Yearly Archives: 2009

Today was Carmen’s excursion to downtown Chicago. Angela dropped her off at the Route 59 train station at 9:15 and the group took the train down to go up the Sears Tower and to take a 3-hour bike ride tour up and down the lake front (Lake Michigan). Carmen said she had a great time but it was a very long and tiring day! 🙂 Riding a bike for 3 hours really wore her out! She loved the Sears tower and took a lot of pictures of the city. They just added glass floor and glass wall extensions to the Sears Tower observation deck so you can walk out onto the glass and look straight down. Pretty cool! Here are some pictures of Carmen at the Sears Tower…

Before going, Carmen said that she would be scared to go out on the glass floor of the Sears Tower observation deck, but when she got there, she did just fine. Pretty scary to see someone sitting on glass over 1,450 feet (442 meters) in the air!

She said that the only time it made her nervous was when some American Teenage Boy came up by the side of her and started stomping his foot on the glass next to her! 🙂

After going to the Sears Tower, they picked up their bikes and took a 3-hour bike tour of the Chicago lake front. She was not sure how far they biked, but the Chicago lake front bike path is about 19 miles (30 km) of beautiful park which includes beaches, tennis courts, soccer fields, and much more. It really is a beautiful part of Chicago.

They biked as far south as the Field Museum of Natural History where the picture below was taken. All went well except for 1 bike accident. One of the girls fell and cut her chin open pretty badly. They bandaged it up, but had to take her to the hospital in Naperville for stitches when they returned back tonight. OUCH!

Below are some pictures of the Chicago skyline that Carmen took while she was there.

Meanwhile, back at home, Kirk had a normal day at work and Angela worked hard to get laundry done, clean house, and get ready for the weekend! We did have a funny moment, however… While Angela was doing her daily exercise routine (today it was aerobics), Benjamin decided to join in and exercise along with her! It was very funny.

Due to the bike accident, the group missed their 6:50pm train (the last express train, I might add), and had to take the 7:30pm train (the first one that makes almost all the stops). Because of that, they didn’t get in until about 8:45pm. Zachary was sad about the train delay because he wanted badly to go to pick up Carmen but had to go to bed instead! 🙂

I picked both Carmen and Marta up at the train station and they were very tired. Carmen came back home, ate some late dinner and went right to bed. What a great day!

The inside of the Claim Jumper Restaurant.

Today ran at a slower pace than yesterday.  Carmen was exhausted after her Six Flags trip so she slept in and got some much needed rest.  Pancakes were on the menu for breakfast which she (and everyone else) really enjoys.  I think that Kirstyn and Zachary really like having Sarah and Brittany off at girls camp because then they get Carmen all to themselves!  🙂

The Cheeseburger Carmen Ordered (hers was only with meat and cheese, however).

For lunch, Angela drove everyone over to Oakbrook Terrace to see me (Kirk) at work and to have lunch.  We ate at the Claim Jumper restaurant and really enjoyed our food.  When Carmen saw their signature cheeseburger on the menu, her eyes lit up and she asked if she could have one.  Claim Jumper is known for it’s very large portions, and the burger was big.  She ate the whole thing and was VERY full after the french fries and strawberry lemonade.  Zach had mini corndogs, Kirk had Black Tie Chicken Pasta, Kirstyn had mini burgers, and Angela had a barbeque chicken salad.

Carmen, Zach, and Ben at Kirk's Office at Grant Thornton

After lunch, we went over to my office building and gave Carmen and everyone else a tour of Grant Thornton.  We saw my office, introduced Carmen to a bunch of people, and took a tour of our data center with all the servers and critical applications, as well as all our networking equipment for the firm.  it wasn’t much, but I think it was nice for Carmen to visit and meet some of the people I work with and if anything, to walk off lunch!  🙂

When Kirk got home from work, Carmen was on the computer finding some Spanish recipes that she thought we might like (triple chocolate torte, Gazpacho, and Tortilla de Patatas, and a rice dish with shrimp or chicken).  We had a good time finding them, having her tell us how they are made, and doing a lot of translation in between.  We printed some off for future reference.

What is Zachary thinking? What a funny little guy!

In the meantime, Zachary got a little crazy and tied Angela’s head up with the string on her hoodie!  What a non-stop talker and active boy that little guy is!  Carmen told us that many of the kids from Spain who have met Zach and Ben have told her that they want to bring them back to Spain with them when they return!  🙂

Angela had to go to a party this evening, so I snuck the kids out and we went to Wendy’s to get Frosties.  Kirstyn and Zach love vanilla, while Carmen loves chocolate!  I think that she could eat those every day if she could.

After finishing the Frosties, we looked on-line for awhile and Carmen used Google maps to show us her house in San Fernando, her school, where she plays tennis, and many other sites.  We also looked at many pictures of Cadiz, San Fernando, and the area around there where she spends her time.

I then introduced Carmen to our yearly family DVDs (in which I take our photos from the year and make video of them).  She watched two of them (years 2003 and 2004) with Kirstyn and me on TV eagerly and with a smile.  If she makes it through and watches all of them, she will definitely be a part of our family.  She got a good laugh about all our family’s antics and experiences.

We also have been sending e-mails back and forth with Carmen’s parents, Enrique and Cayetana.  These e-mails are very fun to get.  They are great people and have raised a great daughter.   They have invited us to stay with them when we come to Spain.  What a wonderful invitation!

Zach, Kirstyn, and Carmen Enjoying Wendy's Frosties

Carmen is really becoming part of our family!  We know this because Zachary wouldn’t go to bed tonight until he had given Carmen a great big hug.  It was very sweet!  Also, I almost called Kirstyn Carmen and vice versa yesterday which made me laugh!

Carmen with Zachary at the Claim Jumper Restaurant

Today was a busy day for the girls!  Sarah and Brittany left for Girls Camp this morning and were very excited.  They really love to go and have a blast with their friends.  We hope they didn’t forget anything!  Carmen went off for a day at Six Flags Great America and was also very excited to go.  She has never been to anything like this and said she wasn’t sure she’d like the coasters and such but she had a wonderful time.  More on that later…

Zach has been having a BALL with his new Disney digital camera.  The thing he likes the best about the camera, is that he can put disney and other characters in the pictures with those he is taking pictures of.  Here is an example of his artistic work with Eeyore and Carmen!  🙂  He takes pictures of everyone.  That is keeping him very busy.

After everyone was dropped off and it was just Angela, Kirstyn, and the boys, they went back home and for a little while, Kirstyn was on a cleaning kick…  She cleaned up the basement and tidied other things.  Too bad she didn’t get to her room!  🙂  Angela even took advantage of the moment and scheduled her an hour-long massage!  What a treat for her!  She left after I got home from work and we surprised her with a cleaned-up garage and house when she got home. 

Carmen got back home at about 11:45pm (a very long day).  She was very hungry because she didn’t get dinner.  She only took $20 with her for food but ended up buying a Fast Pass to get through the lines faster and that cost $15 (which all the kids did).  Without it, she would have had to wait for up to 2 hours in line for each ride.  The park was very crowded.  So she and I talked about Six Flags while she ate her dinner (brownies and a drink) at midnight!  🙂  She said she had a GREAT time and her favorite attractions were Raging Bull and American Eagle.  She also rode on many more which she enjoyed as well.  She got excited, ran upstairs and got her map of Six Flags, and she outlined everything she did.  It was very cute!  What was very funny was to watch her facial expressions as she described her experiences on the rides!  🙂 Here are some pictures…  The first picture (to the left) is of the giant drop (which you will never see me on 🙂 although Brittany and Angela love this), the second is of the American Eagle coaster, the third is of Raging Bull, and the fourth is of the Superman ride. 

After a very busy long weekend, today was much more relaxed.  It gave everyone a bit of time to rest (except for Kirk who had to go back to work)!  🙂  I guess it’s relaxing if you can say that Sarah had her flute lesson, Brittany had her violin lesson and track practice, we had our friend’s kids all day, and we washed, dried, folded, and put away 8 batches of laundry!  🙂  That said, I guess I (Kirk) got the most rest of all!  🙂

Some of the kids had fun slip and sliding in our back yard and running through the sprinklers.  They love to get wet and it was a warm day to do so for a change.  It’s been unseasonably cool the past few days.

Carmen had a good Siesta today.  She started reading Eclipse (book 3 in the Twilight series), didn’t understand much and fell asleep.  🙂  I can only imagine how draining it must be on her to try and understand what is being said all the time.  She is doing GREAT, however!  After resting, she came down and she and Angela folded clothes together for awhile until everyone else finished up what they were doing.  Angela greatly appreciated Carmen coming down and offering to help.  She wished that our other girls would do the same thing more often!  🙂

At 6pm, we took Carmen over to the Nye Family’s home, who also live in the area.  This is the family that hosed Carmen’s brother, Pablo last summer.  They invited her over to dinner with them.   She had a great time there.

This week, Sarah and Brittany are going to Girl’s Camp and so we spent the rest of the evening dropping off their bags at their leader’s homes, shopping for sunglasses and water socks, and finishing up their 80’s outfits for one of the days (“Whacky Wednesday”).  They are very excited to go to camp this year.  Sarah is a little mad because the camp cabins are VERY nice and this year Sarah is in a tent!  🙂  Kirk is going to take Carmen to the camp on Friday and will bring all three girls back on Saturday morning.  Carmen seems excited to go and is very willing to do anything new!  That is good news for us because we have been doing a LOT of things lately that are very strange to her!  🙂

What a great day we had today.  Not only was Kirk off work, but we got to do many things!  The day started off as we went to watch Brittany’s track practice.  She is doing so well.  When we go there, she was practicing discus and shot put.  As she was finishing up, we (Sarah, Carmen, Kirstyn, Zach, and Kirk) went to the Waubonsie Valley High School tennis courts with our rackets and balls.  We played tennis for awhile and Brittany and Christina joined in.  Carmen plays tennis at home and is pretty good!  Even though our girls don’t have much experience playing tennis, they were excited to be out and trying it!  Zach tripped and cut his knee on the cement and so we spent a little bit of time making him feel better.  This involved going to Wendy’s and getting frosties for all!  That did the trick!  Carmen absolutely loved the chocolate frosty she got!  Slurpees and Frostys are now her thing!  🙂

After coming back to the house and eating lunch, Kirk took Sarah, Brittany and Carmen shopping for a birthday present for Zachary which they didn’t have.  Better luck tomorrow (we hope) since his birthday is on Sunday.  We went to Toys-R-Us which Carmen immediately recognized from home and we had a fun time walking around the store looking at everything.  On the way back home, we stopped by the store and bought a bag of Cheetos.  We found that Carmen absolutely loves them so we’ll be making another run to the store soon!  🙂

This evening we spent in North Aurora at a big 4th of July celebration.  We ate dinner there, listened to live music, talked, and after that, watched a spectacular fireworks show.  We enjoyed it very much!  Carmen even helped the girls translate a little bit when they went to get some food!  🙂

We just got home and it’s about 11:45 so we’re crashing to sleep hard tonight!  What a wonderful day we had!

Wow, what a full day of activities!  Sarah and Carmen hooked up with Taylor Gaul and her student Marta and hung out in Naperville for much of the day.  They went to Mrs. Gaul’s book warehouse and then to the old Waubonsie Valley High School Gold Campus where Sarah attended her Freshman Year last year.  Mrs. Gaul pulled some strings and they got to wander around the school!  Carmen was amazed at how big the school was!  After visiting the school, they went to 7-Eleven and got Slurpees!  Carmen’s tongue is still orange!  🙂 

After a nap and Kirk coming home from work early, we all went to the welcome party for all the students.  We had burgers, hotdogs, chips, and all kinds of good food.  It was interesting to see all the kids in person whose applications we had looked at.  We got to meet many of the other host families.  We also met the Nye Family who hosted Pablo, Carmen’s brother last year.  They invited her to come over to eat dinner one night next week.

After the party, Carmen, Sarah, Taylor, Marta, and Miguel (another student) went to a girls basketball game where Waubonsie Valley High School took on Metea Valley High School (Sarah’s new school).  Unfortunately, Metea lost, but only by 3 points!  🙂  Carmen and Sarah had a great time.

While the girls were at the basketball game, Kirk and Angela went to Ribfest in Naperville and saw Heart in concert!  What a GREAT show!  It really brought back a TON of memories and made us feel younger again.  It was really interesting to see Ann and Nancy Wilson on stage after all these years!  Some of the songs they sang were over 30 years old!  What a career these two have had.  They are working on a new albom which will be out soon.  The whole way back to the car, we were humming the tunes!  🙂

We are all VERY tired after such a long day! Enrique and Cayetana, if you are reading this, we are taking very good care of your daughter.  She is so sweet and helpful, and we LOVE having her in our home!  🙂

Today was the big day!  We picked up Carmen from the airport!  She is such a sweet girl!  She has only been with us for a few hours, but we feel very blessed to have her in our home!  She’s all smiles, very polite, and is ready and eager to jump into the life we lead.  She even brought us all gifts from Spain!  The girls are excited to wear the jewelry she gave them, Zach loves his little “snake box,” Ben adores his new stuffed animal, and Kirk and Angela love the jewelry box and organizer!  What a sweet gesture!  As if that wasn’t enough, she even offered to help wash the dishes after dinner!  🙂  That had the girls excited!

Sarah took her down to the basement and together they played DDR on the  Wii for a while.  Even though we knew she was exhausted from the trip, she never let on that she wanted to sleep. 

She’s going to fit into our family just like an additional daughter!  We can’t wait to show her around the area and do a bunch of things as a family with her.  We’ll keep you posted with all we do!

Now that our Family Reunion is over, we are excitedly looking forward to Carmen coming to stay with us for the month of July!  We pick her up on Tuesday the 30th!  We will add many more entries to our blog as we have GREAT experiences with her this coming month!  Stay tuned for more…