Destination Wedding!

Frank & I were thrilled when our friends, Greg & Eugenia announced they were getting married in November in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We were even more thrilled when we were invited! We took full advantage of the trip and made a week vacation out of the celebration. The happy couple had about 50 guests and we had such a great time hanging out with everyone.

A few trip highlights:

1. The wedding (of course!)























































2. Day trip to Chichen Itza to see the famous The Kukulkan Pyramid

















3. Cenote swim























4. Hanging with old friends & new



















5. Snorkeling with MK (I don't have any pictures currently, but did have my underwater throw-away camera with a few pictures left on it that I just need to take and have developed!)

Metropolitan Cooking Show 2010

For the past two years Laura & I have gotten mom tickets to the DC Metropolitan Cooking Show, so way back in May (for Mother's Day), we bought her tickets to this year's show along with tickets to Rachael Ray's (ok, those were more for me!) and Paula Deen's cooking demonstrations. Most of the day was spent walking around, sampling goodies from all of the local vendors coupled with the hour long demos. We have a blast and this year mom even got a special surprise; As we were walking past Paula's booth, I noticed the Butter Queen, herself was in there! We got mom right up front and she got to talk to Paula! She was thrilled! Paula is so funny and I hate to admit, but her demo was even more entertaining than Rachael's!

Rally to Restore Sanity

...(and/or fear)

I joined Mike, MK, and a few others on the mall on October 30th for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert's rally. Even though we couldn't see much from where we were, we could hear everything...from Stewart & Colbert's reasonableness and fear antics to Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and Ozzy Osbourne dueling it out between Peace & Crazy trains.

Birthday Girl and Boy

Cosmo & I both celebrated our birthdays in November (although I'm pretty sure his is actually in October). I think it's safe to say my cake was tastier than his! I think I may have made out better in the present category, too...Manicures, lunch, and shopping with mom & Laura, tickets to Michael Buble from my MIL, tickets to American Idiot on Broadway from my hubby...yeah, pretty sure that beats a dog bone! ;)

(PS - Yes, I am wearing a birthday crown.)

#2 and #4

I failed to mention some very exciting news from September...Chuck & Kristen welcomed Mikaela Namakula McGarr! She's a precious little bundle of joy...that Frank & I can call our God-daughter! We were elated when C&K asked us to be Mikaela's Godparents, making her my second godchild & Frank's 4th! Here are some pictures from her Baptism...

I love her face in this picture


Her Godfather was determined to have her hold 'the light of Christ'

'Day Light' Blogging

You’ve heard the sayings “Spring Forward” & “Fall Back” relative to Day Light Savings Time, right? Well, clearly I’ve also associated them with my blogging activity! I’ve ‘fallen back’ on my blog throughout the season so this is my attempt to catch up and stay current!
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year – the crisp air, the smell of leaves, comfort foods…ahhhh! One recent morning after my run, I came into the house and told Frank “I love running during this time of the year – in the cool air with the crunch of leaves under my feet!” His response, “You’re crazy!” wasn’t as embracing of the season (or my early runs)!
On Columbus Day, we both set out to enjoy the season and went on a hike! (See - I told you we were going to attempt to do more things in nature!) We hiked Raven Rocks, which is a 5.5 mile section of the Appalachian Trail. On the way home we stopped in Purcellville and went apple picking – I even climbed an apple tree to get the ‘good’ apples! We had a blast! (Sadly we didn’t bring the camera apple picking and thus, didn’t capture my tree climbing skills.)



Another of my favorite things about fall is that it means indulging in comfort foods. Thankfully my dad’s fig tree was bountiful this year and even more thankfully, he shared his surplus with us! I tried my hand at many fig dishes including fig & gorgonzola pizza, chicken stuffed with figs, fig panini’s, etc. After apple picking, I also got to try out my new Williams & Sonoma pocket pie mold and made mini apple pies. There’s something about hot apple pie topped with vanilla ice cream that just calls my name. (Ok – admittedly anything with ice cream usually calls my name…) We (yes, WE) also tried our hand at white bean chicken chili and added our own special ingredient: kale. (Frank’s on a kale kick – and I have to admit it’s a nice change from spinach.) There’s been mini banana breads baked in pumpkin molds, and I even went out on a limb and made Spiced Pumpkin & Shrimp soup (which was quite tasty).

Labor Day Tourney

Typically Labor Day = Soccer Tournament and this year was no different; however, we did get a change of venue which was nice. Instead Frank having multiple teams going to the Richmond tournament, he only had one team and we went to Greensboro, NC. His first game wasn't until early Saturday afternoon, so we were able to explore Greensboro a little in the morning. We found a cute little park and walked around before heading to the fields for both afternoon games. Unfortunately (or fortunately ;) ), Frank's team didn't make it to the finals, so their last game was at 9:00 Sunday morning, so we were able to get back home at a decent time which also gave us all day Monday to relax!

Nature Adventure

Frank and I are not normally 'nature' people, but with our busy schedules, I'm slowly coming to realize how nice it is to just get outside and be away from our phones, computers, etc. We've lived in Northern Virginia for almost 10 years (yikes!) and have never (yes, I said never) gone to Great Falls Park which is about 20 minutes away from our house. On one Sunday in August, we had a few hours with nothing to do (in between church and Frank's 2:00 soccer scrimmage), so we decided to head to the Park and do a little 'hiking'. I use the term 'hiking' loosely because, by no means is Great Falls a strenuous hike (remember, it's 20 minutes from our house in Arlington); however, it was nice to get outside and walk along the Potomac River and enjoy the scenery. It was a gorgeous morning, and ever since, I've even started toying with the idea of camping (although Frank told me I'd better practice in our own back yard)...

Belated Bday Celebration

For Frank's birthday this year, I got him an evening in Baltimore, which typically wouldn't be that great of a gift, except this one came with tickets to the Manchester City v. Inter Milan soccer match. After doing some chores around the house (including yard work which later led to two very itchy cases of poison ivy), we drove up to Baltimore mid-afternoon on Saturday and checked into our hotel in the Inner Harbor. After doing a little walking around, we headed over to Little Italy for a phenomenal dinner at La Scala before the soccer match, which was also good...maybe not as good as dinner ;), but I have to say that I do enjoy watching the European teams compete (just maybe not as much as Frank does). After the game, we ended the night where we started; back to Little Italy for dessert at Vaccaro's (of course!) where we both over indulged in some birthday cake! Happy Birthday, Frank!

July = Family Time

It had been awhile since Frank's side of the family had come to visit us, so we were very happy to have Mom & Dad D, Danielle, Tony, Kate, and Emma stay with us over 4th of July. In the mere three days they were here, we visited the park multiple times, went to the zoo, caught a 4th of July parade in Great Falls which was great for the kids, and hiked over to Roslyn to catch the fireworks from Iwo Jima! We had so much fun with everyone!



A few weeks later, the DeMarco's hosted 'Cousin's Weekend' in the Catskill Mountains. Even though Frank and I were heading to Nags Head on Sunday, we didn't want to miss out on the fun, so we left Friday morning and got to spend all day Saturday lounging by the pool, playing with the little ones, eating, eating, eating, and visiting with the family before leaving for VA around 6pm.

Less than 12 hours after arriving home, we were re-packed and on the road for Nag's Head for the Garone's annual vacation, which was incredibly relaxing and a great week as usual!

Bathroom Renovations

Frank and I decided that 2010 would be the year that we would tackle our pink and black tiled bathrooms circa the 40's. We decided to use the same contractor that finished our basement and viola...here are some before and after pics:








We choose to redo both bathrooms at once since we had a third full bathroom installed when we redid the basement. Because we wanted our plaster walls replaced, we gutted everything and started from scratch. The project took a little longer than expected (partly because of our contractor and partly because we opted to special order quite a few items), but we are both very happy with the end result! I went with a beige, spa-like, theme for my bathroom and Frank's was transformed into a very modern age look.

Here are a few during pics:

Happy Father's Day!

Laura, Frank, and I took my dad to a Nats v. White Sox game for Father's Day...Thank goodness our seats were in the shade behind 3rd base...It was a scorcher that day!

Despite not being able to celebrate the day in person with Dad DeMarco, we of course had him in our thoughts and were very happy when he came to visit us in July!

Here's to both of our Dads...and all that you do for us throughout the year! Love yous!

HCJ

I am no longer a Wolf Trap virgin! Back in June, my mom, sister, and I saw Harry Connick Jr. perform at WT...a first for all of us! What a great venue! We had lawn seats so were able to bring in our own drinks and snacks...So much fun!

Tre anni

To celebrate our anniversary this year, Frank and I (well, more I) decided for us to 'get away' and spend an evening in DC. Since our actual anny fell on a Wednesday, we celebrated on Saturday, 6/12, which also happened to be the day of the US vs. England World Cup match...which of course meant watching the game had to be on our itinerary. After the game, we headed into DC to check into our hotel, Donovan House, a cute, ultra modern boutique hotel located right downtown. After lounging by the rooftop pool, we first enjoyed champagne in our room and then headed to DC Coast for our celebratory dinner (and of course dessert!). We ended the evening back on the roof of our hotel at ADC, their roof top bar. It was a great little escape without having to deal with traffic or airports. Happy Anniversary, Frankie!

Laura Garone, RT

On June 2nd, my little sister graduated from the Medical Radiography Program at Winchester Medical Center. Frank and I drove out to Winchester on Wednesday for the actual graduation ceremony and then I stuck around for the celebratory party on Saturday. (Frank drove back out on Saturday morning.) Family members from New Hampshire and New York came into town to celebrate Laura's accomplishment and even more exciting...she just took her board test last week and passed with a score of 93! We are all so proud of you, Laura!

DeMarco/McGarr Vineyard

Kristen and I both belong to Living Social, a service that emails one deeply discounted deal each day to use at local businesses. When the deal of the day was for a local micro-winery where you make and bottle your own wine, we couldn't pass it up! Back in May, Kristen, Chuck, Frank, and I had our tasting session at Carafe Wine Makers where we selected the wine we wanted to make. Since it's a mirco-winery, they purchase grape juice from vineyards all over the world and then we do the rest! We decided to make a Bergamais (red wine) and did everything from adding the water to mixing in the yeast and adding the oak chips. Our wine has been in the fermentation process for about 5 weeks and tomorrow we go back to bottle our 30 bottles. We'll also get to add our own labels but haven't quite come up with a catchy name yet.

Just like old times

Growing up, Laura, our cousin Angela, and I would always spend the night at Grammy & Grandpa's...staying up late, laughing, gossiping, etc. The other weekend we made a return visit along with mom and Angela's two children. We arrived late Friday night...and just like old times, sat around the kitchen table eating Grammy's spread, laughing and gossiping into the early morning hours. On Saturday, we all visited Aunt Alice...pigged out at Umberto's Saturday night (followed by ice cream and cake - of course - back at G&G's). Sunday was Mother's Day so I surprised my MIL with a short visit and then met back up with my family for brunch at the good ol' pinkie diner. No matter how old I get, nothing beats staying at Grammy & Grandpa's!