Archive | April, 2012

Abi gets married!

April 30, 2012 at 4:48 pm

This past weekend I had the great privilege of being a bridesmaid in my dear friend Abi’s wedding. She and I were roommates back at UVA. We loved living together our fourth year of college:

We’ve stayed very close friends ever since! She was a bridesmaid in my wedding. She’s the third on the left:

And she came to meet Lena when that baby girl was just a few days old! She also brought me Nutella cookies, which makes her one of my favorite people ever. She already was, of course, but this sealed the deal.

On Saturday my beloved friend Abi married the boy of her dreams, a man who had wooed her slowly and patiently over the last couple of years. Their wedding was gorgeous, filled with a million personal details from Abi’s love of France (she’s a French teacher) and Jorge’s Mexican heritage. Here are a few photos from my phone of this weekend:

Photos from a lovely bridesmaid’s luncheon. From L to R: Johanna, Abi, me.

My mom came to help with Lena, and she had a wonderful time with her Grammie! Do you love her new jeggings? :-) So stylin’!

Morning of the wedding: Abi steams her gorgeous dress and Lauren (another dear friend who lived with us at UVA) preps to be a beautiful bridesmaid.

All the bridesmaids from UVA! Six of us (out of Abi’s ten bridesmaids) had been friends at Mr. Jefferson’s University.

Abi is veiled for the ceremony!

Trolley ride to the wedding… such fun! Maggie and I pose for a blurry shot on the ride over.

Final moments before Abi walks down the aisle to Jorge. Stay hydrated, Abi! She made all our beautiful hair pieces.

And they are married!!! We rode the trolley again to take some photos and then arrived at the wedding venue, where Abi had made lovely papel picado and strung the cutouts over the dance floor. Every detail of this wedding was hand-crafted and designed by Abi and Jorge.

Lena came to the party, where many of my friends were excited to meet her for the first time! We had fun on the dance floor just the two of us (we missed Elliott :-/) and posed with an old friend, Johanna.

At the end of the night we even got a picture with the bride! Lovely Abi and her Jorge headed off soon after this among the ringing of wedding bells. I’m so glad for you, sweet Abi, and rejoice for you and Jorge. Can’t wait to see you again soon so we can chit-chat about married life!

3 :: in friends, Lena, travel, Virginia

Abi gets married!

April 30, 2012 at 3:48 pm

This past weekend I had the great privilege of being a bridesmaid in my dear friend Abi’s wedding. She and I were roommates back at UVA. We loved living together our fourth year of college:

We’ve stayed very close friends ever since! She was a bridesmaid in my wedding. She’s the third on the left:

Photos from a lovely bridesmaid’s luncheon. From L to R: Johanna, Abi, me.

My mom came to help with Lena, and she had a wonderful time with her Grammie! Do you love her new jeggings? :-) So stylin’!

Morning of the wedding: Abi steams her gorgeous dress and Lauren (another dear friend who lived with us at UVA) preps to be a beautiful bridesmaid.

All the bridesmaids from UVA! Six of us (out of Abi’s ten bridesmaids) had been friends at Mr. Jefferson’s University.

Abi is veiled for the ceremony!

Trolley ride to the wedding… such fun! Maggie and I pose for a blurry shot on the ride over.

Final moments before Abi walks down the aisle to Jorge. Stay hydrated, Abi! She made all our beautiful hair pieces.

2 :: in friends, Lena, travel, Virginia

at home and abroad

April 25, 2012 at 9:13 pm

Here you go: a few photos from my iPhone of our journey from Sicily to D.C. mixed in with a few happy shots around home in Virginia. We’re loving this gorgeous spring in VA!

From the Paris airport, enjoying special seating (even if she doesn’t qualify) and checking out our plane.

Ciao bella! Welcome to the U.S. of A!

A trip to B&N (excellent literary choice, right all You’ve Got Mail fans?)

& a early morning walk in the crisp spring air.

Snuggles with her Grammie and cool toys at Grampa and Marmee’s house!

“Please, Grampa, may I have some more?” She loved the freshwater trout her grandparents served for dinner last night.

Today Lena and I walked to the college bookstore where I used to work from 2005-2006. I don’t think I’ve been back since I worked there, and now my daughter and I are sharing my favorite smoothie. Life moves fast!

3 :: in family, Lena, travel, Virginia

at home and abroad

April 25, 2012 at 8:13 pm

Here you go: a few photos from my iPhone of our journey from Sicily to D.C. mixed in with a few happy shots around home in Virginia. We’re loving this gorgeous spring in VA!

From the Paris airport, enjoying special seating (even if she doesn’t qualify) and checking out our plane.

Ciao bella! Welcome to the U.S. of A!

A trip to B&N (excellent literary choice, right all You’ve Got Mail fans?)

& a early morning walk in the crisp spring air.

Snuggles with her Grammie and cool toys at Grampa and Marmee’s house!

“Please, Grampa, may I have some more?” She loved the freshwater trout her grandparents served for dinner last night.

3 :: in family, Lena, travel, Virginia

snapshots

April 24, 2012 at 4:03 pm

Hello from Virginia! Lena and I arrived on Saturday night, exhausted and thankful. We had journeyed from Sicily to Milan, Milan to Paris, and Paris to D.C. Those 18 hours were rough, as Lena did not want to sleep and we had a pretty miserable time for much of the journey. I remember with fondness the trip Lena and I made to visit Elliott in Israel when Lena was 2 months old. She slept for seven hours of the 8-hour flight, and I slept for about 6 hours myself. Incredible! Those days are long, long gone, I realized woefully as I balanced a baby on my lap while attempting to eat dinner off my tray and feed her at the same time and keep her hands out of the sauces, juices, and vanilla eclair.

“What would you like to drink, madam?” the flight attendant asked me.

“White wine, please,” I replied.

She handed me a miniature bottle of wine. I was supposed to pour it into a pretty little cup on my tray, but I realized I’d lose most of the wine if I did this, thanks to Lena’s deft little grabs. I unscrewed the bottle cap and furtively gulped it down between bites, hoping I didn’t look like some kind of alcoholic! Usually I try not to drink before breastfeeding because the diluted alcohol can seep into breastmilk… but this time this was exactly what I wanted to happen. I’ll attribute the wine (and God’s mercy) to the fact that Lena eventually did sleep for about 3 hours of that flight.

Anyway, now that I have admitted I was trying to get both my daughter and myself slightly tipsy, we can move onto some pictures. These are some from the past month or so from home in Sicily. I’ll have more tomorrow from our trip to the States and a couple adventures we’ve had since arriving here!