day 6: sunday supper

we had spent the night at our good friend -Fi's godmother- Denise's new house. We had the honor of being her very first overnight guests. The next day we hung around waiting for D to get off work. The girls played outside & ventured just a bit into the woods. It was new & exciting & a little scary. Needless to say, they didn't go far. Maddie asked if maybe she should take post-its to mark their way so they wouldn't get lost. Post-its. It's a 21st century version of Hansel & Gretel. We drove to Denise's parents' home for pasta & meatball dinner. (Stopped in McKee's Rocks on the way to pick up yummy homemade pierogies.) A good bit of reminiscing about when Nikki was little. Some catching up on what's new. Delish meatballs. And of course cupcakes for dessert! Barbara makes the most delectable cakes you will ever taste. I can only drool from 1500 miles away & patiently wait for the yearly pilgrimage to PA to enjoy a bite. I have yet to find a comparable cake out here in CO. It's been 11 years. And the house smells of batter still. It smells like home. I miss it. I miss them.

We also stopped at the PGH Mills Mall to go to H&M (yes, again!). So lucky to have another good friend Angela (Lib's godmother) & her brother Michael drive over & hang out with us for a few minutes. Well, probably more like over an hour. Thankfully there's a movie theatre located there so we didn't have to leave when the mall closed at 6pm. The girls played while we caught up. It was relaxing & all good. Sad to say goodbye & make the drive up to my parents'.

funny how when you live someplace, you don't notice cool things b/c they just all become part of the background? This statue is over there near whatever lock that is in the Allegheny River (I'm soooo out of touch with the location names...I know it's somewhere in the recesses of my memory) at the intersection of Washington Blvd & Allegheny River Blvd. Anyway. It's cool -city crest, etc- & I don't think I ever paid any attention to it, if I even noticed it at all when I lived there.



Nikki is now just a little older than Denise was when we first started hanging out! Hard to comprehend sometimes. OMG. memories.... When Nikki was a newborn D would come over to our apartment occasionally when she wanted to skip school. Nikki & I would be asleep in my bed. D would come in & fall asleep on the recliner LOL!




Always the lady's man -wasn't Michael 12 yesterday? And Nikki was 3?