first weekend

This weekend we spent our first overnight at our cabin, enjoying the warm fall weather and some alone time as a family. We spent most of our time outside burning wood, going on hikes, pulling weeds along the shoreline, coloring in big coloring books, playing cars and watching movies together with popcorn and hot chocolate. We look forward to so many more weekends like this to come!

napa valley

A few weekends ago Steve and I had the opportunity to visit the Napa Valley with some of my good friends from college. We stayed in the town of Yountville and spent a long weekend touring vineyards, soaking up California sunshine by the pool, walking around town and dining at delicious restaurants.

During our time there we visited the Cakebread, Opus One, Salvestrin, Vine Cliff, Pride and Spring Mountain wineries. The first two are quite large, but the others were very small with limited distribution. It was fun to taste wines that we couldn't get at home and to learn more about the process of how they make it.

A highlight of the trip was celebrating Andrea's birthday with a picnic on the top of hill at Pride, located on Spring Mountain. It was a gorgeous setting and a gorgeous day. And of course, we had 2 comedians with Sean and Steve to keep us entertained.

It was a wonderful trip!

All 4 of us at Cakebread Winery

Sean and Andrea

Our own personal wine experts - demonstrating the art of the "swirl"

Overlooking Opus One

The ladies

100 year old vines at Salvestrin

Vine Cliff (where we discovered our new favorite wine)

Grounds at Vine Cliff

Entrance to wine cave at Vine Cliff

Picnic at Pride

Spring Mountain

more time

With every new school year comes new friendships. For the past few weeks I have heard many things about many of the kids in Anna's class and how much fun she has with each of them. This Friday I had the opportunity to spend time with a few of these new friends (and their moms) when we went to a local apple orchard on a sunny warm day. During our time there I noticed that Anna spent quite a bit of time with one of the boys - Robbie. Robbie's mom mentioned to me that he was quite enamored with Anna and that her name came up quite often. I then laughed as I watched him make sure he was next to Anna for lunch, and how the two of them really seemed to enjoy playing together.

The next morning the following conversation took place:

Anna: "Daddy, there's this boy Robbie at school...and he keeps saying he's going to marry me"

Steve: "Oh yeah?"

Anna: "But, I just say no, because I need more time to really think about who I want to marry"

HA!! Gotta love that! Let's hope that keeps up until about age 30.

beautiful fall

Gorgeous fall weather has allowed us to enjoy some extra time outside these past few weeks. On Friday we were able to meet some of Anna's preschool friends at a local apple orchard to pick apples and play. And this weekend we spent our first day at the cabin, enjoying some time to put things away, play outside, fish, and more. The kids had a great time - Anna in particular kept herself busy for hours fishing off the dock, making homes for ladybugs, climbing on rocks, collecting acorns and more. What an amazing way to spend a Saturday in October!