Nikki goes to the UK!

As most of my friends and family know I am half Welsh and most of my relatives reside in the UK. I was born in England but only lived there for a few short years as a child and therefore barely remembered it. I hadn't seen a relative from my mother's side of the family in almost 20 years, not because I didn't want to but because the opportunity just hasn't been there for me to travel to the UK and visit everyone. I always wondered what my family was like and have longed to have a personal connection with them all and that feeling of belonging in a big family. My mother comes from a large family of 6 brothers and sisters, each with their own children so when I saw the opportunity go to the UK last month and visit all of my family I quickly booked my plane tickets. What made this trip so great was the fact that my mom was meeting me in the UK from Florida so not only did I get to catch up with her, she was able to introduce me to everyone. It is hard to put into words how great of an experience this was for me, but I will begin with some pictures and we will start in England:

Cafes near my Aunt's house in Southend on Sea

A proper English breakfast sandwich :)

Shopping on Oxford St.

Mom near Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace, the Queen was in! 

Having a night out with my Uncle Matt and Mom in Southend.

More shopping on New Bond Street

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

At the Thames River with Big Ben and the British Parliaments in the background!

The next few photos were taken in Chirk which lies right on the border of England and Wales but I will include it in this series ;)

Mom, my Great Aunty Gwen and my Aunty Elaine

Mom with my Aunty and Cousins on the canal

Me with everyone on the canal

Walking to Wales! :)

Love the sheep

The back gate to Chirk Castle.

And finally some photos from visiting my mom's cousin Russell and family in Shrewsbury:

These pictures bring me so much joy and cannot wait to see all of my family in England again. I wondered what it would feel like to be back in England and to be honest it felt like I belonged there, I suppose this was partly because of my Welsh/British upbringing in America but I have never felt so comfortable entering into a "foreign" (to me) country. 

Next blog post I will be taking you to Wales!

Thanks for reading

xxx

Family Visit to Korea!

Back in July some of our family came here to Korea to visit us. We were so happy to hear that someone wanted to come enjoy this amazing country with us for a while, and they were here for two weeks!! (Still not long enough to see everything though!! lol)

Upon landing in Korea we gave Kathy, Brittany, and Michelle gift bags of survival needs while in Korea which included things like, a T-Money Card, Practice Chopsticks, K-Pop Fans, Toilet Paper, Rose Flavored Gum and Cell Phone Accessories.. you know.. the essentials.

On their first official day here we all headed to the DMZ which was a trip that took up most of the day. While it was raining we all still had a great time crawling through the tunnels and realizing that we are super close to North Korea!

They were here for 4th of July and our mission for that day was to be as American as possible...

Mission Accomplished.

We then spent a fabulous 4 days in Seoul.. because you need that many days if not longer to see the whole city!!! In Seoul we introduced them to Korean Baseball, The Han River, King SeJong (yes that is Michelle planking on him), Korean Comedy Shows, Seoul Tower, all the Dongs (Myeongdong Insadong and Dongdaemun), 4D Movies.. and of coarse CHEESY BITE PIZZA! 

We also did a wine train tour while our family was here, it was great fun until they cut us off the wine and put us in a bus to the ginseng museum over an hour away.. nap time. I did however manage to beat everyone in our train car for the title of rock paper scissors or Kai Bai Bo in Korea. 

And now for the awesome random pictures (that you may or may not understand):

We can't thank Kathy, Brittany, and Michelle enough for enduring that long a** flight to come out here, and we hope you all had as much fun as we did while you were in South Korea!!

(All photo credits given to Kathy, Brittany, and Michelle because somewhere between our soju bowls and the excitement of pyeongchang winning the olympic bid Zak and I lost our camera!!!)

Thanks for reading!!! xxx