Pumpkin Patch Adventure

Yep, I'm still blogging about Halloween activities.  Stick with me, there are a few more posts to go!  Anyway, we were able to get in an annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch again this year.  I'm not sure we actually procured any pumpkins but we had fun doing all the activities nonetheless.  The boys painted yet another pumpkin and believe it or not (Aunt Amanda) I actually brought these ones home.  You see I have a tendency to "forget" some of their masterpieces at places because they are dripping with wet paint and sparkles and fluff balls and all kinds of stuff that I don't need smashed into my carpet.  These ones seemed pretty harmless as they were actually dry by the time we left so they found a home on our porch.  Another successful trip to the patch, I'll be sad the day they decide they are too big for this activity.  I fear that day is closer than I want to admit, but for now we embrace painted pumpkins and squeals on the teeter totter.

Payton

These pictures kind of got lost in the shuffle.  I totally forgot I even took them and then as I glazed past some of our Halloween festivities I saw them.  Good thing because Miss Payton looks too adorable not to share.  Her mother always says that she is "terrible" but I don't buy it.  Payton is always as cute as a button when I see her and I think her Mom is giving her a bad name.  Poor poor little Payton.  She should probably come live at my house :)!

Trunk or Treat

 Once we got back from Napa there was no time to rest.  We jumped right into all of the Halloween festivities.  This year we had a new addition...Trunk or Treat.  I can't lie, I think I'm a fan of Trunk or Treat.  The adults get to stand around and talk while the kids run around and get a ton of candy.  What could be bad about that?  They also had a parade and a DJ which added a nice little touch.  I'm thinking Trunk or Treat is going to be added to the list of traditions for this household, if nothing else it's one more excuse for the boys to wear their costumes which is always a plus in their books!  This year I laid low with the decorating of my trunk, I just used leftover decorations from Bennett's birthday party.  I used this year to check out my competition.  Next year...game on.

Napa Part 3

We have officially made it to day three of our wine adventures.  On this day we went to three wineries: Bella, Hawley and Francis Ford Coppola.  Again, three very different experiences.  Bella was very laid back and we did our own little walking tour of the property and cave.  Hawley was actually having their "harvesting party" so we were a little spoiled with food, music and wine.  And our final stop for the trip was Francis Ford Coppola where the guys were able to enjoy some more Bocce Ball and the girls were able to enjoy more...wine.  We topped it off with another great dinner right there at the Francis Ford Coppola Winery.  Great end to a great three days.  It also seems that as the trip went on I lost more and more pictures so this day yields the fewest pictures, which is unfortunate because I feel like the pictures really told the story of this day and quite frankly I just don't remember the details!  I do feel like at one point there was an endangered bird involved and I totally had a picture with the guys, or maybe that was just a weird dream.  I guess we may never know, how will we ever survive?  Don't worry, I'm still wasting plenty of my time trying to recover those files.  Drained another two hours tonight actually.  If only I got paid to mess with pictures I really would be a millionaire.    

Napa Part 2

Day 2 of our wine country trip meant 3 more wineries and I don't want to know how many glasses of wine!  We started the day at Del Dotto with a cave tour where we got to drink straight from the barrels.  #imsofancy  From there we went to Tudal Winery where the boys played a few mean games of Bocce Ball and we had lunch brought in from Dean and Deluca (best sandwich i've ever eaten by the way).  We were having so much fun at Tudal that we decided to forgo our next stop and hang out for a bit longer.  We're spontaneous like that.  And then we ended our day at Pride.  Pride was a winery we went to on our last trip to the area but decided we wanted to go again because we loved it so much.  I think our tour guide this time left a little bit to be desired but the wines made up for it!  Another beautiful day in wine country for this crew!  

Here is a picture of the 8 "Vikings" on the trip.  That's right this crew has been friends since our glory days of High School.  I don't mean to get all sappy on you guys but I have to admit meeting this group of friends in the halls of Francis Howell High School was one of the best things that ever happened to me.  This group (and a few that couldn't make the trip) have been a constant in my life for many many years and I realize how unique and special that is these days.  I don't take it for granted, I'm fully aware of how blessed I am to call each and every one of them a friend still today.    

So believe it or not, some of the people in the above picture actually married someone outside of our circle of friends.  Weird right?  I am happy to report, they didn't disappoint.  The group got a little larger with these additions, but it also got a little more awesome.  I'm thankful for the Viking Spouses who don't necessarily understand our strange bond but embrace it nonetheless.  What a crew!

Napa Part 1

We recently took a little trip to Napa Valley.  There were 6 couples, 1 large house, 1 creepy 15 passenger van and a million awesome memories made.  The trip was fantastic.  A huge shout out to Kevin Lord who basically planned the whole thing.  Couldn't have done it better myself and thanks to Kevin I didn't even have to try!  We spent basically three full days in different parts of wine country each day full of multiple wineries, a fun lunch and then back home to sit around the fire until the wee hours of the morning.  It was blissful.  Blissful that is until I went to download my pictures from the trip and realized that my memory card was corrupted.  Out of the 600 pictures I took I ended up with about 120 that were salvageable.  Lucky for you because now you don't have to see an obscene amount of pictures from the trip, but sad for me because I know how awesome that lost footage was.  Okay that's it, that's the last time I'm going to complain about it (today).  At least I still have some, I should be thankful.  Yes, thankful that's how I'm feeling right now for sure.

So here is our first day.  We went to four wineries : Mayo, Arrowood, VJB and B.R.Cohn.  They all offered a little bit something different.  My favorite was definitely VJB.  This is the spot we stopped for lunch.  They had a table all set ready for us when we got there and then they served us food "family style" and paired it with wines.  The real winner, the main course was...pizza!  I was in heaven.  Wine and Pizza, does it get any better?  I think not.