Chris and I were able to sneak away for a little romantic getaway to South Beach over thanksgiving weekend. Before you start judging, we didn't fly out until Friday am, sheesh! FYI, thanksgiving was awesome. Had it over at Lisa and Scott's house and it very well may have been the best turkey i've eve had. Deep frying the bird is definitely the way to do it, no doubt.

Anyway, back to south beach.

1) I stayed in the nicest hotel i've ever stayed in, The Setai. Well worth the extra money over the delano, the raleigh, the shore club or the ritz(which we stayed in last time). I mean from the moment we booked online to the moment we left, they exceed my expectations at every turn. To start with, after booking online, they immediately sent us a form asking about possible food restrictions, name of any pets we might be bringing and THEIR possible dietary restrictions! The list went on and on. Upon arriving, they wisped you into their cozy lounge filled with plush sofas and arm chairs. The floor was a mixture of hardwood and what looked to be soap stone. The entire otel has a complete Zen like balanced feel to it. Immediately a personal hotel representative greets you with a a detailed personal portfolio, a nice cold hand towel and some sort of fruity mango/papaya concoction, d-e-e-e-licious! We;re quickly assigned a room key, which is super cool and just requires a simple swipe at your door. Grounds were amazing!! includes 3 swimming pools, each with a 10 degree temperature difference, 75, 85 and 95 degrees. seems like overkill at first, but I assure you, there's a huge difference! Beach service of course with drinks and food. Someone even had an f'in couch brought down to them on the beach! Yes, a rattan sofa! Here are the Miami Pics!

Enough about the Hotel, but we had a great time including sushi at The Townhouse Hotel dinner at Casa Tua (so super cute) and the nightlife included The Redroom (part of skybar) at the shore club, The Rooftop at Townhouse and Club Mansion which was off the hizzy! The Setai got us in VIP and it was absolutely out of this world! Here are some crappy phone pics from that night.

We just got back from a great little family trip to South Carolina for a wedding. We ended up flying because the continual thoughts of doing a road trip to SC with the fam, a loaded car and Grammy was a bit much for us to handle. Good thing too, because I was sick on the way down and by the time we were heading back, Nico was sick! Poor guy, ear infection was the culprit. Anyway, it was a really fun wedding on the beach and we got to see an alligator chillin' on the golf course which is always cool. Here are some pics!

This was our first Halloween in our new house and it was a blast! I've never seen so many children in costumes! It was crazy, they just kept coming and coming! The kids had a total blast and it was just a really great Halloween this year for all! Here are some pics of The Scappa, Hull and Schneider's Halloween. Enjoy!

It seems we were having some issues with blogger there for a few days, sorry about that. Should be all up and running now!! now I just need to post something new!:)

Wow let's see, where to start.....The Bottle and Cork? The Rusty Rudder? Starboard? Perms 'n Worms?

Let's just start at the top. We recently got back from our summer vacation, a full 7 days in Dewey. Although, I have to admit that I wasn't particularly looking forward to this family trip primarily due to location. However I have to say, Dewey actually surprised me a bit! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't by the scads of loud drunks wondering the streets at all hours of the night or the fight that we witnessed in rudder town, or even all of the "girls gone wild" stories. It just really boiled down to a few key points:

-First, the beach was just really great at Dewey. Not so crowded(everyone's hung over in the am from the night before) and it's a quick walk from anywhere. And of course you can't beat Sharky's for an early morning snack before you hit the surf.

-Secondly, the proximity to the great restaurants in Rehoboth. I still like Rehoboth a bit better overall, but this is a close second I think.

-Third, the jolly trolley was a big hit for the kids.

-And lastly, you obviously can't beat the night life. And when you have a few groups of friends down at the same time like we did, combined with the incredible family coverage we were fortunate enough to have, it all seemed to come together really nicely! Good food, great friends and family...and oh yeah and great margaritas too!;)

Here are some pics of the Scappa's Summer Vacation, Dewey style.

Chris and I recently discovered an old treasure as we were rummaging through some things attempting to clean out our office armoire. To our delight, here's what we found. It was an unmarked cd of pictures. "Pictures of what?", you ask? It was from a really fun trip Bill, Erika, Chris and I took several years back to Jamaica. Man, the memories came flooding back(albeit cloudy). For example, I kinda forgot I was a fairly frequent smoker(putting it lightly)! Poor Chris....well first off, I forgot that she'd cut her hair that short at one point, but secondly(and more importantly), she was pregnant at the time. So she really couldn't fully enjoy all that Jamaica had to offer. However, although Chris wasn't able to take it all in (like the different types of spicy jerk chicken, the freshly brewed red stripes, the silly mai thai's at Mango's Bar, the amazing blue mountain coffee, etc), she certainly gave back as much as she could. You see she was about three months pregnant with Olivia at the time and that was pretty much peak nausea time for her. What a trooper!

Needless to say, we've immediately started planning our next trip back to The Ritz Carlton, Rose Hall. :)

WOW WHAT A WEEKEND!! The family had a nice little fun filled, jammed packed weekend. So packed, that i'm still working on posting this darn thing days after! So here it goes.....

Friday - Chris and I decided to take off in order to take care of some very important and long over due pampering. We started things off by taking advantage of the absolute perfect weather downtown. We did some shopping in Georgetown, grabbed a nice little bite, followed by some amazing massages at The Four Seasons. Highly recommend the "Pennsylvania Ave" massage if you ever have the opportunity. We ended up getting a room, picking up the kids and spending the night there. We had dinner at a great restaurant called Pizza Paradiso. I remember when it first opened thinking it would never last. But man, was I ever wrong!! This place is awesome! Very authentic Pizza! The buffalo mozzarella is amazing, melts in your mouth! We also tried their bruschetta(for the record, it's pronounced like this, not like this) that had mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, man.....so good! Make sure to eat downstairs to get the true italian authentic "pub" feel. This place is 5 stars in my book!
Saturday - We woke up bright and early and had a nice breakfast at the hotel before going for another walk, grabbin' some starbucks and heading home. Then Chris' mom came over to watch Nico while Chris, Olivia and I headed back downtown to catch a Nat's game! Olivia was completely beside herself and quickly became one of their biggest fans! On the way home we hit the Lost Dog Cafe in Arlington. Again, another five stars in my book! Their selections of subs, pizza and beer are pretty impressive and some are actually good for you too! I highly recommend "Billy's Philly", one of my favorites. Chris really likes "The Muttly".

Long story short, we had a really great weekend jam packed weekend and here are the pics to prove it! Hope all is well!

Version 3 has come with some pretty major changes, and trust me, there are plenty more to come! However in the meanwhile, please feel free to chime in and let me know your thoughts on how you feel things are coming so far!

Okay folks, looks like we've made some major progress with the folks at google and redirecting our DNS. Gotta give a big shout out to my boy adam over at googleapps for helpin' me out through some difficult times. Couldn't of done it without you man!

Anyway, this looks to be a monumental step in getting us new customized layouts and designs for our blog! Are you as excited as I am?

I just quickly wanted to check in and report on a few things as the summer already seems to be passing us by!

First, as you can imagine, I'm having issues with transferring the blog over to the new www.scappadc.com site. Back off, i'm workin' on it!

Secondly, Nico's turning into a chubby little animal! His colors are really starting to come into focus as he's beginning to develop his, albeit limited, personality. He's really laughing away these days and Olivia has no problem being the center of his attention! It's truly amazing to see him focus all of his attention on her. It's almost like he's able to make a distinction between grown ups and kids somehow! It's cool to see how they're already slowly beginning to form that fraternal bond and plotting their evil plans to take over the roost....then the world!;)

I'm trying to keep the pics coming, so I'm posting some from a couple of recent trips to the shore. Actually 2 different shore lines to be exact. The first was to Harrington Harbor in Southern Maryland. We were celebrating Aunt Betty's Bday! She's the one tearin' it up in some of the pics with Livvy. You wouldn't know that she was the one turning the big 7-0 just by meeting her! She's definitely got some fight left in her!;) Click Here to see the pics.

There are also some pics from our trip last weekend to OC/Bethany to visit the Rents. Olivia LOVES spending time with her ol' Nonno and Nonna!

We also just purchased a new car, the all-new GMC Acadia. The Land Rover's out and in comes my first American Car since the old caprice classic wagon....ah yes....I can still smell her....

I'll get more into the new family car in a later post. Much to report on this front.

Hope everyone's having a great summer and hope to see you all soon!

It's been a little while since I posted some good pics of the kids(especially Nico). So here a re a couple of slideshows. The first album is of Olivia's recent Ballet Recital that was so unbelievably cute and some other randoms! She's been in this ballet class for a year now practicing for this recital. I have a video i'm trying to edit and get small enough to post(it's in HD), because it's just so cute and funny. Nico's album on the other hand shows that he is growing up faster than you can say Blogger! I can't keep up!

It's been brought to my attention that a co-worker(well, he's actually my boss)and so-called "friend" thought it would be funny to start an "I Hate Mauro Blog". It seems as though others are beginning to contribute now too...great, now everyone I work with has suddenly become a self proclaimed comedian! Some have gone as far as referring to me as the HR Guy, "Toby", from the show The Office. For those of you that have seen the show, you know that his character is portrayed as strait-laced and stuffy. "Toby" seemingly has been hired by corporate to handle human resources for the branch. He basically makes sure Michael Scott(his boss) stays in line and makes it through the day without getting fired and/or sued.

For those of you who know me pretty well, you're probably pretty confused right now. And that's what makes it even more funny for me. It couldn't be further from the truth, right!? Oh well, it's kinda flattering I think.... More flattering or depressing? I'm not sure, but it's definitely a sure sign i'm getting old!;)


However, it's a bit reminiscent of a blog I came across not too long ago, see for yourself.

Just a heads up, scappadc.blogspot.com will be moving. This SHOULD be invisible to all readers and you will be secretly directed to our new home, www.scappadc.com. Can you believe scappa.com(squatter) AND scapppa.net are taken? Who would have thought?! You shouldn't be affected or have to do anything new, it'll all be handled behind the scenes.

I'm hoping to make big modifications to the design and possibly ui/layout in the near future. So keep your eyes peeled for some fun and exciting changes!

Thank you Bill and Derrick for this wonderful and thoughtful xmas present. It took over five months for it to actually come to fruition, but man....it was so worth the wait! I unfortunately wasn't able to catch the beginning of this performance when she was freestylin' on stage like Missy Elliot! Don't you worry though, there will be many more to come now that she's feelin' it! Enjoy!

Yeah, yeah, so it's my birthday today, so what? In fact, I'd actually kinda like to move past it as quickly as possible! We had a fun filled night on Friday to celebrate both my and Bill's bday's. Bill flew into town from LA and Chris arranged for a Limo to come pick us up. We started off at Rosa Mexicano for a few drinks. It was my first time there after hearing so many people recommend it! Fun atmosphere and a large tequila selection. If you're not careful, you might end up ordering a $40 shot of tequila like i almost did! After a couple of margaritas, we headed over to have dinner at Zengo, I highly recommend this place! Really great decor and the food was amazing! What a crazy concept, latin/asian cuisine! Just be careful with the drinks, i mean wow! Anyway, from there we stopped over to see Egan who was working over at Rumors. That unfortunately didn't last too long because Chris and Bill were coming unhinged by the fact that they were blaring the breakfast club theme song and the crowd was chanting, "hey, hey, hey, hey, oh-oh-oh-oh,oooooo-aaaa"! We had to leave shortly thereafter. From there we ventured to Andalu. They should really change their name to Anda-boo. This place has seriously gone down hill! So after a quick drink, we headed next door to the 18th Street Lounge. We had a great time there, love that place. Always so solid!

Had a total blast, but would like to soon forget it due to the occasion...;)

Sorry it's taken me so long to get something up since my last post! We've had a lot going on in Scappa-ville as of late including a move. Well I'm happy to report, that we're finally officially moved in. Even though we moved in nearly three weeks ago, we are just starting to actually get settled in. We still have boxes scattered throughout, but we're slowly getting things into place. We had a great Easter (even though it was freezing out) and ended up having to have our Easter egg hunt indoors! Take a look at some of our recent pics that include some Nico shots as well as some Livvy pics from Easter! I'll get more up soon I promise, once I can actually come up for air!;) Hope everyone's doing well!!

That's right, as I mentioned in my last post, our little girl turned three years old this past week! We really appreciate everyone coming out on Saturday to help make Olivia's birthday party so special!

I can't believe it, our little girl turned three years old today[wipes tear from cheek]. Man, they really do grow up fast, don't they? I feel like it was just yesterday when we were bringing her home from the hospital[sniffle]!
We played it low key for her tonight and just did a little something with a cupcake and candles, but I'll be sure to post some pics from her party later this weekend!

This Day in history by our friends at Wikipedia!

The Family ate out at Clare and Don's tonight. I'd originally tripped over it online while feverishly checking for any updates on the FC City Center Project. At any rate, I quickly learned that there's more to this restaurant than just a nice ring to their name. You see, for those of you who are like me and have been living under a rock as of late, Clare and Don's beach shack is owned by the owners who brought us Mexicali Blue's and Lazy Sundae. They originally opened in "Clarendon", get it?(Don't worry, I didn't get it at first ether) At any rate, we had a really great time! We originally tried going on friday night, but the wait was too long, so we left. However we ventured back out tonight, a little earlier mind you, and were easily sat at around a quarter to 6pm. However, there was a line by the time we were getting our check at 7. I was gonna write up a nice little review, but I'm tired and found one that sums it up nicely from AOL City Guide.:) However, I do need to say that it's a great place for all including young families....oh and I highly suggest getting one of their Mai Tai's too! Also just for the record, we ordered hush puppies to start(tasty) along with a salad and crab bisque(not too shabby), chris had a chix burrito w/ brown rice and black beans(really enjoyed it), olivia ordered the fish and chips(so bizarre, but she ate them all up!) and I had shrimp basket -1/2 buffalo and 1/2 coconut shrimp(big and delicious). Also, you should know that they're vegetarian friendly with a good selection of tofu options under their "empty net" section on their menu. Also, you can sub fries for veggies and/or corn on the cobb! I give it 5 stars! It'll be packed come summertime with their outdoor seating and great drinks!

Clare and Don's (get it?) is the fourth Claredon eatery established by the team that brought you local favorites Lazy Sundae, Mexicali Blues and the erstwhile Big Belly Deli. Clare and Don's unassuming storefront in the old Red, Hot & Blue Express location could be a transplant from the Rehoboth boardwalk, with live hermit crabs wandering on the sand behind the glass. The laid-back beach vibe continues inside, where seating is in the form of bar stools and picnic tables, and walls are adorned with rubber flip-flops and fishing nets. There's also a small alfresco dining area, good for people-watching.

One of the few joints in the area that focuses on seafood, the menu offers everything from alligator tail to surf-and-turf. Those who are looking to eschew breaded or fried food will have to tread lightly around the menu, although the owners do seem to have been conscientious enough to include a decent spectrum of non-fish and vegetarian items. A kids' menu and a bright atmosphere will surely beckon local families, while a decent beer selection and three TVs mounted above the separate bar area will give Clarendon bar-hoppers one more place to hang out. -- L. Adrienne Wichard (Photo: L. Adrienne Wichard)

Well, we can't exactly say his baptism went off without a hitch...but we can say that it'll certainly be one that we'll remember for a long time to come!

As most of you know, little Nico's Baptism was yesterday. Unfortunately, it also come with about 6+ inches of snow and muck too! The actual baptism itself went great! It all went very smooth and he slept through the entire thing! When we all finally made it back to the house, we just made best of the situation at hand and had A TON to eat and drink! Since we were initially planning for 45+ people, I think we'll probably be eating Ridgwell's for breakfast, lunch and dinner like this entire week! Actually come to think of it, that's not such a bad thing, is it? I could certainly think of worse!;)

In all seriousness, thank you to all who braved the dangerous conditions and journeyed out to see the little guy receive the Sacrament of Baptism. But for those of you who couldn't make it, we completely understand. Enjoy the pics and I'm sure we'll all see each other again soon!

Please bare with us as we update our blog. We're about 80% complete. We will hopefully have it completed by first thing Monday morning. I just need to teach myself xml first!;)

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been slightly obsessed with the latest buzz going around Falls Church of a new City Center. Up until recently, downtown Falls Church has been a bit of a dump. There's just not much going on besides a few choice restaurants, bars, The State Theater and a bunch of outdated rundown office buildings. However, there has recently been a good amount of development happening further west on Rt. 7 including: The Byron, The Read Building and The Spectrum. All of which show much promise bringing much needed high end retail, restaurant and class A office space and from what I hear, beautiful condos.

There's also another development currently under construction which peaks my interest even more, Pearson Square located on South Maple Avenue, only a rocks throw from our new house. From what I've read, it sounds like it's going to deliver a much needed boost to the surrounding downtown area. It will include 230 condos, 75,000 sq.ft. of Class A office space and 25,400 of high quality retail and restaurant space. The retail space will focus on the arts and feature local visual and performing artists. Sounds great, doesn't it? There's already been a bit of development that's gone up recently surrounding Maple Ave. including a new Elevation Burger(highly recommend), a spa and a personal trainer/gym type of a thing. This looks to be the first of many steps that The City of FC's taking to turn the whole downtown area around.

As you can see from the pic I posted of the proposed city center, they're initially looking to target roughly a 6 square block area downtown. However, this past December, “The Atlantic Realty Companies (ARC) submitted an application to the City for a mixed-use development project on approximately five acres of land located on the south side of West Broad Street (Route 7), east of the post office, and in the 200 block of South Maple Avenue—the current site of Bowl America. ARC’s proposal will bring elements the City has been striving for in its downtown commercial district for years, including retail, residential housing, office space, and a hotel. The plan includes a Harris Teeter grocery store; more than 100,000 square feet of new office space on Broad Street; a 180-room hotel; approximately 500 residential apartments that include affordable housing; 67 condominiums structured as age-restricted housing; a new Bowl America bowling facility; and about 1,500 spaces of structured parking, primarily underground. Roughly 40 percent of this phase of City Center will be commercial, 60 percent residential.” Click here for a rendered drawing. WAAAWHOO!!! More to come....

Yes, you read the title right! And no, this is not an old post from a couple of years back. We're really moving......yes again! We're happily staying in Falls Church, only this time, we were FINALLY able to find something in the actual City of Falls Church which we're really happy about. "Why? Why, are you moving AGAIN? You JUST bought that house!" I know, Dad, I know. You're totally right; we haven't even lived in this house for two years yet! However, with the recent addition to the family(Baby Nico), a new nanny and my folks staying for extended visits, we quickly realized that we needed more space, fast.

So over the last several years we've moved....well...several times. And the funny thing is, all three have been within like a mile of each other! This one will hopefully be "the one" for a while....well at least longer than two years!;) We’re really psyched about being in the City of FC. What a difference a little line in the sand can make! Did you know that the City of Falls Church became an independent City in 1948 led by parents determined to improve the quality of local schools? Well now you do! Our local high school, George Mason, is ranked #41 nationally, not too shabby! It's #3 in VA and I’m not too sure where the #2 school is....where's berryville? The #1 Va school is some sort of magnet school, so that doesn't count. They have some sort of wacky lottery to enroll! Stupid nerds. Anyway, another cool thing is that the elementary school is at the end of the street! So that'll make it really easy to get Livvy to and from and a great place to play on the weekends. Also, there’s a lot going on blocks away at the “FC City Center”. I’ll report on that in future posts. It’s quickly become a small obsession of mine! And I’ve recently come to find that part of it involves…..The Lessard Group, that’s right Joe. We’re gonna need to talk.

Anyway, I'll post more pics as construction continues and of course upon completion. Keep in mind there's still a lot that needs to be done to the exterior, the weather has not been too cooperative as of late! But some additions include, mahogany front porch and steps with detailed craftsman style mill and lattice work, stone along the front and surroundings as well as the garage entry and up the drive, sod, trees and landscaping and ah yes, a garage door too;)

Please help me welcome Domenico Ray Scappa to the world! He was born on January 16, 2007 at 12:31pm. He weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs. 4 oz. and a towering 19" tall. So far we really can’t complain, he's been a pretty great baby, only crying when he's hungry and quickly going back to sleep. However, we know how quickly things can change and how bad it can get. I can remember all of the sleepless nights spent pacing back and forth in the wee hours trying to get Olivia back to sleep after a feeding! So far so good though..... We know it's only been a short two weeks, but we're trying to remain optimistic in hoping he's going to be the easiest and best sleeper ever! BUT, we have realistic expectations and know this little sleeping streak won't last! So for now, I'm just enjoying it while it does! Notice I make reference to “me” enjoying his good sleeping. That’s because poor Chris is still getting up ever 3 hours or so to feed though! Sorry sweetheart, he’ll start making it through the night soon!:)

I have to say, even though Olivia isn't even three yet, I’m amazed how quickly you forget what it's like to have a little newborn! Just the little things, you know? In the short couple of weeks little Nico has been a part of our lives, he's quickly reminded us how wonderful each and every smile, giggle and silly face is and how truly blessed we really are to have him here with us! It really puts things back in perspective and realigns your priorities in life. Thanks for being so special little buddy!

I'll keep you posted as things change and progress! And I promise to try and keep the pooping and peeing stories to a minimum!;) BUT MAN, let me just say this, girls make for a much easier diaper change!! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these pics and I'll post more soon!