Trip to Chicago

Road trip to Chicago!

We finally got an appointment to register Amarin's adoption with the Royal Thai Consulate in Chicago, so we took the whole family for this special time for Amarin. His adoption was already approved, but it's simply a formality to register it at the consulate.

So, we crammed as much as we could into 2 days.

First stop...Shed Aquarium.

Can you believe it was cheaper for us to buy a one year membership than a day pass for our family? Yeah...we're large now.

Oh, and by the way...

that little boy sitting next to Laura...not our son.

Just in case you thought we squeezed in one more adoption in the past couple of months.

But he sure is a cutie!

Laura's favorite part was playing in the kids' area water tables. She would have climbed in had we let her. The water was so cold...

...but I still had to drag her out of there!

Big brother, little sister...enjoying the beautiful fish tank.

Laura enjoyed the penguins, too.

And of course we had to return to the play area for some climbing and sliding.

Brothers...all in striped shirts. That really was not planned...

Wednesday morning, we headed to the Royal Thai Consulate. We were all dressed up, thinking this was going to be an official meeting.

Here we are, walking the streets of Chicago on our way to the consulate. We were so thankful for a warm, sunny day.

Amarin had his picture taken with the "king and queen."

Could they be any cuter?

Family photo

So, after about 45 minutes and two signatures, we were free to leave. No questions, nothing.

But Amarin still thought it was special, and that's all that mattered.

After, of course we had to head to a Thai restaurant. We were sooo happy to read on their menu that they had sweet sticky rice with mango. It is absolutely delicious! For the main courses, Amarin chose Pad Thai and fried rice...two of his favorites.

After a long night of keeping her two big brothers awake, well, Laura couldn't keep her eyes open. All night comedy tires a gal...and the rest of the family.

Jacob and Charlie loved the dessert, too. Jacob remembers eating it in Thailand. It was fun reminiscing about that trip. We'd love to go back someday...what a beautiful country.

Funny thing as we were walking out the restaurant doors. Two young gals were standing outside talking, and as we walked out, they smiled at first, and then one said, "Oh, they just keep coming!" Yep. Not the only comment we heard. "How many do you have? 5? Wow! You must have a lot of patience." Yeah, right. Ask my kids. "Are they all yours?" No...but they keep following me. I didn't really say that...

The day grew warmer and was very sunny. We walked a lot, saw a variety of architecture, heard a lot of sirens, passed by a ton of people, almost got run over a few times...great to visit, but I'm so not a city girl!

Jacob and Amarin by the river that the city turns green every St. Patrick's Day.

So, we're back home with tired children. Laura fell asleep at school today at the lunch table. Jenna and Charlie took much needed naps this morning and again in the afternoon, and we're all ready to head to bed a little early tonight. We did a lot of sight-seeing and van riding for two days. Little Jenna isn't quite up to so much stimulation yet and had a bit of a hard time in the van, but it really was a trip we had to make for Amarin. And all in all, it was a good one. The kids talk fondly about the Chicago style pizza they ate for dinner while watching storm stories on the weather channel. Can you tell our kids don't watch much tv? Other favorites were the consulate, Thai food, and eventually they say that they liked the aquarium. Glad to know it...we almost had to remortgage the house to get in!