Kimi and I split the drive exactly half way and met up for Saturday afternoon in West Lebanon. We had a lovely lunch at
Lui Lui's at the
PowerHouse Mall.
Lui Lui's specializes in brick oven pizza and authentic Tuscan Italian cuisine. They bottle their own olive oil for dipping and it may very well be the best dipping oil I've ever had since it is full of flavor, including garlic. For lunch, I had their lasagna with layers of ricotta,
romano and mozzarella cheese and covered with meat sauce. It was just the right size for lunch. And
Kimi and I shared a piece of caramel cheese cake.
We walked around the
PowerHouse Mall and leisurely checked out some of the shops. In
Ellistar, a children's
boutique, I ended up buying a little Boston Terrier bean bag type stuffed animal. It has really soft plush fur and is small enough for a little one to play with, plus it looked like our babies at home. The same store had a bunch of cute outfits, but there wasn't much neutral. You had to know you were having a boy or a girl, which our child has not cooperated with that yet. So I didn't buy any outfits. There was the cutest pair of little light turquoise blue Keen sandals that I would have purchased if I even remotely knew what size shoe our kiddo would wear next summer. I think that color could have gone boy or girl.
Kimi brought with her to West Lebanon the cross stitched picture she made for our wedding. It's all framed now and looks beautiful. It will reside in our bedroom for a little while until we get the living room refinished.
Gabriel is a good car rider, and I have built up my endurance quite a bit, but a full trip all the way to my Parents' house in Vermont is still too much right now. So on Sunday, instead we met my Parents half way in West Lebanon. We had lunch at McDonald's and then lingered after the meal so Gabriel could meet his cousins Angus and Brandi, and Nana Doaner could ogle t
he baby. Agnus was very excited to meet his cousin, though, I think he expected that Gabriel would be capable of doing more. You'll notice Nana and I had a good tight hold of Gabriel while Angus was holding him and posing for photos. Afterwards, we went to Wal*Mart shopping, and Nana bought Gabriel some wrist rattles. Gabriel wore his sunglasses. Here is a photo of him waving at the camera and showing off his style.
