saturday

i'll try to make this short. it shouldn't be too bad since it's been four days since Saturday, which means i can barely even remember what happened!
well, my throat was worse by Saturday. like, every time i swallowed, it felt like i was swallowing rocks. horrible horrible. this happens way too often.
anyway, the first thing we did was apply for passports! i did mine and Carrie did hers and Mackenna and Holden's. it feels so good to FINALLY have it done! even though i wanted to do it months ago. luckily it will be ready before july, which is when i want to go to italy! so yay for getting that done!
then we actually did go downtown! the whole family. which usually means chaos. so that was a bit risky.

crappy picture. blurry and a bald guy, but this place is just so awesome. fireplaces and shag carpet! can't be any cooler than that.

our first stop was Jones. my absolutely favorite restaurant here in Philly. (oh let me just say here, i FORGOT MY CAMERA AT HOME! that is just about the worst tragedy for me other than losing all of my
pictures {which hasn't happened, unless you count the pictures i lost on my old phone...which i do}. but at least i have a nice camera on my phone :) but still, not the same) we had monkey bread as an appetizer. yum! i got the country club-iced tea and lemonade. they have the best drinks at Jones (hence the name!). the last time we went for dinner and i got a salmon dish. it came with rice and steamed spinach all covered in an amazing sauce. literally the best dinner i have ever had. i basically licked the plate clean! this time, it was brunch time, but i still almost got their salmon fritata. just cuz i know how well they cook their salmon! but i went with the tuna tacos. i kinda wish i did get the salmon, but the tacos were still delicious!! yum yum! Steven (and i) wanted to get dessert, but Carrie just wanted to leave. Steven was angry about that. awkward moment. so we didn't get to have their AMAZING chocolate cake with a glass of milk :(
so then we walked down quite a few blocks to Liberty Place shopping center to go to Jcrew to return my stuff. woo! another thing done! so productive!

then we walked around, looking at all the amazing buildings and sculptures. i really really love this city. and city hall is seriously one of the most amazing buildings! pictures don't do it justice because you can't see all of the carvings and sculptures on it. it's so awesome. we played on the game piece sculptures then went to Love Park. finally! i've been wanting to go here since i got here!

then we bought some beautiful cupcakes from Philly Cupcakery. i love cupcakeries so much! they are my favorite! and the awesomely gay guys working there made it even better. haha!
then i guess Holden started complaining that he wanted to go home (plus he needed to stop about a billion times to go to the bathroom), but we still had a lot of stuff we wanted to do and see and eat. but for whatever reason, Carrie let holden have his way. then Steven got really mad. and we were in the car, driving away to go home, and there was an extremely awkward moment with him and Carrie. he was pissed that she let Holden get his way. then Holden changed his mind and said "NOOOO I WANT TO STAY!" of course. but steven wouldn't let him get his way again. so we just went home. this is probably the last time i'll go downtown before i go home. which makes me a little sad. especially cuz we didn't get to see everything. thank you Holden. and it'll probably be their last time too before they move back to maryland. BUT we are going to go to a Phillies game soon, but that doesn't exactly count.
so yes, at the end there it was a little chaotic. but that's how it always is.
when we got home, we ate the cupcakes. but not before we took a million pictures of them!!
then later me and Carrie went to Ross and Walmart. Two places that i despise! but better than being at home with the kids haha.
so that was saturday. oh yeah, obviously we didn't watch conference. but i had fun downtown. i love Philly so so much!! when people ask me if i like it here, i say, i love living here, but not with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. sorry, but i'm just speakin' the truth!

more updates on the rest of the weekend and the past few days coming tomorrow!