Halloween and Christmas All In One!

Life has gotten away from me lately and this blog suffered.  Sorry!  One of my resolutions this year is to keep this blog up and post more entries so here we go!

The Fall in San Diego was wonderful; a bit hotter than we anticipated but you can't get too upset at that yet everyone else is under a blanket of snow! 

Halloween is always fun in our little neighborhood.  We decided to go full out and embrace the princess theme this year.  Matt was a knight, I was Pocahontas, Riley was Cinderella and little Harper was Snow White.  We had quite the crew out with us and it looked like we were going to have a blast...until Riley's dress was catching on her shoe and she was getting scared of every decoration we saw.  So I think we went to maybe 5 houses for trick-or-treat.  She went back and handed out candy while the rest of the crew lasted a bit longer.  So I am hopeful that next year we will make it at least to another street besides our own for candy but the dressing up part was super fun. 

Exactly Where Riley Wanted To Be.

Super Cute Pic of Frankie and Maddox

Christmas was very low key for us.  No visitors this year; just us with a tiny tree since Harper would have eaten it if it was on the floor.  Riley loved her new bike (even if it wasn't the Frozen bike she wanted but only a Disney princess themed one) and she really (shockingly) loved her keyboard!  Harper mostly enjoyed eating the wrapping paper and making a super mess out of everything but all-in-all liked the holiday as well.

Harper was eating the wall in the pic.

After Christmas we decided to venture out of our comfort zone and head to the mountains.  For New Years we drove to Big Bear Lake, CA.  So like some kind of cosmic alignment of the planets took place and a large snow storm blew into that sleepy little town and BAM! everyone in the entire state decided to go skiing there.  The one road up there was treacherous!  What was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour drive was over 5 hours!  We went one mile in an hour!  People the whole way kept stopping to put snow chains on their tires.  We kept on a truckin' and finally got to our cute cabin right before it got dark.  The next day Riley couldn't wait to get in the snow.  She LOVED it and she loved sledding.  Although it was super crowded, Big Bear was pretty awesome and it was definitely a nice change of scenery. 

Me and My Sweet Baby Harper....I'm savoring this moments

Summer Vacations: Disneyland and Wine Country

We have had quite a busy but incredibly fun Summer.  We promised Riley that if she was completely potty trained we would take her to Disneyland.  So it came time to follow through on this promise.  Our first trip to Disneyland was August 14-15th and we went BIG.  We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel on the resort so we could walk to both Disneyland and California adventure.  We started off at Disneyland and wow, Riley was in heaven.  It was pretty crowded but nothing too crazy; we always felt like we could move around easily and the lines for the rides we wanted to go on wasn't too crazy.  Riley loved the tea cups and dumbo.  She wasn't a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean; she got a bit scared of the skeletons shooting fire at us (oops!).  Luckily her Nanny, Joanna and her boyfriend Johnny came with us to help out (and believe me it would have been a rough trip without them!).  Riley met Mickey, Goofy and Winne the Pooh.  It's so cute watching a toddler meet characters.  She was in complete awe.  So instead of writing about it, here are a bunch of pics that show our Disneyland Adventure...

Our first pic once we got in the park

Goofy!

Mickey!

Olaf Marshmellow on a stick...took her forever to eat!

Mickey Waffle!

It's a Small World..walked right on!

Checkers at Tom Sawyers Island

Tired...very tired.

Winnie the Pooh!

On the Swings...they went very high and she loved it!

It's a Small World after all....over and over again!

Tea Cups...loved it!

Lovin' on some Johnny

WEEEEE!

Joanna and I on the Tower of Terror.

 

 

Her pick...a wand and hat!

View from our Hotel Room...insane!

So then the next week it was time for me and Matt to have a little getaway.  My parents came out (thanks!) so we could head to Sonoma/Napa for four days.  We had an amazing time.  I planned it to where we would do Beer on our first day, Napa the second and then Sonoma on the third day. So our first place we went was Russian River Brewing which is absolutely incredible.  They are known for Pliny the Elder and Younger which are rated at the top of any beer lists and this place did not disappoint.  Then we headed to Lagunita's and that was pretty awesome.  It's always great going to breweries; they have stuff you can't get anywhere else.  We loved it!

Russian River Tap List

Our Tasting of Russian River Beer

A VERY happy Matt

Lagunita's

Lagunita's Brewing!

Then we headed to Napa the second day.  We went big this day and hit up like four wineries.  We first stopped in at Stags Leap which was great.  Then we had lunch at Morimoto's in downtown Napa...then off to Quintessa for our tour and tasting. And wow, this place was so beautiful and the tour was awesome.  Next we headed to Opus One for our tasting of their one very pretentious wine for $40....but it was a very wonderful cab and the views were incredible.  Then we ended at Elizabeth Spencer which was more our style.  We ended at eating dinner at Bottega which was pretty cool.

Quintessa

Quintessa

Yeah...We were Ballers

Opus One View

Opus One

Opus One

Opus One

Opus One

Elizabeth Spencer

Elizabeth Spencer drinking area...so relaxing

Morimoto's Toro!!!!

Quintessa

For our last day we hit up the spa at our hotel then drove a very long way up to Francis Ford Coppola for lunch and some tastings.  It was an amazing place I have to say.  Then we drove down to Kurtz Family Cellars who were awesome.  Since I knew someone that knows them they actually let us taste for free which was super nice!  The wine is great too.  So at this point, we were wined out.  It doesn't take much.  I was pooped.  Dinner was at The Girl and the Fig and it was awesome. 

Francis Ford Coppola

It was like a museum!

So all was great; the trip was awesome and we were heading home on Sunday morning.  Then...at 3:30AM we found ourselves literally frozen in complete fear by a 6.0 earthquake that lasted over 10 seconds.  Now, I know I can exaggerate but let me just say the room literally swayed, the walls were alive.  In that moment you think...should I be under a table, in the tub, in a doorway???? I have no idea.  I'm a hurricane girl....not an earthquake chick.  I have no idea what I'm supposed to do!  So we just stayed in bed completely frozen.  Then the electricity was off and the place was pitch black.  So our phones weren't so great and getting news so we had no idea what was going on.  We left early for the airport...got out of dodge asap!  And back home we were...ahhhh safe!  It was a very eventful trip with a frightful ending, but it was memorable that's for sure!

So back home we were and back to the real world.  Riley started her second year of preschool at Gillispie.  She is doing so great.  I am so proud of her! I think the next post will be of Harper crawling...she is so close and she's only 8 months!!! 

My Babes...<3