Caves, Hotels, and Passports

A couple weeks ago we made a trip to the nearest consulate, to officially register our 2 youngest girls as American citizens and get all their documents and passports. We had never done this for Alicia when she was born so we did both of them together.

Our appointment was so early in the morning that we decided to stay over night. Jared was sick, so I had to drive a good bit of the way, including in the big city. I hate driving in big cities I am not familiar with. We passed our hotel, so had to back track and then a huge storm hit. We got their in the evening. After getting everything in our room we headed to the McDonald's around the corner.

Alicia was so excited about the change of routine and scenery. She was fun to watch, but when it was 2 1/2 hours past her bedtime and she was still asleep, the fun ran out. She got to lay in bed with dad and watch a movie.

Katie slept on her fluffy blanket made by my mom, on the floor by me. She didn't seem to mind the floor one bit.

Jared draped the duvees from the bunkbed over the bottom one for Alicia. He told her that it was her cave. We hoped that this would make it dark enough for her to sleep and so she wouldn't get distracted by us, since we don't go to bed at the same time.

Alicia even got to watch a movie in her cave.

Katie woke me up at 4:30 to eat, then Alicia woke up and took almost 2 hours to fall back asleep, which meant that I didn't sleep either. By the time she was asleep it was time for Jared and I to get up. So I was awake until later that night. Boy was I tired.

Before we left Alicia insisted on climbing up to the top bunk, with her dad's help. Jared had promised her the night before that she could the next morning.

That must have been one the most exciting things for her. I can't imagine.

We go to the consulate early so we took a walk in the park that was next to it. There is nothing more refreshing than a walk in the morning before the world really comes alive. You can still hear the birds and the air is crisp and cool. The world just seems at peace for once.

We even had time for Alicia go down the slide in a park that we found.

It took us about 1 1/2 hours at the consulate. The girls did wonderful. I had tried to pack things that would entertain them. I had a bottle of water for Alicia's bottle. Of course when we went through security they made us check it. They had Jared drink some. I guess that was a good enough test to see if it had been tampered with.

After the consulate we headed home. On the way we found a Subway. There are so few of those here that we had to stop and get some. Loved it. I am just glad that all that is done and taken care of and I think Alicia had fun.