3 Down, 1 To Go

I promise that we actually live in Argentina, although we just returned from our third trip back to the US.  This year has been good to us, we have been able to attend two very important weddings (Dan and Lian in June and Sarah and Josh in August) and we plan on spending the holidays stateside with our families, since they were so great and all came to Buenos Aires last year.  But in between these events, Jon had a work training at UNC, and Gretchen and I just couldn't miss out on the fun of traveling.  Some (myself included) may call this crazy, and as Gretchen grows before my very eyes, I completely understand this sentiment.  I will say this, although we are tempting fate, she has been an angel on all of our flights so far.  I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but so far, I feel that traveling with an infant/young baby has got to be fathoms easier than traveling with a toddler.  I'll keep you posted with my feelings on that subject next year. 

Anyways, we had a fantastic trip home, chaotic at times, but we were able to see quite a few of our friends and remarkably, all of our immediate family (almost all, we missed you Lian!).  I fully intended to copy photos from everyone's photo cards, but alas, I did not.  So, with a completely disproportionate amount of photo evidence, here are some highlights of the trip:

The day we arrived, we traveled to Jon's parent's house where we showered, ate, and waited for the crowds to ascend.  A HUGE "Thank You!!" to everyone who drove or flew or flew then drove to come and see us, we appreciate it so much.  The following day, we gathered up the troops and drove down to Virginia Tech to watch the Hokies play Miami.  It was a beautiful day in Blacksburg, and we had a great time tailgating, though it was quite different from the tailgates we used to have. 

For example, this is the first tailgate that included an exer-saucer, and it was a hit!  Gretchen, Evan and Jude all took turns playing with this amazing toy.  If you are taking a baby to a tailgate, this is a must.

The line for the exer-saucer was all queued up

It was also the first tailgate that we had that included a napping corner.  Here are the first round of nappers, Jude, Bridget, Gretchen and Evan lead the pack, Harper joined soon after.  We had to push the strollers next to the cars to keep them in the shade, and there were so many sleepers that we started a new row of strollers next to another car. 

Nap Time

While Gretchen was awake, and not playing in the exer-saucer, she was busy being entertained by Poppa and Uncle Dan.  This little one was the star of the show, especially in her head-to-toe Hokie gear.

 Daddy took a quick time out from manning the grill to snap a quick family photo.  We could not believe our luck with the beautiful weather.

 It doesn't matter how long it's been, it's always great to see all the German Club guys (and girls, and families) at the tailgate, and we were so happy to fit right back in the mix.

 While the guys went to the stadium, Kristen, Kelli, Lornie and I stayed back with the kiddos.  Evan, Harper and Gretchen were busy little bees during the game, though not actually watching any football.

 After the game was over, we parted ways with Daddy while he attended his work training. Gretchen and I spent the rest of the weekend with Gran, Poppa and family.  Gretchen was especially enamored with the pups, Buckley and Baxter, way more so now than when we saw them back in August.  She especially loved to pat their fur, and luckily, they were happy to oblige.

 Gretchen was thoroughly spoiled throughout the visit, with lots of snuggles from everyone, she's a super fun snuggler, as captured in the photos below. 

Big hugs for my girl

Snuggles with Uncle Dan

And a few more from Uncle Ted

 We spent the remainder of the trip up in Northern Virginia with Grammy, Papa and Uncle Chris where we had a few relaxing days.  A few highlights were me going out for a girl's night with Cara and Stephanie, visiting with our friend Ellen and meeting up with previous boss Louise and her husband John who drove down from Maryland.  I fortunately got this nice picture of Gretchen with Louise, though I unfortunately did not get any other photos to document the week. 

Aunt Louis gave Gretchen this precious apple jumper when she was born

 As usual, we had a great time, everyone was incredibly helpful with taking care of our little peanut.  Honestly, the help and support that our families give us really make these trips worth while.  We certainly missed Daddy throughout the week, but took comfort in knowing that he was undoubtedly getting more sleep than I was.  Let's hope our luck continues and our December travels are just as smooth, as usual, it will all depend on our little traveling girl. 

Virginia in June

Before I get too behind, let me finish our recent vacation recap.  After we left beautiful Los Angeles, we took the cross country LA to DC flight and spent the last few days of our US trip in Virginia with my family.  Let me just interject that our flight did not have a single baby changing table on board (what?!).  Poor Gretchen had to endure diaper changes in some pretty creative places during this 5 hour flight.  (If anyone from Continental is reading this, please install changing tables in your planes!  Have you ever known a baby to use the same diaper for 5 hours??) 

Once we landed in DC, Gretchen met her other two, very excited uncles!

Gretchen hanging out with Uncle Chris

Look at those thighs!  Uncle Robbie and Gretchen bonding.

During our DC stay, we had a good mix of general housekeeping appointments (the dentist, the DMV, etc.) and fun visits with friends and family.  It was an especially big week for us because Jon and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary (wow!), my 30th birthday (even bigger wow!) and Robbie's 22nd birthday.  Here is the adorable joint birthday cake Chris got for Robbie and I:

Check out our cutie, younger selves

In addition, my parents graciously hosted a whole slew of our friends and their babies at their house so that we could see as many people as possible on our short trip.  It was so wonderful to see everyone, thank you all so much for traveling all the way out to see us, especially on a Friday afternoon.  It was fun, chaotic, and exciting to introduce Gretchen to all of her little buddies (many of them new to us too!)  Here is our attempt at capturing all of the little ones in one photo:

As you can imagine, it was exciting

Also, Gretchen met her buddy Evan Humkey for the first time, the two were born only TWO DAYS apart!  I know Gretchen will be grateful to say she is the older one of the two (until she's about 25) and we look forward to future joint birthdays with the Humkeys.

During the extremely hot week, we were able to take Gretchen to a friend's pool for her first non-bath-water experience.  Mom accidentally forgot her hat, so we had to be extra careful, but she seemed to really like the water.

Pay no attention to our lack of tan...it's winter by us!

It was an amazing, whirlwind, fun and much-needed trip home.  Thank you to everyone to came out to visit us, our friends are so understanding and thoughtful about our always-packed schedule when we're in the US.  Thank you to my parents for making this week as fulfilling and easy as possible, it was a great recharge for us.  Our trip back to Argentina did not include any celebrity sitings, but it was just as seamless as the trip to the states.

Since we aren't there to celebrate together, I want to send a big "Happy Birthday" message to my dad, who's birthday is tomorrow.  Happy Birthday Dad!  Gretchen talks about you all the time, and can't wait to see you in a couple of months!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

To round out the end of my visit to the US, my family took the opportunity to celebrate all of the June family birthdays; me, my brother Robbie and my Dad, by going into the city for a Washington Nationals baseball game. The Nationals beautiful new field just opened in 2007 and is located at the Navy Yard Metro stop off of the Green line. We went on Sunday afternoon for the "Battle of the Beltways", the Nationals vs. the Orioles. We looked into buying tickets ahead of time through the Nationals Website, but we get to the checkout and had over $25.00 worth of "convenience fees" for five tickets - so we tried our luck and bought seats at the stadium. We ended up saving some money this way, but next time we'll make sure that someone has a stadium seating chart handy before we purchase. We ended up with tickets in center field, directly below the enormous jumbo-tron that this stadium is famous for. Lucky for us, the newly engaged Sarah and Josh had much better seats and the stadium was only 50% full, so they invited us to join them in their section. The good news about our tickets was that each of them came with a $20 food, drink and merchandise voucher - and we drained our vouchers quickly. At $7.00 per brat and $8.00 per beer, it was pretty easy to rack up a $20 per person. Not only did the weather cooperate and it turned into a perfect baseball-game watching day, but the Nats pulled off a win in the 10th inning with a walk off home run. Mom and I even had the rare opportunity to catch George Washington for a quick photo shoot before the game.

After the game, we stopped for a bite at Guapos, a new restaurant that took the place of Don Paublos in the Fair Lakes Shopping area in Fairfax. Don Paublos has a special place in the hearts of my family because my mom worked there for a few months 15 years ago. The place went totally downhill after she left, we don't think it was a coincidence. Guapos was a great new addition too - the service was pleasant, accurate and prompt and the food was really good. If you're headed to Guapos without children, you may want to arrive at dinner after the 7 o'clock hour, it was pretty kid-packed when we first arrived but calmed down quickly.

Back home, we had our cake and presents part of the day, complete with a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake (it was highly debated whether Baskin Robbins or Dairy Queen was better). A great day was had by all.

So I'm headed back to the Southern Hemisphere after a pretty long hiatus from home. I'm still thankful for United's overnight direct flight from DC, and their checked bag policy of two 50 pound bags per person. I am also thankful for the flight agent that let me get away with two 51 pound bags and for my brothers that covertly snuck my heavy items back into my already overweight bag when no one was looking. I really needed that body wash and hot sauce :) It was a wonderful trip home - I had a jam packed 3 weeks. As I head back to Argentina, I want to take note of another long distance trip that happened this weekend. My brave cousin Mark just safely returned from a tour in Afghanistan. We are all so thankful for his safe return home! WELCOME HOME MARK!!!!!

Clifton Town

This is the last weekend of my USA hiatus so I am dedicating this post to some of my favorite things about Clifton, Virginia. My parents moved to Clifton while I was in college so it has never officially been my hometown, but when you move a lot as a child, your hometown kind of becomes whatever starts feeling like home. So, Clifton is now my adopted hometown and it does a pretty good job of fulfilling a hometown's duties. Familiar, check. Quaint, check. Comforting, double check. I have spent many of my days during the last few weeks here in town enjoying what Clifton has to offer. Here are some of the highlights:

Orchids and Hydrangeas - gorgeous

• The Clifton General Store - This is a three-in-one bonus stop. 1) The General Store is a full functioning store with limited inventory. It's a good stop for the one or two things you may have forgotten during your full on grocery run. 2) In the back of the store and on the side of the building is The Main Street Pub (also referred to as The Pub). They have sandwiches and salads, burgers, appetizers and a steak option. Full beer and wine list, maybe liquor too, but I wouldn't know because I've never ordered it. Nice outdoor seating in the spring/summer. It's a super casual place to grab a bite or pick up some quick to-go food. Also, if you cannot find my parents at home, this is the logical second guess, they are super regulars at The Pub. 3) Tucked on the side of The Pub and The Store is a small florist shop, A Flower Grows in Clifton. Judy, who owns these three gems with her husband, is a no-nonsense flower genius. She'll tell it like it is, but she did our wedding flowers (bride bouquet shown on the right) and they were remarkable.
• The Clifton Café - The Clifton Café has undergone some management issues in the past, but it has been owned by the same adorable owner now since March 2009 and she's doing a great job with it. They have amazing coffee drinks, traditional and fru-fru alike, and will discuss your preferences for as long as you want so that they can create something perfect for your pallet. They also have an extensive crepe menu that is growing each day and includes sweet and savory varieties. This is a perfect spot to meet up with a friend you haven't seen in awhile and just sit and chat without being bothered. Needless to say, I've been here many times.
• Clifton Wine Cellars - This is a new favorite of mine and happens to be under new ownership as of eight weeks ago. We stopped in for a quick tasting the other day and the owner was friendly, knowledgeable and unassuming - just my style. The wine selection was unique and the prices were reasonable. We sat and had a 4-wine tasting for $5.00 (not the cheapest I've seen, but certainly not a bank-breaker either) and the shop had meat, cheese and chocolate pallet cleansers available. If you purchase a case of wine (12 bottles) you receive a $10 discount and 1/2 case (6 bottles) gets a $5 discount. My favorite part of the shop is that they have their wines in sections like; crisp, clean, bold, dry, etc. etc. and then a main board that describes the qualities of each section.
• Cottage Art - This adorable gift shop is my go-to for Mother's Day, female birthdays and non-registry baby gifts. Their website displays only a fraction of the unique gifts available at this shop and the people working there are quite possibly the nicest people on Earth. It's almost guaranteed that anything you buy from Cottage Art will not be duplicated and people will say "Where did you find that ______??"
  

When I'm not patronizing the businesses in downtown Clifton, I may be participating in the other past times that the town has to offer. Last Thursday I joined my mom and her friends on the Clifton Homes Tour put on by the Clifton Community Women's Club. This in an annual tour in May, tickets are sold for $20 ahead of time or $25 the day of the tour. The CCWC arranges for 4 or 5 homeowners to open their homes to ticket holders and you go from house to house admiring the home, the decorating and the gardens. In other words, it's a very sophisticated way of spying on other's ideas and designs. I was skeptical at first, but the homes on the tour were amazing and absolutely worth the ticket price. The downside is that you will want to go home and redecorate every room in your house at the end of the day. I'm sad to miss the Clifton Wine Festival that takes place on Saturday, May 29, although it sounds like a really good time. There are also great events like Clifton Days, Halloween Hayride, and Christmas Caroling at other times of the year.
All in all, Clifton is a great stop for a bite to eat, a coffee or just a walk around the town on a nice day. It's a great place to call your adopted hometown.

Mother's Day Extravaganza

Happy American Mother's Day! I never really thought about it, but Mother's Day is not the same day in all countries. In Argentina, Mother's Day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday in October, which makes sense if you want to keep the whole springtime feel of Mother's Day in May. Yes, October is Argentina's spring - since it's located in the lower hemisphere the seasons are opposite. This is a fact that messes with my head - I had no idea the impact that weather has on my sense of time.
So, this Mother's Day weekend was spent with some of my favorite people, doing all sorts of fun, springtime things. (The picture to the left is me and my mom in 2008 at our wedding rehearsal.)



On Friday, my mom and I joined my friend Julie, her mom and her beautiful baby Caden on a trip to the Waterfront in Alexandria. I have to say that I really miss living close to Washington, DC - there are so many beautiful and historic places to visit. Old town Alexandria is also home to the restaurant I took Jon to for Valentine's Day 1996, Chart House. A girlfriend and I decided we would treat our guys to dinner Sadie-Hawkins-style. This was way before credit cards and I had no idea the price range of the restaurant, so I was sweating the fact that I didn't have a whole lot of cash with me. This is the first time I've been back to the restaurant since, and I have to say, it's a great location. We had a lovely time, we'll have to go back there one of these days.

On this day, we all met Julie's husband Dan for lunch and then walked down to the water to enjoy the view and the day, both of which were pretty great. I was lucky get to spend some quality time with baby Caden, who has changed pretty dramatically since I last saw him. (Picture on the left: Caden David before I moved to Argentina. Picture on the right: Baby-blue-eyes himself 6-months later.) It is an amazing reminder as to how fast time flies to look at how much a baby changes in 6 months. I just love his fair hair and blue eyes, not to mention that they make him a total head-turner. Julie has complete strangers come up to her to compliment her on a beautiful baby. He was such a good boy the whole day we were in Alexandria, and I even got to be in a few photos with the little chick-magnet.

Happy Mother's Day to beautiful new mom Julie, who is doing an amazing job.

On Saturday, my newly-engaged friend Sarah (Congratulations!) came to visit and we got to look at some gorgeous wedding dresses. I won't give away any of the details, but I have no doubt Sarah will look amazing in whatever she chooses.
We are all so happy for Sarah and Josh!

Saturday night I had the rare treat of actually having family AND friends together in one place on Saturday night, my parents and I met up with Sarah, Julie, Julie's mom and her younger sister for dinner. I went to school out of state, so it is extremely rare for our families to be able to mingle, I am so glad that the night worked out. Now that Sarah, Julie and I all live in different cities (and countries...) it is also becoming more rare for us to all be together - so this was truly a treat for me to have two of my best friends together, and to have my parents there too was a great added bonus! Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, it was 50 degrees outside, but we made good use of the blankets the restaurant provided us and we braved it out on the patio of The Clifton Store.

As for Mother's Day itself, we had a nice dinner and dessert at home, just the way we like it. My years of restaurant experience have trained me to loath going out to dinner on Mother's Day and Valentine's Day - dinner at home is much more relaxing. It was a great day, weekend and reunion of many people that I haven't seen in a while. I can't wait for more reunions to take place later this week when my youngest brother Robbie comes home from college and I head up to New Jersey to visit first-time-homeowners Kristen and Chip.

Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mom!

Adieu, Mme Verret!

My first order of business when I arrived back in the US, was to head back to my previous place of employment, Patton Boggs LLP. I worked in the Human Resources Department of Patton Boggs for just under 3 years before we relocated to Buenos Aires and as much as I love having time to explore our new city and write this blog, I definitely miss my job. It was great to see everyone, but my main reason for heading to the city was to bid farewell to my previous boss, Louise Verret. Louise has a special place in my heart for several reasons, the most obvious of which is because she gave me a chance in the world of HR when I was interesting to leave the restaurant business. She went on a hunch and my word that I would work well in HR, and gave me an opportunity to prove this. What I didn't expect was to become such great friends with my new boss, although this was a great perk for me. The picture to the left is Louise and I at our wedding back in 2008, she and her husband John were real troopers through the 100+ degree heat.

Louise started with Patton Boggs as a secretary and worked her way up through the years to end up as a Personnel Director at the Firm. After almost 40 years, she retired on Friday, to spend time with her husband traveling and gardening. My hope is that her travels will lead her to South America, namely, Buenos Aires at some point soon.

My Mom and I met Louise and Joann (one of my more recent bosses) in Georgetown at a new restaurant called Ris. This is a new addition since I have left DC, and I think it's a great new place. The menu is small, but there are some interesting dishes and everything that we ordered was delicious. We sat outside on a beautiful Friday afternoon with the only disturbances being the multiple ambulances headed to George Washington Hospital during our meal. Here is my tiny French-Canadian boss with her farewell lunch, a "Fred Flintstone" lamb shank that was about the size of her head. Our lunch was great, filled with reminiscing and stories of Louise's future travels. It was wonderful to see Louise, and all of my other ex-coworkers at the Firm. I owe a lot to Louise and was glad that I could make it in time to see her off on her last day. Good luck Louise! You will certainly be missed!