Celebrating 21 days until Emily's 21st birthday

We may be getting carried away with our birthday parties.  Now we are planning pre-birthday birthday parties.  It all started when we realized we couldn't do everything Emily wanted to do on her birthday on her birthday.  So we agreed to meet in Carbondale this last weekend to take Emily to her restaurant of choice.  We will celebrate Emily's actual birthday later this month at the pond.

Emily wanted to eat at the Lodge in Giant City State Park.  She also wanted to see Frankie.  So we drove him to Carbondale and then left him in her apartment while we all went to lunch.  He ended up having a great day as he spent hours in the car being held by Laura and then he spent most of the afternoon playing with Dana and Emily.

As far as Emily is concerned, the best item to order at the Bald Knob dining room in the Lodge is the all you can eat fried chicken dinner.  I was the only one who ordered something else (fresh salmon and spinach salad) and everyone was pleased with their choices.  

Afterwards we climbed the tower at the park.  Actually, all us girls climbed the tower and Mike took pictures.  

Then we went back to Emily's and Dana's very clean apartment.  There we split up.  Mike and I ran some errands at the big department stores that they have in Carbondale that we don't have in Greenville and the girls arranged to introduce Frankie to flat Suzanne and then took him for a walk.  

We ended the day with dessert from Larry's, one of the best bakeries we know.  

This was so much I can hardly wait until Emily's real birthday.