A Little Taste of Home

Saturday, we took a trip to a nearby base for a big bazaar they were hosting. Bazaars are wonderful treats to military members living overseas. Typically, vendors from all over the continent fill two (aircraft) hangers selling merchandise from their respective countries. One can find furniture, pottery, wine, cheese, shoes, carpets, paintings, toys, crafts, antiques, etc. It's a great place to look around and find unique things from this part of the world. Every time I go to a bazaar, I think of my friend Michelle. She is a bazaar's delight! (Michelle, I saw a collection of Russian nesting dolls and thought of you!)

The drive was a little over an hour, so we took a soccer ball and gave Jackson some time to run around before we went into the hanger and braved the rows of untouchables with our toddler. I was really surprised at how well he handled the ball. He was dribbling and kicking all over the place. It was a nice area for him because it was relatively flat - something we don't have around our house - and open. He played for half an hour, then we went inside the first hanger, and then he played again before we went inside the second hanger. Here are a few photos:

I think he's got skills!

His face is so cute in this next one. You'll have to click on it to enlarge the image and see how delighted he is.

He almost ran into me on this one. I couldn't get him to take his eyes off of the ball. I guess that's a good thing!

After the bazaar, we were starving. The base we were at has a Chili's! Since we didn't make it to Houston and we haven't been in the States in over a year, Chili's sounded great. I ordered the Southwestern Cobb salad with extra pico. I love pico! It was so delicious, I could have eaten it by the spoonful. With their pico, there is no need for salad dressing. My goodness, that salad hit the spot and gave me a little taste of home.

We got our food to go because the wait was longer than we wanted, but it turned out even better. There was a very wide and large grassy area in front of the restaurant. We let Jackson lose with his lawn mower while we waited on the food. Our plan was to picnic on the grass, but for some reason (that I can't think of at the moment), it didn't work out so we moved to an outdoor table that they weren't seating. It was great! The weather was brilliant and I wasn't worried about all of the rice that fell on the ground instead of making it into Jackson's mouth.

Here is one photo I got of him happily pushing his mower on the Chili's lawn while Jace and I sat and talked. It was so wonderful!