Archive | Lena

a visit to California

I’m writing this while sitting in my father-in-law’s leather chair, enjoying the comforts of home in northern Virginia.  We left San Antonio on Saturday and have been almost too busy and happy here to miss our little home away from home by the river.  Hardly seems possible that those two months of Elliott’s training course are over!  Now a week from today we’ll be on our way back to Sicily at last; after all this waiting, the time to being “real life” will finally be here.

But I can save those thoughts for another time.  I’ve been wanting share photos from our trip to California last weekend.  Here’s the first half; I’ll share more tomorrow.

The story behind our visit is this: Elliott worked at this ranch in central coastal California during two summers of college and for nine months after college.  The couple who owns the ranch are a bit like grandparents to him and are very dear friends.  At the end of our honeymoon road trip almost two years ago, we spent several days at the ranch, and this was our first trip back since then.
 
We spent a lot of time by the fire, knitting and chillaxin’. 

That night more relatives from down the road came over for dinner.  Elliott’s spent so much time with these kids over the years and they just love him!  

Lena and the youngest grandchild warm up to each other by the fire:

The two youngest grandchildren were too excited that we were visiting to go home that night.  They slept at their grandparents’ and were up bright and early to go feed the horses with us the next morning.

Down at the horse barn, we met Nickel, one of the three barn cats…

… and Bliss, an American Curly pony.  She’s such a sweetheart.

In the barn while we weighed the hay…

And later Elliott did some doctoring.  One of the horses had a sore on his back, so Elliott the Veterinarian examined the wound with his two faithful assistants.

The horse in this photo is Bucky, who I rode on our honeymoon.  I don’t think he remembered me.  Sigh.

If you ever saw our honeymoon photos on Facebook, you already know I really love this dog.  Lena’s warming up already!

But the chickens were not her thing.  [Believe it or not after this photo] Lena slowly became less alarmed by all the squawking and wing-beating and eventually did her best to grab a handful of feathers.

More tomorrow of our own little family adventures around the ranch and town!

5 :: in friends, Lena, pretty places, travel

a visit to California

I’m writing this while sitting in my father-in-law’s leather chair, enjoying the comforts of home in northern Virginia.  We left San Antonio on Saturday and have been almost too busy and happy here to miss our little home away from home by the river.  Hardly seems possible that those two months of Elliott’s training course are over!  Now a week from today we’ll be on our way back to Sicily at last; after all this waiting, the time to being “real life” will finally be here.

But I can save those thoughts for another time.  I’ve been wanting share photos from our trip to California last weekend.  Here’s the first half; I’ll share more tomorrow.

The story behind our visit is this: Elliott worked at this ranch in central coastal California during two summers of college and for nine months after college.  The couple who owns the ranch are a bit like grandparents to him and are very dear friends.  At the end of our honeymoon road trip almost two years ago, we spent several days at the ranch, and this was our first trip back since then.
 
We spent a lot of time by the fire, knitting and chillaxin’. 

That night more relatives from down the road came over for dinner.  Elliott’s spent so much time with these kids over the years and they just love him!  

Lena and the youngest grandchild warm up to each other by the fire:

The two youngest grandchildren were too excited that we were visiting to go home that night.  They slept at their grandparents’ and were up bright and early to go feed the horses with us the next morning.

Down at the horse barn, we met Nickel, one of the three barn cats…

… and Bliss, an American Curly pony.  She’s such a sweetheart.

In the barn while we weighed the hay…

And later Elliott did some doctoring.  One of the horses had a sore on his back, so Elliott the Veterinarian examined the wound with his two faithful assistants.

The horse in this photo is Bucky, who I rode on our honeymoon.  I don’t think he remembered me.  Sigh.

If you ever saw our honeymoon photos on Facebook, you already know I really love this dog.  Lena’s warming up already!

But the chickens were not her thing.  [Believe it or not after this photo] Lena slowly became less alarmed by all the squawking and wing-beating and eventually did her best to grab a handful of feathers.

More tomorrow of our own little family adventures around the ranch and town!

5 :: in friends, Lena, pretty places, travel

life around here

Well, I guess you can tell the California pictures didn’t happen today.  Maybe that’s because there are about 200 photos to sort through!  Maybe tomorrow?  Hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some snapshots from our lives this week.

The big news is that I’m knitting for food now!  I have four orders in for knit-by-Becca Christmas presents and another three orders pending.  I’m over the moon.  There’s still room for more, so send me an email to beccagarber@gmail.com if you’re interested in a hand-knit Christmas present for a loved one.  Here are some photos of Lena exploring my latest project: a pair of silk-and-merino fingerless gloves.

 I was walking by Lena today with my camera and saw her standing up for the first time!  After calling for Elliott to “quick, come look at this!” I snapped a fuzzy picture.  She had knocked Settlers of Catan off the shelf and then thought it was just the right height for her.
 

We’ve been going on a beautiful walks along the river in the evening, as usual.

My hair has a new secret.  It’s called Aveda Institute, a national beauty school.  Today for $20 I received a luxurious haircut with a senior student (11 months into her program and 1 month away from working at a high end salon).  She even gave me a head and hand massage as part of the package!  I felt so pampered and got a great haircut.  Find a school near you!
I love this photo.  I took it while looking back at the embankment and path on the opposite side of the river.  This dad was amazing: two daughters on bikes, a kid in a jogging stroller, and he was wearing roller blades.
This dad is even more amazing, though, I think.

One more snack (oatmeal and yogurt, mmm) before bath time!

2 :: in home sweet home, husband, knitting business, Lena

life around here

Well, I guess you can tell the California pictures didn’t happen today.  Maybe that’s because there are about 200 photos to sort through!  Maybe tomorrow?  Hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some snapshots from our lives this week.

The big news is that I’m knitting for food now!  I have four orders in for knit-by-Becca Christmas presents and another three orders pending.  I’m over the moon.  There’s still room for more, so send me an email to beccagarber@gmail.com if you’re interested in a hand-knit Christmas present for a loved one.  Here are some photos of Lena exploring my latest project: a pair of silk-and-merino fingerless gloves.

 I was walking by Lena today with my camera and saw her standing up for the first time!  After calling for Elliott to “quick, come look at this!” I snapped a fuzzy picture.  She had knocked Settlers of Catan off the shelf and then thought it was just the right height for her.
 

We’ve been going on a beautiful walks along the river in the evening, as usual.

My hair has a new secret.  It’s called Aveda Institute, a national beauty school.  Today for $20 I received a luxurious haircut with a senior student (11 months into her program and 1 month away from working at a high end salon).  She even gave me a head and hand massage as part of the package!  I felt so pampered and got a great haircut.  Find a school near you!
I love this photo.  I took it while looking back at the embankment and path on the opposite side of the river.  This dad was amazing: two daughters on bikes, a kid in a jogging stroller, and he was wearing roller blades.
This dad is even more amazing, though, I think.

One more snack (oatmeal and yogurt, mmm) before bath time!

2 :: in home sweet home, husband, knitting business, Lena

a visit from her Grammie

Last week we were treated to a three-day visit from my mom.  We’d been talking up San Antonio for awhile and she was eager to see some of the places we’ve come to love here.  However, she was much more eager to see her little granddaughter!  

We took her to see a San Antonio landmark: the Alamo.  She took a few family photos for us… always a treat!

The next evening my mom watched Lena while Elliott and I went out on a date!  We chose an exciting location for this date: the top of the Tower of the Americas, 750 feet off the ground.  We were totally excited about our first one-on-one date since Lena was born (can that be right?!) and loved our little window booth with a view of the whole city.

The restaurant rotates on top of the tower so you can get a 360-degree view.  We tucked a tiny piece of paper onto the window to see if we would make it all the way around.  It took about 2 hours for the piece of paper to get around, and we missed it the first time.  Four hours later we were still savoring our wine and conversation when we discovered our tiny slip of paper again.  By then it was dark (this restaurant likes ambiance!) and impossible to take a picture without a huge flash.  We thought this was funny at the time. 

Of course no trip to San Antonio would be complete without some evening exploring along our River Walk.
 

My mom took us out to a local gastropub (ie. foodie restaurant) on her last night in town.  The dishes were amazing!  We chose about 6 or 7 little tapas-sized plates with Brussels sprouts in a sweet chili sauce, Bourbon pork belly on sweet potatoes with torched marshmallows, fried chicken in Old Bay spices, cauliflower and paneer in a curry sauce… I’m getting hungry just remembering it. 

Lena went to town on the aforementioned sweet potatoes, which were pureed as though intended for her.

I finished off the meal with a delicious mug of thick cinnamon hot chocolate.   Sooo good.   Highly recommend this if you come through San Antonio; it’s called The Monterey.

The next morning we all got up at 3:45am to go to the airport.  Ouch!  My mom flew back to Virginia while our little family flew to California for the weekend.  More photos to share about that trip tomorrow.

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2 :: in eat this, family, hospitality, Lena, Texas

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