Day 16 - We're Going Home!!

We are checking out of the hotel after breakfast and heading for the airport. The next time we post, we'll be at home! Yeah!!

We'll try to takes pictures of the trip home and I'll post them as soon as I can.

Day 15 - Visa Appointment

After breakfast this morning we were playing with Ana Kate in our room and I decided to put her in the stroller again. She cried for a second, but when I put toys in with her and started pushing it, she seemed happy. So we pushed her up and down the hallway about 5 or 6 times, then went down to the lobby and back up to our room. By midway through she was kicking her legs and bouncing...she actually liked it!! Yeah!! After that we went with Laura and the kids to walk around the lake behind the hotel...it was a nice walk, but very hot. We all met around 1:30 to head to the embassy for our visa interview. Everything went fine and everyone was very nice. They told us to come back at 4:00 for the visa.

So....Doug and Randy decided to walk to the embassy to pick up the visas and they left around 3:30....I still hadn't heard anything at 5:00. So I called Laura to see if they had called and she said apparently they were waiting because there was an issue with the printer. So long story short around 5:40 Doug and Randy showed up at the hotel with the visas!! Yeah!! So, we are coming home tomorrow!! We can't wait!

We didn't take many pictures...but here are the stroller pics of Ana Kate.

Ana Kate happy in her stroller:

Day 14 - Even More Shopping

Yes, we are filling most of our remaining time here shopping. You can stay in a small hotel room with an active baby for only so long....so we shop.

Today after breakfast we walked to Dan's Shop & Bistro (just down from the hotel) and we bought a few snacks to take on the plane to hopefully occupy Ana Kate. When we got back to the hotel we met up with the Templeton's and decided to do more shopping in the old quarter. We decided to buy a stroller to help us during the layovers and the airport....so we got one for a good price. We tried to put Ana Kate in it and she absolutely hated it. So I guess she'll either learn to like it...or we have a cute little stroller to push our backpacks around the airport. :) We only bought a couple other little things then took a break at Highland's Coffee before heading back to the hotel.

We watched a movie in the room while baby girl napped and then walked back to Dan's Shop and Bistro for dinner. We got chicken and pineapple fried rice and a hamburger with fries. Everything was really good and they are very nice there. Now we're back at the hotel hanging out....we're hoping Ana Kate will sleep good tonight. She did better last night...she only woke 3 or 4 times, so hopefully that will continue. We didn't take many pictures today, but I've posted what we have. Enjoy.

Our little sweet pea...


Views from the 18th floor balcony at our hotel:

Day 13 - Rainy Day in Hanoi

It rained on and off all day today. After breakfast we gave baby girl a bath and then headed out with Laura (Templeton) to see the Vietnam Ethnology Museum. It was very interesting, but hard to see everything in just one visit (when you have two babies and 4 year old along). All the kids were very good, but as it got close to lunch time we decided to head back to the hotel. We ate some snacks while Ana Kate napped and then we headed downtown for some more shopping. You would think we would be tired of shopping by now, but there are so many interesting things here. We bought a couple of gifts and a conical hat for Ana Kate. She looks so cute in it. We got very wet, but had a good time. We watched a movie when we got back to the hotel and then had dinner. The pictures below are mostly of baby girl from today. Laura taught her how to stick her tongue out yesterday, so we had to get a picture of that.


Baby girl after her bath.


800 fish baskets on a bike...from the Ethnology Museum.


Ana Kate looking adorable in her conical hat.


Ana Kate sticking out her tongue.


Ana Kate trying to get the camera.

Day 12 - More Shopping

Today breakfast was very crowded. All the Miss Universe contestants were down at the same time and so it was hard to find a seat. At one point during breakfast Doug took a picture of the Templeton's with Miss USA. It turned out really good. I thought about getting a picture, but Ana Kate had just started to eat and I figured it would be chaos if I tried to get her out of the high chair. After breakfast we headed out with the Templeton's to do more shopping. We found a street with several small shops that had some really nice stuff....so of course we bought some things. It was relatively mild today with a nice breeze, so it was a great day for shopping. We came back to the hotel and the lobby was crowded once again as the pagent girls were leaving...you should see all the luggage these girls travel with....the elevators were completely packed. We hung out in the room and I took a nap with Ana Kate. We really haven't done much else today....we got room service because it is pouring rain outside and we didn't feel like going out. Enjoy the pictures of baby girl.

Day 11 - Paperwork & Miss Universe

Well today after breakfast we headed out to take our paperwork to the US embassy prior to our visa interview on Monday. It went well...so we are done until our interview on Monday afternoon. Hopefully we will be able to come home on July 1st. After that we came back to hotel. There was a lot of press and security as the Miss Universe contestants are staying at the hotel and were just arriving. We watched them all come in and took a few pictures. Ana Kate waved at them and was quite the little cutie. Later in the afternoon we ran into Miss Mexico by the elevators and she said something to Ana Kate. We think she was telling her how cute she is. We definitely agree. We went to dinner at Luna d' Autuno which is Italian. They had homemade pasta and I got the spinach and ricotta ravioli in a fresh tomato sauce. It was SO good....we really enjoyed it. That was about it for our day....we hung out the rest of the night at the hotel and went to bed early.


Ana Kate playing.


Miss USA


Miss Costa Rica & Miss Mexico


Miss China & Miss Singapore


Miss Trinidad & Tobago

Day 10 - Passport & SOS Appointment

Today at breakfast Ana Kate ate just about everything we gave her. Her favorites were the egg dumplings and fried noodles. We had to take a picture of the huge mess she was making. We tried to clean up after her, but it was pretty bad. After breakfast we went to the business center to print out copies of paperwork that we needed. Around 1:00 we headed out to get Ana Kate's passport and then to the SOS clinic for her medical check. We got a couple of pictures of the weird looks Ana Kate gave the doctor, but she was great during her exam. The doctor mentioned that she was one of the healthiest adopted babies he's seen and he also commented that she was very advanced in her development for her age. This was very good news....we were expecting some delays in development, but that isn't the case at all. She weighed in at 18 pounds....I knew she was heavy. She is wearing 9 months clothes though, so the weight is a little deceiving. She definitely looks lighter than she feels. After that we came back to the hotel and made a bottle then went out to dinner. Not very exciting tonight, but we did get a cute picture of Ana Kate in the taxi...remember they don't use car seats here. It was really scary the first couple of days, but now I'm getting used to the traffic here. Enjoy the pictures.


Messy girl at breakfast.


Getting her medical exam.


The 'hold' and the 'face' while getting her ears checked.


More funny faces.


Ana Kate in the taxi.