We spent the weekend in Chicago, with hopes to attend the Dragon Boat Festival. Well, unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and the festival was canceled due to flooding in the park. Still, we managed to have an interesting weekend anyway.
Friday we arrived and checked out Shedd Aquarium. Todd and I had been years ago, but it was the first time for the kids. Unfortunately, it was terribly HOT, and the aquarium was absolutely PACKED. I mean PACKED. So much so that you really couldn't even seen the aquariums, much less move. We'll have to try that another time I think...so the kids can enjoy it more.
After the aquarium we ventured into Chicago and found Las Tablas...an awesome Colombian restaurant. We were so excited...there are virtually no Colombian restaurants anywhere near where we live, so we were salivating just thinking about it. It was a super popular restaurant...so popular that the wait was 2 hours for a table. Well, our little ones couldn't wait that long, but the restaurant was super kind and let us get an order to go. So, we enjoyed an Colombian picnic in our hotel room complete with empanadas, arepa & chorizo, and plantain and beans and rice. Yum, yum, yum!!
Saturday after finding out that the Dragon Boat Festival was canceled, we headed over to Chinatown to explore. We had a BALL shopping in the little shops and feasted on some delicious Chinese pastries. My favorite were the red bean moon cakes...the rest of the family thought I was nuts. :)
For lunch, we met five other families that had adopted from Taiwan! We met Lisa and her beautiful family (Destination Taiwan blog) and Sarah and her family (My Little Lantern blog) and Katie and her family (Around the World to Danny blog). It was so neat to finally meet these wonderful families in person and to see our beautiful Taiwanese kids together. :)
After lunch we headed to Millennium Park to play in the fountains and to see the bean sculpture. Unfortunately, it was still burning hot outside, and CROWDED, and at the fountain we had two mishaps. Sara fell and cut her foot, then Tessa fell and I could actually HEAR her head hit the concrete. Scared me to death!! So we hightailed it out of there and spent a nice peaceful evening at the hotel.
All in all, the trip was worth it to meet the other families. We're glad we went...and hope to meet other adoptive families in the future!
7 comments:
So glad you guys had fun despite the injuries! Great to hear from you!
Oh gosh, I am still cringing at the thought of your girls falling. We hope to make it to a reunion in Chicago sometime in the future, we would love to meet you guys and the other families :)
We loved meeting all of you too ~ it was one of the highlights of our weekend and made the extra crowded/long drive in SO worth it!! Pesky rain & Cubs game traffic....LOL
I'm so sorry that every site you tried to enjoy was so crowded and then the heat....yikes! I'm glad your morning of shopping in Chinatown was so wonderful!! It is the closest we have come to feeling like we are back in Taiwan!
I'm sick to think about your sweet girls getting hurt :( I hope everyone is okay now!!
LOVE all the pics and I think "The Bean" is a fab. place to visit and snap kids just being kids!
Your family is just beautiful and we hope to see you all again soon!!
How cool that you got to mee so many familieys that we have known from afar. Bummer that the weather did not cooperate. I hope Miss Tesa/s head is okay. That is just an awful sound.
Loved all of the pictures! Hope your precious girls are okay after their nasty falls. I hope that Lexie will be able to meet some friends from Taiwan in the future!
It was so great to finally meet you in person! Your family is adorable. While the weather and crowds were challenging, hopefully it was still worth the trip.
Oh what a fun fun time! I saw your family on Lisa's blog and was just thrilled you all got to meet up!
Sounds like a great weekend, even though hot!
Great photos too! All three kiddos are just beautiful/handsome!
Maybe we can meet up for the Taiwan Rocks gathering!
Jen
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