Hillary Clinton came to Hanoi for the ASEAN Conference today. We got to have a special "meet and greet" with her. We'll post more pics as we receive them. It's kind of hard to smile and say cheese and take a picture at the same time. She gave a nice speech and was very genuine. It was a pleasure to meet her.
She stopped to talk with Emma directly and asked for her name. We don't quite have a good pic of this yet, but you can see the top of Emma's head.
Xander was so excited about seeing "Mary Clinton" - I guess "Hillary" is a little hard to say. Although he was looking forward to the event, I guess waiting in place so long wore him out. By the end, he wanted NOTHING to do with all the photos that were being taken. He's sitting on the stairs to the side of me.
While the Secretary was speaking, he was bit of a pill too. He wanted to go see Daddy, so I let him go through the crowd behind me to get to Christian - standing just 2 people back. When he saw Christian, he took off running and made a loop around the crowd, and ran in front of everyone to get back to me on the front row. I just about died!!! A security nightmare! The Secret Service are SO tight about events like this and monitor every move.
Playing "Go Fish" waiting for the Secretary to arrive.
Xander was so excited about seeing "Mary Clinton" - I guess "Hillary" is a little hard to say. Although he was looking forward to the event, I guess waiting in place so long wore him out. By the end, he wanted NOTHING to do with all the photos that were being taken. He's sitting on the stairs to the side of me.While the Secretary was speaking, he was bit of a pill too. He wanted to go see Daddy, so I let him go through the crowd behind me to get to Christian - standing just 2 people back. When he saw Christian, he took off running and made a loop around the crowd, and ran in front of everyone to get back to me on the front row. I just about died!!! A security nightmare! The Secret Service are SO tight about events like this and monitor every move.
Playing "Go Fish" waiting for the Secretary to arrive.It was POURING rain on the ride over to the hotel. I told the kids to be prepared to huddle underneath the umbrella as we ran across the street. It was so sweet, a cute Vietnamese woman saw me pulling my kids one by one out of the car and she smiled really big, scooped up Xander, tucked him under her rain poncho and told me that she would help me bring him to the hotel. She was still sitting there after the event when we came back to the car. The sun was shining and she was still smiling. I am very grateful for her kindness. Xander kept asking where her rain poncho was.
Another very funny thing that happened today was that I accidentally got locked into Xander's room tonight with all the kids!!! We were STUCK in there for 5 hours waiting for Christian to come home and open the door. We had finished our bedtime routine and I asked Emma to go get one more book, when we realized that the door was locked! I tried to pick the lock for a long while, I tried to find the key in the closet for a long while, I read stories for a long while, turned off the lights and told make-believe stories for a long while. Xander finally fell asleep after 3 hours, Emma zonked out after 4, and little Anneliese kept trying to nestle down, but couldn't get comfy. She was a trooper though and kept playing with toys in between her times of trying to fall asleep. After I post this entry, I'm going online to learn how to pick a lock! A skill that could be quite useful. We HAD a key in the room, but Xander found it and put it somewhere. Christian was busy with the Secretary's visit and couldn't come home until after the events of the day were finished - quite late. I still can't believe we were locked in there for so long!!!
Another very funny thing that happened today was that I accidentally got locked into Xander's room tonight with all the kids!!! We were STUCK in there for 5 hours waiting for Christian to come home and open the door. We had finished our bedtime routine and I asked Emma to go get one more book, when we realized that the door was locked! I tried to pick the lock for a long while, I tried to find the key in the closet for a long while, I read stories for a long while, turned off the lights and told make-believe stories for a long while. Xander finally fell asleep after 3 hours, Emma zonked out after 4, and little Anneliese kept trying to nestle down, but couldn't get comfy. She was a trooper though and kept playing with toys in between her times of trying to fall asleep. After I post this entry, I'm going online to learn how to pick a lock! A skill that could be quite useful. We HAD a key in the room, but Xander found it and put it somewhere. Christian was busy with the Secretary's visit and couldn't come home until after the events of the day were finished - quite late. I still can't believe we were locked in there for so long!!!
