Lunch with Elder Pierce

Next, we headed to Elder Pierce's area. He is in the Woodbridge area of his mission now. We got a hotel about 3-4 miles away. Larry mapped out the address on Map Quest and so we were set for the next day.

I delayed getting Laura's dress shoes at home thinking it would be "so special" to get them at the Potomac Mills Mall. Elder Pierce had metioned that this was a great place with lots of shops to choose from. Early on Wednesday the 5th, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Target first to get some bottle water. Yikes! City water is yucky. We are used to well water. Anyway, while at Target I decided to look around for shoes for Laura and for Luke and Leiden who forgot to pack dress shoes. Uggh! Luke found some really nice shoes right off the bat. Leiden did not find anything and it was slim pickings for Laura. I felt right then that I should have grabbed some shoes at the Target in OKC where the selection was plentiful instead of taking a chance on the supply here. Oh, well...there was still the Mall.

We checked out, put our two cases of water in an already really cramped SUV and headed for the mall. I took Leiden and Laura in. Larry had to go back to Target and exchange a device that is supposed to play ipod songs over the car radio. We do not have one of those in our car at home, but this fancy car has an adapter to plug in an ipod. But he got the wrong one and left us to shop for shoes.

We did not have much luck at Pennys. We went to Marshalls and found the CUTEST pair of burgandy leather shoes that would match her dress perfectly. She tried them on and said they fit. Yeah. Next, to find Leiden some shoes. This guy would wear the same clothes (and has) everyday unless I made him change. He is 13. Enough said. He was reluctant to get new shoes. We finally found some at Famous Footware. White slip-on tennis shoes. Cute. Not dressy which I would have preferred, but not dirty white like his other tennis shoes. Compromise is good, right?

So...time to meet Elder Pierce.

We drove to his aparment. We piled out of the car and walked the long flight up to his door. Knock. Knock. Knock. The door opened and there he was. After 18 months of not seeing my son, there he was. So many emotions. He invited us in and we met his room mates. It was a treat to get to see where he lived. then it was time to head to lunch. It was p-day and we just had a limited amount of time together before we would have to part ways.

The Elders voted on Macaroni Grill for lunch. Sounded good to me and off we went. It is so funny to see my son who would NEVER eat pasta in any form before his mission order pasta with aparagus. He would never eat asparagus either. So, some things have changed since he's been gone.