summer evenings

bracing ourselves for some of the beirut heat that we have experienced in the past, we entered into this june with some trepidation. but alas. have no fear. we have been surprised.

living on the 9th floor has brought summer breezes, and incredible views every night as we enjoy dinner on our balcony.

We have the joy of some of our closest friends, the chuds, staying with us for 5 weeks. true to their nature, they have jumped right into swing of things here...

mornings with claire...

lunch time manaqeesh...

evening walks on the corniche....

fruit and veggie errands to our neighborhood stands...

entertaining the bear while i cook dinner..

cleaning dishes and helping with dinner....

and the best part of the day- enjoying our dinner on our balconey.

There is something to be said about relaxed summer evenings. enjoying fresh hot food, catching up on all the various moments and adventures of the day, and then laughing and sharing hearts as the sun sets and dusk settles. Claire has added her personal touches to our dinner times, she laughs when we all laugh. She talks loudly to get us to look at her if we have not in a while...

and she tells us that she is done and then crawls all over our laps for the last bits of conversation we want to get in before evening settles and we transition to another location. treasure hunts, hang outs, game nights, or just settling in for the night.

dinner has always been my favorite meal, of course because i love it’s menu the best, but also because it gives everyone the chance to have stories. to have lived their life, had the experiences and then to come back and debreif them.

i loved Arndt family dinners, and still do.Sure they are a bit hectic with 3 grown men eating their fair share of food and all of us vying for the opportunities to talk. teasing, laughing, and storytelling that was the music of our dinners.

I love Caldwell family dinners...with my amazing in-laws....my first one ever i had the wonderful privelidge of being seranaded with “ the cowardly lion” song from Wizard of Oz by Bill Caldwell, and it was impressive. Presently, you never know what topic we will converse about, pick over and end up laughing and teasing and probably having an inside joke about for years to come!

and now i am loving our own establishement of dinners. of having a little larger family for 5 weeks and how it makes the dinner table feel that much more lively, that much more alluring, that much more dynamic.

and because we have our friends here with us, we have been socializing with them at various friend's houses...rooftop dinners at the Kopkes have to be a summer staple...

Claire was loving Andrew this particular evening and wanted to just rest her head on his arm.

and our little toot all tuckered out..