Greece

Jeff and I are on our way home from two weeks in Greece. We can hardly wait to see and hug and cuddle the little man but it has been an amazing, fascinating and relaxing trip. It has been an interesting time to be in Greece but in a nutshell we had a great experience with the people and the country.

We started with two days seeing the sites in Athens, and then jumped a short flight to Santorini. We stayed in Oia (amazing!) where we did some scuba diving, hiked, lazed on the red and black sand beaches and caught every single sunset. We then flew back to the main land and jumped in the car for quick visits to Delphi and Olympia. Delphi is difficult to explain but certainly worth the jaunt and Olympia (the site of the original Olympic games) was surprising and definitely fueled my Olympic fire. We relaxed for a few more days on the coast in Nafplio. Then caught a ferry to enjoy the island life on Hydra. Hydra with no cars, only donkeys and oddly a LOT of cats was the perfect place to end our trip.

After 9 years (next week!) we got a kick out of being pegged as honeymooners everywhere we went, but we are ready to get back to the real world and thank our amazing family for taking such good care of Abe.

Below are a few pictures. Yes, they are a bit random (my husband gives me a hard time about the photos I select) but these are the ones that make me smile.

The earthquake history on the Acopolis is amazing!

 Just another night in Oia, Sanotorini

 The "Newlyweds"

Wine tasting at sunset overlooking the caldera.

The vehicle of choice on Santorini.

Delphi theatre.

Jeff on the original marble starting line at the Olympic stadium.

  

Umbrella, check.  Lounge chair, check. Frosty beverage, check.

Sun, check. Beautiful beach, check.

The other vehichle - the classic Fiat PANDA!

The only mode of transportation on Hydra.

Cappuccino Freddo.

He came. He conquered.

Raised Beds

We are working to put in raised beds in our backyard. Here are a few shots of the progress.

 the disasterous "before" shot

in progress

Green Thumb

Abe has really enjoyed working in the garden this spring.  At school they raised caterpillars/butterflies and then released them into their garden.  Since then, he has been very interested in growing things and all sorts of bugs, worms, bees, and birds that populate our back-yard.

Back in the Saddle

It has been a while since our last post, and we have been working to get our projects out of the way so we can enjoy the summer.  We wrapped up the upstairs bathroom in February which was our last major project inside the house. 

Upstairs Bath Progress

I am not sure if I mentioned but Abe had a blast on Halloween...so much so that everytime we go to a neighbor's house he yells "trick or treat!" and the halloween costumes (he had two thanks to his Aussie aunt) have been using their super powers to help around the house. Here is Batman helping Daddy with the bathroom wall texture.

the real superhero hard at work

progress on the tile

Abe's favorite place to nap these days is his tent aka "the bat cave"

Upstairs Bath Before & Demo

We have been hard at work over the last month on the upstairs bath.  Jeff has had a LOT of help from Abe with this one. Things started going much smoother once we established that all tools, regardless of size, weight or location belong solely to Abe and that while he is willing to share with his Daddy, permission must first be asked, preferably with the word "please" and if possible, only after Abe attempts to use the tool first. Jeff's patience has been amazing and it has been really funny to listen to those two "negotiate" over tools.

Merry Christmas!

Our trip to the Westlake carousel on Christmas eve morning was so fun. We can't believe how much Abe has grown from last year!