Smith Family Adventure: Ethan's birthday dinner at Chilis

We're heading to Tiger City to eat dinner at Chilis. It actually pretty expensive, so we don't go there often, but it satisfies our burger and fry cravings. Evie actually took this picture of Ethan.

Ethan is generally fussy in the car - so this is more like it. We told him his index finger tastes like a French fry, and the gullible little sucker believed us.

Go get it Ethan...

Ethan rode the carousel for the first time. His tiny hands looked so cute as they were holding

on tightly to the pole.

We rode the train too. Ethan was curious the whole time.

Daddy is claiming victory over the Chinese, Evie think we should ride the train at least five more times.

This is an an automatic bike parking station just outside the Chili's. You pay a little fee, load the bike into place, and it whisks it into one of about 25 spots for bikes. To get it out, you just insert the token and it spits it back out.

Tiger City Shopping Center, home to American classics like Chili's, Starbucks, and Ye Old 10,000 Year Old Egg Massage Parlor.

The kids are a tad noisier than the Taiwanese kids, so we asked the Chili's staff to put us in the full enclosed "aquarium". It also makes for better viewing by the locals.

You can take the redneck out of Nebraska, but you can't the Nebraskan out of this redneck.

Evie found a friend to play with her while we ate. We are wondering if the 10% service charge includes this service because we might sneak out for a movie next time.

Okay, so we are liars. It was about 4 days after Ethan's birthday at Chili's, but we still convinced them that it was Ethan's special day (to get free cheesecake, of course). We think they had more fun with it than we did, so I guess it all worked out well in the end.

Evie feeding Ethan a little birthday cake.

The happy family all together for once.

When we got home Dylan was here with a package from grandma and grandpa Potter. A birthday book for Ethan and a new Tinkerbell book for Evie too. It was late when we got home but easy getting Evie in her PJ's and into bed because she was excited to read the new books - thanks mom and dad. The kids really appreciate it but it was a nice treat for Joel and I to read new books too.