Italy Summer 2011

Nana, Papaw, Saraya and I recently traveled to Italy for a wedding in Tuscany. I made a Mixbook photobook of the trip. We had an amazing time.

I will try and post some about our trip soon but for the meantime, enjoy the slideshow!

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Final Jordan Photos

One of my favorite things to do in Jordan is to visit the local bakeries. They are pretty impressive with their assembly line processing of some pretty amazing bread. Saraya apparently was fascinated as well. One of the guys who worked at the store gave her this piece of bread after she smiled and laughed at him and his co-workers. She enjoyed it.

This picture shows one of my favorite times of this recent trip, actually of any trip I have taken to Jordan. Here is Saraya surrounded by 4 of her aunts (Abeer, Kowkip, Hanadi and Sawsan) and 3 of her cousins. What I loved about this lunch was that it was one of the few times I have had to spend with just the girls in Jordan. It was such a great lunch and Saraya loved all the attention from the ladies. What is even more inspiring is that at this table there is a school principal, a lawyer and a future lawyer, a civil engineer, a computer engineer and a musician. Now those are some great role models for Saraya!

While Saraya had a great time on our trip, she was ready to get home and see Daddy.

Here is one final shot of her. Even after 20 hours of traveling, she was still a trooper.

More Jordan Pictures

Here are some more photos from Jordan.

Aunt Sawsan and Saraya

Shopping for gold for Jiddeh (Grandma)

Playing with Uncle Mohammed

Saif and Saraya

Aunt Abeer and Saraya at the Citadel

International Traveler

From the day she was born, Saraya has been a wonderful baby. She is generally happy, rarely upset and she never seems to meet a stranger. If I wasn't already convinced of that, our recent trip to Jordan certainly solidified her status as the "World's Best Baby Traveler."

She was such a pro. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive to tackle a 24 hour plane trip with a 14 month old all on my own. But it was necessary in order for Saraya to meet her Jordanian family and so off we went.

She was such a good girl. She flew well, even though we spent 9 hours in flight from Cincinnati to Paris and then 5 hours in layover in Paris and then another 5 hours from Paris to Amman. And even more miraculous, when we got there she immediately adjusted to Jordan time even though it was seven hours ahead of EST. I couldn't have asked for a better baby to travel with.

Here are a few snap shots. Try to check back and I hope to post some more pictures and perhaps a video or two soon.

Here she is in front of the Roman ampitheater ruins in downtown Amman.

This is the same hill as the previous picture, only from the other side. It is one of my favorite spots in the whole world. I am so glad I got to share it with Saraya.

Same spot. That large flag can be seen from much of Amman. Our apartment is just behind the flag.

Playing outside in our driveway. Notice the large lemon trees in the background.

Playing on the balcony. She LOVED Jordan!

More Bahamas...

Fish!

One of Saraya's favortie things on vacation was looking at the fish. There were several aquariums and fish tanks and she loved watching the fish swim by.

Nurse sharks...look how close they are!

More fishes!

She loved looking at this big grouper.

How cute!

If you're happy...

I apologize for the dreadful singing in this video but the cuteness hopefully will make up for it.

While we were in the Bahamas earlier this month, Saraya learned how to clap. She also learned how to crawl, how to feed herself and she said Mama for the first time. We decided she must be a warm weather baby.

More pictures from our vacation to follow. Stay tuned!

Beach Baby

We took our first vacation with Saraya in August. We went to Myrtle Beach and Nana came with us! It was Saraya's first time at the beach and she seemed to like it. She was mildly scared of the waves but really enjoyed the water and being in the pool. The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed the rest, relaxation and sun! We even made it down to Charleston one day. We had one of the best meals I have ever had while we were in Charleston. If you are ever in the area, go eat atMagnolia's. The food was amazing!

Here are some pictures of Saraya at the beach. Enjoy!

Odds and Ends

We are expecting the biggest winter storm of this year in the next two days with snow accumulations of up to 16 inches by tomorrow afternoon.


I just drove home from working overnight (yes, moonlighting!) and it's already starting to come down. I have to say, I love the snow. My feeling is, as long as it's going to be cold, there might as well be a pretty blanket of snow to go with it.


I am traveling to the oh-so-exciting state of New Jersey tomorrow for a Davinci robotic training course and I just hope the weather doesn't interfere with my travel plans. My co-resident Jonah and I have to complete this training course prior to starting to work at one of the hospitals next year (this despite the fact that I have already done about a 150 robotic prostatectomys already at Strong Memorial, but who's counting) and it's been a nightmare to plan. I really hope we don't have to reschedule.


Ahmad starts back to class today after winter break. Apparently here in the northeast it's quite common to have both a winter and spring break, the former I suppose so students can take skiing trips.


We didn't go skiing this week, but we did attend a private piano concert performed by a friend of a friend which was spectacular. Michael Tan was the pianist and he trained at Juilliard and is now doing some post-graduate training at the Eastman School of Music here in Rochester. It was an amazing concert.


Finally, Laura and Michaels daughter and our niece, is now crawling. Or scooting, as Mom described it. Here's a recent picture of her for those of you who haven't seen her lately (or ever!).
I am a little biased (just a little...okay a lot!) but she's pretty darn cute, huh?


Hopefully we will get back down to KY to see her soon.