Wine Country with the Yangs!

Our very kind and generous friends Bobby and Julie invited us to go to Sonoma over Valentine's weekend so off we went!  Not sure whose idea it was to fly on Friday the 13th but we had good luck on our side :)

After landing in Oakland we got our rental car and made it just in the nick of time to hit our first wine tasting! 

Yay!  We're here!

The first wine tasting though....Julie's face says it all!  Not sure how we ended up still buying bottles though!

After a quick stop at the Sonoma market, we checked into the house that Bobby and Julie rented.  It was so cute!!!

Julie used to live in San Francisco so she has friends in the area still.  One of those friends, Roxanne and her boyfriend came up for the night and we all went to dinner in Sonoma square.

Then we headed back to the house and took advantage of the hot tub! 

In the morning after some grub (and Brian decided to join Facebook finally) we headed to meet our bike rental guy.  Yep, we contemplated hiring a driver to take us around but we decided it would be more fun to bike from vineyard to vineyard.  The weather agreed, it was the most perfect day for biking!

Brian spent hours planning our route!

And off we went.  Yes, that is a bike trailer to haul our gear and wine we planned to purchase.  Isn't Brian a genius?  The bike company is now going to market the trailer this way, not just to bring kids along! 

Our longest leg was to get to the first vineyard and it really wasn't so bad! We decided we'd take a group selfie at each vineyard...First up, Gundlach Bundschu!
 
We were having fun!

The most perfect day!

Until the driveway up to the vineyard became very steep and loooooong and the vineyard wasn't even open yet!

So we took a few pictures and headed out to our next stop.

Biking was such a great idea! 

We're so glad we did this!

We took a back route into Buena Vista Winery which was mostly downhill so we made good time. 

This was the place that we purchased tour and private tasting tickets ahead of time because they were one of the only cave tours. 

This ended up being a great way to kick off our winery tours!  Lots of history at this place...including this haunted room.  Brian tried to recreate the photo where a ghostly image appeared in the mirror but looks like his photo is ghost-free!

Lots and lots of wine stored in the cave!

 Sara double fisting again.  LOL

Our tour guide 'V' as we called him was very generous with the giving out of the wine and we got to taste a few wines straight from the barrels!  YUM!

Of course we were going to take pics!

Didn't want to cover up the family crest!

And of course we needed one with V!

Fill 'er up!

Then after all that wine on the tour we had our private tasting.  Sure glad Brian brought the good camera :)  Such great pics!

From there we stopped in Bartholomew Park to enjoy a picnic with the food we picked up at the market.  Sonoma is so beautiful!

Great food and company!

The sun shining down, finishing off wine...what else does one need?

Sara thinks she could live here!

As it turns out there is a winery in the middle of the park (again, who wouldn't want to live here!) so we tried it out!

Brian was really using his mad sniffing skills. 

 The wine wasn't so good in our opinion (ie it wasn't for us LOL) but it was a nice break from the sun and bikes.

Next we rode up to Ravens Wood.

We scored some chairs so we could look out over wine country!

Some people napped here....some people checked Facebook (where is the emoji for eyeballs rolling?)...

...but luckily Sara and Julie had each other for drinking buddies :) 

Yay!  Someone got off his phone ;-)

While the girls were using the restroom the boys got all fancy on their bikes doing pop-a-wheelies.  Weekend warriors went boomers.

From there we rode to another place, Sebastini (how did we forget our selfie!??!) and shared a bottle of wine outside rather than doing a tasting.  After lunch that's more what we tended to do.  Then it was time to drop off our bikes and we decided to skip walking to this little area for more wine.  Instead we went back to the house to grill and relax.  Goof balls!

Brian grilled the most wonderful meal for us, we relaxed in the hot tub, played Five Crowns and chatted away!  It was a really great night.  The next morning we went to a place that was rated high for brunch and everyone agreed the bloody mary's were delicious (well Sara had a mimosa) and so was the food!

We went back and hung out at the house for a bit until check out then headed back to Gundluch Bundschu since it was one of the places Sara and Brian did want to go to and get some wine.  They like a specific varietal that they get when they go to Fleming's steakhouse.  Lucky for us, they had it so we bought a few bottles to bring home.

Such good wine tasting form!

 Ringing the bell to say we had a great time!

 After that we headed north to one of Bobby's favorite wines...of course we're going to forget the name now but you can't buy it in stores so either you get it at the vineyard or join their wine club.  They had a great bbq set up so we got food and wine!

 After that we headed to Raymond's vineyard as people the day before said how risque and unique it was.  Selfie!

We made it in the nick of time before they closed.  No time for wine tasting, plus let's be honest we didn't need it, but we did get to look around.  See the mannequin?

 Wine, wine and more wine!

 How cool is this set-up?  Great last pic in Sonoma!

Brian drove us back to the airport while Bobby and Julie took a little cat-nap :)

 They missed out on viewing a beautiful sunset!  But before we knew it we were at the airport ready to head home.  We had such a wonderful time together.  You never know how traveling with friends will go the first time but we all agreed we could do it again!  This was a great trip with great friends.  One for the record books!

Where were the kids you ask?  Hanging out with Nana Jeanne and Papa Steve!  Staying busy, that's for sure.  As former educators Nana and Papa Steve keep the kids hopping with activities and send us lots of pictures! 

 

They even took Trevor to baseball practice.  It's official!  He's ready!  He picked 25 because it's his day of his birth.  All in all, everyone had a great time!  Thanks Nana and Papa Steve for taking such good care of our littles and Bobby and Julie for a wonderful trip!  Now we need a heart emoji :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Trevor reminded Mommy that he gave his friend Griffin his Valentine's shirt from last year since it was too small now and he needed a new special shirt.  So off to the store we went and this is what he picked out! 

We couldn't find one for Toby though...

The three amigos!

Both kids have such big, beautiful smiles!  Now only if they could smile at the same time :)

At Trevor's school on Thursday they had their red party.  Lots of different red and pink treats!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Max here!

Sara's cousin Katie and her son Max, her sister Anne and her parents Alice (aka Double) and Steve came up on Sunday afternoon for an overnight before the kids headed back to the frozen tundra of MN.  This has become a yearly tradition and one Sara looks forward to every year.  Sara doesn't have any sisters but Katie and Anne are as close as you get!  Pretty sure we all love this special time of hanging out, eating (homemade donut holes and Grandma Kelly's mac-n-cheese are just a few of the goodies), swimming, playing, drinking wine and chatting the night away.  We were far too busy to take any pics this year but Katie sent Sara this pic of Max sleeping before even getting to security at the airport and that pretty much summed up the trip.  We all had a great time together!  See you all in May!!  XOXOXO

Western Night

Our clubhouse had their annual Western Night and boy are we glad we went!  They always plan such fun events.  This one included a great country band (Sara was in Heaven!) and lots of bouncy houses and slides for kids and adults!  Weeeeeee went Ashley!

And a few different options for bull riding.  Claire and Trevor liked the little one best!  So cute!

Afterward we went over to Jack, Claire and Gracie's house with a few other friends and made s'mores.  We really feel blessed to have such wonderful friends and neighbors here.  It's starting to feel more and more like home ;-)

Baseball

We signed Trevor up for the Cal Ripkin baseball league in Scottsdale and after just the first practice we can tell that this is perfect for him!!  We got there a bit early and he enjoyed watching the older kids play.  Can you tell he's studying their moves?

 When it came time for his turn, he was very into it...listening to the coach intently, taking everything in and doing what they said!  And doing it well!!

This t-ball session is for 4 and 5 year olds.  Trevor isn't the oldest but he is definitely the tallest!

They practice over at a park in Grayhawk and then play their games at Reach 11 just a few miles from our house.  We're all really excited about this!  We think it's great for Trevor to keep trying out different sports.  He's 5...no need to specialize in anything at this age!  

The highlight of Ashley sitting through practice?  Being able to play on the playground equipment afterward!

Valentine's Pics

Because it isn't normal to set out snowman stuff after all the Christmas stuff comes down here in AZ we have started a tradition of decorating with Valentine's gear.  As well as started taking Valentine pics.  Last year was the first year and they turned out so cute that we took them again this year to complete the decor.  These turned out so cute too that maybe just maybe we'll do them again next year! 

 And she made Valentines we gave out to friends and family! 

 Adorable!

Busy Busy

We thought after our travels, the kids birthdays and the holidays that things would slow down but that just is not happening!  But that's okay!  Life is good!  Just busy :)  What's going on?  Well first off Mommy ordered a new bow for Ashley and clearly didn't look at the size.  It arrived and it was huge!!  Don't they say the bigger the bow the closer to God?  Or the better the Mommy?  ;-)

 Also that day Ashley discovered brother's goggles and insisted on wearing them all over the house.  Good reminder that she should start swimming lessons soon!

Toby is one lucky dog to have so many people who love on him all day.  Usually Ashley and Trevor are fighting over who gets to play fetch with them  (they haven't quite figured out they could all do it together!)  On this occasion Toby's foster Mommy asked for a new pic of him so this is what she got.  She loved it!

Gotta love week day get togethers too!  On this night one of the newer neighbors set up a dinner at Macaroni Grill for the ladies on the street!  We had a great time!!

We headed down to Nana and Papa Steve's for a Friday family fun day (after getting their annual Valentine pics done) when Uncle Don's girlfriend Nancy (aka Clancy) was visiting.  We brought with us the gingerbread train we were supposed to do when Sam was in town but it worked to do it now to. 

Ashley was into painting!  And doing such a good job!

Clancy!!!

One memorable moment from the day was when Uncle Don was outside doing the puzzle and he asked Ashley if she could read.  She said yes so he pointed to the puzzle box and said 'ok, what's that word?' And she responded with 'happy'!  Guess what?  She was right!!!!  He was blown away!  Our little over achiever! 

Big girl has been doing fine without her nuk/mimi but is definitely a little more attached to didi/pink cow.  It was funny though when she found one of her baby doll's nuks it went straight in her mouth.  She thought it was pretty funny because she knew she shouldn't have it!

One day Trevor and Mommy had to go get her oil changed.  It took forever because of a recall they had to do too but he did just fine.  We checked out the giant golf ball...

...played criminals in the kids waiting area, got treats, and played tag outside.  He is such a good boy!

We also found our neighbors and friends in the paper!  Mommy usually just throws the paper away except for the ads but on this particular Wednesday she sat down to read it and lo and behold there were our neighbors and friends Katie, Jack and Claire from the NFL Experience!

Ashley lookin' all cute in older cousin Leah's old outfit.  Mommy remembers exactly when Leah wore this during a trip to AZ.  So happy that Ashley gets to wear it now!!

And last but not least, our little princess is just so cute lately.  She wants to be right next to you no matter what you are doing and to ensure you don't go anywhere her precious little hand finds its way to your leg.  Nope, there is no place else we need to be peanut.  XOXO

Waste Management Open/Super Bowl Fun

In our almost three years of living here we had yet to attend the Waste Management Open.  But this was our year!  Papa John works it so he gets free tickets that he let us use while they watched the kids.  It was a cold and rainy day but we headed out.  It was really cool to see! 

We walked around for a bit but ended up in line to go into the famed 16th hole.  We stood in that line for hours and were probably 15 people back from getting in but we had to go because our good friends Chandra and Matt are in town for the Super Bowl and they were coming over.  So we gave up our spots in line and headed out.  But on the walk back we got to see Angel Cabrera, one of the few golfers Sara actually wanted to see.  It was SO SO cool to see him tee off.  You can get this close!  Crazy!!!

On the way home we picked up Chandra and Matt who were staying at the JW 2 miles from our house.  It was so good to see them and catch up.  We miss them terribly but feel fortunate that we got to see them again.  It feels like Chandra was just here!  We had some snacks and chatted and before you knew it three hours had past and they had to get back for an event.  How cool that one of her vendors brought her and her husband in for the weekend and filled it with fun events including going to the game with VIP tickets!  Fun!!  

After that we booked it to get ready to go out with Bobby and Julie and their friends who were in town from Seattle for the big game.  It was definitely a memorable night!  Their friends are so incredibly generous and covered the whole night (they were staying at Bobby and Julie's) including the $775 Uber ride for 2 cars to go from Bobby and Julie's house to the restaurant (!!), the most delicious meal at a Japanese restaurant in Old Town and a VIP private party at a bar...complete with own bartender and DJ in our private area.  Crazy!!  Needless to say we had a great time and were so appreciative of their generosity.

The group! Go Seahawks!!

Friends for life!  With our friendly orbs :-)

That day was one for the record books!  We really are blessed with wonderful family and friends that made it so memorable and enjoyable.  Except one 'acquaintance' but that's not one for the blog LOL (get it Julie??)