Five on Friday - MA so sweet

ONE:

My tractor loving boy has been driving his tractor around mowing the grass in every room and making marks on the carpet like our grass outside. It’s adorable.

TWO:

This child has been incredibly sweet this week on a week I needed it most. See to the left of her shiny pillow? She slept with a card she made me for my birthday so she could give it to me right when she woke up. She also had grady make a card with pink and green scribbles because she knows I love those colors. She set her alarm ten minutes early to make sure she would wish me a happy birthday and get downstairs in time to make a game of letters on post it’s that I had to find and figure out what it spelled - Happy Birthday! I mean seriously!!! I think daughters were made to take care of their mamas. She has taken care of me this week and I’m getting teary writing about it. 

THREE:

I did not know what I was signing up for when I was asked about getting shirts for Grady’s thanksgiving feast and cutting and beading them for all 13 kids. But I ended up with only a day and a half to get them done because of shipping delays from Michaels. It worked out but I lost quite a bit of sleep this week! ;) Molly Anne helped me one afternoon on my bday with these ha. And the teachers also helped. It was a team effort!

FOUR:

She of course had to put her outfit on from when she was in the 3’s and did the same thanksgiving feast. Good spot to read her school book right?! Mills loves his Molly Anne in a big way. She is very comfortable to him. I’ve noticed him going to her if I can’t pet him right away. 

FIVE:

The four of them singing happy birthday to me with a Bundt cake that Gee and Bubba surprised me with. So sweet. See Mills singing? Kidding but he wanted a bite! The kids associate a birthday with blowing out a candle and eating cake! I didn’t really think about that until this year and they were like where’s the cake?!! Oh and you can see the post it’s that she had done for me. 

Last Day - Napa

On the last day Kevin and I tried another bakery called Monday Bakery. It was good but not like Model was! Check out the sticky buns! We both just got the breakfast sandwich. 

Sunday was Ariel's birthday so Steve got her some roses and desserts. And asked Liam to also pick up some champagne. Actually, we drank champagne every morning on our way to the first winery. Liam got special champagne for this day though!

First winery was Dos Lagos and we were on the couple's back deck hanging out with them and learning about their vineyard. We bought a few bottles from them. 

He gave us a tour of all of his grapes and we learned so much. 

His wife made us chocolate croissants to enjoy with the red wine!


Artwork that Marcie painted and is on a bottle of theirs. She painted all of their labels. 





We stopped on the way down the hill for this awesome view and a picture. It was super safe hah. 


Selfie with Liam and Henry


Second stop of the day was Trefethen and it was gorgeous and the tasting was wonderful. 


Highly recommend going here. The halo was sooo good. We ended up getting two bottles of the Dragon's Tooth. 





Late lunch for Ariel's birthday at Compline in downtown Napa. 



Kevin had a local IPA with his lunch. 


Oyster po boy was so good!



Then we hit the road to San Fran and Liam dropped us off at the airport hotel to spend the night before we flew out on Monday morning. Such an amazing trip and one we will never forget. Thank you to Kevin for taking me out there! We did it up!


And Mills had fun at golden retriever camp ha!

Thanks for coming along for my recaps! Overall I wouldn't change much about the trip although it felt pretty rushed a lot of the time and Kevin and I both said maybe we'd schedule an afternoon to hang around downtown Napa. Downtown Napa reminded me of Alexandria, VA a little bit. 

And maybe two wineries a day is sufficient, not three but we wanted to get a lot in while we were there. It felt busy though! Not one of those lay on the beach vacations for sure. Having Liam drive us around was a huge perk and while it was very expensive, it was worth every penny. Noone had to drive and everyone could have extra fun and not worry! It was quite a trip yall.  

Day 3 - Napa - Russian River Area

On Saturday we headed back to Model Bakery and got the veggie sandwich that my friend Margot recommend. Talk about amazing - homemade english muffin, avocado, hashbrown, egg, heirloom tomato, ketchup and mayonnaise. Something I wouldn't have put together but delicious!

Liam picked us up at 8:30am and we headed to the Bacigalupi winery in the Russian River area. It's a small winery like most we did. Some friends in the group we went with had already been to the big ones - Caymus, Silverado all of those. We did do two bigger ones but it wasn't the focus of the trip. It actually ended up being a good mix and experience of everything!

Ariel and I

Kev and I. My dress is here. Multiple colors and reasonable price. 

I walked up the hill on the back of the little house and saw where they grow their grapes!

Liam and Henry, everywhere we went! They were amazing!



We had reservations at Willi's Seafood and Raw Bar in downtown Healdsburg and I must say, this restaurant was amazing. Probably top two best lunches I've ever had. I can't even think of another so this may be it! Yep, that's cheese. We ordered two of everything on the menu it felt like. Kevin had an amazing crab salad sandwich. I had oysters, this cheese and fish tacos. We all shared everything. It was incredible.



Next stop was Flanagan Family Wines. Check out these views. We didn't love the wine here and the lady was honestly a little pushy. She was nice but very into us joining their wine club. Not the same type of vibe we had everywhere else. 









Last place we went was Del Dotto. It's down in a cave and you get to drink wine right out of the barrels. And all of the wine is extremely expensive and probably a little much for our taste. Some in our group bought some though. 

At the end of your tasting they give you made from scratch pizzas, sausage that they dry out there, and tater tots! Ha! It was an experience and one I probably don't need to do again. Little too fru fru for me but glad I got to see it. 

We ended up just hanging at the terrace on the second floor of the hotel for a late dinner. It wasn't even all of us. Just casual hang out after a big day.

Last day coming up soon!

Days 1 and 2 - Napa and Sonoma

Whewwwwww let me tell yall, this trip was INCREDIBLE. Like not one detail missed and everything was top notch. Our beach friends planned it and there were four couples that went. They connected with a guy out there named Liam through their neighbors in Greensboro. Liam and one of his guys basically planned the entire itinerary and drove us around for four days. It was amazinggggg. If you have any questions as you go throughout my blog posts, please ask and I'll answer them in a separate blog post later this week or early next!

Oh and most important part - Kevin surprised me with this trip about a month ago. He and Steve had planned it for a few months and I was totally in the dark. I knew Steve and Ariel were going and we were invited but I was like there's no way we can leave the kids that long etc etc.!!! He gave me a Napa (auto parts) t-shirt in October when we were all at the beach together in front of everyone and that's how he surprised me for my upcoming birthday!

Kevin and I flew in from Charlotte and the other three couples came from Greensboro. Our flight got delayed so it ended up that Liam just picked Kevin and I up at the San Francisco airport and took us to Napa. It was an almost 2 hour ride after a 5.5 hour plane ride. Long day and lots of traffic in the city. I think next time we would probably fly into Sacramento instead. 

Anyway, we met up with the group about 20 minutes after they got there at Mayo Family Reserve Room in Sonoma. So we didn't miss much! This was a food and wine pairing which was perfect since we all had just traveled in. The food was delicious. Wine was okay too. I loved the Chardonnay!

I'm red and Kevin blue!

Next stop, we checked in to The Andaz hotel in downtown Napa. It is a swanky and super nice hotel and right in the middle of where everything is. We would stay there again and there's another great place The Archer right next door that is also pretty exquisite.

Then we walked over to dinner at Morimoto. It's a popular sushi restaurant. It was really good. Kevin and I had shrimp, beef carpaccio and a couple rolls. The shrimp dish was amazing.





Friday:

We were up bright and early 4:15am talking to Grady and making sure Molly Anne got off to school. We were on east coast time so that's why we woke up so early. 

We ended up going for a walk over to Oxbow Market which is only about 1/2 mile from our hotel. My friend from work Laura told me about a great bakery there and lots of cute little shops under one roof. The Model Bakery was out of this world amazing. We got some breakfast sandwiches and coffees and walked around more exploring!













Then we headed back to the hotel because we had to be downstairs and dressed and ready for Liam to pick us up at 9:00am! Dress // Hat is from J. Crew but sold out.


First stop was Schweitzer Family tour and tasting in Spring Mountain. This was up a large windy mountain road and the reward at the top was an incredible view. 




And of course they had a golden retriever named Jenny for us to love on!





Next stop was lunch at The Charter Oak in St. Helena. 


We had this swiss chard salad that was picked from their garden that morning. It was over fresh mozzarella. We also had a piece of osso bucco that was delish.



Next up - Tamber Bay in Calistoga, CA. This was a more farm setting with horses right next to the tasting tables that came up and you could talk to. 


Ariel and Steve and Stella haha






Then we went to Jean Edwards Cellars in Napa. 







Kevin and Liam. They really hit it off and Kevin really enjoyed talking to him. 


Jamie and Philip

Ariel and Ashley

That Cali sunset!

Dinner at Cole's Chop House was so good. By the time lunch and dinners rolled around, I was always onto liquor. I was about wined out!

That was Thursday and Friday!