Napa Trip

Last Saturday we took a road trip up to Napa to meet up with Marc's cousin, Ben, and his new wife, Gabby who were up there on their honeymoon.  Why they wanted to meet up with a pregnant lady and toddler on their honeymoon was beyond us but we were honored to join them on their last day!  It was a great time!  After a week of 90 degree weather the heat FINALLY broke and it was gorgeous up there, in the mid to high 70s with a nice breeze.  We went to a few wineries and had lunch in Yountville.  Our last winery was Jessop and it was awesome.  We had been there once before, a long time ago when Riley still rolled in the Bjorn (life was so much easier then!).  One of the girls working their absolutely LOVED Riley, and she caught Riley walking out of the bathroom, shoeless telling the world "I pee peed on the potty!"  She brought Riley animal crackers and a juice box and kept coming up to talk and play with her.  Riley was well past her nap time at this point so having this cool 20 something girl dote on her was pretty cool to her and a great distraction from her sleep!  She wanted a picture for her Facebook page of her new friend and captured this great photo of the 5 of us!

We will most definitely be going back when this lady can drink again!  To give me some fun after spending the day chasing a toddler while everyone drank we hit up the Vacaville Outlets on the way home.  We got some major clothes for both Riley and her baby brother!  Including another pair of light up shoes for Riley, princess this time!  Fun times but we were exhausted after being out all day!

Beautiful Weekend = Picnic Time!

I'm a little behind on blogging, I got hit with a stomach flu this week that pretty much wiped me out for the week.  Let's just say that the stomach flu plus pregnancy pretty much equals misery.  I think there was one point in the middle of the night one night where I literally said out loud, "Someone please put me out of my misery!"  But I am pretty much on the mend, I still don't have much of an appetite, which is unfortunate because I was really enjoying housing everything in sight but hopefully I'll get there.

Last weekend was BEAUTIFUL!  (I can't say the same for this weekend which has brought fog and very cool, think low 60s, temperatures, yes in July, it's crazy talk).  But last weekend was low 80s, sunny and gorgeous so we headed to our fav winery in Livermore, Mitchell Katz for a picnic with Riley's friend Bella and her parents who are also club members at MK.  Riley's been going to MK since she was about 3 weeks old, no joke, the first time she went there she was in a sling and they weren't sure if there was a puppy in there or a baby, so she's no stranger to MK.  MK has an awesome front lawn, away from the road, with a ton of room to run around.  So we brought some balls and lunch and had some fun in the sun with Bella and her parents!   It was a super fun time, even for the sober girl, and will definitely be a repeat activity!

20th...

Riley hit her 20th trip wine tasting this weekend. My dad was in town and our favorite winery was having a release party so we headed over to Mitchell Katz Winery which is always kid friendly. Riley made friends with two little boys and I began talking to their mom and we exchanged numbers so hopefully another trip to Mitchell Katz with new friends is in our future! YaYa came with us too, she seems to be going a lot of places with us lately, I better try to find another one because her arm is starting to tear! Riley was the hit of the tasting event, after being the only person dancing to the live music, all of the older women LOVED her, one lady gave her a bracelett that she was wearing and her daughter tried to get Riley to try on her Gucci sunglasses (which Riley has no business touching!). It was a great time with good wine, great weather, and Riley's first serenade!

Lost Count

We've pretty much lost count of the total number of times that Riley has been wine tasting with us. Marc used to keep a tally on the fridge, it started with her first trip to Mitchell Katz (our favorite winery in Livermore and the place where we are club members) when she was just 2 or 3 weeks old. I had her in my little sling and I walked around a January release party there with her snuggled up against my chest. People didn't know if it was a baby or a puppy but when they saw the itty bitty baby in there they were amazed and so we started tallying how many times she tagged along with us as we made our rounds in Livermore, Napa, and Sonoma. We're even on the picture board in the barrel room at Mitchell Katz, though I have yet to find it, but the photographer for the events tells me that Riley and I are there.

Well fast forward 20 months to a walking, head strong, verbal, active toddler. We've been a bit scared to take her release parties recently. Mostly for 2 reasons: 1) Is it appropriate to bring a toddler to a wine release? (I always think of the line from "Sweet Home Alabama" when Reese Witherspoon's character is back home and runs into a high school friend in a bar and she says "You have a baby, in a bar?") and 2) The tantrums can be out of control if Riley doesn't get her way, which in this case would be running off. But this weekend we decided to brave it, mostly because I LOVE his sparkling wine and we were fresh out. So Saturday after Riley's nap we went to lunch (cause a full, rested Riley is a happy, more patient Riley) and then went over to Mitchell Katz to give this release party thing a go. We just bought the Ergo baby carrier in June because that way we can wear Riley on our backs or on our hip so I stuck her in the Ergo and headed in. They all know Riley over there so they were shocked to see how big she is now (we've missed the last few releases and since Marc can get his favorite wines at Safeway we haven't stopped in for a while), all of the ladies that work there just adore her and we're oooing and awing over her. Even the security guard at the front checking IDs commented on how long it's been and how big she is.

I must say, it was a much better experience than I anticipated. Riley was fairly cooperative in the Ergo as long as I kept moving and giving her cheese. A bunch of random people stopped us to say hi to her and talk to us, people were very open to us being there with her. We even saw one of Riley's friends, Isabella, from day care and her parents who happen to live right by us. It was fun to get to know her parents a little better, we often run into them at Peet's or at day care and say hi to them but never really got to know them. Isabella is getting ready to move up into Riley's class and Riley was super excited to see her. She did quite well in the Ergo though she started to get antsy after about an hour so I headed out front, where they have a huge grassy lawn, and let her run around (despite it being like 100 degrees out). There were a bunch of other kids (boys ranging from about 6-8 years of age) playing football out there and immediately Riley took off to get involved in their game, I'm sure that's just what they wanted, a not-even 2 year-old girl joining their game.

Off to join the boys. She has no fear!

As you can see, I lost the hair clip battle this weekend!

Waving goodbye to her friend Isabella!

Wine release party was a success!

Sunday we headed up to Vacaville to check out the new True Religion outlet, I scored 2 new pairs of jeans and Riley scored some new pj's since the last few nights we've put on her sleepers and it looks like the flood waters were on their way! She has really sprouted. They also had a bunch of footless, fleece rompers which are hard to find so we stocked up for winter. We also scored big time at lunch. Not only did Riley eat but it was a tantrum free dining experience for us! Double score!

Napa

Marc wanted to check out the Lucky Jeans Outlet this weekend so since Napa was the closest one we decided to head there and since you're in Napa, you have to hit a few wineries. We hit two excellent wineries, Etude and Bouchain. Super tasty wines, Bouchain had 2 excellent Chardonnays! Riley was quite good and had fun walking around, Etude had a nice outdoor patio where Riley and I spent most of our visit.