Forever Family Day--2 Years

This past Saturday, we celebrated two years of being a family, or our Forever Family Day. It's so hard to believe that it's only been two years since we became parents to the best boy ever. There was a time not so long ago when I could remember life before Joel. Not so anymore. And I really don't want to--life with him is so much more fulfilling, exciting, interesting, and wonderful.

We weren't able to do a whole lot of celebrating since we were camping on this special day. And our other plans to celebrate were ruined by this nasty heat, so we ended up just doing dinner and ice cream for Joel on Monday. He was definitely happy with that! At bedtime he told me, "thank you for the surprises, Mom."

I've been making a book online for Joel in honor of this Family Day that tells his life story--his birth in Korea and joining our family through adoption. In working on it, I took some of the pictures of him given to us by his foster family and scanned them into the computer. Something we hadn't noticed before is the hair cut Joel had!

Here he is in February...


...and here's March.


Could he have been any cuter??


Happy Forever Family Day, Joel Allen Hwan! We love you beyond words and thank God over and over for bringing you to our family.

C-A-M-P-I-N-G

Crafting and catching bubbles

Assembling tents

Making and munching on s'mores

Playing in the pool

Inspecting nature

Nurturing friendships

Going for a wagon ride

A Day in the City

Joel and I, along with my mom and her best friend who was visiting from out of town, went into Chicago today to see the sights at the Shedd Aquarium. This was exciting for Joel for a number of reasons. One, he got to ride the train. Two, he got to ride the city bus for the first time. And three, he got to see lots of sea life that he likes. He was excited all day yesterday for our trip and had a great time today.

Lots to see out the window! Trees, more trains and tracks, and construction trucks. After about fifteen minutes of that, it took all three adults to entertain this very active, squirmy boy for the next hour!


After arriving in Chicago, we caught the bus right away. Joel thought the bumpy ride was very fun. He loved looking out the window at all the skyscrapers, too.


After all the fun on the train and bus, the aquarium was boring in comparison! Well, not exactly. :) We saw beautiful fish, scary sharks, interesting stingrays, and watched a short little program where a diver fed some fish in the Carribean Reef. While this was semi-interesting to Joel, the popcorn nearby was more interesting. Joel kept asking me, "Do you smell that popcorn?"

Joel had fun "driving" the submarine and playing in the penguin habitat. I, on the other hand, almost had a heart attack when Joel went through a tunnel and I couldn't find the other end. I finally spotted him back up on the slide. He is such a fast little guy!


It was an absolutely beautiful day in Chicago, so we had lunch outside and gazed at the beautiful city and lake.


Soon after we headed home. We were all exhausted. The adults, that is! We love Chicago and are already planning our next summer day there!

Charleston--Magnolia Gardens, Kidd's Corner, and the Crab House

The Magnolia Gardens was another one of our fun activities. We took a tram ride through the beautiful grounds and saw many birds, trees, and...alligators! This one was sunbathing:


Joel was in awe of all the alligators. We probably saw ten or so, and he kept pointing and asking if that one was an alligator.


At one point, we were walking along the path and spotted a large alligator in the pond just in front of us. There was nothing separating us from this six foot creature, and it was a little scary! Thankfully he left us alone. Obviously. Or you would have heard about it a lot sooner! :)


We had to get in some good park time on vacation, too. Right across the street from Grammy's was a fun little place called Kidd's Corner that Joel enjoyed.


Anytime we go on vacation, one of the things I look forward to the most is the food. I'll be honest here. I love to eat and think about food a little more than is probably normal. Southern food is some of my favorite--hush puppies, sweet tea, boiled peanuts, seafood, fried okra, she-crab soup, pimento cheese....yum. We definitely enjoyed our fill this year, and Joel was in heaven from all the ice cream, cupcakes, and desserts we let him have.



We love the Charleston Crab House and both times we've visited with family, we've gone here on our last night. It's a great way to end a wonderful vacation.


In case you're curious, the sign is upside down because the restaurant was featured on the popular TV show, "Flip This House" in 2006.



We were so sad to leave beautiful Charleston. Tears came as we said good-bye to one of our favorite places. It's easy to forgo vacations for other priorities, but we realized this year that getting away for a week and being together is worth not having as much in savings, or missing out on work. We promised ourselves that we'd do what we could to return next summer and make more family memories in a place we love.