Photography by Caleb

Caleb got ahold of my camera and had a little photo session. I think it's funny to see what a four year old wants to take pictures of. They look exactly like what Ethan used to take pics of.

Always a self portrait.

With several up close ones.

This just makes me laugh.

Lexie is not so sure about having he photo taken.

Gracie is not amused.

Sweet Thoughts from Caleb

The other night at Ethan's baseball practice, Caleb was playing with a handful of guys. He kept walking over a grate in the ground and I told him not to because if he dropped his guys they would be lost forever since no one could reach in and get them. He stood directly on top of the grate, looked up into the sky then back at me and said, "but can't God reach them?" I was stumped. If I tell him yes he'll drop the guys in and wait for God to pull them out. If I tell him no he'll wonder why God can't help him. So I gave in and said "I guess God can reach them if he wants to." His reply still stuns me. He said, "Mommy, don't you know God can carry us all?" Then he walked off the grate and went to go play with his toys. I asked him who told him that. He said it was Nana. :-)

Later I caught him staring up at the sky again. He said, "You know one day God is coming down here out of the sky to take us all to live with him." What the? Where is my 4 year old getting these profound thoughts? Nana strikes again. Keep talking Nana, he's listening. :-)

Open House

Ethan had Open House at his school the week before Spring Break. I always loved Open House when I was younger and now I thorougly enjoy watching my child get excited about showing us what he has been doing in class. The first grade had an "Under the Sea" theme. Too cute!!

Ethan showing us his desk with lots of items they had been working on over the last few weeks.

His locker.

Too cute! His handprints made into a crab!

His pirate "Stinky". Such a boy.

A view of the whole classroom.

Deep sea diver Ethan.

His sea monster.

His "wordle".

He wanted me to meet "Andy Pandy" in the music room. I guess they sing songs with him or something. His music teacher is a nice older lady who looks like lots of fun.

Off to the gym to show us his PE teacher.

Guess who else needed their picture taken? ;-)

Welcome to Yountville!

On February 23rd we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We've actually been together for 17 years! Since this was the big decade anniversary we decided to take a big trip. No San Antonio trip for us this time. We debated for months about where to go. We talked beach or snow then ended up with Napa. It sounded like a nice romantic get-a-way. While Mondo was researching Napa he stumbled upon the little town of Yountville. It's about 15 minutes away from Napa with a population of around 2000. It was fabulous! We stayed at a hotel called Bardessono that was also fabulous! We stayed for 4 days, 3 nights. I thought I'd be sad to be away from the kids for so long but it was easier than I expected. ;-)

I would highly recommend this hotel. It only has 60 rooms which makes it cozy and personal. It's won an award for being the most "green" hotel. It wasn't a selling point for me but was cool to see how they did it.

This was nice to walk in to. Sparkling wine with some candy and a nice note from the hotel.

Our private patio.

One way that the hotel is green is that this wall of windows has a special shade on it. There is a keypad on the wall that is a remote to open, close, and raise the shade. When you leave the room it goes to "sleep". After a few minutes the lights, tv, and fireplace turn off. When you return and open the door everything "wakes up" and turns on. Really cool.

The bathroom had a big jacuzzi tub and a shower. It also has remote buttons for the lights and window shade. It also had a place for an in-room massage.

Loved the fireplace. And the tv pulls away from the wall and tilts so you can watch it from bed.

One of the walkways outside of our room...beautiful!!

Going out to check out the town.

Anyone who knows me will be shocked to hear that I had salmon for dinner! And it was good!

Mmmm...lemon tart for dessert.

The next morning (our actual anniversary day) Mondo let me sleep in (woo-hoo!) and he played a round of golf. What a beautiful course! He also brought me coffee and bagels to eat in bed. Seriously, it's just what I wanted!

Our first wine tasting was at a place called Frog's Leap Winery. Highly recommend it!! We loved the down home feel. We sat on the back patio of an old house. They even brought be a blanket when I was chilly.

Sadly there was only one white wine. I tried a sip of the reds but I just don't like it. We also had some cheese and crackers to go with it.

Our view from the back porch.

We were such tourists...so excited to see an orange tree!

If I were an artist, this would inspire me to paint. What do you think Ann? ;-) We want to go back in the spring or summer to see the grapes in full bloom.

We stopped at a place called Gott's Roadside for lunch. It was a really cool place. It had covered picnic tables everywhere and lots of room for kids to run and play.

What the...that's not wine! We were told that Gott's had the best shakes so of course I had to try one! It was pretty tasty. So was the burger...once I got all of that nasty lettuce and tomato off of it. ;-)

While we were at Gott's we heard what sounded like a tornado siren. You can imagine the panic I felt...then I realized there are no tornadoes in California. Earthquake? No. Now I'm wondering if it was for this fire. I guess they do a lot of brush burning while cleaning out the vineyards. It burned all day and threatened several homes but luckily didn't do any damage.

We had our anniversary dinner at Redd (named after chef Richard Reddington). Mondo was very excited to eat there since it has a Michelin star! Right when we sat down we were presented with a bottle of champagne compliments of our hotel for our anniversary. Not too shabby.

I had a hard time deciding between the quail, duck, or antelope...no, seriously antelope?! I went the safe route with the pork tenderloin. It was really good. But not as good as the salad I had before that. It had caramelized walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and pears in it. I know, what happened to my freakish eating habits?! I think I decided that things aren't so gross if they're high quality and cooked well.

Mmmm, why yes, I'll take a chocolate molten cake for dessert. I don't have to tell you how fabulous that was!

The next day we strolled around Yountville and did some shopping. We had to stop at Kollar Chocolates. I had a terrible time trying to decide what to get!

No, that's not my plate. ;-) I think we only bought 5 or 6 pieces. They were yummy!

Our last wine tasting was at the Trefethen vineyard. We actually had one of the Trefethens do our wine tasting! Hailey Trefethen is the granddaughter and she did our tasting. It was really cool to hear her tell the story of how her grandparents started the vineyard. So of course I had to buy a bottle of wine there!

I'll try to make a long story short. The first night at our hotel we had dessert and coffee at the hotel restaurant named Lucy. The dessert was fabulous but the service was terrible. We were there for an hour and only saw our waiter twice...and there were probably only 5 other people in the place. Mondo complained to the manager and we left. The next morning the GM of the hotel called us and invited us to dinner at Lucy on our last night there to show us how great their service really is.

Well let me tell you, they showed us great service and then some! We felt like royalty. We started with a bottle of champagne, then had a great bottle of Riesling. We each ordered an appetizer and an entree. But the food just kept coming! They brought us 2 other appetizers and I think 2 other entrees "compliments of the chef". I actually ate quail, sea bass, and some other type of fish. I think the large amount of champagne and Riesling helped me eat the weird food. And it tasted amazing!!

I had to stuff down some dessert. It may have been tiny but it was really rich and wonderful. We felt like a king and queen by the time we left with all of the fabulous service and food we received.

On our way to the airport we stopped at a great place called Champagne Bakery. I had strawberry crepes...yummo!!

We took some extra time to stop by the Golden Gate bridge. It was windy and freezing out there!

Mondo had the grand idea to hike up the bridge so we could actually stand on it. It took about 15 minutes to get to the top. My knees weren't happy.

Once we made it to the bridge we discovered that we didn't have much time to make it to the airport...which was a 45 minute drive. So we decided to join all of the other health nuts in San Fransisco and run down the bridge and down to our car. Whew!

I wanted to get a view of the crazy streets and boy did I ever! We got lost in the city trying to find a highway to get back to the airport. Let's just say I'm glad we didn't drive a standard and I was very grateful for Mondo's iphone with a map!

Aww...what wonderful memories I will always treasure from our time in Yountville. And what wonderful memories I have from our last 10 years of marriage. :-)