A weekend away in the Shennadoah

Sohail and I wanted a weekend away, so we rented a cute little cabin near the Shennandoah forest.

Our cabin

The first night having shrimp and veggie kebabs

Inside the cabin

On Saturday we did a 9 mile hike that involved a lot of scrambling around rocks

Our view during the lunch break.

Squeezing my way through some rocks.

Scrambling down some others.

Sohail stopping this boulder for rolling away.

A crack in the mountain along our way.

More beautiful views!

An old shack on our way home from the hike.

A well deserved dinner about to go on the grill.

After dinner, we sat around the fire.

Sunday morning we explored the stream that runs by the cabin.

And took a drive past more beautiful farmland.

We had brunch at a place that serves mostly (or maybe only) local food.

The pancakes were delicious!

Then we headed to Luray caverns. The bottom half of this photo is a reflection of the ceiling in about an inch of water.

This is a wishing well and all the pennies have turned the rock around the water green.

We took Skyline drive home to enjoy a few more beautiful views before getting ready to go back to work tomorrow.

Alyssa's Birthday and a BBQ with old friends

Last weekend was Alyssa's (Sohail's cousin) 12th birthday. She and her friends had dinner at an Italian restaurant and then had a slumber / scrap booking party. Sunday, our friends Ben and Terri, who just moved to DC from Hawaii had us over for a BBQ with their two cute kids. It was fun to have a kid-filled weekend -- even if the 12-year-olds made me want a face lift!

At Alyssa's birthday dinner. The girls were on the other end of the table.

With Shahnaz, Sara, and Sohail

Sharzad, Shahnaz, and Sara

Sharzad with Alyssa and her friends

Sara and I were trying to fit in with the girls. We thought we were doing a pretty good job until we asked them how old they thought we were. They guessed Sara (who's also 29) was 18 and I was 40 (!!!!). They didn't believe us when we told them we're the same age. Sara says it's because I have a job, Sohail thinks it was the cardigan, and I'm guessing I just need some plastic surgery asap ;-)

With Terri and Ben grilling in the background. Their house has a huge yard and their kids spent most of the evening playing outside.

Sohail the pirate