Saturday at Ian's

Had a wonderful day yesterday with Ian, Mom, Dad, and the kids. Only Cory and I had seen his new apartment to date, so Ian wanted to host a get-together to show everyone else around. As usual, we had a great time. We started with KFC for lunch, checked out Ian's new Apple TV and helped him set up his Playstation 3. It was quite entertaining to watch an internationally-reknowned computer scientist driven to frustration by a game console that most 10-year-olds would be able to instantly master (Ian, hope you're reading this, tee-hee). I have no room to talk - I still haven't figured out the DVD remote myself...

After lunch, we headed outside to check out Mass Ave. The neighboorhood surrounding his building is wonderful. It is chock full of cafes, bars, and little independent retail shops. Ian had scouted out a toy store there, and it was fantastic! We had a great time looking about at all of the colorful and interesting things. The kids had a ball, and picked out some coloring and sticker books. I, of course, had to point out a line of playsets called Calico Critters. They are kind of like Littlest Pet Shop, but the creatures are a lot more intricate and much cuter. Mom let each of the kids pick out a set. At $20 or more a set, this could become an expensive habit. Sorry Mom and Ian! Being an Aunt is so much fun, LOL.

After we came out of the toy store, we dumped our packages off at the apartment and headed down Mass Ave toward Monument Circle for some ice cream at the Chocolate Cafe. We sat on the steps of the Monument to eat it and did a little people watching. None of us had ever been to the top, so we rode the elevator up. On the observation deck, the windows were dirty and it was very confining, so most of the time I just couldn't wait to get out of the there. But it did give you a pretty good view of the city and now we can all say we have been up there. We had a great time!

I'm so glad they're all back down in Indianapolis so we can have more days like this.