Napa Weekend

Dave received a very generous gift card for his birthday to the Carneros Inn in Napa. We booked Friday and Saturday night and were determined to have a very relaxing weekend, our last chance before the busy holidays and the upcoming tax season......especially since we didn't get our trip to Europe or Hawaii this year.

Our cottage

Beautiful grounds

Nice scenery

Let me back up to the prior weekend. We attended a wonderful wedding of the daughter of a long-time dear friend. That could be a post all alone, but I know how you all LOVE photos and I did not take my camera. Sometimes when I have my camera, I get so involved with taking photos that I don't enjoy and experience the moment, so I decided to enjoy the wedding and left the camera at home. Anyway.....the couple are very in to wine and served three different wines at the dinner. I had a friend of theirs sitting next to me and he claimed to have introduced them to wines, and told me the story of each winery. Since we knew we were headed to Napa the next weekend, I took notes and decided we'd visit those wineries. We seem to go to the usual and familiar and rarely wander off to try something new.

On our way up on Friday, we stopped at one of the "wedding wineries", HDV. We had to make reservations. I thought the small boutique wineries require reservations because, well....I was wrong. It seems that a reservation is required by the local zoning laws. They want to keep the traffic down on the agricultural/rural roads. This makes sense. Oh, and the wineries are so small that they would be overloaded with large groups, to say nothing if a bus stopped by.

The host at HDV is really in to wines, he's studying to be a sommelier. This is not a place to stop if you're a casual wine drinker. They're known for their chardonnay, which is spectacular...and expensive. We ended up spending a couple of hours in this itty bitty winery, tasting and visiting....the KMA limo owners were a hoot. But it was time to check in, so off we went.

At the Carneros Inn, our little cottage was wonderful. We especially LOVED the radiant heated floors in the bathroom. The shower had a door on to the deck, just in cast we wanted to shower outdoors. The days were very warm and sunny, but the mornings and evenings were really cold. We had a couples massage on Saturday, laid around and read, and ate both evenings at The Farm. Dave had the BEST oysters ever and I had the BEST lobster risotto ever. The food was SPECTACULAR!!!!!

On our way home Sunday, we stopped at another "wedding winery", Elyse winery. This is a very cozy place. The tasting room is behind a house. The pourers was friendly, knowledgeable, and very fun....oh, and the wines were good too! We didn't make it to the third "wedding winery", we're saving that for our next visit.

New Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is my absolutely most favorite holiday. I LOVE preparing the meal, having people over, eating left overs for weeks, and even the clean up....maybe not so much the clean up. So it was a HUGE sacrifice for me to "let" the kids travel to SoCal to be with SIL's family. We ended up having dinner at the Club with MIL. I wasn't expecting much, buffet and all, but I was very happy.

We arrived just as they opened at 1 pm and ended up staying two hours. I love long, slow meals where there's plenty of time to eat and visit. This left us with plenty of time to drop in on two other celebrations. We didn't eat at Donna & Bret's...well I did snack, but who's surprised at that?....but we spent a couple of hours watching football on Bret's BIG screen TV and visiting. Then we were off to Wes & Diane's and their group. Where I did a tad more than snack.....it had been hours since we had our meal at the Club...and there was so much food, I just had to help out.

Then on Friday we were off to Napa for the weekend!

Am I Scared???!!!!!

Is this a guy thing? Tossing small children up to the heavens? I first saw this as a Swenson thing when my SIL and his brother tossed Josiah in the air. Yeah, it's all fun and games, but.......it scares me to death. Here are a few examples.....

Now look at this.....that's some serious air!

This doesn't scare me as much. E is a bit older, but still......

This could be why G.Pa is E's hero...he has him doing all sorts of stuff that he did as a young boy. This tree in our backyard was his tree house/fort. There are still some nails and boards left over in the tree.

I guess with two grandsons (so far) I need to get used to this stuff.....

Christmas Photos 2011

As the years fly by, I feel like I want to make some meaningful traditions for our family. I've probably done this without realizing it, but now I'm ready to make a choice. One thing I have wanted to do, which we had not been doing, was taking a family photo each Christmas. I LOVE family Christmas photos and newsletters when we receive them from others. An annual family photo would show the changes in our family for our photo albums and to family and friends that we don't see often. In the past, I simply tossed in a school photo of our daughter. But then she finally finished school and went on to a life of her own, and I may have even skipped the Christmas cards.

I missed the family photo when J was engaged, and then the next year after they were married, but now I'm on track (probably all about the grandchildren). The first year, J was pregnant. The second year, we had E. And now we have E & T. Who knows who'll be here next year!

Now that our SIL has a traditional, full-time job we found it especially difficult to synchronize our schedules.....not that ANY of us are complaining about that! We figured we had a two hour window, even less when you factor in naps, feedings, attention spans. So here we go........

This is a desperate attempt at getting E happy enough to continue

This was a pathetic attempt at taking sweet brother photos. Do you see the look of fear in the eyes of T? He's smart. E is just about to maul his little brother.

Then there's the uploading of the photos, scouring the over 100 shots for at least one to print. Here's J and the photographer (my OLDER sister, Rhonda). Rhonda has been doing this for us each year.

I am very happy to report that we were able to find one photo that we could agree on. Oh, and I'm trying something new this year, I'm ordering cards from Apple. We'll all see how that works out...could be a new tradition. Perhaps that's my tradition.....I keep changing :)

Ezra's New Toy

Once again G.Pa is the most awesome guy around, Ezra's favorite. While baking with G.Ma, one of the lights went out (which could be an entire post..... my anguish and disgust with the six different lights we have, because of the ridiculous ordinances and greenies). Replacing the light bulb requires a ladder. Dave has this six foot wooden ladder that belonged to his dad. He brought it in from the garage to replace the bulb. So that was it for the baking.

Ezra watched Dave complete the task and then had to get on that ladder. He climbed up and down that wobbly ladder for over 30 minutes! He was copying Dave and acting as though he was changing the light bulb. Ezra was so sad when the ladder went back to the garage.

For Ezra, the garage is a magical wonderland of everything he loves......motorcycle, helmets, gloves, crazy coupe, brooms and buckets, and now the ladder!

Baking with Ezra

Please note the adorable dinosaur apron on my sweet little grandson. Much to the chagrin of his G.Pa it is not the camo apron.

We tried out some new cookie recipes. We made chocolate chocolate-chip cookies that were really good. Then we made pumpkin spice chip cookies that weren't so great. We did this over two separate days.

Things Ezra learned: when a pan comes out of the over it is too hot to touch; when the cookies are on the pan, fresh out of the oven, it is too hot to eat; when you turn the mixer on maximum to begin, everything will be flung all over the kitchen; it's really fun to lick the beater, spoon, fingers, hands, etc.; G.Pa is a big hero for bringing in the step stool (it was formerly used by his mama).

Things G.Ma learned: Ezra is really only interested in the mixer (much like a power tool); Ezra is totally bored with the whole baking part because he only likes the mixer; if Ezra pulls the tablecloth the mixer will slide off the table too (not to worry, G.Ma caught the mixer before it crushed her beloved #1 grandson).

In my past life, I did bake with Jessica each year, even inviting her older cousins to join us. Perhaps I should have gone back to look at those photos so I would have been better prepared to do this with my grandson. But my memory is refreshed and I'm all set to go.

Ezra has a New Bike!!!!

My SIL is a deal hunter on Craigslist. He found a brand new bicycle, with the tags still on it, for $45! Including the Harley Davidson helmet with flames, perfect for Ezra who has a motorcycle obsession (wonder where that comes from?!).

Ezra was able to ride a tricycle when he was 18months old. He is such an overachiever. Really. That is spectacular. He has really great eye/hand coordination too, but that's for another post.

The training wheels are completely on the ground. I know there are some who are totally against training wheels. There are some little bicycles that do not have peddles. This gets the child accustomed to being upright on two wheels. You can see we're old school, he's using training wheels.

Not too sure that the helmet is effective when worn with a hat underneath, but that's how Ezra rolls. He insists on wearing a hat and goggles (you might call them sunglasses, but you would be wrong).

I spent the afternoon with him so his mama could get stuff done. I decided that he would ride to the local park. Our town has many fantastic parks, one for each neighborhood. He is completely unaware of dangers, but he's learning. He may have learned that those curbs are tricky. There was a bit of a tumble, but he brushed it off.

We left right after his nap, without any lunch, so we went to Safeway (I may have let him ride his bike inside the store because I didn't have a lock) and I bought him....a doughnut!!! His eyes lit up. He LOVED it! Oh, and some water to wash it down. He downed the doughnut as soon as we got to the park.

He was totally exhausted as we turned on to his block. I just mapped it and he rode almost TWO MILES!!!!! And he's not even two years old. WHAT A LITTLE STUD!!!!!

And I'm exhausted because I was trotting right along side of him.....he's fast. Oh the adventures of being a grandparent :)

This and That

It's been some time since I've posted to this blog. I've been busy, but not too sure with what!!!! How does that happen? Every day speeds by, but when I'm asked what I've been doing I can not think of one single interesting thing to report!!! Here are a few things.......

I taught Ezra about whipped cream in a can.....

He LOVED it!!!!

Oh yeah, I went there....

For Halloween, Ezra dressed up as MacGyver with a mullet, aviator shades, and a vest....

So of course Theo was a Swiss Army knife, costume made by his mom without a pattern

Finally, as promised by William, Ezra got rid of that mullet on November 1st. This is his very first hair cut.....ever....

Miss Emily did a fabulous job and Ezra is happy

Here are current photos of Theo, aka "Butterball"

We did spend last week in SF at a spectacular conference. Our hotel was 1/2 a block from Market, so of course I cut a couple of classes and went shopping. Just when did the clerks in downtown SF at the upscale department stores start dressing down? I was just a tad bit shocked when I saw how they were dressed.

I finished another rag quilt, with a Christmas theme. Jessica approves of my color selections, which means a lot.

Our riding has come to a screeching halt with the cold, rainy weather. Perhaps I'll be able to get some scrapbooking done on the boys' albums.

Friends are in Hawaii this week without us. We were set to go, but got a bad case of "being responsible"...I hate when that happens :(