Time with the girls

Wednesday Erin and Jamie stayed with us at David's condo.  We started the day off with Grandpa's German pancakes, a kind of breakfast crepe along with Johnsonville Maple Syrup links. They had never had the pancakes before and were unsure how to eat them, but a quick lesson and they were off and eating. (They really liked them.)  Afterward, we went to an open air mall and did some shopping but most of the stores were not to their liking.  They did enjoy looking in the REI store (sporting goods on steroids) but the one they wanted to see was Abercrombie and Fitch. They had closed the store in that location and moved elsewhere.  So we came back to Dave's, had lunch and watched a couple of movies; Brave and We Bought a Zoo.

Later, when Karen got off work and David came home, we went over to Karen's for a BBQ.  We had a really nice spread; hamburgers on the grill, mac & cheese, salad, broccoli, tomatoes from Karen's patio garden, french fries and plenty of snacks.  We topped it off with red velvet cake, the girls' favorite. My wife was right (again, of course) on the desert choice. I thought they'd like monster cookies (the kind with M&Ms baked in) but she said red velvet.

Thursday the girls came over again and this time they hadn't had breakfast yet, opting for German pancakes again. When Karen woke them up and asked them if they wanted breakfast they said no, they wanted Grandpa's pancakes.  They ate double what they had on Wednesday and I showed David how to make them so he could fix them after we had left. 

This time we went to a proper mall, Washing Square.  I think it's the size of downtown Lexington.  OK, maybe not, but it's big and they had the Abercrombie stores, which made the girls very happy. Yvonne took them in while I caught a grandpa nap in a big comfy chair in the mall. They found me when they were through and laughed that I was taking a nap.

We looked for the food court for lunch but nothing appealed to any of us. Then I learned they had never been to Cheesecake Factory! Well, that was almost a sacrilege so of course, we fixed that.  They walked in and immediately found the display of cheesecakes.  We got a booth, Yvonne and I ordered lunch, they ordered cheesecake.  We had a great time watching them try to eat all of the cakes they ordered, they smiled and commented the whole time. Jamie said it looked so perfect she wasn't sure if she would eat it. (But she did.)

We went back to Dave's and chilled for a while, waiting for Karen to get off work, then went over there for pizza and beer.  Todd, the girls' father, picked them up and they are now heading for Colorado; his family's reunion.  So the girls are gone now <sniff>.  Here they are, wearing what they bought at Abercrombie's.

While we were at the mall, Jacob went over to the open air mall we had visited on Wednesday. We found Shogun Sushi & Sake when we were there and since he didn't want to go shopping with the girls (imagine that) we suggested he go over to Shogun's, which he did.  He rated it 7 out of 10 and wants to go back again, so it must be good.