Wonderful Trips

We just took a couple of family vacations. One was for nine days to the Midwest. The other one was a three-day weekend camping trip. It's so hard to sum up in a few words the experience of making such special memories with our little family. We've only been a family of three for two and a half years. So, there are so many firsts that we are still experiencing. Let me try to reflect on the highlights and post some photos to try and capture the special times. The states that we drove through, visiting friends and relatives(in some of those states), were Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado.

Highlights:
1. Meeting other families who have also adopted their children from Thailand.
2. Meeting the Hanaoka family who "adopted" me as a college student. Penny immediately felt a close connection with them, as well.
3. Worshipping with my brothers and sisters in Christ at Church of Christ Presbyterian in Chicago.
4. Going to downtown Chicago to see the Aquarium.
5. Finding an awesomely delicious restaurant serving great Vietnamese and Thai food very close to my Alma Mater, Moody Bible Institute in downtown Chicago.
6. Seeing my aunt and uncle in Council Bluffs, my former co-worker from Japan and his family and my aunt and cousin in Minnesota.
7. Penny getting to play with her cousins and spending time at Grandpa and Grandma's in SIoux Falls.
8. Seeing my own cousins and aunts and uncles in the western part of South Dakota.
9. Returning to the beauty of Colorado and driving up to the mountains to tent out.
10. Experiencing our first campout at Steamboat Lake State Park.
11. Penny catching a crayfish.

Here are a few photos of the highlights: