Allie in the South of Spain

We have had an amazing summer here in the USA!!! I am sad to leave and say goodbye to all our friends and family but I can honestly say that we took advantage of almost every moment we've been home. You can read about some of our specific summer adventures in these posts: Our girls-only weekend trip to the Big Apple Hanging out around the great state of Michigan Family GAGME trip to Washington D.C . Climbing Mount Pleasant As if all that weren't enough, we also went up to visit our good friends in Mount Pleasant (though I blanked and didn't take any pictures) for a few days last week. We walked around the campus and saw how much everything has changed since I graduated from CMU. Talk about expansion and new buildings! We also got to see Erica and Ernie's new house and have dinner where they had their wedding reception. Jose and I are excited that they are planning a visit to Spain in December. It'll be a great way to start the new year! Wedding weekend ...

The bald and the beautiful You may have noticed in some of the pictures I have posted this summer of my niece, Daphne. She doesn't have any hair on her cute little head. No, she is not sick in the traditional sense of the word; she isn't suffering from pain, no chemo, no cancer. (Not that I want to downplay her condition because being bald and being a girl will not be easy). Daphne suffers from alopecia which has caused her hair loss. Basically it is an autoimmune disease in which her body fights her hair. It could grow back or not. The whole situation sucks the big one. For Daphne. For her mom. For all people who don't have hair (except maybe Walter White). The long and short of it My sister Chrissie and I have been growing our hair out for some time in order to donate it to a charity that makes wigs for children. We decided to use Children with Hair Loss  ( www.childrenwithhairloss.us ). It is an amazing group that change the lives of kids who need a self esteem...

Garber's Annual Gathering: A Monumental Event My family and I have decided to create a new tradition in which we will take a vacation together at least once a year thus labeling it with the acronym GAGME (the ME part allowing for changes according to where we go). Since there are a lot of us and differing ideas of what constitutes a good trip, how long is too long for a roadtrip, what we should spend, where we should stay, what our themed days should be, etc., there was a bit of discussion and compromise before we finally decided on Washington D.C. for our inaugural year.  On the road to DC I had never been to our country's capital and loved seeing all the monuments, memorials, museums and such but won't bore you with photos of the things you probably already know are there (the White House, the Smithsonian, the National Zoo). Suffice it to say that there was a good blend of tourism mixed with a fair amount of time swimming in the hotel pool, hanging around and l...

Loving lake life Since our girls' trip to NYC we have been busy and this summer just seems to be flying by. First, we have been enjoying the lake life, swimming, boating and fishing as much as weather has permitted. I love being near water and can't imagine summertime without it. A view of the lake Fishing!! On the raft Fowlerville Fair Next we had a visit from my sister, Katie, and niece during which we headed to the Fowlerville Fair. I wrote about going last year here . This time we mostly went to see the animals with Daphne since she loves an aminal (the way she pronounces it). She seems to have a slight obsession with the song "Old McDonald" so it was cute to see her interacting with the farm animals she is always singing about. She also got her face painted and we enjoyed some unhealthy treats. Seeing the aminals. Face paint and Noonie Elephant ear. Yummmmmmmmm. Pure Michigan Birthday Bash My other sister, Chrissie had a 30...