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Published: September 26th 2013
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I woke up to Henna crawling in my bed. Last night at Uncles we invited them to join us for lattes in the morning. She actually walked to our house. I'm not sure how far it is - maybe 2 miles. It's early, about 7:30. Larry drove over. Ken and Jason are going to install his extra gas tank on his truck and Larry has tools they need to accomplish this, so he is going to help. Everyone got up and we all sat around drinking coffee and chatting. Henna had forgotten her phone at home and I wanted to show Amy her house so we headed over to her house. Amy loved it.
After we got back to my house, Larry and Henna left. Amy made her delicious scrambled eggs and I cooked some Applewood bacon. Then everyone took showers except Ken and Jason; they will be working all day on the gas tank. Amy, Justen, Josh and I headed to La Encantada to go shopping. This is my favorite shopping mall in Tucson. It is a beautiful outdoor mall near the mountains. The mall has all of my favorite stores: Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel and
AJ's Fine Foods. We began in Crate and Barrel and then headed to Pottery Barn. Next we went to Williams Sonoma. I always want to buy everything in the store. It always smells so good; especially around Fall and the holidays. We decided to walk up to the second story before going to AJ's (where we will purchase our delights for tonight's dinner). Upstairs we went to a new coffee shop (at least new to me)-Savaya Coffee. Amy and I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte, Josh and Justen a shot of expresso and a lemonade. It was really good. We walked down to AJ's. Our shopping: lemons, broccoli, garlic, twice stuffed potatoes, scallops, salmon, New York strip, olives, baguettes, Parmesan cheese, cambozola cheese (my favorite!), wine....a feast for my birthday indeed. We had to stop at The Abbey-the fine restaurant my son Justen manages. His chef made me a Tres Leches cake for my Birthday. How great is that!!! As we walked in to the restaurant, the aroma of the freshly baked cake filled the air. It wasn't quite ready so we sat at the bar and enjoyed some truffle buttered popcorn, Pellegrino and Josh had a glass of a crisp Rose. It was fun to sit and chat for awhile. Chef Virginia instructed Justen on the finishing touches on the cake and we headed home. We had fun listening to Josh's music in the car (I wrote some down for downloads).
When we got home, the other boys had finished their chore; they took showers and I made sandwiches. Justen and I poured the sweetened condensed milk over the cake. We relaxed a bit, watching TV and I got out Josh's and Jason's baby books. Amy was amazed at how much detail I had put in the book. Poor Josh, his had a lot less! He was the third child and I didn't have time, but at least I did it. Josh also looked through his tote. Each son has a tote where I tried to save important things from their childhood. We had a good laugh when we came across Josh's report cards. He wasn't the best student, but very social and teachers loved him. They were always writing how much they enjoyed him. We enjoyed looking at pictures of him as a little boy.
Time to start cooking. The only thing I had to do was put the potatoes in the oven. Amy, Josh and Ken did the rest. We all sat at the dining room table. Ken said grace. Everything was so delicious. The finishes on the cake were homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries. The cake was so good. I had opened my presents earlier: a vegetable chopper from Williams Sonoma from Justen, a Parmesan cheese grater (the metal kind that they use in restaurants at your table) from Amy and Jason and some lovely lavender lotion from Josh.
Josh headed back to Phoenix and we watched the movie: 'Law Abiding Citizen'-pretty good. Afterwards we all said goodnight. Uncle Don is picking up Ken at 5:30am tomorrow for his flight back to Atlanta. I don't leave until 12:30.
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Emily
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1. Those are my favorite stores too. 2. Love that Henna crawled in bed with you. 3. Dinner sounded amazing. 4. I love love Tres Leches I recently found out, so moist! (But I hate the word "moist")