Cheers!

On our last full day together, Dave gave us the enormous treat of a big-girls-only outing.  We took the day and explored Napa, another California destination Anna has never experienced!  This was a day full of learning about wine, but mostly laughter and fun!  First stop was at our favorite classy roadside sandwich shop where fancy fries and milkshakes are the specialties.  Then we headed over to our reserved tour and tasting at Rutherford Hill Winery. 

Rutherford Hill looks like a big rustic barn.  In a valley known mostly for its Cabernet, Rutherford is famous for its Merlot.
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We took the cave tour which led us through the candlelit caverns inside the hills where the cedar barrels of wine are aged.  As soon as we stepped inside, the smell of fermenting grapes was so thick!  Our tour guide was fantastic and told us all sorts of interesting things about how the grapes are treated, how the wine is aged, what parts of your mouth you taste the different wines in and how lovely the Napa Valley community is.

She also taught us how to use all five senses to experience the wine.  First we looked at the color and swirled it in our glass, then we sniffed and sipped it and finally we listened to our glasses clink together.  The tasting occurred in stages with the tour.  As we toured and learned different things, we were poured 6 different reds.  The tour was a great experience and we even raved to the manager how much we enjoyed it.  For pointing out a small error we had found on their website, he gave us a free bottle of Merlot to take home!

The overcast and drizzly day hindered our view of the valley's breathtaking vineyards somewhat, but we know how important this season's rain is to the crop.  We liked taking an under-umbrella stroll through the olive groves.

 After Rutherford, we checked out a little wine-making museum and a giant cheese shop at the V. Sattui Winery.  The cheese counter stretched on for a mile and the shelves were jammed with high-end and locally-made food products.  Though crowded, the samples were awesome!

A few other stops, one at an olive oil company and another at Robert Mondavi Winery, completed the day.  Napa may be one of my favorite places in our state.  It's unbelievably beautiful and I learn something new about wine tasting and wine making each time I visit.   Now I can say I've seen it in each of the four seasons and shared it with two of my favorite gals!

Our Holly Jolly Christmas

Though the best gift this year is getting to share Christmas with my family, last night we were blessed by gifts galore under our tree!  What generous family members we have!  Since most of our givers don't get to see us open what they pick out, here are a few shots of the paper flying and gift enjoying!

Delia sipping her "coffee" (hot chocolate).

 An air popper for Anna

 A pink plasma car from Auntie Heather

 Matching monogrammed bags from Heather

Opening the beautiful Kasoya dolls from Grandpa

 A Furr Real kitty from Grandpa and Grandma.  This thing is frighteningly realistic and it's gotten so much love that its batteries may already be dead.

 A digital camera from Grandpa and Grandma.  Ella has already taken about 200 pictures (most of the kitty!).  I'll have to start featuring her photography on the blog!

 A pink microphone with a stand and applause button for our little performer, from Karen, Chris and the boys.  We've heard about a dozen "Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls..." shows already!

 A Bears shirt for Dave

If you sent something that is not in a picture, please know that we loved it!  This was a fantastic Christmas, each of us getting things that are totally perfect!  We ended our 2 hours of present unwrapping with a nice dinner of veggie lasagna and tiramisu.  We hope each of  you were blessed in your Christmas celebrations this year too!

Anna's Day

Anna has never been to Yosemite and she hasn't seen snow since 2006.  It became pretty obvious what the outing for Anna's Day needed to be!  In the middle of this week of cold, clouds and storms, God even blessed us with one glorious day of sunshine!

This was a perfect day at the park. The beauty of the meadows and monoliths was enhanced by the white blanket of snow they wore.  The falls were full and the crowds were minimal.  It's just such a treat to be in the middle of such amazing creation.  I think we were all a little awestruck.

 First glimpse of the valley

 Tunnel View

 Bridalveil Falls

 Lower Yosemite Falls

We got through the valley's best spots pretty quickly, so we were able to do something new to Dave and I too-- visit the famous 5-star Awahnee Lodge.  This place was awesome too, from the historic dinning room, to the cozy fireside rooms.  The whole place was decked out for Christmas and we even caught the performance of a live choir giving a Christmas Pops concert!

One of the best parts of the day was just the opportunity to play in some snow!  This is what the girls loved most.  There was running, screaming, snowball throwing and snow angel making.

The girls even found this hill to throw themselves down!  Their coats were slippery enough to act as make-shift sleds.  It went a little faster than they thought it would and this was hilarious to watch. 

There are many reasons why a winter trip to Yosemite can be risky.  I'm so glad it worked out for us to take this day trip today!  I feel good about the opportunity to amaze and freeze Anna before sending her back to LA.  She said she got her cold fix today and is now ready for another 4 snow-less years!

Snowy Splendor

Heather's Day

What do you do when you have two family members coming from two totally different parts of the country?  What is a special and vacation-worthy landscape may be defined differently by both!  Good thing we have access to all types of destinations.  For Anna and Heather's first full day here, we treated Michigan-residing Heather to ocean, surfers, tide pools and butterflies.  (White, snowy mountains will hopefully come later in the week for LA-residing Anna!)

We day-tripped to the most "California" place I could think of-- Santa Cruz.  The day started with lunch at surfer-themed Pizza My Heart.

Then we went to Natural Bridges to play on the beach and check out some tide pools.  Heather tickled her first sticky anemone and did some cartwheels to celebrate the snow and single digits she left behind!

Natural Bridges is a sanctuary Monarch Butterflies migrate to from Mexico.  The path around their Eucalyptus Grove was fluttering with Monarchs.  They were all high up in the branches, but we can still say we spotted several dozen of them.
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Monarchs weren't the only wildlife we encountered either, we thought it was so cool to come upon a big flock of cooing and head-bobbing quail. 

We headed over to the cove that is popular with surfers and found a place by the  famous Tribute to Surfers statue to watch several catch their big waves.

The last thing we did in Santa Cruz was stroll down the wharf.  With the boardwalk in the background and all the lazy seals lying around, this was the perfect way to end Heather's "Epitome of California" Day!

Away In a Manger

BFFs

Though we miss Uncle Kyle, we were able to say goodbye to him without too much drama on Wednesday.  It helped a ton that the day we had to say goodbye was also the day Ella had an amazing date planned with her good buddy Chloe.  After school, Ella got to go out for lunch and then to Build-A-Bear for Chloe's birthday!  As you can imagine, this was an incredible treat and super fun thing to do with her best friend.

Ella nearly exploded with happiness when she jumped out of Chloe's car hugging her new favorite teddy bear.  It's sparkly purple, has a pink dress and shoes, a wand and tiara.  This bear had Ella's name written all over it!

Ella and Chloe have had a few play dates and I just have to suppress a laugh when I hear them interact!  I understood exactly why they were drawn to each other after listening to a 20 minute conversation they shared about why they love the color pink.  Mrs. H. snapped the above picture when they both wore their favorite "Everything is awesome with sprinkles" shirts on the same day.  I'm so happy Ella has found such a good little friend!