Archive | holidays

"Oh Shenandoah!"

June 22, 2012 at 2:30 pm

While we were back in the States, the whole Garber clan took a weekend trip to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As we do every year, most of the kids (including Lena, on her daddy’s back) climbed Old Rag Mountain the first day before meeting everyone else at the vacation house.

The house was near a field of Texas Longhorn cattle (beautiful creatures!) and what appeared to be a horse boarding facility. A couple of Arabians were happy to get their necks rubbed by many hands, large and tiny.

We were also very close to a stream flowing out of Shenandoah National Park. My sister Emily drove down to spend part of the weekend with us, and she loved enjoying all this natural beauty with us too.

Everyone loves Lena’s jelly shoes!

Twice we visited quiet parts of the river to go “swimming” and relax near the cold, clear water.

We also took a family portrait, which this time included Jonathan’s lovely fiance, Erika. Here’s a hilarious candid of some of the family…

… and here’s the final product, which turned out beautifully. I love you, wonderful new family of mine!

6 :: in family, holidays, Virginia

a trip to the beach

June 1, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Very, very spontaneously, Elliott and I decided to go away to the beach this past weekend. The decision was made when Elliott was looking at hotels online, and when I asked him why, he said, “For Memorial Day weekend.”

This was Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend.

The hotel he’d found, though, seemed perfect. Glowing reviews on booking.com, lovely pictures of gardens, famously delicious meals in the hotel restaurant, and just 100 feet from the beach.

“Let’s do it!” I said. “You said you wanted a getaway to a white sand beach. We can go tomorrow afternoon and come back Monday.”

And so we did!

Hotel Villamare was fabulous; I think we’ll go back if we can. White sand surrounded a bay of turquoise water, although unfortunately the scenery was marred by a lot of seaweed. (We missed the annual seaweed clean up, which was scheduled for June 1… oops!) We worked around a winters’ worth of seaweed, though, and thoroughly enjoyed sand and sea.

That evening Elliott and I enjoyed a delicious three-course Italian meal in the hotel restaurant. We lingered over our bottle of wine, savoring the cheeses and meats, the fresh pistachio pasta, the fillets of fish. Breakfast the next morning was just as noteworthy, and we got special attention because of little Lena sitting primly in her high chair at our table. The waitress brought us a special dish of almond granita and brioche, a very traditional Sicilian breakfast. We slathered the sorbet (granita) over the sweet bread roll (brioche) and ate up like true Sicilians.

On Monday morning our good friends Josh, Becca, and their kids joined us on the beach, and another friend and her two sons came as well. They all dug a huuuuuge hole, which little Stevie said was for Lena to swim in.

Princess Lena awaited her pool while playing with everyone else’s beach toys and trying a taste of sand.

She loved her handmade pool! She also clearly loved the beach, and her friends, and the sunshine. Now whenever Lena sees a bottle of sunscreen, she asks me to pop off the lid and then carefully dabs her fingertip in it and wipes it on her face. She’s ready for summertime in Sicily, I think!

2 :: in friends, holidays, Sicily, weekend

a trip to the beach

June 1, 2012 at 2:00 pm

This was Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend.

The hotel he’d found, though, seemed perfect. Glowing reviews on booking.com, lovely pictures of gardens, famously delicious meals in the hotel restaurant, and just 100 feet from the beach.

“Let’s do it!” I said. “You said you wanted a getaway to a white sand beach. We can go tomorrow afternoon and come back Monday.”

And so we did!

Princess Lena awaited her pool while playing with everyone else’s beach toys and trying a taste of sand.

2 :: in friends, holidays, Sicily, weekend

a week at Edelweiss

May 29, 2012 at 2:00 pm

On Monday morning at Edelweiss in Germany we ate breakfast together. Then Lena and I watched Elliott walk down the hallway towards a week-long series of lectures. And I looked at Lena and felt that old sinking feeling that I always get when Elliott walks away to work after a long weekend or trip together. (The first day Elliott went to work after our honeymoon I sat in his lap and cried.)

But Lena and I bucked up and did some exploring, and after awhile the hours, and then the days, were passing by, filled with a new routine in a new place. Garmisch, Germany, is in the middle of the Bavarian Alps and oh. my. goodness. those mountains are beautiful! That first day Lena and I went on a long walk into a meadow beside the hotel.

In the evening we took Elliott back to the meadow so he could enjoy it too!

Lena and I also found a playground, where Lena learned how hard it is to climb a rope ladder:

And we hung out with our friend Liam, who helped Lena learn to walk and taught her that the picture on the mailbox was a “horse… horse… horse.“

We also played in our room, where Lena loved pressing the buttons on the safe, playing in the curtains, reading books, and napping, which I always enjoyed too.

The hotel had bikes with baby seats on the back, and so Lena also went on her first bike ride! She thought it was a-okay, and I loved it. (See the video below.)

We also spent untold hours in the pool and hot tub (where cameras and water don’t mix) and Elliott and I got a babysitter for a couple of nights that we were there so we could go to dinner and a banquet with other conference attendees. Not bad, not bad at all! In fact I think we’re ready to go back anytime the Army needs us there.