Joanna Gaines Shares Son Crew, 5, Sweetly Told Her He Wants to ‘Marry a Korean Woman’ One Day (Exclusive)
The mom of five, whose mom is Korean, shared the adorable story with PEOPLE
Larry Busacca/Getty
Joanna Gaines in 2019Joanna Gaines' son already has his future planned.
Speaking with PEOPLE about her new Magnolia Lake House Collection with KILZ, the Magnolia founder, 46, shared a few memories from her family's trip to Korea last year. Noting how much her soon-to-be 6-year-old son Crew loved the trip, the proud mom said he'll often tell her he misses the country.
"There was something about that trip that impacted all of us. And I for sure feel like as often as we can go back, I mean that was a trek to take that many people, but I mean my girls, we're all craving it again," Gaines tells PEOPLE. "Such a piece of our story that I feel like is so significant."
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"But knowing that even my youngest, it made such an impact on this little boy to where he still sees it, he smells it. He wants to go back. That's such a gift, especially for my mom to witness."
Gaines' mom Nan Stevens is originally from Korea and her parents met in Seoul when her father, Jerry Stevens, was stationed there with the United States Army.
"The other day my mom had made him seaweed soup and he was eating it. And he goes, 'How is it that in all my life, I don't look Korean, but I have the same cravings as a Korean?' And my mom was like, 'What are you talking, you're saying this, you sound like a 20-year-old,' " the mom of five says of her youngest son.
"But even he's aware that he doesn't look like Korean and full ... but he even said one day, 'I'm going to marry a Korean woman with black hair and eyes like yours, Mommy.' And I'm like, 'Oh my gosh.' I mean, this is my 6-year-old. So that trip for sure impacted him."
Joanna shares her five kids — Drake, 19, Ella, 17, Duke, 16, Emmie, 14, and Crew — with longtime husband Chip Gaines, 49.
In the cover story of Magnolia Journal’s spring 2024 issue, Joanna revealed that the oldest of her five children is learning Korean after the family took a trip to Seoul last year. (Magnolia Journal is published by PEOPLE's parent company, Dotdash Meredith.)
"Ella, our oldest daughter, was so inspired by this whole trip that when we returned home, she started classes to learn Korean," the proud mom wrote alongside a photograph of her kids dressed in traditional Korean clothing at a spot in the capital city.
Joanna and Chip took their family trip to Seoul in April 2023. In the Magnolia Journal issue, the Fixer Upper: Welcome Home star said it was Chip's idea to go on the trip after they had pushed the idea off "because of time, or calendars, or kids and work and time and calendars."
Along with their five kids, the couple also persuaded 24 of Joanna’s family members to embark on the journey with them — including her dad, her two sisters, her uncles and her cousins.
The proud mom said that getting to see her kids embrace her culture was an experience like no other.
"We all tried on the traditional Korean dress together — it felt like we stepped into a different time," she wrote. "The kids loved exploring while the adults sat back and drank tea together."
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