dear friends at our Friendsgiving table and I couldn’t help but think about the saying, “If you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence.” It’s so simplistic, yet holds such truth and so much beauty, especially during this holiday season.

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When we all sat down together to dig into our delicious spread, we all went around the table and shared what we were thankful for. It was one of the best memories that will stay with us when we think back on this very dinner. Listening to each person express how truly thankful they were for friends like us, like those around the table, made anything else going on just melt away.

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The American Thanksgiving of course is not celebrated here in Korea, but that doesn’t stop us from pillaging our local vegetable market for local goods to make it happen. Over the years we’ve learned the hard way that a big ol’ bird simply doesn’t fit in our tiny “easy bake oven”, so we improvised and purchase an already made Turkey (a deep-fried one at that!) plus we sous-vide extra turkey breast and baked a ham in our crockpot. To make all the sides work, we borrowed another small oven, giving us a total of three ovens to work with. Talk about handling the heat in the kitchen… whew! SO.MUCH.FOOD. In the end everything worked out perfectly! We were pleased with all of the meats being moist and flavorful, and it was by far quicker to purchase and sous vide! (Check out that carrot cake too! A friend of our’s had it made with little bumblebee on it! Swoon!!)

Speaking of turkey…. THIS little turkey had a teeny bit of her first Thanksgiving turkey too!

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As always….we are very thankful for all of you too… for those that have stuck by us, reading, commenting, viewing our photos and virtually traveled all around the world with us. Thank you friends! Happy Thanksgiving from Korea!!

Backpackbees

Korean Cooking Lesson

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Over the weekend I was invited to partake in a Korean cooking lesson where we made marinated Samgyeopsal 양념 삼겹살, Glass Noodles 잡 채 and Kimchi, all from scratch! We were taught by a true professional, teacher Min’s mother! (You guys, this woman was so patient and sweet with all of us and didn’t speak a lick of English).

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It was such a wonderful morning unplugging with some new friends and just getting to ignore all of the outside political BS that continues to plague everywhere we look and listen.

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The lesson included note pages with a list of ingredients (in Korean and English language) for each of the dishes we prepared, hands on time, lots of questions and chatting time, as well as sitting down and enjoying the delicious dishes we prepared. Oh and I almost forgot… the leftovers! We each took home three HUGE containers of food to share with our families! SCORE! Mr. B was pretty pleased to reap the benefits from the cooking lesson.

Here are just a few more favorite snapshots from the class. Hope you enjoy!

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If you are interested in taking a cooking lesson, or learning to speak the Korean language please check out and contact Dongducheon (DDC) Workshops.

Facebook Link: HERE
Phone: 010-3351-1403
Teachers: Dawn Adams and Min Kim

Backpackbees

Our Late Octoberfest Celebration

Over the weekend we celebrated Octoberfest with some friends…yes, yes.. a tab bit late…but eh whatever. We raise our “steins” to our favorite German flavors like sausage, pretzels, warm German potato salad, German Beer Cheese, rotkohl, apfelkuchen and yes, beer. Prost!

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Backpackbees

Anddddd we’re back…

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We’re now home, settled again in South Korea still with semi tired bodies, slight colds, but very full hearts! Our homecation stateside with family brought such wonderful days, so much grace, so many memories and stories, so. much. food., and a lot of laughter. Reminiscing back on days like those cause us to stop and send our prayers of thanks up above.

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Backpackbees

Every Day

I watch her all day and I have the same thoughts over and over… PLEASE God let me always remember this moment, this little grin, this teeny face, this sweet snuggle, this precious giggle, this monster coo… I know I have to savor each of these moments endlessly, we’ve already hit the 6 months mark and she’s growing so very quickly into a little lady, these photos only prove my point more so.

Backpackbees

Special visit

The past few days have been a busy blur of copious amounts of good food and buzzing all around Korea like we were tourist again. This time the only difference was, we had bumblebee and Kelsey along for the ride!

Yes, Kelsey, this young woman has more depth, kindness, loyalty, boldness, grace, honesty and wisdom than I ever knew could exist in a person! Oh! And she’s family to boot!! Cousin Kelsey, you my dear are nothing short of amazing and we are SO happy you chose to come visit us again before starting your new exciting adventure on the East coast! We cannot wait to watch you go on to do big things!

Backpackbees