Anniversary

We celebrated seven amazing years of marriage on July 8th with dinner at Bistro de l’Herimitage in Occoquan, Virginia.  Tucked away in a sleepy little mill town off I-95, this restaurant was a real find: authentic French cuisine served in an informal setting.  When Bryant first proposed the idea of driving to Occoquan for dinner, Elise was intensely skeptical but became a convert after the first course.  Since it was our anniversary, the restaurant kindly served us an extra dessert, which meant we got to sample not two but three items from the dessert menu: millie-feuille, chocolate mousse and creme brulee.  To avoid traffic, we arrived a little early and had the chance to stroll along the riverfront before dinner.  Occoquan was surprisingly charming, with a number of quaint shops and restaurants in the “Old Town” section.  We both said it would be good to come back with the kids and have ice cream along the river.  Although only 20 minutes from Washington, it felt a lot further away.  This has been a busy summer, and it was nice to escape for a few hours of uninterrupted adult conversation.   Here we are (above), before heading out for our big night on the (small) town.

80s Night

Our daycare center—St. Anthony’s Day School—holds a silent auction every year to raise funds for teacher appreciation and special events.  This year’s theme was “80s Night.”  This was our first time attending the auction, and we decided to get into the spirit of the evening by dressing up.  Elise wore neon tights, a lace headband and fishnet gloves.  Bryant wore a Van Halen t-shirt and a fake mullet.  Amazingly, we were able to order all of this from Amazon (how would we survive without Amazon Prime?).  As you can see from the photo (above), the final result was pretty impressive.  So impressive, in fact, that we won “best costume” (beating out some strong competition from a couple dressed as Maverick and Charlie from Top Gun) and a free dinner at Joe Theismann’s Restaurant.  The auction itself was a lot of fun—a nice way to socialize with other families from school.  We walked away with a toy pirate chest (made by Henry’s teacher), a wine basket and an overnight stay at the New York Palace Hotel.  It looks like we have a trip to the Big Apple—maybe our first without kids—in our future.

Vivian's Dance Recital

Vivian had her first dance recital on June 2nd.  Bryant was surprised to learn that Vivian’s inaugural performance would be a “daddy and daughter” dance.  Along with the other girls from ballet class and their dads, Vivian and Bryant practiced after school for four weeks to get ready for the big day.  The instructors chose Rascal Flatts’s “Wish” for the Wiggletoes routine.  After some (very simple) choreographed steps, each pair got to perform a solo move.  Bryant and Vivian chose to soar like an airplane.  Below are two rough videos of our performance.  Elise had a little trouble holding the camera still because she was tearing up.  Despite some pre-show jitters, Bryant managed to more or less remember his moves.  Vivian was a natural and even gave out a little squeal of delight when the audience applauded at the end.  And of course, she loved wearing her frilly dance costume.  Well done, Vivi.  We’re proud of our little girl!

 

 

Ringing in the New Year

Bryant and Elise went out for New Year’s Eve—for the first time in five years.  We’re usually in bed well before midnight, but when several neighbors invited us to parties, we had no excuse not to hire a sitter and enjoy ourselves.  Bryant came back at 1am to relieve the sitter, but Elise stayed out until 2:30am!  Fortunately, the parties were just up the street, so all we had to do was stumble home, and try to survive our sore heads the next morning.  Here we are at the start of 2013 (yep, Elise really was drinking beer and champagne at the same time):

6 Years and Counting...

This year we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. (Six years!  It seems like just yesterday that we were preparing for the big day in Ann Arbor.)  To mark the occasion, we hired a babysitter and went to an early dinner at BRABO restaurant in Old Town.  We had a delicious meal of steamed mussels, watermelon and goat cheese salad (a surprisingly good combination), and steak and frites (with three different varieties of mayonnaise). The folks at BRABO were kind enough to offer us a complimentary glass of champagne when we arrived, and when our desserts were served, they wrote “happy anniversary”--in chocolate--on the plates.  We don’t often get to enjoy a date night, so it was nice to have a grown up meal and some grown up conversation for a few hours.  Afterward, we window shopped along King Street and wondered how it was possible for a store that specializes in vintage barware to stay in business.