After eight years of patching, Dr. Seidman gave Avery the okay to stop!  This day seemed so far away when she was a baby knowing that statistics often indicated kids who wore a patch, often wore it until around age eight as vision often continued to improve up until this age.

Avery’s vision was relatively similar in both eyes over the year so she alternated patching eyes. When she was a baby she patched for two hours per day, alternating eyes every other day.  Once she entered kindergarten and was in school for eight hours per day, patching for two hours a day became a little trickier.  Wiith Dr. Seidman’s approval, we reduced patching time and on average patched each eye for a total of four to five hours a week.  At some point during her years of patching (pre-k perhaps), we switched from Ortopad one-time use patches to felt patches that went directly on her glasses.

There were times where Avery didn’t want to wear her patch and her negotiation tactics were in full force (i.e. wanting to put it on when she was done with breakfast, after she finished her homework or reading, not when she was riding her bike, not when she was watching T.V, not when she was tired, etc…you get the point!), but overall she obliged and wore it knowing that it was making her eyes stronger.

Avery’s vision has in fact improved over the years.  When Avery was a toddler and up until kindergarten, her vision was in the 20/250 or 20/200 range depending on the doctor visit.  That was actually in the legally blind range.  In the past few years her vision has improved and her most recent visit, her vision measured 20/100.  We’ll never know if the improvement was due to age, her patching, her ability to compensate, or other factors.  Likely it was a combination of many factors, and in the end the result is more important than the why.

Avery knows she sees differently than others.  She accepts it, never questions why her and not someone else, she ironically sees more details than many people with normal vision such as myself.  She choses to see the glass as half full.   Stopping her patch was a day that she has been anticipating for years!!  

She certainly has come a long way!

Thanksgiving 2019 was quieter then it has been in the last few years.  With no au pairs, my grandma and Justin’s family not joining us, coupled with Thanksgiving being at my parents and bringing appetizers with little prep ahead work, it was a quiet and relaxed morning.  The girls had planned on watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  While watching the parade, they realized they had no skit for this year.  They went into action and together created costumes and a play. The mess that they were making in the den made me proud.  Emerson really took the lead and directed both the costume design and the play.

We ate.  We had enough food for twice the number of us.

Bacon wrapped dates…delicious by the way!

We played a thankful game, that Avery took the lead on putting together.

The girls performed their skit.  Emerson a pilgrim.  Harper a turkey.  Avery Squanto.

Friday afternoon we met my high school girl friends, Allison, Sarah, and Lauren and their families at Vanish Brewery.  As always, it is like no time has passed when I talk to these ladies.  Twenty-four years of friendship still going strong.  Seeing our kids together – conversating, playing and having a great time makes my heart so incredibly happy.

Thankful for this life, for this family, for these friendships.

I’ll be honest.  I look forward to yet somewhat dread our every other year family pictures at the same time. Is that even possible?  I’m sure it is and I’m sure I am not alone.  I do love having our family photographed, but the decisions leading up to the day from deciding on the photographer to deciding on the date and the location to picking out coordinating outfits for the family is way more time consuming than it should be.  Not to mention the stress involved on the day of the pictures….limiting the jumping around in the morning so no kid scratches up their face and then of course there is me…I’ve gotten my hair done the past two family photo sessions so for three hours before our session actually starts, I like to stay as still as possible so as not to have a hair get misplaced!

And then during the session….it was cold this year…as in 40 degrees.  My outfit selections were not intended for 40 degree weather as that forecast was a good 10 degrees below normal temperatures for that time of year.

Sounds fun huh!  Perhaps this is the real reason we opt to get our family pictures professionally taken every other year instead of each year!

One week after our session, our photographer Allison provided us with our pictures…close to 70 of them…and honestly there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch.  They were amazing.  She captured giggles, stubbornness, the unique personalities, the giggles, our shivers, and most of all she captured our love.   One look at those pictures and I forgot every stress I had leading up to the actual session…well sort of.  But more importantly those pictures made me realize I shouldn’t stress so much about the perfect location, the perfect outfit, the perfect hair placement.  There truly is no wrong decision when it comes to capturing our love and personalities.  

I am so in love with these pictures and my little family.

Approaching 40 was hard!  Life has passed by so quickly that trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to be turning 40 this year was so hard to fathom. I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to it.  In terms of celebrating, I’m not one for a big party.  I am generally a low-key type of girl so until late July just figured we would do something together fun that weekend as a family and of course go out to dinner on my actual birthday.  But then I kept thinking 40.  40 is big, right!  I didn’t want to look back and regret that I did nothing “big” for my 40^th.  The wheels started churning and for anyone who knows me, knows that my brain was thinking all over the place…France, Spain, Italy, Colorado, Charleston, the Shenandoah, were all contenders….and ironically they run the spectrum of types of places and cost. After deciding on the Amalfi Coast, after questioning my decision (but not enough to change the trip), after ordering and returning an insane amount of sweaters, shawls, and ponchos from Anthropologie in search of the perfect layering, and after creating a massive list of the girls daily activities for Grandma and Grandpa, Justin and I left for the Amalfi Coast on September 26 – three nights in Capri and two nights in the town of Amalfi.

I had turned 40 ten days earlier so this trip actually turned into a little bit of an 11-year anniversary celebration as well.  We had a 4:15 p.m. flight from Dulles.  Justin and I both tried to sleep; however, our attempts were futile. My Fitbit registered one hour of sleep and that seemed about right.  We flew into Rome and then had our next flight to Naples a few hours later.  We ate breakfast at the airport.  While the breakfast sandwiches on baguettes with prosciutto, salami, and cheese and the croissants all looked amazing, I knew eating that amount of bread would make me feel icky and that was not how I wanted to start the trip.  We found a little place to sit down that served eggs.  I wasn’t expecting my eggs to be served cold, but they were.  Were they good?  No, but they were protein.

Our flight from Rome to Naples was short.  We had hired a private transfer to take us from the airport to our hotel – while it was not cheap, Justin and I realized it was worth the investment so we would start our trip off not being upset with one another for getting lost and delaying our arrival time.  The ferry ride from the port in Naples to the port in Capri (Marina Grande) was when our lack of sleep finally set in and we both dosed.  Upon getting off the boat away from the cigarette smoke, and getting some fresh air, we perked up quickly as our convertible taxi was waiting for us.  I was full of laughs as we rode up.

Our room wasn’t ready upon our early arrival, so after having some fresh lemonade while checking in, we made our way to the Water Zone of our hotel.  There Justin and I enjoyed some time in the steam room and sauna followed by some time at the hotel pool.

We checked into our beautiful modern deco room at Capri Tiberio Place and then had a much needed shower in our spa inspired bathroom. A quick toast with the mini-bar beer and we were off exploring the local area.

The walk away from the busy city center was exactly what we were needing.  We stopped and took it all in.

We ended up coming across the Arco Natural, another beautiful serene site.

For dinner we opted for a place suggested by our travel agent, Jim, with good reviews and within feet of our hotel, Capannina Ristorante.  I had the salmon.  Dinner was good, but I wanted mouth-watering.  The wine was good and went down easy, something that became a common theme through our entire trip.

Saturday morning, we were up early.  We wanted to explore the town of Anacapri on the other side of the island.  Monte Solero was in Anacapri and we wanted to hike it, but we also wanted to enjoy some leisurely time exploring the town, without wasting time changing from hiking clothes to regular clothes.  SO…hiking in a jumpsuit with sneakers was the solution.  We asked the hotel if we could walk to Anacapri.   They thought we were crazy and we took the hint to take the bus.  On our way to the bus station.

Once we rode the standing room only bus up the mountain to Anacapri, we realized how walking up was not possible unless we wanted to risk getting run over by cars and buses for twenty minutes straight.  We did some exploring of the town first.

Then we started our hike.  Nice look, huh!

This just cracks me up.  Fortunately, we didn’t encounter too many people hiking up.  Most made their way up via this route.

We made a few wrong turns, but thankfully we persisted.

We passed goats along the way.

Thankfully Justin carried my sandals for me for a quick change after our hike.  And once we got to the top!  Wow…just amazing!

Justin had a beer to quench his thirst.

After our hike, we ate a delicious lunch at Ristorante La Zagara under the lemon trees.

I had tuna and Justin had risotto.  Both were excellent.

We even had wine with lunch.  We laughed.

We took the bus back but instead of getting on the bus with the exit in the town of Capri, we got on the bus with the exit at Porte Grande, down by the port.  Next, we explored the port for a few minutes.

Then we took the funicular back up into town.  We chose to have a little down time by the pool before showering and getting dressed for the evening.  Since we ate a late big lunch, I wasn’t feeling a big dinner.  But I was feeling gelato.  I searched and searched online for the best gelato place and I found it, Gelateria Buonocore, according to various reviews anyway.  It was good, but it wasn’t the to-die for gelato I was seeking.

Justin still wanted dinner, so we went to a local spot that Justin found, Lo Sfizio.  It was indeed a great local spot.  The menu was expansive.  Justin got the pizza and I just a small side salad.  And like other nights, we shared a bottle of wine.

Saturday morning, we started out as we did every morning with breakfast at the hotel.  I love a great breakfast included in the rate.  The breakfast at Hotel Capri Tiberia was amazing.

Station after station of food to chose from!

We headed to Marina Grande to take a boat trip around the island of Capri.

We chose a public one and we opted to not see the Blue Grotto, largely in part due to it not even being open at the time we wanted to depart. When it did open up later in the day, it was a couple hour wait to even get in!  It really was amazing and throughout the boat ride, I kept saying, we are on a boat ride in Italy!  I had to keep saying it aloud to remind myself this moment was real!  The Faraglioni Rocks.

The water was so green and so blue in various places…just beautiful.

We were exhausted after the boat ride.  It wasn’t like we did much, but the sun on the water clearly wiped us out!  Back in town, we grabbed some pizza and gelato.  We took a stroll through the Botanical Gardens.

Then we took a nap at the hotel.  We sat outside in our regular clothes on this super comfy dual lounge in the shade at the pool and we fell asleep close to an hour.  It was glorious.  Despite being groggy from not being active enough that day, we realized being active was exactly what we needed.

We put on our workout clothes and hiked up to Villa Jovis  Holy hike!

It was the workout we needed.  And I totally was not expecting what we saw when we got to the top!

It amazes me that in the year AD 27 THIS fortress was completed.  I’m seriously in constant awe of what people who lived generations ago were capable of.  I can’t even imagine being at the top of this fortress having a view of the entire island to scope out enemies.  It totally revived us.  Such a great afternoon hike!

We went to another local spot for dinner that was recommended by Jim, Ristorante Le Gratelle and we had passed by a few times.  Dinner was good, but I was hoping for spectacular this meal, and it was good, but not spectacular.  I think my expectations were too high because I was expecting the food to be way better than something I can make.  We again enjoyed a bottle of wine with our meal.  We definitely enjoyed the vibe of the place and don’t get me wrong, dinner was good. I had the fish…which I did almost every night….some sort of local white fish this time.

After dinner, we walked to the city center and danced in the piazza, an experience I will always remember.

Monday morning, we awoke early as usual and had our last breakfast at the hotel before catching the 9:30 a.m. ferry to Amalfi.  I made the most of my time waiting for the ferry.

The ferry ride was delightful.  Again, I was just taking it all in constantly reminding myself that I was in Italy.  I continued doing the same upon our arrival in Amalfi!

Our hotel was literally stories and stories high and at the bottom of the hotel was a beachfront property.

We lounged for a little more than an hour.  I wanted to remember this moment forever!

We even got in the water for a few!  It was cold and refreshing!  I can say that I have swam in the Tyrennian Sea!

We then walked into the city center of Amalfi.

We checked out some stores.  There were tons of souvenir shops!

I saw the biggest lemons I have ever seen before.  I touched the, got yelled out, and then clearly saw the sign that said no touching.

We explored the church.  Again, old churches simple amaze me.  The fact that hundreds and hundreds of years ago people could build such beautiful intricate works of art amazes me.

We also ate some gelato.  There was seriously a gelato place every 20 feet.  Which one to go to was a touch decision!  We picked one though, Il Pianeta Del Gelato, and holy slam dunk….it was the gelato I had been waiting for the whole trip.  It was absolutely amazing.

I was then convinced we could hike to Ravello, a neighboring town from the city center of Amalfi.  I had read the reviews on hiking from Amalfi to Ravello and I knew it would be a workout!  But I knew it was possible and would take a few hours.  Holy stairs!  Holy legs!  I knew the hike would be long and I had read that while there were “bathrooms”, one should bring their own toilet paper.  I came prepared!

According to the online discussions I found on the hike, the hike was supposed to be fool proof.  Well Justin and I were fooled.  We took a few wrong turns and were able to get back on track once, but we got to one part, where we honestly couldn’t find the next location.  It was so frustrating because we had hiked for a little over an hour and were probably less than a half hour away at this point.  Justin was feeling like we could get murdered though, so we finally decided to turn back around.  The way down was much easier than the way up!

Monday night we ate at Sensi, an up and coming Michelin Star restaurant.  It was the only restaurant that we ate at that’s menu was truly different than every other restaurant we ate it.  It was very similar to Clarity in Vienna.  It was good, but they forgot one of the amush bouche’s that I saw them give to the table next to us and the portions were even smaller than one would expect for even this type of restaurant…so very good but I had higher expectations for this type of rated restaurant.  The bread though….phenomenal!  We took a nice stroll through town home, which was a must after the two entire loaves of bread that I ate!

Tuesday our last day, we opted to hire a private driver to take us along the coast from our hotel in Amalfi to Positano and then Ravello. Our driver, Salvadore, was excellent!  We made a few stops along the way.

Positano!

Hello wallets!  Seriously so many shops!  I wanted to get the girls something and with so little time to price shop, I found myself just buying without much consideration if I could find something I liked more at another shop or for a better price.

I’m so glad we were able to make it to Positano.  How I would have loved to have been more leisurely.  Next time Positano. We made a few more stops along the way as we made our way towards Ravello!

Ravello!  Ravello was totally up our alley.  Quieter, more artsy, not as touristy.  We were also short on time in Ravello, but we made the most of it.  We walked around town.  We took in all the simplicities and the details.  We ate a delicious lunch.

We explored Villa Rufolo.  Absolutely breathtaking.

And we topped it off with gelato, which was just as amazing as it was the prior day.  We got back to our hotel at 5:15 giving us about a half hour to relax at the beach club before it closed.

We decided to eat at the hotel since we had a voucher. Dinner was not bad, certainly overpriced.  We were on our way back up to the room and decided we needed to walk more.  We walked outside and the next thing you know, we walked into town.  The wine we had at dinner may have swayed that decision some.

We laughed, we had fun, Justin had a drink, we decided to have gelato yet again, which made it my fifth time having gelato in four days.

It was five days of pure bliss and joy. A vacation that was rather spontaneous.  A bucket-list vacation that was made possible by working hard, making good financial decisions, and having two grandparents who were happy to watch the girls for a week.  Grateful!

An equestrian

A butterfly 

And Mary Poppins

The weather was rainy all day, but for two hours the rain stopped and these girls trick or treated with the neighborhood kids and had a great time.

They all came up with their own costume ideas this year!  Pretty proud of them for not only coming up with their own ideas, but sticking with their original idea.  Happy Halloween!

What Fall Festival to visit this October was the Saturday night question?  After scouring the internet for our options, we decided this was the year to head back to Cox’s Farm, after having last visited when Harper was two-months old.  It was a pricey admission fee at $20 per person so we were planning on spending much of the day there.

As we got closer to the farm via the one-way road, the traffic was at a standstill and it appeared as though we would be waiting an hour to at least just to get in the farm.  We made a U-turn and quickly came up with a new plan, which was to go to another nearby farm, Tichondria Farms, which I had also seen in my Saturday night research.  It wasn’t nearly as grandiose as Cox’s Farm, but it was close in proximity and sufficient, and not in high demand.  I attribute the low demand due to the sky-high prices (nearly the same as Cox’s).  Honestly it was ridiculously overpriced, but being so, small crowds and no lines.

We started out riding these tractors as a family.  Holy leg workout!  They were so fun to ride and I couldn’t stop laughing the whole time I was riding.

The pony ride was next.  Oh wait we skipped that….that was an extra $5 a ride…it wasn’t included in the $17.95 admission price.  On the way to the pony ride, we walked by a firepit for roasting marshmallows and making smores, also not included in the admission price!  The seesaw…that was included in the price and next!  Again, no lines…it was great and we had a fun time taking turns.

The jumping pillow was a welcome surprise.  The girls loved the jumping pillow from Great County Farms last year and were thrilled to see one at this farm.  Unlike Great Country Farms, adults were allowed on this pillow!

A walk through the Bamboo Maze.

Taking turns going down the slides.

We walked on the rope suspension bridge.  Followed by yoga on the hill.

With a view of goats.

Taking turns on the rope swing.

Waiting for the cow train ride.

The kids go on the cow train..

Meanwhile Justin and I had a few minutes together.

And last but not least, a hayride, which was 15 minutes and 15 minutes too long for the girls.  It was a nice touch but they were not terribly impressed. 

High prices = low crowds and a good time.

Happy happy heart!!!!

Routine.  When the girls were younger, we established routine with everything…all with the goal of creating good behaviors. Those routines become habits, which overall have served us well…i.e…limiting screen time and eating healthy.

Last night before bed, I was doing some planning for Saturday, which included needing to eat a very early lunch for us to accommodate back to back soccer games for which we needed to leave the house at noon.   With an early lunch, the last thing I wanted was to be in kitchen all morning making breakfast, then cleaning it up, only to repeat less than two hours later.   Justin was going to get the oil changed early in one of the cars in the morning….so Dunkin Donuts (being near the gas station) for breakfast seemed like the perfect idea

Harper was the first to see the donuts when she woke up and her excitement alone made it worth it.

Eight years later and our first Dunkin Donut morning!  I told that to the girls and then they reminded me while this was our first donut morning at home, they had for sure eaten their fair share of donuts at school, swim team, and with our au pairs.

Harper, are you sure about that?

As she was getting ready for school this Friday morning, Harper asked both Justin and I if we were working from home that day or in the office.  Both of us replied working from home.  After taking them to the bus stop, Justin and I both entered our offices to begin our workday.  She had left each of us one of these on our desks.

My Harper….my heart:)

Reflection. Life.  Reflecting on life…I find myself doing that as I have a few more days before I turn 40. 40!  40!  How can that be?  The days of traveling softball, doing gymnastics at The Community Center, swimming in the pool during the summers while mom was working, playing at Elisha’s house, changing for gym class at Kilmer while keeping a low profile during gym, roaming the halls of Madison between classes; all seems like yesterday.  A lot has certainly happened since that time. I graduated high school, graduated college, got my first job, got my second job (going on 16 years there) and worked my way up the ranks there. During this time, I also fell in love, got married, had three beautiful girls, bought a condo, sold a condo, bought a house.

Justin and I have been together nearly half our lives.  I was 20 when we started dating.  Two decades! We have traveled together….California, New York, South Carolina, West Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, North Carolina Mexico, Nevis, Dominican Republic, Greece, Turks and Caicos, Sweden. I’ve traveled to Spain with my mom and Israel and London by myself as well during this time.

Our early 20’s were busy with getting jobs and putting our best foot forward each day.  Evenings were spent at the gym or at happy hours. A few years after being in the work force, we, like many of our friends, purchased our first home.  Bars and night clubs were already behind us (yet they were truly never a thing) and spending times letting loose on the weekend with friends occurred more frequently at our homes.  We were busy…weekend mornings we slept in…a must when not going to bed until way after midnight.  Going to the gym mid-day on weekends was the norm and our day would start after a late lunch.  Not sure what we did each weekend, but I can tell you that even in my 20’s responsibility filled a lot of our to-do list on the weekends (grocery shopping in person at Giant, my Sunday cleaning “ritual”, and a monthly deep clean of our condo. We had fun though and we were lazy. Turning on the T.V. daily was a norm – eating dinner in front of the T.V at the coffee table also a fairly regular occurrence.

Life was good in our 20’s. After being a couple for close to 8 years, Justin and I got married when I was 29 and he was 28.  The years surrounding our sacrament of marriage were filled with attending many weddings.  Then I turned 30 along with Justin and most all our friends!

30’s were the decades of babies!!  And we had our share…3 of them in the course of two years!  The baby phase was amazing.  Conversations with friends paused for quite a few years truthfully but I was so present when the girls were babies and toddlers.  Busy, yes of course, but present!  During the girls’ early years, we moved out of our condo, moved in with my parents, bought a house in a wonderful neighborhood, and welcomed four au pairs into our family.

Then with a blink of the eye, we no longer had an au pair, we had two 8 year-olds, a 6 year-old, and I was turning 40!  Life!  I’m in my 40’s!  Truthfully, I think a lot of that disbelief is because I feel great and don’t look terribly different than I did at 16…yes, older…some wrinkles, but not a ton.  And I am in great shape!!  While I have categorized my life as busy at every stage of my life, in large due to my Type A personality, I am grateful for this next chapter.  Grateful to be turning 40.  Grateful to be the one to get my girls ready for school and be there when they get home in the afternoon.  Grateful to have saved enough money to finally embark on our home renovation. Grateful for a job that allows me to work largely at home. Grateful for kids who despite fighting truly love each other.  Grateful for a supportive and loving husband. Grateful for a life partner to dream with and turn our dreams into reality.  Truly grateful.