San Diego in November

Turns out it's a lot nicer here than Seattle this time of year. We met up with Andrew's parents for the weekend.  

The most important part of this trip, the dessert bar. It was glorious!

Here's everything else. It was almost just as glorious as dessert.

 

I clearly failed at taking pictures of the awesome people we hung out with all weekend, but the food and drinks are well documented. 

I did get some photos in the afternoon before heading to the airport.

And on the airplane... 

Seattle to Sonoma

I got to spend a long weekend in California with my friend Casey. This was Chirstmas/birthday gift from Andrew. 

 I flew out Thursday evening into Sacramento. Friday morning we headed to Healdsburg with Casey's friend Margo. We started off at Francis Ford Coppola for lunch and tasting. It was a gorgeous vineyard/winery!

I took this picture from Forbes.com since it was rainy and dreary while we were there. 

After lunch we headed to Healdsburg Square where we could walk from tasting room to tasting room (ya know, tasting room hop). Our first stop was Hawley.

We stopped by Stonestreet where we shared a couple tastings. 

We went to Thumbprint where they were featuring an artist who painted Super Monks. So awesome!

Then I quit taking pictures but we had the best wine tasting with food at Williamson. They served parmesan cheese with different things on top, the two best were beet horseradish mustard and truffle salt. We ended our night with a late dinner at Bear Republic Brewing. 

We had every intention of swinging by another winery before we left Healdsburg Saturday morning but instead we got coffee and headed back to Sacramento. We stopped for In-N-Out (a glorious hangover meal) and picked up Pliny the Elder at Russian River Brewing Company (for Nelson and Andrew). After dropping Margo off, Casey and I spent the afternoon outlet shopping where I was too successful and then grabbing food from the grocery so Nelson could make us dinner, delicious!

On Sunday, I was so excited to participate (and lead, yikes) a project with the Make It Happen Mondays team. I had a great time chatting with Casey and her mom while we made watercolor creations inspired by an Etsy artist I really like. 

Between the baby-less wine, art and 70 degree sunny weather I felt like I was in a time warp. I was so disconnected from reality and it felt amazing!

Andrew loved his souvenir from California, he also got a few goodies from my outlet shopping, and he still has a Cabernet Sauvignon to drink that I brought him from Stonestreet (his favorite type of wine). It was an interesting winery. They were very focused on the elevations at which they grow the grapes. Our tasting was from the "Fog Line" collection. Thanks Andrew for being such a thoughtful husband and rockin' single parenthood for the weekend, so I could enjoy myself. Andrew and Aiden had a playdate with friends, went to the KidsQuest Children's Museum and visited Tom and Emily.

A Belated Indiana Christmas

We traveled to Indiana on December 27th. After last year's fiasco I was NOT traveling during the actual Christmas holiday. Everything went very smoothly this time. Aiden wasn't too happy about sitting still but that was manageable. We booked all our flights during his normal awake hours in hopes of avoiding meltdowns and we were successful. We let him run around during layovers to waste energy and he slept for 1 of the 2 flights each way.

Right before we left with his extra time off work, Andrew took Aiden to see Santa. 

He didn't hate it, he didn't love it.

At the Hampton's, Aiden would run off and we'd find him playing in the dog kennel. 

  

We began our trip at the Hampton after arriving in Indy at 10pm. Aiden was ready to party so we let him stay up while he was happy to play and wind down. He ended going to bed at 1am! We visited with Andrew's cousins and their kiddos the next day and Papo and Karen drove up to see us. 

The kids were so patient every time Aiden would destroy their block creations. I think they are used to having siblings around. Aiden loved running around with other kids and he even had a playmate his own age.

After a day with the Hampton's we went north to my parents new house. Aiden and I had seen it while it was still a model home back in February and this was Andrew's first time there. My friend Lauren came over to visit with us for a while. We went to a holiday party at Aynie and Jammie's house with my family. Aiden and Pearl ran around together, although she preferred he not play with the toys in her room. Pearl always referred to him as "baby" and not his name, "baby fell down" and "sorry baby"... so cute. She would take his hand and lead him around the house.

Andrew AND Aiden both pet a chicken for the first time! They already had a few chickens but Pearl got these fluffy Silkie's for Christmas. They were so soft and adorable.

My parents took Aiden to the Indianapolis Children's Museum for the first time. He couldn't get enough! I think we were tired before he was.

Our first stop was Playscape.

Andrew, Aiden and DziaDzia went down the slide from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor.

Then we visited the dinosaurs!

Snacks with DziaDzia.

Opening doors, oh my! He figured this out at my parents house. 

I'm so glad be have door knobs and not levers.

After a few days with my parents we headed back down to the Hampton's. Kellye, Aaron, Trash and Jason came down for New Year's Eve so we got to spend a little time catching up and playing Cards Against Humanity.

Cooking breakfast with Pa.... mmmm, bacon!

Awesome Aunties! (that is a super mischievous face on the right)

Aiden got very comfortable with the dogs and we even convinced him that they were in fact dogs and not large kitties. So he quit calling them kitty (ky) and said dog (da).

He is very good at pretending to share, but then quickly pulling it away.

We got to see Papo and Karen again one evening.

He enjoyed looking through his new books all on his own.