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

first annual memorial day get together

Last year, lots of us got married, so our group of college girlfriends got together a lot. In an attempt to keep our group friendship going, we decided at some point last year that we should get together every memorial day. This was our first fun weekend together.

Sarah, Sohail and I drove down to Deena's from DC on Saturday. After spending some time at the pool, we all cooked together.

Deena and Shirin making Mexican food.

Kai provided lots of entertainment.

Here, he's not with me because he's upset but rather upset because he's with me.

Poor little guy!

Kai was much happier with Sohail.

We had a cake for Deena's birthday.

Sunday morning, Kai spoke his first words: "Bye, bye." I guess he'd had enough of hanging out with the girls, but we were all thrilled to be there for the excitement.

All of us before the Modaresi-Beal's hit the road. Poor Shirin had to work on Monday.

Then we went for a hike not far from Deena and Chris'.

After another bout at the pool, we went out to dinner.

Deena and Chris at brunch

Thanks Deena and Chris for hosting and Shirin and Gabriel for coming up!

Spring is here!

The weather was perfect today, so Sohail and I walked down to the National Gallery of Art to see an exhibit, and ended up going to a Asian street festival on our way there.

When we arrived, we saw these martial arts kids jumping over piles of pillows. It was pretty amazing.

The festival was on Pennsylvania Avenue, between the White House and the Congress.

We had Korean BBQ for lunch under the trees.

It was delicious!

Then we watched this all Filipino girl rock band.

Finally, we made it to the National Gallery, where we saw a Lewis Baltz exhibit.

But the day wasn't over yet. We headed over to the National Gallery's sculpture garden and hung out by this fountain for a while.

Then the garden closed, so we ended up on the mall. Sohail took a nap and I studied Farsi.

Sara's Graduation Weekend

On Wednesday, Sohail's sister, Sara, graduated from Columbia film school with several movies under her belt. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to the graduation itself, but we did go for the weekend to celebrate the occasion.

This was in the apartment we rented. It's the top floor of an old brownstone in Brooklyn. The lower floors are inhabited by a French-American family, that owns the building.

We did some shopping.

And had brunch on Sunday with the family and Rebecca.

Shaudi's Wedding Present

Sohail's cousin Shaudi called us a few weeks ago to see if we could help her with something. We assumed it was packing or moving help she needed but we were about to leave town, so we declined. But Shaudi insisted that she needed us for 3 hours when we got back. Sohail's family-members always have surprises up their sleeves so we were curious about what she needed. It turns out that she got us pottery painting as our wedding gift. We had a blast, loved catching up with Shaudi, and soon we'll have two new vases and a life-long memory of a good day. What a great idea!

Sohail getting started with Shaudi looking on.

Sohail took this project very seriously!

But I guess I did too...

Sohail's vase is blue with a fleure de lys design. I was going to paint leaves all over mine, but it took me 3 hours to complete one side, so the other side is just all green.

And I put our wedding date on the bottom of the vase.