Weekending

We've made a pact to get serious about our weekeneding.  Instead of just letting it slip by, we've decided to try to plan things out more and enjoy more.  So here's what we did this weekend:

Friday after work:  Boys worked on the bicycle

 Followed by bringing a picnic of homemade Venezuelan "arepas" to the local park.  We ate them at a picnic table and walked around to check out ducks.  

Saturday morning we made bagel sandwiches...yum!

At breakfast, we had to take a picture of Elijah with the gallon of milk.  Brazilians barely drink milk (1 quart could last a week for a family...they only drink it in their coffee pretty much) so we wanted to be able to show our friends how much Americans love our milk in large quantities!

 Then we headed over to a larger town called Zanesville for some shopping!  JC Penny, Hobby Lobby, Payless Shoes, and more.  We had delicious Greek Gyros for lunch from a mom and pop shop.

In the evening we rented The Help and enjoyed it with after some homemade Thai stir fry

This morning we went to church and then went straight to a town 1 1/2 hours away to meet up with some Brazilian family friends of Jeyson's family.  Zelia and Philip are super nice and generously took us out to a fabulous lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse!  We all, including Elijah, stuffed ourselves silly.  Elijah ate pieces of steak by the fistful as well as sweet potatoes, cheese, and bread.  He ate so much that when I  went to change his diaper he didn't even move or fight at all.  He was in a food coma.  It was all delicious!!

After lunch we made a quick stop at a nursing home where Philip plays music each week when helps lead a service.

At the nursing home with Zelia

 It seriously was the nicest nursing home I had ever seen.  It looked like a mall!

It was a nice time and then we went back to Zelia and Philip's house and spent a few hours with them in the afternoon.  I'll have to post more on it sometime, but they live out in Amish country in the middle of nowhere.  They have tons of maple trees and let some Amish men tap the sap out of the maple trees on their land in exchange for syrup and some profit.  It was fun to see their set up and we brought some syrup home with us.

Then, in the evening we had to make pancakes to try it out on!  Fun weekend...check!