Dinner out with Stasys' and family

After a quiet late afternoon at home, my cousin Stasys arrived to walk us to a wonderful local restaurant - La Boheme. It was fantastic! Very continental cuisine, wonderful wine and even yummy ice cream. We got to spend the evening with Stasys, his sister, her daughter, both of his parents and his Uncle Povilus.

We had taken our iPad with us to show pictures of family back home. The restaurant had free wi-fi so we got Mom on Skype and she got to chat a little with her cousins. We exchanged emails and will try to set them up to Skype once we are home.

Povilus speaks pretty good English and I remember him very well from our first visit in 1993. When we landed that time, all the family was waiting for us at the airport and followed us to the hotel. My mother made quick arrangements for everyone - like 40 of us - to have dinner together. I got to sit next to Povilus and he was charming.

Stasys' mom is a pediatrician who works out of an ambulance - I guess they have doctors running EMS calls like other places in Europe. She thought Saulius looked perfect and doted on him.

We had a bit of a discussion about the bill, but John prevailed, and we got to treat them. I so wish they could come to America for a nice long visit.

They gave us some beautiful gifts - a children's poetry book in Lithuanian, a framed picture that Stasys' niece drew (she is very talented), and some other pictures and postcards of Vilnius. We had been looking for some local pictures to put in Saulius' room - so it is just perfect. Stasys' sister is a graphic designer by education but designs souvenirs and jewelry. She gave me a lovely pink necklace and earring set. Lots of artistic talent in that family! We also got a lovely bottle of brandy - I think we'll open it at Saulius' christening and toast them!

Saulius, of course, turned on the charm and chatted up a storm. Everyone, thought he was wonderful and told us what a good thing we were doing to adopt him. We keep telling people that we are the lucky ones to have him.

After we got home, we got to Skype with my parents, Ted, Kathy, and John's mom who had just arrived at my parents - great timing! I later Skype-d with Gloria.

We have no plans this weekend, and it's supposed to rain the entire time, we might spend lots of it indoors at museums or malls. It's raining now which has helped with the heat quite a bit.