Thanksgiving 2014

Ever since I can remember (and a few years before that) I have been eating Thanksgiving dinner at my Oma's house in Carson.  But when you get married, many things have to be compromised and how to spend the holidays and what cherished traditions to share are just a few of them.

First of all, we are so incredibly fortunate to have so much family within driving distance to choose from to spend these special moments with, so there will be no not too much complaining from us! Not having to deal with plane travel during this time of year is great, and packing the kids in the car and driving a few hours is part of the memories I have when I was kid driving to Grandmas house with the car loaded with food and gifts.  Listening to Christmas music, anticipating the gifts spending time with family, and fighting off mild car nausea are all part of my childhood holiday memories!
Anyway, that being said, this year it was the Klingensmiths turn to be tortured with us and our kids graced with our presence up in their family cabin in Lake Arrowhead.

We packed up the car and braced ourselves for the 65 degree weather in the mountains (brrr!) and drove 2.5 hours to spend two nights with 10 other members of the Klingensmiths and my mom.
Dinner was delicious and some of the highlights for me were the brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes with onions and the PIE of course! Grady ate everything, Harper ate almost nothing and Avery ate quite well. All enjoyed the moist turkey so much that we ate it for several days after (ha!)

Aunt Julie gave all the "kids" silly straw glasses! A total hit.

Since the weather was so warm, we took lots of walks down into the village to play at the park and feed the ducks.

And we did an easy hike loop that was beautiful! We collected acorns and pinecones and enjoyed the scenery and fresh air.

The last day it was just our little Fiesta of Five and we had pizza, watched a movie and cleaned up to drive back home.

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year up in Arrowhead! Our kids are so lucky to have places they can visit any time they want. The memories they are creating together with our family are so special! 

And now...time for CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

6 Year Anniversary

On September 20 Alex and I celebrated 6 years of marriage and over 9 years together. We had been planning to go to away together to Sonoma/Napa, since our 5th anniversary the year before was spent anticipating the arrival of our son less than a month later.
We are just a tad busy these days and took too long to book our trip and Sonoma (yes the entire TOWN) was fully booked the weekend we wanted to go! So we changed gears and went to Paso Robles and had an AMAZING time!

My mom was the lucky grandparent to spend 72 hours with all 3 of our crazy kids and we are incredibly grateful to her! As if that wasn't gift enough, she also lent us her convertible to make the 5ish hour drive in style! No car seats for us!

We stayed at this little B&B/winery called Wild Coyote. We chose it because it was one of the few places available and it had great reviews.

We were not disappointed! The room is only one of 6 and was comfortable and spacious (though not decorated to my taste!) They cleverly distracted us from the lack of a bathroom door with a complimentary bottle of wine and incredible views of the on-site vineyards.

We had dinner at Fish Gaucho downtown, which was a tequila bar/restaurant and reminded us of Gringos where we met, so that was quite fitting (and the mole was INSANELY good)

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast made and delivered by the owner's wife Kati, we joined in on the Wild Coyote winery tour, which was very informative and impressive. The owners of the location run a small B&B, as well as an entirely self-contained winery. They grow the grapes, time when to harvest them, press and ferment them into wine, store the barrels and bottle the wine. No other winery in Paso can claim this, as we learned most wineries buy at least some of their grapes from other growers. We were impressed and the wine was delicious!

We were there right in the middle of the harvest so we 

were able to see a lot of the equipment in action!

Next we went off to Eberle!

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Eberle has solved the problem of running costly and drying air conditioning to keep

their wine barrels the proper temperature, by digging underground caves to cool them down. 

They were having a fund raiser (for something...) and had free, delicious wood fired pizzas and a band playing on their patio, and Mr Eberle himself was walking around chatting with guests.

Next we went to Tobin James (I think...)

It was just us and about 200 of our loudest closest friends and bachelorette parties, so we didn't stay here long.

The complete opposite of the endless chatter at Tobin was the quiet country vibe at Cass Winery. We were wine club members there a few years ago but I kept getting pregnant so we wisely decided to unjoin. We had a wonderfully relaxing time enjoying an incredible cheese plate, some delicious wine and sat outside in their expanded outside seating area just talking about the kids and listening to the wind in the trees. Ahhhhhhhh

After one more stop at Mitchella, a mom and pop winery that sells many of their grapes to Tobin James, we headed home to rest and change for dinner at Wild Coyote. Kati makes an amazing dinner once a month and it happened to be the night of our anniversary! We joined the rest of the guests of the hotel for chicken piccata, green beans and rice, and of course more wine! There was another couple there from Santa Barbara celebrating their 7th anniversary, and we had a great time chatting with them over dinner.

Traditionally, I bring along our toasting flutes from our wedding and we drink whatever it is we are drinking in them. We drank beer in Costa Rica for our first anniversary, sake at sushi for our second, and this year it was red wine.

We couldn't wait to get home to our babies and relieve my poor mom! The drive home was long and slow, especially for me being so hungover tired, but we made it home in about 7 hours.

Best motivation ever. Would have driven 1000 miles to smooch this face!

Don't we look relaxed!? Yay for weekends away :)

This man, to whom I owe everything in my life that I love, I am so grateful that you chose me and continue to put up with me year after incredible year. Life just keeps getting better and better and I can't WAIT for all the years to come! Love you honey!