Family Date Night - Last Time As A Foursome!

This morning Leah departed with the girls to meet my parents half-way between here and Greenville and do the official hand-off for two weeks while we are in Ethiopia. So last night, in honor of our last time together as a family of four, we thought it appropriate to go on a family date for burgers and ice cream. But not just any burgers and not just any ice cream...

As many of you know, we are obsessed with food and cooking. Consequently, one of our favorite shows is "Top Chef" on Bravo. It is your a basic elimination reality show except with restaurant-tested chefs. Last season, one of our favorite chefs on the show made it all the way to the top five. His name is Spike Mendelsohn and after the show, he decided to put a restaurant right in our backyard on Capitol Hill! It is called Good Stuff Eatery and is the perfect balance of gourmet eats and the basic burgers and fries.

Leah and I had been before and loved it, but we had yet to take the girls. That said, the family date was a smashing success. Leah and I both had the "Five Napkin Burger", a delectable bacon cheeseburger topped with a fried egg and served on a soft Pennsylvania Dutch bun with "good stuff" sauce. The girls had their entry level "Farmhouse Burger," but both ate almost every bite. We also had Spike's signature "Village Fries" which are hand-cut and tossed with rosemary, thyme and fresh cracked pepper. We all enjoyed the fries but I think Ansley Mills ate her full weight worth of them!

As if that was all not enough, we then headed down three blocks to Ben & Jerry's where we ate even more. Everybody got there own cup with no sharing and it was hilarious. All three girls were quite territorial with their ice cream and only Ellie would give me a bite of hers, albeit a mere dash of liquid ice cream on the tip of her spoon!

It was an awesome night and the girls did great for being out and about. But it was so surreal to sit there gazing upon the family of four that we have become accustomed and know that this was the last night it would be like this. Leah and I thought back as we were falling asleep and realized that it was the same feeling we experienced the night before we went to the hospital to have Ellie and the night before we had Ansley Mills. The feeling of another chapter closing and a new one about to begin.

I think this is one of the great joys and mysteries of life. We long for the things that are in front of us - always struggling to live "in the now." But when we get to end of the "now", we long to hold on to what we have known.

We are excited and anxious beyond belief about the journey (both travel and life) that we are about to embark on, but it was good to think back last night on how blessed we have been up to now.