A Day Out with Erika

This past Sunday we had our monthly Nash Luncheon at our house!  [For those of you new to our blog, the "Nash Luncheon" is when lots of relatives on my Mama's side get together for lunch at someone's house.  We do this in honor of our late great-Grandma, a.k.a. Great, who would fix us lunch every Sunday.]

Our cousins, Erika, Claire, and Gracie had the opportunity to spend the night...and they did!  

Yesterday Mama gave us girls (Hannah, Alexis, and I) the chance to go "out" to shop and eat dinner with Erika.  We took her up on the offer and left our house around 2 P.M. :)  Before we left, though, I asked Seth to take a photo of us girls and he gladly obliged. 

Left to right:  Kimber, Hannah, Alexis, and Erika.

The first place we stopped at was:

  We donated some stuff and then went in the store to "browse."

We quickly looked at the skirt aisle and then headed over to the wedding dresses! :)

 We know of someone who found their wedding dress for $25 at a thrift store, so we always keep an eye out for a good wedding dress! :)   Even if we don't find one we like, they're just fun to look at (and try on! :)!

 Hannah actually found one she liked and she tried it on but it was a little big. 

 Lexi's favorite section of the store was definitely the shoes. :)  I don't think we'll ever wear a huge pair of heels out (for many reasons) but they are really fun to try on!  [It can be quite a challenge to stay upright with major heels on...until you get used to them.  It feels like you are walking on tiptoe all the time! :)] 

Ah, stuff girls do! :)

Our next stop was probably my favorite:

If you haven't been to SweetFrog you are severely missing out! :)  The yogurt is so good it tastes like ice cream! :)

 Once we were inside the SweetFrog building we picked out what flavor of frozen yogurt we wanted, served it up in the bowl and then added toppings.  Last but not least, my wonderful sister Hannah paid for it all. :)  [Thanks Banana!!!]

My favorite flavors are Cake Batter and Oreo.  This time I got Oreo (Cake Batter wasn't there) with a little dollop of strawberry lemonade on top.  The strawberry lemonade was very sour but so yummy!  The Oreo was definitely sweeter and just as good!  My toppings consisted of:  a scoop of jellybeans, peppermint patties, cookie dough balls, and Oreos (no, I didn't mix them all together in my yogurt...I ate each topping separately! :)

We then went outside to eat, though I would've preferred A.C. :) 

 There's no picture of me with my frozen yogurt...just a photo of my dessert!  Doesn't it look amazing? :)  Trust me, it was!

I take a long time to eat stuff I like, so I was only half-way through my bowl when almost everyone else was finished.  SO, Erika and Lexi went into some stores nearby [SweetFrog was in a building complex] and Hannah stayed to keep me company. :)

When Erika and Lexi came back I only had a few bites left, and then we went towards Target.  Before we reached Target, Erika wanted to go in the Mattress Discounters and lay on some beds.  Hannah and I didn't want to, so Erika and Lexi went inside and Hannah and I stayed outside! :)

 Can you find Erika and Alexis?

We eventually made it to Target (we walked) and took a quick photo on one of the red balls outside before entering! :)

After some more browsing, it was about 4:30 P.M. so we decided to go across the street to some more stores.  We visited Marshall's and looked through all the clearance racks before heading for Outback (the restaurant :)!

If you've ever been to Outback, I'm sure you've tried their amazing pumpernickel bread!  The stuff is heavenly!!

Hannah and Erika.

Myself and Alexis.

After we had some pumpernickel bread, we ate some delicious cheese fries!

 None of us were really starving after eating Sweet Frog so we decided to split meals.  Hannah and Lexi split a steak and baked potato:

...and Erika and I split Alice Springs Chicken and some french fries.

We were at Outback for about an hour and a half, eating, talking and laughing...a lot.  It was lots of fun! :)

After dinner we went to Wal-Mart, then went back to Target (to get what wasn't at Wal-Mart that we needed) and finally we dropped Erika off at her house after a wonderful "girls day out!"

Thank you, Mama and Daddy, for letting us go out.   And, Hannah, thanks for driving us around all over Mechanicsville even when shopping isn't your favorite thing to do! :) 

Kimber :)

Friday, May 27th

Last Friday we did something we haven't done in a very long time...went to the dentist! :)  Since there were so many of us who needed to get our teeth cleaned, Dad took the day off and went along with us!  The dentist we went to had only one dentist and one assistant, so we were there the entire afternoon! :)  [Hannah and I had our teeth cleaned first, so we got to take Lydia and Judah to my grandma's house (5 minutes away), put them to bed, and then watch a movie while everyone else sat in the Dentist's office. :)] 

Anyways, once everyone had their teeth cleaned, Hannah went and picked them up and came back to Na-naw's house.   

Once we were all at Na-naw's house we considered two options:  we could stay at Na-naw's house and eat pizza or we could go out to eat.  I had the privilege of making the final decision on where we went, so we went out to eat!  I would have loved to stay at Na-naw's (and eat pizza!) but we rarely go out as a family, so I couldn't let the opportunity slip. :)

We were planning on going to The Italian Kitchen, but, last minute, we went to Chili's (Mama and Daddy's date hot-spot ;).  Daddy and Mama have been to Chili's a few times and they loved it so much they wanted us to experience it for ourselves!

When we arrived at Chili's they had one table we could use, so we hurried in before our spot could be taken. :)  [Getting a table for 11 people at peak dinner time is a bit hard. ;)]

Our seat had two benches and a nice table between...perfect!

Altogether we got out of Chili's for less than $50...quite the feat for a "large family", I should think.  We ordered two of the "2 for $20" meals and shared 4 dinner meals and 2 appetizers.  The only extra thing we had to order was chips and salsa and then some mac 'n cheese for Lydia (who still couldn't eat hard stuff).

Everything was so yummy!!  I loved their chips and salsa!

When I take a photo of it, you know it's got to be great! ;)

Eating dinner! :)

Lydia peeking over Mama's arm! :)

Sether.

Banana (a.k.a. Hannah).

Daddy-bear.

Myself and Banana.

 Judah-man! :)

Miss Lydia showing off her "froat" (a.k.a throat).

Lydia's been doing great (after the tonsillectomy).  For the first week of recovery she would have her "rough moments" but those are now gone and she's happy as anything!  On Friday she can start eating harder foods (such as chips)!  Thank you all for your prayers! 

As we were eating dinner an older couple came over to our table.  The husband told us how much he enjoyed watching us and some other kind stuff.  Then he left, and soon came back, whispering in Daddy's ear "I covered your tab."  He hurried away quickly and then the reality set in...the gentleman had paid for our entire dinner!  It was a huge blessing, which we thanked the Lord for.  

The cost of dinner being covered, we now could do one more rare and special thing:  go get ice cream! :)

Guess where we went for ice cream?

Daddy took our orders and then we waited for the ice cream!

A photo Caleb took of some Friendly's landscaping!

The ice cream is here!!

 Yes, I know, Judah's not supposed to get ice cream.  He really enjoyed it though!

[Mom grudgingly let Hannah give him some bites...I don't think it'll happen again soon! ;)]

 Yes, she's happy...don't worry! :)

 

There wasn't a whole bunch of talking as we enjoyed the delicious ice cream!!

 

:)

We all managed to squeeze around one table sitting in front of the restaurant!

So ended a very special day:  a visit to the dentist, a dinner out, and ice cream from Friendly's!

More posts to come soon...we've been a bit busy lately!

Kimber :)