Tanner's 37th Birthday

For Tanner's birthday we decided to go wine tasting in Santa Barbara and spend the night. I researched reviews on TripAdvisor and decided to use Captain Jack's Sideways wine tour. The company provides a driver and shuttle and takes you to four of the wineries featured in the movie Sideways. Since we were leaving early in the morning on Friday, we did a little impromptu celebration with the kids on Thursday night Chase and Jayden sang Happy Birthday and then enjoyed ice-cream sandwiches.  

On Friday, we left the house around 7:15 am and arrived at our hotel, The Upham, around 9:30am. The Upham is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Southern California, built in 1871. It's very old fashioned and has a beautiful garden setting. Of course, Tanner is always conscientious about work and keeps on top of all emails all the time~

Our next stop was breakfast at the Scarlett Begonia - delicious. I had the French Toast with maple roasted pork belly, poached eggs and fresh fruit~

Tanner liked his breakfast of eggs and potatoes~

Our driver/guide, Peter, picked us up in front of our hotel around 11:30am. We were lucky - we had the whole SUV and Peter to ourselves because there were cancellations from other people. So we got a private tour for the public price. Peter was a good conversationalist and we talked a bit about the movie, Sideways, wine and life in general. Some fun facts he told us were:

• The reason Miles hates Merlot is because it was his ex-wife's favorite
• Merlot in general took a 40% dive in demand all because of the movie
• Miles likes Pinot Noir because its qualities are similar to his - sensitive, complex, hard to grow

Our first stop was to the Fess Parker Winery. It was a beautiful day and Peter explained that the grape vines were blooming earlier than usual because of the warm winter that Southern California experienced. It makes for a pretty picture, but sometimes it's bad for the vineyards because if there's a late frost, all the vines could be lost. Peter also told us why roses are grown next to the vines. Roses are easily susceptible to disease from the soil/conditions, so the growers can get early indicators of potential problems if the roses show any undesirable signs. Fess Parker was our favorite winery, probably due to the person who poured our wine tastings. His name was Jack and he had a great voice that told great stories. We would definitely come back here again and again. In the movie, Fess Parker was renamed Frass Canyon, because it's the scene where Miles loses his cool and gulps down the wine spit bucket.

Next we went to Firestone winery. In the movie it's where Miles, Jack, Mia and Stephanie wander into the barrel room. We got to look at the barrel room through the window but did not get to go in. There was an interesting room that had pictures of the older Firestones with Thomas Edison, Sir Thomas Lipton, Henry Ford, etc. Outside of the tasting room, Peter showed us this cork tree - which is what wine corks are made from. It's really neat to touch the cork tree because it's so spongy.

We decided to take a little detour and get some cupcakes. They were yummy!

I thought the "to-go" container for the mini-cupcakes was really clever - an egg carton~

We then decided not to go to the next two "Sideways" wineries because Tanner and I had already been there. Instead we went to Cimarone winery in Los Olivos, then Lincourt and we finished up at Bridlewood. This unused horse track is in the back of the tasting room~

 Tanner with our guide Peter~

After Bridlewood we went to Miles' favorite restaurant, The Hitching Post. The food is good, but a little pricey because of the popularity of the restaurant due to the movie. Peter had told the restaurant that it was Tanner's birthday when he made the reservations so they gave him a little ice-cream sundae. Overall, we loved the Captain Jack's tour. It was so nice to just walk into all the tasting rooms (the fees were included in the tour price) and start right away and it was nice to have a driver so we didn't have to worry about anything - directions, blood alcohol level, etc...we would definitely do it again.

After a great night of sleep with no early morning or middle of the night feedings, we went back to the Scarlett Begonia for breakfast. I love how they make pretty shapes in my latte~

Next we walked up and down State Street~

It was a wonderful trip. We had so much fun!!

March Days

Seems like everyone in the family has been constantly battling colds/coughs/congestion/pink eye since December. Chase caught some sort of stomach bug and had to stay home from preschool. We spent the day on the couch watching whatever he wanted. After some Dino Dan episodes, Chase wanted to watch the replay of UW at OSU football game. Of course he had to get his PAC-12 mini-helmets by the TV and put on his own helmet.

He crashed about 10 minutes into the game~ 

Riley is really rolling now. I have to be careful about what's left on the floor and where I put her down.

On Tuesdays, while Chase is in school we've been going to the Farmers Market. Jayden loves it because she gets to sample donuts, cakes and fruit. There's a play structure that we visit too when I have energy. Jayden's favorite thing to do is the swing~

I also had fun helping Auntie Naomi prepare for a bake sale for her Okinawan dancing group. We tackled the marshmallow chrysanthemum cupcake. They're pretty fun to make and turn out really pretty. We decided to package them in plastic cups with a cellophane bag wrapped around. It might be a little tedious to do, but I like this kind of work~

On Mondays, we try to go to library story time. My mom usually watches Riley and goes to her Torrance house to review the renovation and I watch Tyler. The librarian always has a good program with a theme of the day. Today's theme was spring, so there were songs about spring, books about spring and a craft~

Of course, what Tyler and Jayden like the best is having a snack after library story time~

Feeling better and back at school~ 

Riley loves laughing at her brother and sister and is developing her own personality. She grunts when she doesn't like something and plays shy if a stranger starts talking to her~ 

St. Patrick's Day 2014

On St. Patrick's Day I took Jayden and Tyler to the Malaga Cove Library story time while Chase was at school. I really enjoy going with the kids because the librarian always has a seasonal theme and craft project. Today was all about rainbows~

Waiting in line to show the librarian their projects. Then she gave each kid a snack of green apples and green grapes~

It was a beautiful day and Jayden and Tyler like to look at the fountain in front of the library. Of course they also like to touch the dirty water~

Running around on the nice green library lawn~

While Jayden took a nap, Tyler helped me watch Riley~ 

I'm trying to be better at taking pictures of the kids on "holidays". I gathered them up in the backyard~ 

Chase learned about leprechauns in class so he wanted to make a trap. We used a diaper box with a sword and string. The bait was a picture that Chase had drawn and some pretzels~

Chase instructed everyone to hide~ 

Waiting for the leprechaun to appear...sadly we did not see or catch one~ 

Rainbow picture colored by Chase~