July 4- Murica Style

It’s been a long time since we were in the US to celebrate the fourth of July. The kids and Randy were off for the whole week so they headed down to the Outerbanks. I had a few days of Ukrainian class that week and planned to meet everyone down there on Wednesday.

That meant I had a free weekend and I decided to go away with my two good friends- the Carries. Carrie B used to live next to us in DC when I was pregnant with Adam. We both had babies at the same time and became good friends. Carrie A and I met in a new mommy Mindfulness class and it was true friends over baby poop and throw up. The three of us have stayed friends over 9 years despite living at various times in DC, Belgium, Manila, Dubai and Kyiv. This was the first time we managed a weekend away together and it was wonderful. We stayed at the Salamander, a wonderful resort not too far out of DC. There is something so heart restoring being away with good friends. I loved every minute of it. Spa, nice dinners, sleeping in, ordering too much room service late at night. I say this on repeat, but one the best things about the foreign service is realizing that you can not see people for years and when you come together it’s as if no time at all passed.

But there were four peanuts waiting for me on the beach, so after our weekend away I finished up Ukrainian class and headed down to the Outerbanks. Randy and I have wanted to go to the Outerbanks for years and I have to say it didn’t disappoint. We rented a little house by the beach and spent most of our days at the beach, fishing off the pier, barbecuing dinners at home and eating lunches at Gumbas, this cute little restaurant by the beach. Beach vacations are definitely my favorite type of vacations and I think I can say the whole Ali family agrees, especially a beautiful, windswept, not crowded one.

For Fourth of July we made a berry flag cake! I’ve always wanted to make one of these, but berries were few and expensive in Manila. Everyone was excited to make it and helped out!