Bye bye, Seoul - Day 8

Our flight home was at midnight, so truly, we had a full day to burn on this final day of the holiday. Some key milestones in our time of the day were the hotel check-out time (2pm), and then the flight check-in time (10pm).

First things first, to fill our tummies. 

Look at this lovely sight, of him with his mini him.

And my lovely girl, enjoying her meal.

Just a bit about the food in Korea. They serve a lot of rice, and it suits the husband because he likes filling his tummy with solid food in the morning, like the pics from above. I much prefer a lighter type of breakfast of coffee and pastry. And this particular spot was a place that we ate at a total of three times. It was just around the corner from our hotel, it served rice & noodles, dumplings and was a quick, fuss-free option that met its objective of filling our tummies. 

After the meal, we headed back to the hotel to finish packing so we could check out and it was also about now that the boy started fussing. The husband and I played tag to complete some last-minute shopping + put him to sleep and I'm aware that it sounds simple and uncomplicated, but it was really trying. The boy would not sleep, was extremely cranky, and that made it very hard for us to function like regular people. I know I was pretty strung out. 

While the husband was trying to put J to nap, I started shuffling luggages to check out/ store in baggage and basically try to make our time stay on routine (2pm check out!).. when we finally were done, we had a family of 4 that were pretty grumpy sitting at the lobby of the hotel. 

Trying to smile amidst feeling grumpy

The time was about 2pm, and we had a whole afternoon to kill. Unfortunately, the boy had still not napped and was still extremely grumpy and pretty much not open to anything at all. He really just.needed.to.nap. I'd some hope of going to run some last bit of activity, but it didn't seem like it was going to happen.

Instead, the husband and I divide and conquered for him to try to put Jake to sleep; and I brought K on a little walk. We ended up going to do some window shopping and I just wanted to take a breather by walking about.

We headed to the mall just opposite our hotel and it was a nice, short walk where we both had something to see/do and I'd remembered this interactive piece that we'd seen before but hadn't had time to stop for.

Plucking the balls into the egg cartons

She went up and down at least 10times

It was a simple piece - on the walls were egg cartons and they provided little flurry balls in rainbow colours that people could play/create art in. We also chanced upon a staircase of musical keys; it produced actual music (notes) when you stepped on it and K had a fun time just hopping about on it.

By the time we headed back to the hotel in a bit, the boy still had not slept. It was already nearly 4pm by then and he was still so cranky! 

So I continued to walk the streets with Kate and because she started complaining that she was hungry, plus she was such a good girl, I allowed her to have ice-cream.

Simple happiness

At some point between happiness over ice-cream and too-late-a-nap-later, the boy, finally slept.

I felt exhausted for him, who struggled to stay awake till 4pm

We were all properly hungry by then, so we headed out to seek for food. It was a pretty late lunch. We decided on a little Korean restaurant on a second level of a shophouse and it was a decent meal - we had ginseng chicken, some fried chicken salad, noodles and rice.

And proof that my husband is like, really strong. Sleeping baby inside!

At this point after the meal, the baby woke up. We had bought pastries to fill him up (he'd had milk) and we waited for our ride to Incheon Airport.

The little girl, starting to wind down after being hyper all day

Finally, a happy boy, post-nap!

While the husband and K napped, this boy was chirpy so I spent the hour-long ride with him looking out the window, pointing out things that would interest him. 

And we arrive

Owning the airport, with his pink (how man!) little trolley bag

We had several hours to kill and the check-in counter hadn't even opened yet because our flight was at midnight. We spent the time clearing our tax refund matters, walking about, weighing our luggage, eating snacks... when the check in counter opened, we were the first few in line.

With lesser luggage to lug about, we headed for dinner. Then post-dinner activities - play!

Indoor playground at the playground

Why lie down? ... but then again, why not?

After allowing them to tire themselves, it was past 10pm. We headed to freshen ourselves before the flight - teeth were brushed, bodies were wiped down and we changed to comfy pyjama-type clothes.

The flight back was pretty bearable, details here.

Tired boy with angelic face

Tired girl with angelic face

These pics of them above were taken when we'd to prepare for touchdown. So we've had to raise their seats upright, and have them sleep sitting up - and they did.

Touchdown on home ground

Just before customs

And just like that, our holiday had ended. To read about our previous day of the holiday, click here.

Home sweet home

It's been a pretty awesome holiday and I'm so thankful that we did it as a family unit. This holiday had started out to be meant for a couple holiday to the USA, then we had tossed about so many options of where to go with/without kids - but I knew that time as a family would be great and that can never be wrong. We'd spent 24/7 with the kids on our own, something that wouldn't happen even if we were in Singapore; we'd exposed the kids to new sights, tastes and experiences and that's something that is just invaluable.

I think I wish to do a highlights-of-the-trip kinda entry, just to sum up the best bits of holiday; let's see if I get around to doing that.

To our next holiday - hopefully soon!