Who Says You Can't Go Home Again?

We had such a fun weekend! For months, we have been planning to go back to my home town area and visit with a great friend of mine, Dawn. Because of some craziness in schedules, we actually ended up planning a date several months away, but this weekend it finally came! Dawn and Paul are expecting their first baby (a girl!!) August 19th, so we wanted to get together before she got even busier with the baby! LL got the weekend off work, and the 3 of us drove up to the Rochester area Friday night. We had decided to get a hotel for the weekend, but forgot it was the week of Hill Cumorah Pageant, a HUGE Mormon festival in our home town, so we ended up staying further away than we originally anticipated, but it was fine. Collette was such a good traveler and settled right in to sleeping in a new place and having some changes in her routine.

Saturday morning, we slept in. Collette had a great time snuggling in the King sized bed with Daddy when she woke up!



After our relaxing morning, we went and met Dawn and Paul at their apartment, and then headed to Canandaguia for lunch at a great little restaurant on the lake and the arts festival. Lunch was fabulous, complete with Italian gelato for dessert! I had cannoli flavor and OH MY GOODNESS. SOOOOO GOOD! The arts festival was lots of fun. We went during Collette's nap time and I was just SURE she would nap in her stroller while we looked around--she usually takes really good naps in her stroller. But the little girl was too interested in looking at everything! She didn't sleep at all but was happy happy and had a great time.

Hanging out with Daddy at the Arts Festival:


We did stop at this great little store, F. Oliver's. They specialize in gourmet olive oils and balsamic vinegars infused with a huge variety of flavors. It was like heaven for a foodie! LOL! LL was in his glory and we came home with two varieties of balsamic vinegar (Summer Blueberry and Special Reserve) and two varieties of olive oil (Sage with Wild-Harvest Mushroom and Tuscan Garden).

After the festival, we grilled out at Dawn and Paul's place, and then went to her parents' house to visit with them. Dawn's parents have the good fortune of having one of the best ice cream shops EVER literally in their back yard. They actually share a property line Chill N Grill. I think I would probably weigh 500lbs if I lived there! :o) Anyway, of course we HAD to walk over and get ice cream! Yes, if you are counting, that does make two desserts in the same day. And my Coffee Chocolate Almond ice cream was totally worth it. :o)

In line at the Chill N Grill:


I know that I've mentioned that Collette loves shoes, but I think she is now bordering on obsession! She was crawling around while we ate our ice cream, and she kept going over to Dawn's dad's sandals. She LOVED them! She would try to play with them and at one point even kissed them! Hysterical. Crazy baby!


Sunday we got up and ready to go to my former church:




It was so fun to see everyone! Here is Dawn's mom at church with Baby C:


After church we went for lunch together before heading home.

In our next picture together, hopefully we will both be holding little girls! :o)

Hope your weekend was as great as ours!