Happy Shopping!

We decided to go on a little family outing today. Brant pretty much left it up to me as to where we would go. The main goal was to go out to eat - a date with children along (chaperones?). Since the girls were going to be with us, I preferred to go somewhere that's not too crowded. But that's a rarity on a Saturday. But we had been to a certain restaurant a while back that was a tad more hoity-toity which then kept the crowds to a minimum. This restaurant is also near a big shopping area with a maze-like underground mall area. It's certainly not a place for a claustrophobic person since the shopping lanes are narrow, somewhat dark, and loud. But since we were going to be in the area, and since I wanted to try to find a new winter hat/mitten set for Eden, and since I knew of an area down there that sold winter items like that, we headed down into the maze. I thought I knew where things were down there, but I was wrong! We walked and walked through the narrow passageways among the crowds. And I'm pretty sure our stroller was the one and only one down there all day today. I can't tell you how many feet we bumped with that thing - oopsies! At first we had Anita's face covered up with a light blanket in hopes that she'd fall asleep (wishful thinking), but it was toasty warm down there, and we were bundled up, so I eventually uncovered her face and then the ooh's and aah's really started! I told Brant I felt like a celebrity, but he said no, it's more like a feeling like a bodyguard for a celebrity. Eden gets a lot of attention like this too, but a newborn white baby really really catches the attention. We only stopped one time at one little booth that was selling hats, and while I looked, a crowd gathered around Anita (and Brant and Eden too) and everyone was pulling out their camera phones to catch a picture of the rare zoo animal...er, I mean our baby daughter! Eden knows how it feels, so she was ready to protect her sister by holding her hand in front of Anita's face to keep the photographers from going wild. Sweet sister! I loved seeing that! Anita was probably a bit overwhelmed, but was obviously oblivious to what was really going on. She'll learn soon enough.

Anyways, I was also hoping to go for a walk, but it was so windy today which always means lots of dirt being blown around. So much for a nice autumn walk! We did have a nice meal though, and it was good to get out for a change - makes us appreciate our quiet days at home all the more. No wait, quiet doesn't happen with Eden around! She's such a chatterbox! At the restaurant, I ordered a bacon hamburger; Brant ordered a chicken/mushroom sandwich; and we ordered french toast for Eden. Her french toast was like no french toast I've ever seen before. It was a peanut butter sandwich which I think maybe was dipped in egg and then deep-fat fried in oil. Sometimes China gets "western food" very wrong! I forgot to ask Brant what the dip was that came with it, but it looked like honey. In the past, we've seen french toast served with a dip of plain ol' sweetened condensed milk.

In the end, Eden mostly ate french fries instead of her deep fat fried french toast. And we came away from the shopping maze without making one hat/mitten purchase. Oh well, it was all quite an adventure anyways!