Sea of Japan!!!

I got to see the ocean!!!

 Like actually see it, not just fly over it!

Well, if you want to get all technical, it was not the ocean per say, it was the Sea of Japan... but whatever! It was beautiful!!!! I do get to see the actual Pacific Ocean in September when we are going to Japan, we're going to go to the coast then!

On Friday night Josh and I were sitting on our apartment steps outside after Gabriel had fallen asleep when our neighbor came by. He asked if we were planning on coming along with the school to go to the East Sea the following day. I had not heard about it until then so I had no clue what he was talking about. After getting a little bit more information and talking about it with Josh, we decided to get up at 5:30AM with everybody else and hop in the bus to go to the sea!  The bus didn't leave until 7AM though, it was supposed to have left earlier but they were going on "Korean Time" (aka late). It took two hours to drive to a town near the coast. When we got there we did have to go to church with everybody. The school is run by SDA Christians and many of the teachers here are SDA and they have Sabbath on Saturday, not Sunday. Gabriel did not want to fall asleep on the way there in the bus, nor did he feel the need to sleep during church... he did finally fall asleep though when we got back into the bus and drove to the Sea. It was only a 15 minute nap unfortunately, but he felt like it was enough apparently!

The school packed lunch for us so when we got to the Sea we sat down to eat. They had a beautiful tree line next to the beach with little picnic areas, it was so beautiful!!!

Gabriel trying to escape!

Really he just wanted to cuddle;)

Then we headed down to the beach! I have been to 11 different countries other then America and I have never seen the ocean! I know, crazy! I saw the Mediterranean Sea once, but that is as close as I have ever come. Saturday's visit was technically not the ocean either... but oh well, soon I will see it! Apparently it doesn't look any different, but I won't know until I see it myself=) It was an amazing experience to swim in the Sea! The power of the water around you and knowing that you were this tiny speck in the mess of it all... it was just awesome!

At the beach they had these umbrella's that you could sit under...

And then we went swimming! We forgot Gabriel's swim trunks so we just used a normal diaper instead! Worked pretty well actually! Gabriel thought it was fun to walk into the waves... he never smiled much but I think it was because he was extremely tired from being up so early and only having a 15 minute nap!

We then took him into the water! He seemed more concerned with taking his hat off the majority of the time though!

There's a smile!

And then it's gone...

Me and my boys!

Gabriel loved to play in the sand! Unfortunately when Josh got down to play with Gabriel he ended up dislocating one of his toes! Ugh! I couldn't look at it, that is one thing that just grosses me out more then anything! Josh was able to pop it back in himself, thank God! It took a couple of tries though! Anyway, Gabriel was oblivious to the pain his Daddy was in and enjoyed himself in the sand!

He got a little mad when he decided to flop onto his belly, I think it itched a little...

Boo covered in sand...

Boo tired and mad that we couldn't get all the sand off when we dipped in back in the water...

Then we headed back to the picnic area to meet back up with the rest of our group. Some of the Korean teachers stole Gabriel at that point and decided to give him some watermelon, he thought it was pretty delicious!

And then we got back onto the bus and headed home! 

Josh and Gabriel did fall asleep at that point... Gabe was so tired that he completely flopped forwards when he fell asleep instead of backwards, it didn't look super comfortable... I think that's the reason he only slept for 25 minutes before he woke up!

It was a long day, but very fun and totally worth getting up super early to go!